The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1913-03-18
Enliyening Remarks Today at
Road Commissioners
Meeting
GATES WAS EQUAL
TO THE EMERGENCY

Lecture This Afternoon in AuditolI-
um-List of Those Answering Roll .
Call
The annual meeting of the road com I.
missioners and selectmen Of Windham
county with State Highway Commits /.
siOner Charles W. Gates was opened
this morning in the Auditorium with 10
of the % towns of the county represent
ed, those having no representatives pres
ent being Marlboro, Somerset, Stratt9n
and Wilmington. The afternoon ses-
sion opened at 100 clock and was
marked by an illustrated lecture on good
roads by d. II. WinslOw of Washington,
! ID. C., government expert.
Commissioner Gates opened the morn
| ing session by explaining the new law
under which the state IS aiding the Va
/ rious towns in the matter of improving
the roads and under which he has the
control of the appropriation, increased
this year, to be expended for road i'm
provement.
The roll was called and the various
/ towns were called, representative
from each describing road conditions
and explaining wherein the residents
were satisfied or dissatisfied with them.
Lewis II. Lynde of Dummerston, who
volunteered the information from his
town took issue with about everything
that had been said, conditions in general
and conditions as he found them in his
home town. He declared thar the present
large appropriation and the method in
which ii is handled puts Vermont in
line with New York as a grating prop
Osition. 1t is 1.-The biggest fraud in
, existence, he declared. He scored
County Commissioner D. T. Perry. de
claring that he ought to be relegated
! to the dump and advised the commits
sioners and the selectmen to put the
money raised by the various towns on
the back roads as the state commission
er is bound by law to take care of the
trunk lines, where all of the state mon
ey is being spent. He said there were
- miles of road in DummerstOn and
that all of the state money is spent on
stretch of about Il miles. He said
? that a bit of work that was done on
e top of the mountain by the state cost
T. at the rate of $1.75 an hour and was
70 a "most shameful expenditure of mon
= ey,' declaring that this fact proved
his contention that there is graft
= Commissioner Gates in reply, asked a
n few questions of the previous speaker
To- 2
. while the mileage is about the same as
it was Is years ago and the amount
6 raised by the grand list and for roads
n is about the same, the cost of everything
q has gone up, men and teams cost more
but the town is not appropriating NOR,
. TO help out. He showed that in reality
=, the town is getting now about - cents
! for every dollar it formerly spent be
- cause of the increased cost of every
= thing.
q" Guilford, like Dummerston. reported
:, no money raised for roads this year be
10 cause of dissatisfaction with the un
finished condition of one stretch of road
1t was shown that while the town ha,
been promised only $1,000 of state al,
it had in reality received $500. Th,
reason why that stretch of road was no
ia finished was due to a misunderstood
ing of conditions between the selectmel
and County Commissioner Perry.
70 Those present are James Brown Sc
re lectman, of Cambridgeport: Henry h
re Brown. commissioner, and \. +. MeI
a rill, selectman. of Brattleboro: H. II
I'd Howe, commissioner. of Brookline; Wi
ut liam Z. Shippee, commissioner of Dc
yer: c. G. Walker and W W. Burnhan
I'd commissioners, and f.. c. Tenney. select
V man. of Dummerston; Y. 4. Wilbur. st
q lectman, of Grafton; w. G. Baker. con
,e missioner, and A. :. Gallup and NJ. :
10 Thomas, selectmen. of Guilford; o.
of Hubbard, commissioner, and w.
of Warren, selectmen, of Halifax; Con
lie missioner Foskitt of Jamaica; T. I
he Holt and D. c. Houghton, selectmen, {
lis Londonderry; +. IT. TuthiH, commi
N. sioner. and J. NJ. Kenny, $. II. Nor,
m and T. f. Willard. selectmen, of New
fame; George r. Braley and Dana
Angler. commissioners, of Putney; Ere
A. Smith and J. B. Wooley, commissio
ers, and Myron II. Ray and Chester
Hadwen. selectmen, of Rockingham;
ID c. Taft, commissioner, and J. II. War
selectman, of Townshend; b. G. vii
er. commissioner. and F. II. Dexter, 5
at lectman, of Wardsboro; John s. Burne
and G. II. Reed, commissioners. and \
F. Ranney, selectman, of Westminste
John Il. Gillett, commissioner, al
George w Kentfeld, selectman,
'ge Nottingham: W. r. Carleton, comm
lea sioner, and II. L. Gould, selectman,
,ra Windham.