The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1912-08-01
Building Rural Pavements.

! The good roads association of
the state of Washington will recon-
mend the paving of 1000 miles of
rural highways in the state of Wash
ington from the proceeds of a $780,
100000 bond issue. The state Of
California has sold 100000 Of
state bonds for road building. The
state of New York has been build
ing permanent roads for years with
state bond issues. Massachusetts
is going to issue bonds for road
work. The state of Texas author
ICES county bond issues for road
building. In the single county Of
Wayne, in Michigan, there are under
construction now forty miles of con-
crete pavement on the rural high
ways leading out of Detroit. In
none of these states arc the farm
lands more than one-fourth to one
half as valuable as are the farm
lands of Iowa and it is time that
something was being done for per-
manent roads in this state.
The concrete pavements of Michi-
gan, the state bond issues of Cali
fornia and New York and the spe-
cial assessment improvement dis
tricts of Texas all offer their con-
tributions TO an ideal road law for
Town.
Someone has suggested that we
begin in this state by connecting each
county seat with the county seat
towns or the metropoli of adjoining
counties and that is a capital idea.
In Michigan they build a concrete
pavement from eighteen to twenty
three feet wide without curbs, which
permits Of using the unpaved por-
tion of, the road in dry weather.
Such a pavement costs about 81 per
square yard in Michigan and could
be laid five yards wide for $4,000
per mile in Iowa and would last
fifty years or more.
i State bond issues are the ideal
method of raising money because
they command the lowest rate of
interest, however, the cost of the
improvement should eventually be
paid by the land and the district
benefited by the improvement and
here the Texas plan of the special
assessment districts much similar to
the Iowa special assessment drain
age districts offer the ideal arrange
ment.
Let the pavement be of concrete
costing not more than $4,000 per
mile. Let the money be raised
from state bonds at three per cent
interest. Let a special assessment
district be created from the territory
to be improved by the road, which
will include the town property bone
two each side of the paved road. Then
fitted and the farms lying a mile or
apportion the assessment so per cent
or less to the land abutting the paved
rood and the remainder to the other
property benefited including the
property of the towns. Let the
state keep the automobile and GER
tain wheel taxes with which to pay
int: st on it's bonds and let the
Il nd assessed pay for the pavement
in twenty-five annual installments.
Four hundred dollars per mile of
pavement would thus be the annual
charge to be assessed 5000 to the
abutiing farms or $50 to each
quarter section enjoying paved
grocery store and 5000 per annum
to be assessed to all the other
farms and town property benefited.
The general property tax for such
pavcments leading to every county
seat town would be less than half
tho usual tax levy voluntarily voted
for interurban aid and about the
cost of orc new. automobile tire per
an,um for the quarter section of
land abutting the pavement 1t
would be per gent upon SIS dollars
per acre increase value to the land
and where is the man who wouldn't
add $25 per acre to 800 land if he
could get a pavement all the way
from his farm to town? The pres
ent automobile tax would pay half
the annual interest charge on bond
issue sufficiently large to connect
every county seat town in Iowa with
a concrete pavement. II would be
a very simple matter to put a wheel
tax Gu narrow wagon tires to equal
the present automobile tax and in
twenty-five years we would have
built and paid for rural pavements
throughout the state sufficient to con-
meet every county seat town. Be-
fore that time the public demand
would force twice and three times
the amount of additional road i'm
provement. All we need is a Moses
with voice in the legislature