The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1894-02-09
A County scheme for Highw

Inc Burlington Free fress na Deen STUDY
Ing the reports from the road commissioner
of the various towns to Secretary of Stat
Browneli, with the result that q find. that til
law OF 1892 while Ga marked step IN the rigf
direction" Is inadequate and defective
many important particulars. 1t ''does not z
Tar enough IN some directions W bile 10 other
II overshoots the mark" There has been bu
little progress In Improvements OF permt
nent character. and there IL comparstivel
little betterment 10 the character Of the ne,
roadway construction.
It finds that In some instances the none
has been turned into the town treasury ant
used In common with other money, IN disre
gard Of the manifest intent of the law. /
was supposed that the money derived from
the state tax would be devoted ex
clusively to permanent road construction. no
to temporary repairs. but this has not gener
ally been the case. Many points have devel
oped where the law Is not definite enough a.
to the division of powers between road com
missioncrs and seectmen. "This is eviden
from the cases where selectmen have corr
%
the commissioners to provide. In some In
stances high bridges have been put In place.
and neither the commissioners nor the select.
men would expend funds 10 their hands for
the construction Of proper approaches, and
the result is that approaches strongly resembt
ling toboggan chute In dec'ivity are being
used by the public In many instances until
the point In dispute shall be decided" The
law says that approaches shal\ not be bull
from tho tax fund where bridge has span
over four feet, but In cases where the aE-
proaches ought to run back many rods. select
men have argued thatthe road commissioner
should take the work after they had made
barely passable approaches and carry them
out to more reasonable grade.
In other instsn ;es where culverts of more
than four feet span could and perhaps should
be reduced to the four foot limit In width on
account of the drying up OF streams, select
men and road commissioners have disagreed
a. to whose duty it was 10 build new cul
vert. each claiming that the responsibility
devolved upon the Other.
There have been disputes whether the road
salary shall be paid out of
the road tax or the general fund Of the town,
whether the commissioner shall settle bis &C.
counts with the seleclmen or auditors and
whether the selectmen have anv right to d.
.ect or advise 10 cases where repairs are
plainly necessary.
But the great trouble, the Free Press cor
ectIy believes, lies In the fact that the money |
which the large towns contribute under the
tate tax to the small ones, does not go into
work of an enduring character but so largely
nto the makeshift methods which have so long
een the bane Of highway management. and
90 much of It into taking the place Of ex.
endtures which the towns used to make
themselves. For remedy It suggests:
Let the tax or FIVE per cent. called the state
bad tax. be levied on the tax li-t as 1t is ur-
er the law at present; but lot 1t be turned
espective counties Instead of the state treas.
~ Then let 1t be distributed among
,e towns OF the respective counties
,cording to the road mileage. "a 1t Is dtstrib- ,
ted at the p esent time. Tue effect OF this
I'll be to enable each county to maintain its
wn roads. 1t ia true that the larger towns {
i'll experience little II any relief from the 9
kcessive amounts which are drawn from
leir treasures to keen up remote highways |
various parts of the state which their peo. !
e never use, but money thus drawn from q
lem will be expended In their own counties
Id thew will indirectly derive benefit from
10 expenditure through the travel which al 9
avs fows from the small towas to the lsrg- d
ana Vice versa. !.
The smaller towns 10 those counties which
ntain cities or large villages would be just q
we'll of IL not better, than they are at
esent, but those counties which have no .
'ge places within lheir borders and which "
We been drawing large amount of road
nds from other counties would be the loser. Il
he gain OF the towns In other counties. n
ice the aggregate tax raised would be the =
me a. unoer the present law o. the whole.
viewer, this arrangement would prove to d
,rk more smoothly than the present and Of
IRE would be no feeling of injustice like -
1t which materially interferes With and "
mpers the present road law. Another ad-
ntage which would result from the pro- 81
sed change would be The opportunity AZ
,ich 1t ould afford for incorporating In ..
nre the service Of practical road builder, m
Allied to instruct the ROAD commissioners bt
relation to the best methods OF road coz .
uction with the materials at hand. ~
This super vision need he no more expen. 10
Q than The resi- eclive counties care m
make 1t, and in some instances two or m
re counties might secure the 8 rvlces of -,
same man but for obvious reasons the tn
ritory III his Jurisdiction ought not to be 81
large. Even the sum devoted at present 90
temporary repairs of our roads would, II -
perly expended. soon give us greatly I'M oe
we'd highways Of q more permanent ma.
Q, and we would stop throwing money In tr
mere dust and mud. IS many OF eur towns, N
lot all, are doing at present. :.
he idea is worthy of thought and discus III
! and the present state commission con-
log of Col. George W. Hooker Of BrattIe- ~
., o. L.Hinds of HIghgate, and Prof.J.W. W
ley OF Burlington. who are TO print their
ort by July next, ought to be able to il
} US some well.matured opinion. 1t Is one
be most important subjects for the future w
Vermont. pr
tn
'HILB civil service r. formers are impati.