Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1909-08-28
CORRESPONDENTS.
To the Voters and Taxpayers of
AIIeSany County.

MT. SAVAGE, MD, August 26, 1909.
| desire to submit to you my candida
cy for the position of Road Director, and
having been President of the Road Board
four years. feel it meet that should ac-
quaint you with my reasons for wishing
to succeed myself.
Before the institution of the present
Road Board there had been built but one
mile of permanent road by the county,
although the road expenditures at times
had run as high as $40, 900 in year in
the form of a floating debt. With the
passage of the Road law it was expected
that permanent roads might be built,
and since that time the following roads
have been made:
Borden Shaft to Frostburg. ....... > miles
East and west of Homecoming. Ii -
East of Westernport-under con-
StruCtlon. ........... ...'........
Above COrrlganSVllle. ............. l "
Mt Savage to Barrelville. ......... ,! "
Borden Shaft-toward Midland.... l "
NarrOWS. -
Pekin-tOward Homecoming. ....... ! "
Bells Rock, near Barrelville-un-
der construction. Observation-Disclosures.
Round total. ....................12 miles
utSt IOduS udNc dNtluStl dUOut
s. 900 a mile. Besides, there are two
reinforced concrete bridges of an even
more durable character. and the Board
is about to make an inexpensive expert
ment in the way of a concrete road to
learn whether such road will prove IA
success. Much of this work the Board
has been able to accomplish through the
aid of the appropriations secured from
tba State up6ar the Shapma kpr A Of On
a rateable distribution of the Shoemaker
fund Allegany county would have re-
ceived only SIS, 80 last year, but the
Board succeeded i'll securing SIG, 1913 .3S,
or about 5000 more than its share-as
the result of the support given it by the
people at the series of public meetings
held III the fall of 1907, and its own en-
ergy i'll taking just advantage of State
and local laws. The II miles of perma-
nent road now built or in course of con-
Structlon are referred to as Begin
ningS." They are, indeed, object les
sons and bases of construction which it
is the policy and fixed purpose of the
Board to connect up" and thus com
plete a continuous system of good or
permanent rOadS-a system which shall
ultimately reach from Westernport,
through Flintstone, to the line between
Allegany and Washington counties.
With the sum available from the regu-
lar levy, after repairs, and the ShOema-
ker funds, and the farther aid of the
roads to be built by the State, it is my
hope and belief that the system of roads
traversing the county from its extreme
western to its extreme eastern boundary,
and also connecting Cumberland with
Frostburg by route ria Barrelville, Mt.
Savage, Morantown and Allegany-it is
my hope, as intimated, that the Board
will be able to accomplish all this with
i'll three years. What this, when real
lied, will mean to the teaming and
travelling public | need not say.
The Board has been subject to some
criticism because these permanent roads,
instead of being built together and con
tinuously, like a railway between two
centres, have been distributed through
out the county i'll spots. Well, rail
way, company spends its own money to
please itself alone. The Road Board
did not feel justified in taking money
collected from all sections of the county
and expanding it wholly in one section,
however ideal this course might seem
from the standpoint of theoretic ecOnOm-
les. Local jealOusies would surely have
arisen, which might have defeated the
whole plan of durable road building, and
the realization of the county system of
good roads above referred to. More
over, the unemployed of the different
sections who have thus found means of
livelihood must have suffered had the
road building been distributed on the
railway. bnil djno nlan