The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-26

tenn or ArOO0 HONuS on u 1HSn bdStS
 
 only enough money on bond issue is secured to build only a partial system. Then the bonding capacity of the county is exhausted. The people are then bur dened with the interest account and for necessary repairs on the roads that have been built
 "Then, too, it is often the case that a large part of the money secured on a bond issue is thrown away in preliminary planning and incompetent overseers who hold their places through political in- fiuence
 Any county that plans for the build ing of roads should spend it's first money in practical surveys by competent engi- neers, who should be held responsible for results so far as their authority can go.
 Then the building of the roads and the expenditure of the money should be commission that should also be held re- sponsible fof the expenditure of money and the efficiency of road results.
 
 We have adopted a system in Coving- ton county that may be unique. We believe that it is practicable and that we can get the maximum of good re- suits on roads with the least expense.
 Besides the regular road fund we levy a special road tax, of which no citizen has yet complained.
 "We have just contracted for the build ing of 4S miles of road in the county This system will complete good lines of road to the county line in four directions and leads to the largest trading centers of the county. The system is so planned that 12 miles of road to be built is To- cated in each of the four commissioners districts.
 "The commissioner in each district is held personally responsible for the work to be done in his district. As probate judge of the county, l have general su- pervision of the entire system. Tn this way we are building on four sections of the road system at once. Be- fore a lick of work was done or bids asked for we employed a competent engi- neer to go over the proposed system and lay out and specify the work to be done. The work on this system is now under way and is being pushed as rapidly as possible.
 "when this AS miles is completed it will have been paid for and the county will have no debt to take care of. Then an other block of road planned to accommo- 1o ,bar nf i,, {, county not already served will be mapped out and conducted in the same way By this method we propose to build a complete system of good roads all over the county that when completed will have been paid for cash. We are also taking care of fund for repairing and keeping up the roads after they are built. This is where most counties that build roads with bonds make a mistake. They put all the money on a partial system of roads and then the county is taxed to pay the interest and principal, leaving nothing for maintenance, to say nothing of the dissatisfaction caused in those sections Of the county where the roads could not be completed. Those people. without roads have to pay the taxes ike tnOSe WHO nave the blessing of improved highways
 Our roads will cost from s7oo to 800 ger mile. according to the grading and distance of handling material. We are building with sand and clay of which we have an abundance in the county. It has been freely demonstrated that these ma terials properly combined make most excellent and durable road.
 "Of course it will take us a few years to complete our system under this cash plan, but believe that the ultimate re- suit will be more satisfactory than has been the experience of some counties that spent large bonded sums at once, built in- complete system and saddled upon the people an indebtedness that lasts longer than we expect it to take us to build a complete, paid-for system in Covington county.
 Then the money that would be uFed in