The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1915-06-17

the State College, who is now county
engineer Of Hardin county, Iowa. Mr..
Dunn's reply contains SO much good
information relat'v We to road work and
the duties Of the county engineer that
that Register prints it in full below:
Your letter of the 7th is at hand and
l believe hat the best way for me to
answer your questions both asked and
implied is to give you first the budgets
l made up this spring and to which
am trying to work, and our methods
Of doing road and bridge work.
Money for road and bridge purposes
in this county and in fact throughout
the whole state Is obtained by a direct
tax upon all property. For bridge pur-
poses we have this year $4,000. For
roads $4,000. The statutes compel
the county to construct all the bridges
and culverts within the county while
the road money can only be expended
dpoh what II hlIoWu do luc SOuuly
Road System. To explain the County
Road system comprises about ITS
miles of road which connect all of the
cities and towns within the county as
well as the main roads leading into
the adjoining counties. This system
it is safe to say handles more than
1870 of the entire traffic within the
county. In addition to the above
funds each township has available for
road purposes about $4,000 each year.
This money can only be expended upon
the roads in each individual town
ship, outside of the county roads.
Budget for bridge construction and
maintenance:
Permanent ~culverts 2 ft.-16 # $3.50 0
Bridges by contract, s from
from los ft.-68 #. ......... $4,000
Lumber repair to wood bridges 4.500
Labor, repair to wood bridges. 1000
Corrugated pipe .............. 1000
Miscellaneous culvert repair e. 900
reserve 2,5OO
Budget for roads:
1914 deficit. $500
Permanent grading of 10 miles. II, 500
Tractor grading estimated so
miles 4,5OO
Dragging Co. roads IT'S miles. $500
Thing roads l.20O
Miscellaneous repair to ma
chinery, etc. $500
You will notice in the budget for
bridges that | have set aside $4,000
for the construction of permanent cul-
verts. This type of construction is
done by what we term the day labor
gangs which gangs are directly in
charge Of the County Highway En-
gineer. This year we expect to build
at least $50 and they will be built at
This will be a remarkably low price
and at least more than 20% below
what it would cost to construct them
by contract. OF course when you get
into the larger type Of construction 1t
would not pay for a county to equip
themselves to handle it and therefor
| believe it to be good policy to pay
for the chances taken in construction,
wear and tear on machinery and a fair
profit. But | must say thai on this
one item alone | believe that South
Dakota is losing enough each year to
more than pay qualified men to look
after both the letting Of the contracts
for this work as well as the construc-
ton.
With B%rookings situated as it is on
three transcontinental routes it would
be easy for the county authorities to
begin a course of systematic road con
struction. And should they ever de-
eide to do this they can spend their
money to no better advantage than to
buy outright an oil tractor and a
couple of good graders. This outfit
will cost in the neighborhood of $4,000
and it will cost another $4,000 to run
the outfit for a season but they should
build with this machinery at least so
miles of road which would be the
pride and delight Of every owner of a
piece of adjoining property.
Let me say right here that l am not
in favor of any expenditure which
does not contemplate a permanent i'm
provement and roads built in the
above manner should be built not less
than 80 feet from ditch to ditch. Again
don't think that the above built road
will stand the severe weather condi-
tons of South Dakota, for nothing but
a surface of some well compacted road
material such as gravel or macadam