The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-02-20
CANNOT CONDEMN THE ROAD.
PRIVATE TOLL ROADS NOT &C
CURED IN THE ORDINARY
MANNER.

Authority to Buy It-A Long Argu-
ment Heard on Both sides of the
skidaway bridge Questionable
COunty's Policy to Complete the
Meridian Road to the Waters Road
As soon As POssibIe-Land Owners
or Wilmington Island Want "A
Means of Communication From the
Mainland.
County Attorney J. R. Saussy announced
at the meeting of the commissioners yes
terday afternoon that the county could
not buy the Vernon shell road. at least
upon any such terms as have been men
toned between Mr.. d. ID. Lester. its prin-
cipal owner, and the committee on roads
and bridges, which has had the matter in
charge.
When the matter was called up for dis
cussion that was the report made by Com
missioners Chaplin, chairman of the com
mittee on roads and bridges. and Mr.
saussy then made a statement with re-
gard to the matter.
Mr.. Saussy said the road had a perpetual
franchise. and that under the law the
tOAAAAy NOuAA AQl tOuuGALl int LOdQ ADl Il
public right of way. though it might pur-
chase the road under certain circum-
stances. The county, he said, could not
under any circumstances, buy the road on
time, as it could not contract a debt, even
to build a court house. or for any other
purpose, except by a vote of the people,
in which a two-thirds majority favoIing
the indebtedness had to be obtained.
If the county had the means to pur-
chase the property, he said, there would
still be some doubt as to whether it could
purchase it without first getting the APP
prevail of the grand jury or through an
act of the legislature authorizing It to
do So The commissioners, he said, had
certain powers with regard to roads, and
if it would be beneficial TO the people for
the county to buy this road, he thought
the commissioners would have the right
TO do it. though they would have to pay
cash for it, and he would not advise them
to make the purchase without first getting
authority either from the grand jury or
from the Legislature. He referred to the
case of the purchase of a toll bridge by
the county commissioners in Rome, in
which, he said, they first obtained an act
of the legislature authorizing them to
make the purchase. The only other way
in which the county could acquire it so far
as he knew, would be to wait until it
ceased 10 be a source of revenue to its
owners and they abandoned it, The safest
plan, he thought, was for the county to
procure an act of the legislature author
izing it to buy the road and the owners
to sell it.
The only reason for any hurry about
the matter is that Mr.. Lester is on the
point of having new tollgate built south
of Twelfth street, and he says he would
be willing to sell the property cheaper be-
fore going to that expense. The matter
was left for the present in the hands of
the county attorney and he was requested
to look up all the law in connection with
the case, and to report to an early meeting
of the board.
Chairman Chaplin, of the committee on
roads and bridges, announced, for the in
formation of the board that his committee
had agreed upon an order, providing that
whenever the weather was such as to pre-
vent the cOnvicts from working on the
canals, they should be put to work on the
| continuation of the Meridian road to-
ward the city, care being taken not to
trespass on any ones property. There
was some question as to whether the
county could go ahead with any of the
roads until the rights-of-way to the Waters
road had been acquired, and it was decided
that, until this question was settled and
sufficient rights-of-way were acquired to
permit the county to proceed with the
work, the convicts should, in bad weather,
be placed at work on the Waters road at
points where it was badly in need of re-
pair. The statement that it was the coun-
tvs policy to complete the Meridian road
to the Waters road as soon as possible
was also included in the order as passed.
The board first took up the matter of
the Skidaway bridge, as that was the
primary object of the meeting. The pc
tition asking that the bridge be rebuilt
from the terminus of the Skidaway road
at Isle of Hope to Skidaway Island was
-
peared to make an argument in behalf of
the property owners on the island for
the replacing of the bridge.
Mr.. Charlton took up the history of
the old bridge. 1t was first built in 1865
by private subscription and was used for
military traffic during the war. 1t was
destsoyed at that time and in the latter
part of 1866 or 1867 was rebuilt by the
property owners Mr.. Charlton cited the
acts of 1870 and 1871 declaring the Skid
away road and bridges a public highway
and giving the local authorities juris-
diction over them. In 1873 an act was
passed requiring the ordinary to have
widened the arch of the bridge within
ninety days for the purpose of making
room for timber RATS. This was never
done, he said, and at the same time the
board of county commissioners was crea-
ted, and the authority over the roads for
merry vested in the ordinary was trans
tefTed TO the commissioners The bridge
was destroyed about 1881 he said.
and never rebuilt. His object he said
in reading these acts was TO show that
this road and the bridge was a part of
the public road system of Chatham coun-
| ty and was controlled by the county COM
missioners and not by the road commits
sioners. 1t was not the province of the
commissioners, he said, to work the roads
but in matters of this kind such as the
building Of bridges, ii was the duty of
/ the county commissioners to act.
This was a road, he said, by the act of
/ the legislature, and the question was as
! to the duty of the commissioners to main
/ tain it as such. He said under the law
! and ne read the code upon the subject, it
was the imperative duty of the commits
sioners to keep this road in repair and
maintain it as a public highway, and
that the county must make such repairs
I within a reasonable time. He said appli-
cation had been made time and again to
1 the commissioners, and the present board
! had finally agreed to take the matter up
after an expression from the grand jury
| That expression. he said had been OBJ
! tanned. and the grand jury had recon-
I mended an appropriation of 5000 in this
wars budget for the nurpoge He Tindar.