Evening journal., 1911-09-09
TUFTS ItoTtCIIUIIJl
I. G. DUPONT.
Commissions Reply.

L. g. DUPONT.
Commissions Reply.
This morning Governor Pennewili,
Lieutenant-Governor Mendinhall and
Secretary of State Smithers met in an
office adjoining General duPont's aud
unofficially agreed upon the easterly
route and notified General DUPONT to
that effect. General DUPONT and Robert
II. Richards, his counsel in the boule-
ward project, conferred with the Com
missioners for a while They will meet
about the middle of next week TO de-
eide upon the roads width and the
materials TO be used, after Engineers
William, Storm and Aiken report The
commissions letter to General du-
Pont today is:
Wilmington. Del. Sept. 9. 1911.
Mr. T. c. DUPONT, Wilmington, Del
Dear Sir: We do not consider that
we have any official function to per-
form in the matter Of the road which
you propose to build and give to the
state until you shall have organized
your corporation to build this road
When the corporation, thus organized
shall submit to us the proposed route
of its boulevard. or any section there
Of, it will be our duty TO approve of
such route before It can be finally de-
termined upon and to evidence our
approval by endorsement upon the
survey of such route, or section there
of, which the corporation must file in
the Office of the secretary of state be-
fore it can proceed to construct any
part of the boulevard
You have informed us, however, that
you have finally decided to suggest the
City Of Wilmington and the town of
Selbyville as the termini of your road
or boulevard, for the reasons stated
in your letter. After spending two or
three days in Sussex county and care
fully considering the situation there,
we feel inclined, unofficially, to agree
with you that the southern terminus
which you have selected would place
the road in the southern part Of the
state where it would be most benei-
cial to the county and state. We
are also inclined to agree, unofiicially,
that the route between Selbyville and
Georgetown, designated in your letter
OF September s. is the prefrable one for
that part of the road extending north
of September 8, is the preferable one for
ward corporation is duly chartered and
the surveys of that part of the route
are presented to US, we shall be Will
ing to officially approve them.
In approving the various sections
Of the route the commission feel that
their selection should be based large
" upon the desire of the citizens for
the road. Such desire would seem TO
be best evidenced by the willingness
Of the people to give the right of way.
We beg to remain,
Yours respectfully,
Simeon S. Pennewill,
John NJ. Mendinhall,
William T. Smithers-
General duPonfs View.
When asked about the selection
Of the Sussex road route, Mr. DUPONT
said the Commission went over both
lines this week and made a very de-
tailed examination Of all the condi-
tions. getting out at many places on
the line and stopping at all important
towns and asking many questions. In
fact" Mr. DUPONT said, Il was surpris-
ed at the iltene interest they took in
the smallest details and the questions
they asked showed they had kept in
touch with the road news since the
] beginning. As to the route, both
sides or the state nave many reasons
for making the road on their side. At
ter spending a great deal of time dur
I ing the past nine months on the roads
of Delaware, covering 10000 miles, in
! trying TO find out the best route. and
finding many logical reasons for the
/ eastern route as we'll as the western
route in Sussex / came to the conclu-
sion that / ought to be governed
| (other things being equaD by what
the people themselves wanted and by
] how strongly they expressed their
wishes.
$50. taking from Delmar to Seaford
in the western survey and from Selby-
vile TO Georgetown in the eastern
survey, found that the Georgetown
route offered eighty per cent of the
right of way free. with disposition to
name a fair price for the remaining
twenty per cent while on the Seaford
route less than fifty per cent. was Of
fered. and exorbitant prices were