The Opelousas courier. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1852-1910, 1901-07-13
y The Road Ordinance.

we devote considerable space
this week to the road ordinance
adopted at the last meeting of the
Police Jury; but as the subject
is one of such vital Importance tc
our people in general our readers
will doubtless not begrudge the
space occupied in the CoUR1EF
by that important document.
The ordinance as it stands,
while not as good measure a:
that recommended by the Good
Roads mass meeting held here on
the Doth inst, is still, in most re-
spects, substantially the same, and
should, if wisely and honestly ad-
ministered, yield vastly better re-
suits than have ever been reached
under the old system. Instead
of having only one Road Inspector
to hold to account, however, our
people will have eight to look af-
ter; but, as each police jury ward
will have a road inspector, the
people of each ward will have
their eyes focused upon differ
ent man, and if the Inspector in
any ward fails to do his duty the
people in that particular ward
will not only be to blame but
will have to stand the conse-
quences, as the funds of each
ward are to be kept separate and
distinct from the others.
Instead of the ordinance taking
effect in September. as suggested
by the mass meeting, it will not
take effect until January. AS
many of our roads are even now
in very bad condition, the men,
bers of the police jury and the
leading citizens of every neigh
borhood should call on the over
seers throughout the parish and
insist on having these roads
placed in good order. at once.
They will be impossible long be-
fore January unless prompt at
tention is given them; and the
better their condition in January,
the less will they cost to maintain
under the contracts to be given
out thereafter.
This road business, we may say
in closing, furnishes another illus
tration of what may be accom-
plished by concert action in any
given direction. The Board of
Trade, which took the initiative
i'll the matter after it had lain
dormant for over two years, will
be entitled to much of the credit
for whatever good results may
flow from the enactment of this
measure, and we trust that it will
not grow weary in well-doing."
It embraces in it's membership
most of our leading merchants
and business men-it should en-
brace them all, and, in fact, every
public spirited citizen of the
town-and q long pull, a strong
pull, and pull all together in the
direction of the achievement of
any object calculated to promote
the public good would result, in a
few short years, in incalculabIe
benefit to the community-to the
entire parish of St. Landry as
we'll as to the town of Opelousas.
We understand that the next
subject that will engage the at
tention of the Board is the i'm
portant one Of sidewalks, which
has thus far baf1led our Board of
Aldermen, who, unable to agree
upon any plan, leave us here in
the dawn of the twentieth century
to stumble and founder along un-
der the same antiquated system,
or lack of system, that has pre-
vailed for hundred years. The
COURIER will heartily second any
effort looking to improvement
along such lines, and feels reas-
onably sure that the Board will
evolve as wise and satisfactory
solution of the vexed problem as
it did in the matter of the public
roads.