The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-05-22
NOTHING
IRREGULAR
rETITrIE - lR7IEIIEHRI.
Commissioners Discuss Road
Roller Squabble.
CAN EXPLAIN ALL
Attacks Made are Unwar-
ranted Say the Officials.
w. H. HOlverstott Says the Board
will not Recede From Its Position
or Rescind Its Action.

That every act OF the county COM
mssioners was lawful ana regular;
that the commissioners acted for the
best interests OF the taxpayers of the
county whose servants they are and
that the attacks by publication, by
word and by inuendo, in regard to the
purchase OF motor road roller for
use on the county roads, are entirely
unjust and unwarranted is the sub
stance OF statement issued to the
Mirror by w. II. Holverstott, a mem
ber of the board of commissioners
Mr.. Holverstott i'm his statement re-
views the road roller case concerning
which there have been attempts to
make it appear there have been ir.
regular methods and even graft has
been limited at. That the commits
sioners will stand by their action
in the case and will not rescind their
contract, in any particular is the con-
cludng statement of the official. Mr..
lIolverstott said:
Every act of the commissioners
in the purchase of motor roller
from the Austin Manufacturing COM
pany, of Chicago, was regular. This
order was signed in November by a
majority of the members OF the board
Commissioner Setter was present but
he did not sign it because he prefer
red to wait until spring to purchase.
The roller was received i'm November,
subject to thorough trial, in which.
If it proved unsatisfactory for the
kind of work the county had to do, il
was to be returned II it proved sat.
isfaotory it was to be purchased. The
price was $500.
After the roller came, the Huber
company was acquainted with the
fact that the roller was here on trial.
There was no secret about the mat
ter at any time. ! personally met Mr.
Barlow and told him of the condi-
tions under which we had the roller
sent here and we talked over the
question of a fair test. AS soon as
time was set for trial the Huber
company was given notice with
the Information and it was under
stood that II was not 10 be q compe-
tive test and it is unjust TO consider
the test as SUCH
The Huber company schowed its roll
ler. The roller purchased by the
commissioners proved satisfactory
and was accepted The test was to
see whether or not the roller was
what it was guaranteed to be and it
proved that it was.
ION the afternoon of the day be.
fore tho order was signed the full
board of commissioners visited the
Huber shops and was only shown one
roller a siXteen-ton steam roller
with width of eight feet, eight,
inches, being fully eight inches wider
than rs per cent. of the roads in
Marion county. A roller of that
width could not be satisfactorily used
on narrow bed. 1t would he inn
possible TO retain the crown in the
road,
There are good ana sufficient
reasons why we preferred motor
roller to a steam roller. In the first
place, we figure that it is saving
of more than So per day in the cost
Of operation. 1t is necessary TO shift
the roller from one part OF the coun-
ty to another many times in the
course of n month. The motor roller
carries enough gasoline for four days
use while with steam roller It is
imperative that man with a team
eb employed TO haul fuel and water,
Two men are required to operate a
steam roller, while one operates a
motor roller The steam roller would
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