The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1917-06-22
BOND ISSUE THE ONE
PROP SOLUTION
County Court Finally Decides to Enter
Upon Permanent Good Road Work
and Orders Necessary Equipment

The County Court Judges on Tues
day afternoon held a called meeting
for the purpose of conefrring witt
good road experts, as we'll as a mum
Der of representative citizens, in re
gard to making purchases of som,
expensive machinery, which they con
sidered necessary if the work Of per
manent good roads was to be really
begun in st. Francois county. Be
sides fair representation of citi
zens, there was also present E. E. Nc
Kee, President and General Manager
of the Pleasant Valley Development
Co., at Iron Mountain, which com.
pany owns 10000 acres in that vicin.
ity, large part of which land is ir
this county. There was also present
Mr.. Conway, who is manager of the
Garford Motor Truck Co., in st
Louis, and who is also abundantly in.
formed in the detail work of good
roads building.
Presiding Judge Garrett called the
meeting to order and Immediately
called upon Mr.. Mckee to state what
he knew of good roads work, as well
as what he had to offer. To such in
vitation Mr.. Mckee promptly and
most interestingly responded. His
talk developed the fact that he knew
a great deal about good roads work.
In fact he was for many years con-
tractor for good roads work. But he
is now out of that work, and at pres
ont is developing and improving the
property of the Pleasant Valley De-
velopment Co., of which he is prac-
tically the whole thing, owning all
but two shares in that organization.
AS renewed mining operations are
soon to begin at Iron Mountain, it is
essential that the huge dump of chat
that has been there since mining op-
erations were abandoned there years
ago, it is imperative that the chat
dump be removed. AS several parties
had been trying to buy this dump of
iron chat, his business at the meeting
was to offer to st. Francois county
three-fourths of that dump for 25I
cents a square. He was determined
to hold one-fourth of the chat dump
for road improvement on his own
He stated that he had al
ready. been offered so cents a square
for that chat, but he felt that if it
was used lon the roads of this county
It would be of much greater value to
him, in improving his large land
holdings.
He said this chat material was the |
inest road dressing he had ever found
n all his road experience. His ans
yer to any who might doubt his as
'ertion was for them to come to Iron
Mountain and see the roads there,
which are dressed with this material, |
md which have had hardly any re-
,airs on them in the last twenty or
twenty-five years. He said that if |
oads, with durable foundation, were
inished with this chat, they would
est practically forever, with but lit
lie care, as that material packed until
t is practically hard as iron itself.
While he did not propose to beg the
ounty to buy, he would be very glad
it would decide to take the chat
lump, and he would be willing to sign
contract to furnish this county with
III the chat that may hereafter come
rom the renewed workings of the
ron mines. +
A number of citizens expressed their
Jews on the very exceptional quality
# this iron chat for road surfacing;
hat it required no oil to cause it to
'ack; that it gave off absolutely no
ust; that the greater the amount of !
ravel over it the smoother and better
he surface became. The greatest pro-
osition in connection with its use on
he roads in this county was its trans
ortation. That the Court had already
1ade some investigation into the
natter was here made manifest, by
he fact that machine man was on
and to solve the transportation prob
I'M. He was Mr.. Conway, manager
the Garford Motor Truck Co., of
t. Louis. According to his figures,
he road builder made by his company, I
the solution to the trans
problem, and at the same =,
me spread the chat over the entire
oadway. By keeping this great en-
inc moving throughout two 10-hour
lifts it would haul this chat from
ON Mountain and spread it over the
Dads in this county in quantities of !
ot less than eighty tons a day. !
The last speaker was Benj II. i