The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1912-12-21
ten IS. when they abandoned the
VI nse and Skanee road. although same

ny 1er do ! find in the records any
mention of joint meeting of your
commissioners and the township boards
of Arvon and L'Anse townships at
which time they were granted $4,000. 90
($10OO.00 from each township to apply
on the new L'Anse and Huron Bay
road adopted Sept. IL, 1909, and par
TALLY abandoned Oct. 20, 1911, after
spending $4734.46 on it. In this con-
nection would say that in Feb. 1912 one
of your commissioners was allowed
about $4,000 for opening the L'Anse
and Huron Bay road. This work was
done by Arvon Township in January at
cost of about $500 and bill for the
expense was presented to the county
road commissioners, who did not allow
same.
Section 20 of Chapter of the laws
pertaining to highways and bridges
provides that moneys received under
this act shall be paid out "only upon
the order of such board of county road
commissioners and upon warrants
signed by the chairman and counter
signed by the clerk of the board"
This provision of the law has been
disregarded entirely. Your commits
sioners have form of order on the
treasurer for payment of labor, ETC.,
which each makes out and signs indi-
vidually. These are not countersigned
as provided.
page 81
Some of these orders are written
with lead pencil, some with indelible
pencil and others with ink. From their
appearance ! would imagine your COM
missioners carry the blanks around
with them and fill them out at their
own convenience, wherever they hap
pen to be, This practice should be
stopped and the law complied with.
The disbursement of public funds is too
serious matter to be handled so care
lessly.
In many instances Commissioner
Denomie has collected amounts claimed
to have been paid out by him for labor,
but no receipts or detail of any kind
furnished to substantiate the claim.
Also in his bills for labor, there is
repetition of names of men who have
been paid by the above mentioned or
ders. AS no dates are given in any in
stance there is great danger of dupli-
cation.
Your commissioners should adopt a
regular form of pay roll either weekly,
semi-monthly or monthly, as would be
most convenient, giving the names of
persons working, the date, time and
place Of such work, together with the
rate and amount, and such claims
should by audited by the board and
proper warrants AS provided by law is
sued in payment to each individual. In
fact your county treasurer has no au-
thority to dispense county road funds
except upon such warrants.
Your commissioners have spent
large sums for blankets, tents, chains,
shovels, axes, and tools of various
kinds. An inventory of that equipment
should be taken and filed with the
clerk of the board, and new inventory
taken annually hereafter. There should
also be some designated place for keep
ing these various tools.
Your commissioners have also spent
large sums for groceries, provisions,
cook hire, etc, for boarding road
crews, the idea being to collect same
back from the men in the way of board.
There is no way to check this up to as
certain whether or not the commission
ers came out even on the deal. / think
this practice should be condemned and
if it is necessary to board any men
while on certain job, let the commits
sioners give some one a contract to do
it, deducting from each man the amount
he is to pay. This will take the matter
of supplies entirely out of the commits
sioners' hands and leave them free to
attend entirely to the work.
In going over the minutes of the var
ious board meetings, note that little
else has been done hut allow bills, and
these are principally for labor. In
many instances they do not specify the
number of days, and never give any
dates. With one or two exceptions
there is nothing on record to show that
the commissioners as body authorize
the spending of any set amount OF
money on any particular roador job. 1t
would appear that whenever any of the
commissioners saw fit they employed
themselves and their teams, wherever
they choose and turned in their bills
and collected same.
Your commissioners have spent
large amount in rig hire but 1T is I'M
possible to tell when and where all OF
same was used. There might be pos
sibility that some of this was for at
tending meetings for which they col
lect mileage. In this connection would
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