The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1901-02-01

credible that the pcnj.le of this rich and
populous county should have put up with
mud roads SO long wien the remedy is
within such easy reach. The poor con,
dition of the main highways, often al
most impossible, affects the value oI
every mans farm i'll this county to say
nothing of the matter of convenience.
No municipality or county can have
public improvements worthy of the ne me
which depends on yearly taxation to dc
the work.
And so we can never have good roads
in Hartford county until we adopt the
universal plan of public Improvement by
raising the money i'll advance and paying
it off by a sinking fund. There is no
virtue in bonds or debt of itself, the
virtue is i'll the improvements that the
money which creates the debt brings
about. Now how can we get out of the
mud? Easily enough. Nc one advocates
the piking of all the roads, only the
main throughfares.
The Woolsey money does a large share
of the eastern part of the county, but let
us take the following roads from Bel Air
as the center of the county. The road
north to st. Mary's Catholic Church,
eleven miles; the road south to VanBib-
Der, six miles and half; the road to
Upper cross Roads ci ght miles, the road to
Dublin, eleven miles, making a total OF
thirty-six miles and hall. All this road
could be built with crushed stone,
twelve feet wide, for twenty-five hundred
dollars per mile as was lately demonstrate
ed by several miles of road near Fork Ill
Baltimore county. Thirty-six miles OF
road at TWENTY-FIVE hundred dollars per
mile would make ninety thousand dollars.
Why don't this county act like any other
up to date public community and throw
off little of the moss and cobwebs ofthc
past and get up even with the spirit OF
the times. No one expects the county to
be like the city in point of improve
ments but there is no reason we should
not have good permanent roads which
reach all sections of the county. This
money could be borrowed at three per
cent, and with a sinking fund of three
thousand dollars yearly would require a
sum of only six thousand dollars per
annum when more than that is spent each
year on the repairs of these same roads.
The good people of Dublin district waste
a large part of that money in the wear and
tear of their wagons and vehicles besides
running their horses in passing over that
rough road to Dublin, which has an ex-
ce1lent foundation and could be made a
first class highway with light applica-
ton of crushed stone. The above list OF
roads is only a sample and Others should
be considered; for instance the road from
Forest Hill to Jarrettsville, a road lead
ing from st. Mary's Church to Norrisville,
also a road in the direction of Wilma.
No one objects to short drive in the
mud if he can then reach a good hard
road
Objections will be heard to this plan
from a certain class of people, but the
County Commissioners may know that
this class is disappearing and becoming
fewer; and that there is another class of
people in this county, people who believe
in progress and comfort and keeping
abreast of the spirit of the times and
having had smooth roads all the year
around as they can be had with no in
crease of taxation, and with this latter
class of people let the County Commits
sioners know they will have to reckon iii
the future as we'll as with the old fogies.
TAX PAYER