The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1918-11-21
ROAD CONDITIONS
CLEARLY EXPLAINED
Concluded from LIST page)

But when the Fort Myers BOARD
lof, Trade sent a delegation here
proposing d shorter and better
route via New Prospect, ! favored
that route and offered to meet
Lee county at the county line with
las good a road as they would
build to that line. But when it
became apparent that this shorter
lime, for the present, was imprac-
ltical. ] was willing to go on with
the original Olga bridge route.
but Lee county, led by Commits
lsioner Towles Of Fort Myers Dis
|trict, then demanded that I open
|up d second road through the dis
|trict But the funds then avail
liable were! insufficient to make
ONE good road across my dis
|trict to accommodate traffic from
Fort Myers north, and | refused
To divide the road funds and make
TWO SAND STREAKS and pre-
tend to cab them roads. Morrow
er, the funds which were then at
my disposal were warrants on
Charlotte Harbor Special Road
and Bridge District, which dis
trict extended across Charlotte
Harbor to the Gulf Of Mexico, and
it would have been manifestly I'M
just to- use that fund to build a
road designed to divert travel
from that bridge, This action on
my part may have been honestly
misunderstood by some persons,
and | am Satisfied that it has been
maliciously misrepresented by
others, but Commissioner Staley,
who now represents the Fort Ny
ers district and who has looked
up The facts in the case, assures
me that, in his opinion, | was full
ly justified in my action in this
matter.
Upon my refusal to open the
two roads across my district as de-
manded by Commissioner Towles,
the State Road Department
pretended to locate and designate
the so-called acknowledgements
Fort Myers road as STATE
ROAD NO. 2. This action car
ried with it the obligation of that
Department to construct and
maintain six miles of the Fort Ny
ers and Punta Gorda road be-
tween the 25th mile post and the
Lee county line, out of State and
Federal Funds, and it relieved
district number three, the Punta
Gorda district, Of that response
bility.
In CONCLUSION, it is the intention
OF the Commissioner of District
No. 3 of DeSoto county, and |
think ne will be backed by public
sentiment of Punta Gorda, to
keep the road from this town to
State Road No. 2 in as good con-
dltlon as available funds will per-
NIT, thus giving Fort Myers at
least one outlet north, and hope
that even after State Road No. 2
IS completed by the department
from State and Federal funds.
thus giving Fort Myers another
outlet to the north, that much of
the traffic of Lee county to the
north and northwest, especially
that going to Tampa, will find it
TO be to its advantage to come by
way OF Punta Gorda. We shall
not be able to make this road
equal to the smooth roads the Ed
ltor OF the Eagle found in the
OLD SETTLED communities A.
round Tampa, or as good as the
State Road Department, with it's
command of State and Federal
funds, can make State Road No Q
but 1t will not be because eve do
not care a continental whether we
have any kind of road to Fort
Myers" but just simply because
we haven't the money to build
that class of roads through this
long stretch of unsettled territory.
Nv. NJ. WRITTEN, Commits
sioner Dist. 3, DeSoto Co.