The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1911-03-17
STATE HIGHWAY LAWS
Bill to Form Commission and Pro
vide Revenue.

City, Tenn Gentlemen Under sepa
rate cover have sent you a copy Of th
three bills that we have had introduce
into the Legislature, and are bound in
10 one copy. They are now in til
hands Of a committee to frame a Stat
highway law, and the chairman
Senator Caldwell, Of your district. H
and his joint committee were in thi
city the day that / received your letter
as was G. G. Ahles, the governmen
road engineer. They both spoke 0
you to me.
understand what is before you il
getting road from your city to Reel
foot Lake and the difficulties that yot
have. SO please read pages 81, Ss anc
49, This special assessment plan il
Knoxville is known as the abutting
property rlan, and all our streets ar,
now paeed by this method. The SUI
preme Court Of the State in case D
M d. Arnold vs.. the Mayor and Al
dermen Of Knoxville, reported in ons
Of the earlier Gates reports, sustained
the principle, which has been used
in many States for many years. Under
this system you can have sixty per. cent
Of the property owners along both sides
Of a street, Or road, petition to have the
improvement made. This strip Of land
may be tier Of lots or land, and can
run back from the road one and one
half miles or three miles wide. The
county can pay one-third if it will, and
properly on each side pay one-third, Or
two-thirds on both sides. The pay
ments can be made to run ten years,
and the county can always raise the
money on certificates, as the property
owners pay all the interest, In this way
You can get road constructed, provided
sixty per cent Of all the property owners
50 agree by petition, and then the road
authorities make provision for the work.
Say road cost $4,000 a milo to-con1
struct, and a road costing less is waste
Of money, as experience has proven.
Then the county would have to pay
81 1888 a mile, and the property
owners on each side would pay the
same amount or $189.l1 mile each
year. If there be four farms to the
mile, then the cost year would be
only $83 27 for each farm Then if
you had the farms for one-half mile.
made into q zone for three parts, you
can reduce it by making the first zone
pay the largest proportion, the second
smaller, and the third still snallef Say
No. /, $1S; No. 2, $40, and No. 8, $5. III
zach year TO this should be added
interest each year on the. outstanding
Indebtedness for the farms share ac-
'ording to assessment. 1t must be re-
nembered that the assessed value Of
he four farms might be different, and
the charge would be slightly
ifferent than given above. You can
york it in anyway, but the manner
must be set out, in a petition, for the
lork to be done, Such petition
Fould contain all Of the facts that you
re willing to have imposed, and the
ounty court cannot change the facts
ct out.
Should the State issue bonds for State
ighways, then the county could ask
or you and the county to contribute
le two-thirds Of the property owners
rare, and divide the one-third with
le State. In this way you can get
ing line Of road constructed
Besides this, the State would do all Of
ie engineering, let the contracts, in
0ect and supervise, and pay all Of the
loney. In the experience Of other
tates the best results have been OBJ
lined, and better than when the coun-
I has done the work, for it becomes a
bid blooded transaction, and the local
olitieians keep out The State engi-k
eer is after the best and most lasting
suits. Their reputation is at stake,
I'd they will not bend to any local in I
uence, and everyone gets fair treat
tent.
II other States have had this experi-
ice am sure Tennessee would. / !
I'VE been a pike commissioner and |
roads for thirty years, and
I'VE been all over the ground. ] can !
,nestIy say that more money has been ]
asted by local politics in road construc- i
N than-in any other way in this part I
the State, Often the money that is |
Il into roads is stretched 80 far that il !,
too thin road and too narrow. andI 1