Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1917-01-29
A WISE ROAD SUGGESTION.

The state highway commission has
made a suggestion i'll its report which,
if needed by boards of supervisors, will
give us some hard roads regardless of
the Johnston crowd in the Legislature
and without bonds or increased taxes.
Because of present abnormally high
cost of materials it is suggested that
county boards go slow on new bridges
for year until the war is over and
prices come down. 1t should be needed.
Steel for re-enforcing has nearly dou-
bled. Cement is up and so is labor All
bridges let this year will cost war
prices. II would be good time TO
defer building
But what will we do with the bridge
money, some one asks, the levies are
made and the taxes are coming in?
II county boards would keep bridge
and culVert expenses within their
bridge funds for one year the money
available for county road work would
De almost doubled. Few people realize
that many counties use half their auto
mobile money for steel cuiverts while
many others use from fourth to one
third Of all their county road tax for
filing around new bridges. Iowa is
ahead of many states in its bridge
work but it is behind almost all of the
states in road surfacing.
The average for all the states is liz
per cent Of all roads surfaced with
gravel or something better while Iowa
has only ! per cent surfaced. Forty
three states have a larger per cent Of
their roads surfaced than we do in
Iowa while Nebraska. South Dakota,
Oklahoma and Nevada are the only
four states worse off then we are m
Iowa. Fifty eight counties in Iowa do
not nave d single mile % COUNTY read
surfaced. Indiana spends each yeaS
about the same amount of money on
It's roads and bridges and has $1,000
miles surfaced to 1000 for Iowa. II
our county boards would concentrate
their funds on graveling for year or
two we would get more immediate ser
vice for our money than We can get by
spending S4,000,000 out OF one year.
taxes for concrete bridges which are
to serve other taxpayers 100 years from
now.
| II is true that thirty three counties
do not have local gravel available but
| sixty-six do have their own road sur
| facing material and twenty-one Of
! these have enough for other counties.
So We need not lack material anywhere.
| There are. however, twenty eigh:
| counties which have not yet put sin
gle mile Of their county roads to per-
| manent grade after three years Of ef-
fort under the present law and less
than third OF the counties have put
ts per cent of their county road mileage
to permanent grade in three years 20
there is plenty TO be done with road
money which heretofore has been go
Ing : So, :..-.a.s sl.s s.s az e::I-srts-
/ II our people in Iowa could realize
that it has been three years since oul
county boards started to work on, 1.
per cent Of our roads to improve then
first as county road system and tina
IN these three years only 7s5 miles gu
of 1876 mad actually been graded
ready for surfac!ng while ia miles o
surfacing is all that has been don'
on those 1876 miles Of main trayeles
roaws we might begin to wake up Il
this state. Iowa has only goo mile
OF road surfaced Of all. kinds, count,
iroads and otherwise. illinois has II,