Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1913-07-31
THE REAL SITUATION!
Audubon County Not Financially EN-.
barsssed as Some Would Lead People
to Believe

Last week the Audubon Advocate
contained an article that maliciously
or otherwise intended to mislead the
people of Audubon county into the be
lief that the county had only a few
cents to her credit in certain fund.
We are not taking exception TO the
fact that the statement which was
made divulged the information that
the fund was low, but when he made
the statement he should have included
the informotion that money for that
particular fund was available from
other sources as the. books will show at
the court house. The fund spoken of
contained few days ago in the neigh
borhood of $1,000.
Another fact that the report failed
to state was the large amount of ma
terial on hand for bridge purposes and
which has already been paid for.
About $1,000 worth of lumber is on
hand and paid for. Three car loads of
cement and one car load of steel is on
hand and paid for The county spent
in the neighborhood of $500 for equip.
ment for bridge building which is paid
for. While the Advocate editor was
going through the records to make a
AODOtJ WHY kO
and also report what the county had
on hand. We want to mention these
matters to the taxpayers so they will
know both sides of the story. There
is no cause for alarm and no one at the
court house is making steal of the
county's money. We believe the public
is entitled to know what is being done
with thescounty's money and at any
time any individual wishes to know
what has become of the money, all
they have to do is 10 go to the court
house to examine the records. 1t is
unfair to the people as well as TO the
county officials to make q report that
is not intelligent and only partially
made.
1t is a fact, that the bridge fund has
been hard hit this year. The floods in
the north end of the county have been
responsible for 75 percent of the work
in that section. The new law this
year adds 200 bridges more for the
county to look after.
During the past few years more
bridges have been built at lower cost
to the county than ever before. The
bridge fund had something like $50, 900
outstanding warrants in 1911, 1000
in 1912 and 5000 in 1913 81. 900
worth of bonds have been issued
however, to take care of part of
this fund. But as the matter
stands at the present time Audubon
county is in better condition today
than 1t has been in previous years, re-
CARELESS of the extraordinary expense
Good substantial cement bridges are
costing the county from $40 TO $l5 per
cubic yard, where in other years SINH
lar bridges have cost the county $50 for
practically the same class of work.
On account of the extra amount of
work it has been necessary to appoint
an assistant engineer who has been
drawing 81 per day. But he has been
acting In the capacity of bridge fore
man and did manual labor each and
every day. A third man has been EN-
ployed at 800 per month for a short
time and his services will be dispensed
with within the next few weeks. The
total cost to Audubon county for her
engineering work including all the as
sistants. is less than in most any of the
other counties of the state Most of
the counties pay salary of $500 per
year and buy an automobile for the en-
gineer's use beside. Mr.. Foresbeck re-
ceives s. per day and furnishes his
own instruments, which other counties
furnish at their own expense. 1t looks
to the reading public as though the
Advocate had an axe to grind. He is
terribly Interested in the fact that the
other county offices do not pay as much
as that of the county engineer. How
much have the county officers spent 10
equip themselves for the position they