The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-04-19
Co7respOndeace Baltimore County Union.
BALTIMORE COUNTY'S ROAD LAW.
Some Very Odd Things About It-Money
That Should be Expended for Hard
Material Goes for Labor In
stead-Roads Are Not
improved. etc.
Eonr 11ru nrsrp1cr Anril. I002

MaIorldl dOeS LOT AaDOr III
stead-Roads Are Not
Improved, etc.
FORK, 11TH DISTRICT, April, 1902.
w6en 4 Is roads IS
well to cast about and see where we are. We
are not ''in the SOUP" but in the mud over here
in the 18th district when we ought to be on TOP
| of between two and three thousand dollars
worth of macadam road that the law says we
| should have had given to us last year, whereas
| the road commissioners have given us dirt In
| stead.
The present road law went into effect January
| LIST, 1901. and we therefore have had one years
trial of it. The road commissioners are appoint
| ed by the County Commissioners for two years
and are to receive $l25 each per annum. by
\ very peculiar wording of three sections OF the
| law the Roads Engineer, who is appointed by the
Governor and whose salary is $1,000 per annum,
with $500 for Office and travelling expenses, in
| Guiding drawings and specifcations.) is subject
to the commands of the road commissioners
| The law says that the Roads Engineer shall De
| "a man having the degree of civil engineer and
| experienced in bridge and road building" sure
| ly it was an astute Baltimore county politician
who would SO frame the PHI tnas oe
| pointee receiving $1,000 salary, subject to
| County Commissioners appointee receiving $l2o
| Section 100 says: "The road commissioners so
| appointed are hereby required to adopt such
system for the repairs and improvements, OF the
may deem best having just called for and received
from the Baltimore county Roads Engineer,
what system he ddUiseS in said district" (The
italics in every case are my own for the purpose
them to accept the adUice, only to ask for it. 1t
is also lett to them to say what the board deems
best.''
Section 1877 saws: 1.-THE Baltimore county Roads
Engineer shall inspect the roads in each district
as often as may be necessary, and recommend to
| the road commissioners of the respective dis
| tricts such repairs and improvements as he may
think advisable; and he shall also submit speci
| fcations and plans for the repairs or improve
ments OF any particular road when caHea lon py
the said road commissioners of the respective
districts comprehensive plan for the mainte-
nance of the roads and shall, when directed by
the road commissioners in any district, give in
structions to the foreman as to the places most
in need of repairs and the manner in which the
work shall be performed, and shall assist the
road commissioners in any other manner which
the said road commissioners may require" Moth
ing requires them to pay any attention to what he
recommends, nor to go by the specifications and
plans after he submits them, provided they
should call upon him for them; but it is very
positive when it says that he (the Roads Engi-
neer) ''shall. when directed" give instructions
to the foreman. and shall assist, &C., so that the
road commissioners can order him about, all over
the county, directing the various foremen.
These two sections make the Roads Engineer
figure head and l venture to say that they, in
farces of any law on the statute books of the
county, from the fact that. while pretending to
be law in which the people were to benefit by
the ability of $1,000 salaried and competent en-
gineer, having charge of the construction of our
roads, it is a makeshift which allows our roads
to be tnpr0Ced () at the will of thirty five road
| commissioners all of whom have different ideas
| as to how a road should be built.
Why didn't they make section 1870 read 1.-The
| road commissioners so appointed are hereby re-
| quired to improve the roads in their respective
| districts in such manner and in such places as
| the Baltimore county Roads Engineer shall di-
rect" That's short and to the point and covers
the ground
Then why should not section 1877 read: 1.-THE
Baltimore county Roads Engineer shall inspect
the roads in each district as often as may be
necessary and shall instruct all road commits
sioners, furnishing to them plans and specitica-
lions when necessary, as to the proper manner
in which the roads must be improved, and the
County Commissioners shall require the road
commissioners to carry out the instructions OF
| the Roads EngineerT 2"
With such provisions we would not today be
building ~ roads as we did twenty-five years
ago, but would be benefting by the lessons
learned by the two sample roads" the county
has paid for and be building them upon scien-
tihc principles, directed by the brains for which
we are paying 1000 per year, and would be then
expanding two-thirds of the road fund each year
in hard material as the law requires.
The last clause of section 1870 reads: "And pro-
vided further, that such system shall require at
least two thirds of the road tax to be expended
in matchmaking the roads with stone or other
hard material" There is scarcely district
wherein this part of the law was carried out
last year. The report of the Roads Engineer
giving amount spent on each road in each dis
trict and printed in pamphlet form, copy of
which each taxpayer ought to have. shows some
last year was slightly over $500 about $l49,
| 600 was used. leaving about $4,000 on hand De-
cember l, 1901. OF this $4,000 two-thirds, or
| nearly 100000, should have been spent in hard
| $4,000.
| The districts close to Baltimore macadamized
| more extensively than others and the report
| shows the material in most cases on certain
roads to have cost far in excess of labor on those
roads so that nothing like the required amount
Yves expended for hard material, even allowing
the price of putting it on to be added. For in
| stance: Arlington avenue, 9th district had
| labor $3R9 charged il and material 81. 10
| Sd district Valley road, labor $512.54. material
$1,133.l0. The lst district is the only one spend
| ing more for material than labor-$6, SO for
| material and $4,S6l.47 for labor. The 9th spent
$9,227.47 for material and $22,5s3 for labor; the
18th spent 81, 2264 for labor and $6Tl.66 only for
| material.
| The 18th is the banner district" for it spent
| $6,033.65 for labor and $72402 for material The
| Long Green road, in this district, has the dis
| tinctiOn of having more spent on it for labor
| than any other road in the county, although
of the YEAR IA vet IL had labor Bill of 50 s5sis
| There was charged for material $4.T0. To have
| consumed this 81 358.12 it would have taken
| twelve men every day for six months at $1.25
| per day. All the stone bought IN the 18th dis
trict was $724.02, of which $46920 is charged for
on me od beaE road III, where mere tne resi-
| for crusher) leaving the insignificant sum of
$54S2 spent for stone on all the other roads in the
district. so that there was nearly $2,7OO spent in
| putting dirt in the roads.
The law says that the Roads Engineer shall
| examine each month all bills for labor and ma
L
| nish him statement of his expenditure, and
| shall mark them approved, if correct, and de-
! liver them to the County Commissioners who
| shall, after being properly audited, order the
| payment of same; therefore, according to this,
| the County Commissioners have no power to pay
any bill out of the road fund except such as are
| approved and so marked by the Roads Engineer
Yet each district but one has charged against it :
| Expenditures of which no complete record has
| been kept amounting in the aggregate to over
$21 000 The 9th district is over SO, 480, which is
| more than spent for hard material. This item
in the 18th district is 81 .346. which is double the
| amount expended for material in this district
The report states that this district suffered from
| floods severely and these repairs were put on
| and some special appropriations made for GER
| tain roads. and work done entirely without the
| advice or knowledge of the Roads Engineer"
The Commissioners have gotten the county
| out of debt (by the help of the taxpayers) and
| they have lots of friends, so have all the road
commissioners. but let all help to carry out the
| road law as it should be and spend the money on
| the roads as the Engineer advises and give us
| Good Roads," r.
LETTER from Washington says that for