The Newtown bee., 1895-05-03
Talk of the Town.
OUR PUBLIC HIGHWAYS.
TOWN MEETINGS, STONE cRUsHERs, ETC.

It is noticed that M. J. Houlhan takes
 exception to the ruling of the chairman
 of the town meeting of Wednesday,
 April 17, claiming that it was unparlia-
 mentary. That motion to adjourn was
 not in order unless some action had been
 taken on the question for which the
 meeting was called. The writer wishes
 to refer him to "Cushing's Manual of
 Parliamentary PracLice," which he be-
 lieves is always taken as good authority.
 Paragraph 137 says: A motion to ad-
 journ takes the place of all other ques-
 Iions whatsoever" The only exception
 he makes to this rule, is that if a motion
 to adjourn has been put, and voted
 down, it might not be proper to put a
 second motion to adjourn until some
 other action had been taken in the meet
 ing. The chairman did not think it nec-
 essary to call for a division of the house
 on the vote to adjourn at that meeting,
 as he was satis fled by the viva voce vote
 that there was an overwhelming majori-
 ty ln favor of adjournment. Subsequent events have gone to show that he was
 right in his convictions.
 One would naturally suppose that if our selectnen in their care of the roads,
 had found themselves crippled in their
 work by the want of more or better tools and machinery, which they did not feel Justified in purchasing, without referring the matter to the town, they would have called special town meeting for that
 purpose, and when said meeting con
 Vt ned, they would have set forth their
 wants, sexplaining how and where said tools or machinery were needed, and would have given an estimate of their cost, etc. Instead, we find a meeting called by petitioners, and when assem- bled, only one petitioner comes forward to advocate the measure. Where were the other 20 odd petitioners who signe d the petitions? Does it seem quite busi- ness like, or in fact just to our fellow men, to sign petitions for town meetings, and then not take interest enough in them to be present and advocate, or help to sustain the measures proposed? It cost each one of those petitioners little to sign his name to the petition, especial ly if he did not attend the meeting, but to those persons living in the outlying dis tricts a drive of several miles over rough roads and the loss of half days time in the busy season of the year it was quite a different thing.
 When the road from the Street to the station was macadamiZed the writer was appointed one of a committee of five, three of them being the selectmen, to take the matter in charge, make con- tracts for, and superintend the work This committee, as whole, visited and were shown miles of d road, constructed by put ting about four inches of crushed stone on we'll rounded road bed, which had been laid four and five years, and had stood well, needing very little, if any re- pairs. Some of this was made on quite heavy soil, seemingly about as heavy as ours in Newtown, so we concluded to try tbe experiment of about & mile Of road constructed in the same manner.
 Some of the older heads in town said Sit will not stand on this soil without first excay&ting a foot and half of earth and fillirg in with cobbles, for a but we thought they might be a iiitte old fngish in their notions, and carried out the plan which we had seen in Bridgeport, and which was strongly recommended by the contract DTS.
 The result of the experiment has been carefully watched. In year or two after it was laid, it was noticed that the travel on it was grinding up the stone to a fine dust and the wind blowing much | of it away. The contractors said the stone must have been too Goft, and rec the use of the road seraper On the shoulders of the road, to keep it | from grinding out so fast. Many com ments were made on covering a stone road with dirt but it made it pleasanter to ride on, and less harsh for the horses feet.
 When every spring came round, it is not necessary to say the so called old | croakers had chance to cry, II told | you so." The bottom seemed to drop out | in places. Surplus stone was added un- til it was exhausted. Finally the stone l crushersand steam roller were called into | again. This time, not to "crush up our ledges," which we have been told we can do much cheaper than we can p.ck up our boulders and cobble- ! stones, the pledges" being too soft, so stone walls made of these same small stones were purchased ard new coat ing put over the road. Still the bottom drops out in places, and the writer is 2 )nvinced that macadamized roads can not be built on our heaviest Newtown soil in the same way as they are built in the shore town where the soil is dryer and more gravellv.
 Now why not try new experiment on some of the worst places in the macam- ized road? With pickaxes and a blow root up the crushed stone for eight or ten feet in width in the center of the road, shovel it to one side and remove a foot or more of earth, then fill in with rough stones or cobbles and replace the crushed stone giving it good rolling down. This would make solid road and would not need a stone crusher. l Now if road made of stone is better with an earth covering why is it necessa- ry to have such fine stone? Why not go into any of the worst sloughs on our roads, and with road scraper or piow and shovels excavate the earth in the cen ter of the road to the depth of l2 to IS inches and fill in with rough stones such as can usually be gathered on the sides of those same highways, using small ones for the top layer, and if thought necessary, go over them with sledge hammer breaking the top layer a little and packing down firmly, then replace the earth making a high round road. This certainly would make better road than dumping crushed stone into muda hole, and would keep our money here at home.
 The time may come when the town of Newtown will want stone crushing plant, but let the selectmen, now they have an opportunity, fix up our roads to great expense, the roads in the outlying districts as well as those about the cen- ter. When this is done, if there Is still a pressing need of the stone crusher and the necessary aecompaniments, let the selectmen come forward and lay the matter fairly, openly and honestly be- fore the taxpayers, but don't call the meeting at o'clock in the afternoon. Don't resort to any questionable meas, ures to gain an end. We are going for good, square, honest sshome ."-[D.
 e. Beers.