The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1915-03-17
The Operation Of the
New Road Law.

The fact that fol out of the 100 coun-
ties of the Commonwealth have made APP
plication through the various Fiscal
Courts for State Aid in the construction
and reconstruction of metal highways
bears evidence in the most unmistakable
way that the law is great success 1t
means that during the year over a mil
lion dollars will be spent in the con-
the former waste through incompetence
and ignorance will he eliminated in road
construction which heretofore has cost
the people much in road building I'm
der the State Aid law the roads must be
built by contract and constructed under
plans of the State Engineer, which
means that they will be constructed after
the most modern and approved methods
As the county puts up ha'f, one will be
check on the other and there will be
neither graft nor sloven and badly con-
structed work permitted.
One of the most SIP endid evidences of
the success Of the new road law is that
many of the counties which have not a
mile of turnpike road have made APP
plcation to the State for the full amount
permitted under the law of SI2, 600 As
the county has to put up 81 900 in order
to get that amount from the State it is
indicative of great road awakening in
the State that have heretofore been
asleep on the road question.
Wisely, under the provision of the act
the poorest county in the State with as
sessed valuation of property of less than
one million dollars can draw as much
from the State treasury as the richest
county in the State with assessed valua-
ton of two hundred million dollars.
This equality of the counties, as far as
State assistance goes, vii stimulate
road construction in the mountains and
i'll the pennyrille as well as in the Blue
Grass. Under the provisions of the
new road law more than 5000 miles of
good metal highways will be constructed
in Kentucky this year which is at least
FIVE times the mileage that has been
constructed in any year since we can
remember.
As the law provides that roads shall
be first built which connect county seats,
the money will not be partially wasted
as under the old county system, where
two or three miles of road beginning no
where and ending no where were built,
but instead great continuous thorough
fares extending in one uninterrupted
line from The Big Sandy to the Mississi-
ppi and from the Ohio to the Tennessee
line will be constructed.
In FIVE years under the operation of
this law Kentucky will have net work
of splendid highways which will place
the old Commonwealth as the foremost
State in the South in the matter of good
roads if not in the entire union.
Looking back over period of nearly
a half century of Kentucky history, we
cannot compare am law passed in that
time which will equal in its results for
material prosperity the State Aid law.
1t is the first great step which has been
taken for new and greater Kentucky.
In this connection we trust we will be
pardoned in the statement that the
editor of the News wrote the first article
in favor OF State Aid which led to the
submission of the amendment to the
State Constitution which permitted
State Aid and that the elimination OF
the fact that we now have State Aid
which has for ten years been the con-
slant aim land purpose of this paper.
For the good of Kentucky we have la
bored increasingly and we hope to live
to see the splendid results in the materi
al prosperity which is sure to come from
State Aid to road building. -Elizabeth
town News