The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-04
MIR. LESTER REPLIED TO.
His Questions Concerning Toll
Roads and other Roads Answered.

ROADS and other Roads Answered.
Savannah, Oct s, 1S96.-Editor Morning
News: Sir-I feel much complimented
by the letter of Mr.. d. B. Lester, which
appears in the Evening Press of the LIST
inst, and thank him for thus aiding me
in pointing out questions Of vital in
terest to the public at large" As he
graciously states it, I have hoped to put
| the taxpayers of Chatham county to
thinking, as well as every other citizen
who is interested in good government and
hatter myself that as my letters have
stirred up one large taxpayer" to take
the pen there are many others also who
are thinking" and so my labor has not
been in vain
1t has been hard for a great many tax
payers as well as other citizens who are
interested in good government" as Mr..
Lester aptly says, to understand why the
present county commissioners should
! spend $4,000 in the Ogeechee road i'm
provement when the press, the grand Jury.
and the public have so often demanded
that the Meridian road be completed.
The numerous advantages this road would
have for so many has been so apparent
to the grand juries, the people and a ma
! jority of the commissioners themselves,
as is shown many times by the records
/ that the public wonders what potent au-
! thority, what hidden influence, has been
exercised all this time to thwart the wishes
| of the grand juries and the people. Sur
| misses and opinions are expressed in my
letter which appears in last Sundays
| News, so it is not necessary to pursue
! this part of the subject further.
| AS in only one of my letters have 1 had
occasion to discuss the Meridian road it
will be a pleasure to me to crafty Mr.
Lester by answering his questions.
In my letter just referred to, the neces-
! sity for the construction of the Meridian
road is fully set forth and 1 need only
/ add that when that road is built the larg-
est part of ''the entire oyster and fishing
business" which Mr.. Lester truly says
! "is now done over the Thunderbolt and
White Bluff roads, will be done over the
Meridian road, because: first, there will
! be no tolls to pay, and second, it will be-
/ by far the shortest, quickest and best
road to market for all that country about
Bona Bella, Isle of Hope, Skidaway, Cedar
Hammock, Bethesda, Shipyard, Beaulieu,
Montgomery, etc. In fact, from these
places one could almost reach the city by
the Meridian road before he could get to
the White Bluff road. l will now quote
serlatim the questions of Mr.. Lester and
! endeavor to answer them
1. Should the roads of the county be
free roads?"
Such l think is the wish of every citizen
| not a stakeholder in the toll roads.
2. Can the county adopt a system of
| road-making that will be just to all of its
citizens while the toll roads are in exist
ence?"
1t can-by the construction of the Meri-
| dian road which would give nine-tenths of
the citizens who are now compelled to use
the toll roads, a free road to and from
their property, and thus oblige the toll
roads companies to offer their roads a
| such reasonable figures that the county
could buy them and make all roads free.
But the policy now pursued by the county
commissioners seems to be to improve
those roads where there are no toll roads,
and thus to compel against the often eX
| pressed recommendations of the grand
juries and the prayers of the taxpayers),
the citizens of by far the mostly densely
settled part of the county to continue to
pay tolls.
8. would not the paralleing of the two
toll roads with free roads destroy the toll
roads?'
The construction of the Meridian road
alone, with its branches would compel.
as said in my last answer the toll roads
! to sell out at reasonable figures to the
county.
4 IF the toll roads were to abandon
their charters would not the roads be-
come sandbeds again?"
Yes, if the county shouldn't choose to
keep them up. but being free roads, the
county would keep them up
3. What would it cost the county to
construct the two roads taking the Ogee-
| chez road as a basiS?''
AS these roads are already constructed
to a certain extent, the answer would
| have to apply to a reconstruction such as
the Ogeechee road. On the basis Mr.. Les
ter gives for the Ogeechee road-$50, 0OO-I
would say that either of the shell roads
could be rebuilt for a great deal less per
mile than the Ogeechee road has cost
because that road is paved to super
| fluous and unnecessary width-a width
which l think neither of the toll roads
could spare in some places. AT $4,000 I
do not think the Ogeechee road can be
taken as a fair standard, as it repre-
sents a useless and extravagant eXpendi-
ture of the public funds.
6. Are not the Louisville, Thunderbolt,
| White Bluff and Augusta roads, the four
! most important roads to the travelling
| public in this county,
To this l would add the Ogeechee road
and the Meridian road the most impor-
tant of all, because it would provide the
| greatest number of people with good
road to travel over" which, as Chairman
| Dale wisely says, it is the duty of the
commissioners to do (See Evening
| Press, Feb. q, 1857
T. "Are not the lands along the line of
lu6SS Olu IOduS ItluiHSu a. SONSll VI NiSNt
times as much as the lands that Inquirer
would have the county improve?"
certainly do not think so. and If we
judge by what Chairman Dale is alleged
to have said that the people along the line
| of the Meridian road would want for the
right of way (see Evening Press. Feb. a.
49, I would say "the lands along the line
of the old roads" are not returned for one
| hundredth part as much. But must con-
fess that 1 think Chairman Dale was to
say the least extremely hyperbolcal in his
expressions with reference to the price of
/ these lands.
g. would the county authorities be
justified in using public funds to improve
the value of our citizens property at the
| expense of another, when the improve
ment is not for the public good?'
! When the Improvement sis not for the
public good" they certainly would not be
justified. IT, however, Mr. Lester has ref