The Somerset reporter., 1909-08-05
Commissioners at Somerset Court
House.
Hinckley Bridge Contract Signed. Solon-
Embden Bridge and Bingham-Dead
River Road Matters Receive Final
Artin1


River Road Matters Receive Final
Action.
A joint meeting of the boards of
commissioners for the counties of
Kennebec and Somerset was held at
the Court House on Tuesday of the
present week. Some important mat
ters connected with the Solon bridge
came before the Somerset officials
and the Hinckley bridge received the
attention of the two boards. There
were present Messrs. Tibbetts and
Perkins of the Somerset board, Levi
T. Williams, Irving R. Bradley and
w. D. Haley, the Kennebec commits
sioners, engineer, E, E. Greenwood,
John Towne of the American Bridge
Company, contractor, R. D. Shanahan
of Portland. A building committee
was organized of the two boards with
Geo. T. Tibbitts of the Somerset COM
missioners, chairman, and Levi T.
Williams of Kennebec. secretary .and
treasurer.
So far as the Hinckley bridge is
concerned the business of the session
consisted in the execution of the con-
tracts for it's construction, in accord
ance with the awards announced in
the last issue of the REPORTER.
The meeting before the Somerset
board, on the subject of the Solon-
Embden bridge was attended by j.
w. Morrin, Bert A. Barron and S. P.
Dunbar, selectmen of Embden, and
Mark P. Pollard, w. O. Paul and A.
q. RoweIl, the Scion Board, with
Judge Turner Buswell of the latter
town who has taken much interest in
the project. 1t will be recalled that
an appropriation of $4,000 was made
by the last legislature, conditioned
upon the raising of $4,000 by the
county of Somerset, and the balance,
which was estimated to be about S10,-
600 by the towns of Solon and Emb-
den. The whole project has had the
attention which its Importance de-
serves, by the Somerset commits
sioners, the officials and citizens of
tho two towns and by the public gem
orally. The county commissioners
finally decided at the Tuesday session
however, that they would not be
warranted at this time, in view of the
debt the county is now carrying and
the expenditures which must be met
in the immediate future, in making
the appropriation referred to. The
legislative acJ did not authorize or
require the county to make the ap-
preparation, and the commissioners
felt that they were not justified, un-
der the circumstances, in the absence
of specific authorization from the
legislature, to incur this special la
bility of $4,000.
At conference of the joint boards
of selectmeu of the towns of Embden
and Solon, it was suggested that the
two towns might vote to include the
$4,000, originally expected from the
county, with their own approoria-
tions, but in that event it did not
seem entirely clear that the $40, 900
from the state could be counted on
with certainty as the act, technically
at least, only provided this sum on
the condition that the county assum-
ed an obligation of $4,000. While it
might be argued that it could make
no difference to the state if the towns
made this good in place of the county,
no one could say that the state au-
thorities would not construe the act
literally and refuse to pay the twenty
thousand, even should Emben and
Solon furnish the entire balance. In
view of decision of the county COM
missioners and the uncertainty of the
sum to be paid by the state, it seemed
the wisest course to refer the matter
to the next legislature, when e-en-
actment of the Solon- Embden bridge
resolve will be asked for in a form
specifically authorizing the county to
provide its share.
The matter of the Bingham Dead
River road was one of the most i'm
portant taken up at this season, not
withstanding the fact that no one was
present before the board either
against or in favor of the project.
The hearing on this road was held
some months since at Bingham and
the matter came up for final action at
this session, it being the first to occur
after the hearing. The commission
ers gave their decree denying the
prayer of the petitioners and the road
will, therefore, not be built unless
again petitioned for at some subse-
quent date and different result OBJ
tanned.