Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1908-01-01
Shames the State.


De mortified by the Associated
Press dispatches. sent all over the
world, describing the presidents
arrival at his country home i'm this
State. Albemarle county is one of
the most progressive and prosper
Gus we have. Yet we are told that
the ten miles from the railway
station TO Pine Knot meant three
hours of desperate pulling over
unspeakable roads, the wheels of
the vehicles packed with mud, the
president compelled to walk half
the distance to relieve the horses.
If the supervisors and tax-payers-
and the taxpayers are primarily
responsibility the county are not
ashamed, certainly they should be.
Yet there is hardly county in
the State that has the right to look
down on'Albcmarle. All roads
are Infamous, many. of them far
worse than the stretch between
Pine Knot and the station. The
worst of it is that in the majority
OF the counties nothing is being
done toward improvement. Here
and there we have supervisors and
newspapers with the nerve to 90
ut the taxpayers in the right WAY
and reason and shame them into
consulting their own interests. viN-
ing the money for permanent road
betterment. In the large majority.
however, taxpayers, supervisors
and newspapers alike sit supincly
grumbling and mumbling. like 81
many helpless children, about the
bad roads, throwing what little pii
tances are given for the road, into
the same old mud holes wear after
year, breaking down at the same
places. isolated from neighhorS.
losing thousands of dollars every
year in time, running gear and
horse flesh - Richmond News
Leader.
That Is one of the most pointedly \
sensible articles we have read in
the News-Leader in long while,
and it hits the nail square ON the
head.
In Clarke county, for instance.
the roads are just about as bad
(eXcept the turnpikes) as those in
Albemarle or elsewhere.
We are pleased to see that Sup
ervisor Carver, of Greenway dis
trict, is doing some fine road work
and has completed about seven
miles of public road in the past
three years. The Supervisors i'm
Battletown district haven't macad-
amized that much public road in
the past thirty years, So far as can
be seen or heard.
The COURIER has been advocat-
ing better roads, and been suggest
ing improvements to that end, for
the past five years land we don't
know how many years previous to
that. but the taxpayers and their
Supervisors seem TO let the matter
go by default.
Approximately $4,000 is spent
each year for road purposes in
Clarke county (say 81, 200 To each
Magisterial district. Can any
body show us where $4,000 worth
of improvements and additions are
are madel
1t appears to us that the trouble
lies in the lack of systematic work,
and we believe the present status
will prevail until the Clarke
County Special Road Law" is re-
pealed by the Legislature and we
start TO work under the general
law of the State.
As simple proposition, we are
opposed to special laws of any
character, and the special road law
OF Clarke county seems to work no
good to anyone that we can see.
The first step for people to take
Is To write to their Senator and
Delegate and urge them to work
for immediate repeal of the Clarke
County Special Road Law.
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