Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1902-06-13

past, was no feet long. Mr..
Smith had a permanent fiji put
IN and bridge only 20 feet long
will be required here in the flu
ture. The fill and the new 90
foot bridge cost only $50.
On the independence road
near the Polk county line is an
other bridge which was IS feet in
length. A fill has been put in,
and now a bridge only 16 feet
long is required. The bridge
and fill cost s35. All this work
was done by bid, as by law re-
quired.
Bids have been opened for a
bridge three miles south of Mon
roe, on the Junction City road.
The old bridge is 60 feet long.
A fill will bs made at that point,
and bridge 20 feet in length
will serve in future.
At the last session of the coun-
ty court, subscription papers, rep
resenting donations of more than
81, 1co in labor for improvement
of roads were presented to the
court. The petitioners asked
the court Ito contribute a like
amount in scash from the funds
of the county. The petitioners
reserve the right to apply the
work where they choose.
Mr.. Smith, very properly, re-
ported adversely on these petit
tions. He could not give his ap-
proyal to the expenditure of this
large amount of money, which
was only the fore runner of larger
sums to be asked for, unless the
amounts subscribed by the vari-
Gus petitioners be paid in cash
instead of labor.
This matter of road building is
a purely business one. and sentl-
ment should not be permitted to
make a mess of it. Every bust
ness man and conservative farmer
will endorse Mr.. Smiths action.
His attitude is this: Let petit
TONERS for road improvement
subscribe cash, and let the coun-
ty court appropriate sums in
equal amount from the county
treasury. The supervisors, act
ing under the road master as by
law required, can then employ
those who have subscribed cash
and pay them decent wages for
their labor. In this way the
county will get better service and
the contributors will not be any
more out of pocket, than they
would be if they subscribed labor
instead of cash.
The court has also been SUBJ
jected to some abuse, because it
refused to appropriate money
from the county treasury for road
improvement, until the road fund
now lying in the treasury has
been expended. Judge Wood
ward has told the supervisors to
go ahead and use the funds
standing to the credit of their re-
spective districts. When these
funds have been exhausted, VOL
unteer work may continue. Then
let the supervisors certify to the
court that so much labor has been
expended OIL the roads, and the
court will contribute equivalent
amounts in cash. Could any
thing be fairer than this?
Inspection of the books in
Treasurer Buchanan's S office shows
that every road district in the
has a good sum standing
to its credit. Some of these
amounts, which aggregate nearly
So, 900, have been in the treas
ury since Feb. 24th, and in nu
nerous instances none of the
collected under the per
cent. road tax has been drawn.
No district has paid its entire
tax, but the following amounts
stand to the credit of the districts
named; they are sufficient to pay
for considerable improvement be-
tween now and the next session
If court:
District. Amount.
NJ. 900 ~
No. Observation-Disclosures. 10 SIS
10 0o2 57