The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-12-25
STATE ROADS,
The Highway Commission
ers Give Annual Hearing.

1
The state highway commission, COM
prising Chairman Thomas c. Menden-
hall of the Polytechnic Institute, W. E.
McClintock of Cambridge, c. w. Ross
of Newton, gave its annual county
hearing at the court house yesterday
for the discussion of the good roads
question.
Among those present were Mayor Ru-
fus b. Dodge, Jr., and w. G. Prior, who
responded for the city of Worcester
and the following:
County Commissioner H. G. Taft of
| Uxbridge George w. Cook of Barre,
Col. T. S. Johnson, Maj. w. T. Harlow
| George H. Harlow of Worcester, d. W.
Baker of Phillipston, F. T. Holt of Hol-
den, c. H. Marsh of Holden, l.. B.
| Walker Of Clinton, A. E. Pratt, Dudley,
Bolton, Warren Clark of Hubbardston
Frank p. Hayes of Hubbardston
Charles C. Colby Of Hubbardston, G. L.
Howard, A. E. Perkins of Ashburn-
ham, H. G. Newell of Ashburnham, A.
F.. Aldrich of Uxbridge, II. M. Ellison of
| Uxbridge, J. N. Ball of Boylston, III. L.
Reed of Boylston d. H. Chamberlain of
1
pleton, George Cruikshank of Lunen-
burg, George S. Whiting Of Milford, NJ
E. Michigan of Milford, B. 7. Clancy of
Milford, James Duggan of Webster, j.
| A. Whitaker of Southbridge, G. F. At
wood of Barre, Adams Franklin Brown
of Westboro, j. A. Litchfield of Lunen-
| burg, w. c. johnson of Lunenburg,
Joseph P. Love of Webster, John j.
Bowler of Southbridge, John Woold-
ridge of Lunenburg, Augustus Taylor
| of Lunenburg, Ledyard Bill of Paxton,
| Wilson H. Fairbank of Warren, d. b.
| Wight of Sturbridge, C. V. Corey of
Sturbridge, A J. Scarlet of West
Boylston, James Hildreth of Lunen-
brug O. E. Hagar of Dana, F. S. Gro
yer of Dana j. w. Negus of Dudley,
A. Bigelow of Dudley, f. j. Stone of
Shrewsbury, j. A. Dean of Shrewsbury
Elisha Webb of West Brookfield, Will
| liam A. Edison of West Brookheld,
| Herbert Dodge of West Brookheld
| Walter B. Mellen of Brookfield, Harold
Parker of Lancaster, Joseph P. Eaton
| of Auburn, and G. H. Leathe of Tenn
pleton George R. Hasting of Boylston.
Chairman Mendenhall called the
meeting to order and stated its object.
He said thus far the commission had
/ received 449 petitions for state roads,
40 of which had come in in 1888, call
| ing for 1924 miles of road, from rs
cities and 272 towns. There had been a
call for 355 miles Of road in 1898 from
IA cities and lis towns. That the COM
mission had laid out 223 miles of road
and that 206 miles had thus far been
completed In Worcester county 80
petitions had been received, calling for
215 miles Of road 70 miles had been laid
out and 40 miles had been completed.
Street Commissioner w. S. Prior of
| Worcester said he came to listen and
/ had done so with pleasure. He did not
1 think it was the business of the COM
mission to build roads by the whole
/ sale but to give examples of good roads
for the purpose of educating the town
road builders. He believed in making
the surface as strong as possible; even
in Worcester he found that the surface
of the streets was not sufficiently
strong in some places to stand the
heavy travel. He spoke of the stone
culverts of the state roads in this vi
cinity and said that when he had first
looked at them they had seemed to
be rather too expensive, but that he
soon came to the conclusion that they
were just what was needed. This kind
is needed as an object lesson to the
community.
Mayor Dodge said he was glad to be
present at the meeting and that he was
in favor of the best possible roads, but
: that as the meeting had already been a
/, long one, he did not think it best to
make any extended remarks.
I Harold Parker of Lancaster said he
was present, to get points His criticism
was that the state roads were too ex-
pensive They had cost $1,000 per mile
and over 100000 had been expended
and still there was only here and there
a bit of state road. He thought there
should be system in laying out these
roads, different from the present; that
the commission should take the mat
ter of building these roads more into
their own hands. He would have them
take sections of five miles along i'm
portant lines of travel, and build the
roads there instead of going from one
town to another in response to petit
lions. He wanted to have the roads
built well, but he did not think quite SO
much money need be put into some CT
the unimportant details.
Senator w. H. Fairbank of Warren
said his town had three sections of
state highway, and he thought the
il state commission was working on the
right lines He did not think that any
too much money was being expended.
Il County Commissioner Cook of Barre
4 said that the state road in Barre was
u built of rock. Tt had not broken up, as
he had feared, but had packed down
and was in fine shape, and what he
wanted was more of it. County Com
missioner H. G. Taft of Uxbridge said
that his town had had $4,000 each year
for two years past for state roads. This
money had been expended on two miles
of road. He thought it could have been
expended more wisely in the construc-
) ton Of a gravel road. Five miles of the
best kind of gravel road could have
been built for $4,000 in Uxbridge, as the
town had an abundance of gravel
available He had no fauf to find with
the rock road as built, but in his opin-
ion a good gravel road was just as good
for Uxbridge. The trouble with gravel
roads. as he had observed them, was
that after they were once built they
! were neglected, but if looked after they
could be kept in good shape at small