Semi-weekly herald., 1914-02-12
Members of Motor
Club Enter Protest

are united in their efforts for GOO
roads. They are anxious to get the
best results for the money e-Peaied
and to obtain the results as qiicky
as possible.
In the old days When Sc,3U0 was .ae
maximum amount spent on the
highways Of the county, tha sax
ers were modest in their iem ls
generally COUGHING their request in
terms that suggested they expected
the roads to be less bad In tsos.
days the row antirpatcd svsterr Of
road oversers seemed to be the only
way Of dealing with the road pf5b
lem. But the demand far betEa
highways has become SO insistent IT,
the past few years that eNp~0r 's-
tons have rapidly increased until
this year practically $4,000 viii be
spent on the LILO miles Of public
roads within La Plata county's bord-
ers.
In all progressive communities
there is an effort to get away from
the old road overseer system of road
bulding-that after all did not ac-
complish much more than give few
good vote-getters a job. The neees-
sity for the change has long been
recognized here.
Two years ago, appreciating that
provisions must be made for our state
to keep apace with the progressive
movement, the legislature of Colorado
amended the laws governing public
road work, so that it is possible to
eliminate the road overseers and in
their stead place general supervisor
in charge of the county road work,
the change being made optional with
the commissioners.
Substantial good road enthusiasts
Of our county realized before the new
law was passed that the road over
seer system had outlived its useful
ness in our section, and some of the
heavy taxpayers met with the board
Of county commissioners to determine
if some arrangements could not be
made to get away from it. The COM
missioners were agreed that the sys-
TEN, gave poor results but they did
not see their way clear to evade the
law, The board gave the committee
before them a cordial reception,
thanked them for their interest in the
matter and assured them that any
suggestions they might offer would
be entertained by them.
Last week committee from the
Motor club, consisting of Senator
West, DIR. Haggart Robert Sloan,
James Jarvis, Jack Parsons and C. H.
Charlton appeared before the board
of county commissioners, at their in 4
vitation, to discuss with them the
most feasible way of conducting road
work in the county.
At the meeting of the Motor club
held at the City hall last night, Pres
ident Charlton, acting as spokesman
for the committee, submitted the fol-
low ng verbal report:
w were accorded a pleasant re.
ception and encouraged to outline a
system Of road work that would be
superior to the one in use. The mem
bers of the board admitted the old
system was wasteful and returned
little for the money expended. We
Suggested the rOadoverseers be elm
mated and construction crew ap-
pointed under a competent man to do
the work Commissioner Reese said
it would take the crew two years to
go over the county. We then sug-
gested that two or more crews under
a general supervisor be appointed
and laid off as soon as their work be
completed, and that there be bridge
and culvert construction crew, like
wise employed, We further suggest
ed that the county be divided in
small sections and farmers be en-
ployed to drag the roads after each
storm, and to keep up the general re-
pair work. The rancher employed
as we suggested would act as a sort
of an emergency man and do away
with the necessity for a road over
seer. Our idea was to get full value
for all money expended. With us the
board seemed to agree in the main,
and considering they had told the
committee who waited upon them the
previous year that it was the law,
and appointments already made, that
stood in the way of a change in the
system, and practically assured us
then they would make a change as
soon as possible, we naturally expect
ed some results from our visit. 1t
appeared we had scarcely more than
left the court house when they pro
ceeded to make the appointments of
road overseers, and further increased
the road districts by one, so as to give
another man job. Among the over
seers four are related to one of the
commissioners. They surely must be
q family remarkable for their abi1itv