The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-06-24
IS OUT OF EXISTENCE
Rough Criticism of the Ocala and
Lake Weir Road

Rough Criticism of the Ocala and
Lake Weir Road
Editor Star: Sailors have an ex-
preston that under certain condi-
tons they find themselves, between
the devil and the deep sea-" and any
man who undertakes to criticise the
work of the road builders or road
of Marion county is quite
likely to find himself in that very
interesting position, as many of the
people of the county, headed by the
versatile secretary of the Board of
Trade, are certain to brand him as
a knocker and charge him with be-
ing unprogressive and not in har-
mony with the many efforts being
put forward to promote the best in
terests of Marion county; however,
somebody has got to be the goat
and it may as well be yours truly as
anybody else.
Some days ago / was in the Office
VI O4S VI tUAC AAlOcl dSIAsS DuoAAO00
men of the community. man who
is spending more money and doing
more work to push Marion county
into the foremost rank among Flor
ida counties than any man in Ocala,
and | was astonished to hear him
say that the men responsible for the
work now being done on the Belle
view road were wasting $50 or SIS
per day, that lot of their work was
not only useless but absolutely
worthless.
Now such an expression coming
from a practical, level-headed, bus
mess man certainly ought to be in
vestigated, SO l appointed myself a
committee of one to look into the
matter, and herewith please receive
my report.
The Lake Weir or Belleview road
except in spots is out of existence.
There is not a consecutive half mile
of the road over (which any vehicle,
wagon or buggy passes, that it does
not risk broken axel, broken springs
and profanity. People are going
miles out of their way rather than
risk the loss of life insurance by not
taking due precaution to preserve
life and limb. In a score of places
the road has been abandoned, driv-
ers having taken to the woods and
unless there is a change for the bet
ter before long farmers will be ask
ed to- put their fences further back
to furnish decent road to drive on.
This state of things exists along
nearly the whole distance between
Ocala and the lake, but the limit is
reached in stretch of about mile
or either side of the town of Belle
view, where the road gang has been
working for many weeks and where
the conditions are simply indiscriba-
bile.
When the road to Leesburg was
completed many weeks ago, the peo-
pie of Ocala. Belleview and sur
rounding country were delighted to
know that their road was to be re-
paired, but as far as we could see
there has been no repairs attempted
along the whole line. But an at
tempt is being made to grade the
road up to level by cutting down
the elevations and filling in the low
places. Now we have never heard
any protests from the Florida horse
or the Kentucky mule about the
steep grade of any hill on the route
All they asked was firm footing
and reasonably hard track under
their wheels, and they would get
there; in fact, everybody who has
passed through Virginia, Tennessee,
Kentucky or Pennsylvania. knows
that there are no hills in Marion
county.
OF course, level road bed is very
pretty in theory. Some OF our rail-
roads will spend millions to straight
en- out curve or grade down a hill
but Marion county hasn't the wealth
to command that is claimed by the
big railroads, and IL It had it could
be put to much better use. and If
the money that is being spent in
grading the road had been spent in
filling the holes and doing the nee
essary repairs. We should today have
a splendid road the whole distance
from the Ocala court house to Lake
Weir and down on to the county
line.
On many OF the lower levels they
have piled soft earth and sand tc