The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1913-11-06
AUTO CLUB AS GREAT AID
Clerk Shows What has been Accom-
plished in this County since the State
Aid Law Became Effective and the
Manner in Which Work Was Done.


prepared for the county archives a
very interesting story on road work
done in this county since the enact
ment of the state aid law. 1t follows:
When our first good roads law was
passed in the year 1907, the county
board of Kenosha studied over the pro-
visions of the new law for a considera-
bic time and could not agree as to the
Interpretation of the law in every re-
spect and finally decided to let the mat
| ter of good roads under the new state
law pass for time at least and until
such time as the law should be inter
pfeted and better understood by more
counties; the consequence was, that
nothing further was done than to dis
cuss the provisions of the law and a
county system Of highways was desig
mated by the county board of this
county under the law passed in 1907,
nor was there anything further done
| along this line until the winter of 1911,
when the law had been revised and
amended by another legislature.
About this time good live automo
bile club was organized in the city of
Kenosha, whose members interested
themselves particularly in the provi-
sions of this new road law which CON
tanned clause called the force clause,
which provides that any group of free
holders Of the county may deposit a
certain sum of money with the town
board of any town for the improve
/ ment of q certain road and the town
! board is obliged to levy tax to cover
the other half Of the cost of the
i town 5 share of the entire cost of the
Improvement and petition the county
board to levy tax to cover an amount
equal to the amount on hand in the
town treasury, and the county board in
turn must petition the state to raise an
equal amount with the county, with
see fine chance for the Improvement
of some of the main roads leading into
the city Of Kenosha, and on the high
way system (and these roads must be
on the highway system in order to
make use of aforementioned force
clause, and proceeded to raise fund
to offer as prize to the property own
ers Of lands AUDITING on these roads.
A fund Of two thousand dollars was
raised by private subscription and held
up in the form Of two prizes, one of
twelve hundred dollars or sixty per
cent Of the prize and one of eight
hundred dollars or forty per cent being
the balance of the prize. These diff
ferent amounts to be given to the roads
whose residents and AUDITING property
owners would raise the largest and
next largest amounts of money to go
with the respective prizes and all to
be donated to the town in which their
roads were located, to force the i'm
provement of the road under the provi-
sions of the new law
The result was the residents and
abutting property owners along the
road known as the South Park avenue
road and leading into the city of Ke-
nosha from the south, raised a sub
scription of sixteen hundred dollars
and Herewith captured the first prize.
The people who resided along the
Sheridan Road, also leading into the
city from the south, raised a subscrip-
ton of four hundred dollars and there
with captured the second prize.
The club, of course, received the
money and decided who should win the
first and second prizes and took the re-
respective prizes together with the do
nations that won the prizes and de-
poolIcu GueHl WITH the GI6dSuI6I VI IH6
town and filed with the town clerk of
the town, requesting the Improvement
of the road desired to be improved
with this money, all Of which was done
prior to the 18th day OF August, which
is the date set by law on which all do
nations must be deposited.
The combination of these funds
brought about complication not con-
templated by the club, in this way:
The law provides that no town can be
forced to levy tax in excess of three
mills on the assessed valuation of the
town and in our case the two roads
which had captured the two prizes
We're both located within the same
town and the amounts together with a
sum which had been previously voted