The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1917-09-16
Expect Every County to Send
Delegates to Road Meeting

Tallahassee, Sept 15.-Hon. Ed.
Scott, of Arcadia, chairman of the
State Road Department of Florida,
has requested that the widest publici-
ty possible be given the announce
ment of the annual meeting of the
department to be held at the State
Capital Wednesday, October 10th,
1917. He states that the meeting
will be of the utmost Importance to
every county in the State and that
ample opportunity will be given for
be heard.
This will be the second annual
meeting of the Department and will
be the first meeting to be held in Tai
lahassee since the adjournment of the
Legislature of 1917. at which session
the powers and duties of the State
Road Department were greatly en-
larged and provision made for funds
to meet the federal aid apportion-
ments for the years 1917 and 1918.
The State Road Department was
created by an Act of the Legislature
of 1915 and was organized October
9Th, of that year. Owing to the con-
stitutional validity of the act Great
ing the department being questioned,
involving litigation which was not de-
cided until April 1916, the Depart
ment was not able to go ahead with
even the limited authority given it I'M
til more than six months of the first
year of its existence had elapsed. Dur
ing the month of May, 1916, a State
and since that time an immense
amount of work has been done in the
way of collecting data concerning the
roads of the State, making maps OF
the various counties, furnishing en-
gineering advice and assistance to
numerous counties and preparing for
the real work of road building, which
is to begin as soon as the funds pro-
vided by the 1917 Legislature are
available.
The members of the State Road
Department are as follows:
Chairman. Ed. Scott, of Arcadia,
representing the First Congressional
District.
Secretary, J. D. Smith, of Mariana
representing the Third Congressional
District.
Captain w. J. Hillman, of Live
Oak, representing the Second Con-
gressional District.
ing the Fourth Congressional District.
F. o. Miller, of Jacksonville, repre-
senting the State at large.
The State Road Commissioner is
VIM. F. Cooke, who has headquarters
in Tallahassee and is the chief engi
neer and executive officer of the De-
partment.
j. P. Clarkson, formerly of Jack
sonville, is chief clerk of the Depart
ment and assistant to the secretary.
Commissioner Cooke has divided
the State into two divisions-north
ern and southern-and each division
is in charge of an assistant engineer
who reports daily direct to the Com
missioner.
The northern division, with head
quarters at Tallahassee, is in charge
of Gail L. Barnard, formerly of Jack
sonville, assistant engineer, who has
made quite number of surveys and
prepared estimates for road construc-
ton for various counties in his divis-
ION and also several in other parts of
the State.
The southern division, with head
quarters at Gainesville, is in charge
of G, K. Armes, formerly of DeFuniak
Springs, as assistant engineer. Mr..
Armes has also made quite a number
of surveys for road construction and
for bridges in his district and has pre-
pared estimates for County Commits
sioners requesting the same in various
counties.
The Department has also installed
a laboratory for testing road building
material. This is located at Gaines
vile in connection with the College of
Engineering of the University of
Florida. The laboratory is in charge
of w. H. Reeves, acting testing en-
gineer, who is kept constantly busy
testing samples of road BUILDING ma
terial from various parts of the State.