Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1910-12-09
The Proposed Highway Island
Pond to Norton,

The joint committee appointed to
visit Island Pond aud Norton with ref
erence to the appropriation asked for to
build the connecting link of road be.
tween the two places, report as follows :
To the Committees on Hiqhways and
Bridges ofhe Senate and House OF
Representative
Your committee appointed on the part
of the senate and house OF representa-
tives to investigate aud report in writ
ing to the committee on highways and
bridges of the senate and house of rep.
resentatives regarding house bill, No.
10, entitled can Act to Provide for a
Highway from the Town of Norton to
the Town of Brighton in Essex County" +,
respectfully report that they have in
vestigated the same by going in person
on October 2lst to Brighton and attend
ing public meeting of the Business
Mems Association at that place on the
evening of the same date, at which the
proposed road was thoroughly discussed;
and on October 22nd your committee,
accompanied by the Road Commissioner
for Essex County, the commissioner of
unorganized towns and cores for said
county, aud several interested citizens,
walked over the route of the proposed
road to Norton, at which latter place
public meeting with the citizens of the
town was held at Hotel Carpenter in the
evening, after which your committee
drove to Averill Lake for the night and
on the following day, October oath,
met numerous citizens of that locality
who are interested ia the hotels and
cottages, and accompanied by some of
them walked to Forest Lake, and back
to said Averil Lake, from which they
returned the same day to Brighton, and
on the following day to Montpelier, hav-
ing spent three and one-halt days in
their investigation.
On said investigation your committee
finds the following facts: The tow of
Brighton has a population OF something
over two thousand; it is divisional
point with railroad shops on the Grand
Trunk Railway; is United States
Customs port of entry has several lum-
Der mills; a hardwood flooring mill
canning factory creamery first class
hotel and fine electric light system.
There are several lakes in the vicinity,
the largest of which is Island Pond, con-
tanning about sixteen hundred acres.
The roads in the town your committee
consider above the average throughout
the state that part of the road in the
town of Brighton to the Morgan line
and of which the proposed road in the
bill under consideration would probably
be continuation your committee un-
derstand to be a state road, and is in
good condition. The distance from the
terminus of the above stated Brighton
Toad through Morgan and Warren's
Gore to the Norton line your committee
finds to be little over seven miles,
more than one mile of which would be,
over a very fair road now in use by the
Fitzgerald Land & Lumber Co. The
above seven miles, which includes the
mile of the Fitzgerald Companys road,
is all that part of the road for which
the appropriation is asked in the bill
under consideration and the only part
on which it can be used. Two and
three fourths miles of the above road
would lie in the town of Morgan from
which said town would derive no bene-
fit beyond accommodating one small
farmer, who now lives on pent road
for which the town of Morgan pays five
dollars annually for the right OF way.
The additional distance of the road for
which the appropriation is asked all
lies in Warren's Gore, on which there is
only state tax and no town tax. The
remainder of the proposed road lies
through the town of Norton and is that
part which the bill under consideration
requires said town of Norton to build at
the expense OF the said town before any
part of the appropriation called for in
said bill can be used. The seven miles
of road on which the appropriation
would be expended your committee
finds would be better than the average
grade, and over which the grade would
not require an automobile to change
from high gear in any place, and that
said road is free from lodges or bad
swamp land
AS to the general advantage to the
state in building the proposed road,
your committee find that the town of
Norton has population of about seven
hundred, with one lumber mill, several
stores and churches, good hotel. with
| form, land that would AVERAGE we'll with
other in the state of Vermont. Immed-
lately across the Canadian border is the
village of Stanhope, which has about
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