The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1918-01-11

Secretary's commission 49,. 1913. 90
Band concerts .......... 100. 90
Road signs and trail mark
ing 64.13
Office rent ................ $500
Postage and printing $3.50. &C.. 40
Strip road maps ........... $3.50
Entertainment .......... 9.4S
Expense, delegate to state
association ........... $50
Painting signs, club head
quarters ................ 200
$1,314 OF
Cash on hand ........... 1,400. II
Total 49,. ............. $2,714 ~
The Club Membership.
1.-THE membership of the club the
past year reached 269, as compared
with 267 the previous year, when it
was swelled by the efforts of dozen
more or less active committees of
three. AS in the case of some church
REVEALS, / have found that certain
percentage of members rounded up
by committees do not stick.
The past year the secretary did
the membership work practically
alone.
The Duffey loan, mentioned above,
ii will be remembered, was made to
enable the contractor to complete his
grading contract on the Garden City
road at a time when the county did
not have funds available to pay him
promptly. The loan was repaid to
the club as soon as the incoming
taxes replenished the county road
and bridge fund.
"As was the case the previous year,
the good roads committees of the Au-
tomobile and Commercial clubs
worked in unison and the cost of the
road work and road marking was
equally divided between the two
clubs, insofar as the work was init
ated or. passed upon by those COM
rflittees. This work included helping
to gravel the st. Clair, Kasota and
Oshawa roads and the Mitchell hill.
grading and crawling the Lake
Washington road for a distance of
two miles near the lake, and a very
little other work. Besides this, some
work on the Lake Washington and
Lake Madison roads, previously done,
was paid for by this club.
by roads, money was expended as
follows: Lake Washington road,
1925; Oshawa road, 5000; ST. Clair
road 500: Mitchell hill, 500; Kaso-
to road, $50; Lake Madison road, $25;
total, $500. 1t was a fairly dry sea-
son and therefore the roads needed
less repair work than usual. The
club now has goodly balance in the
treasury and will be able to assist
whenever storms do their periodical
damage to roads and culverts, be-
sides keeping up it's usual work.
~ Good Roads Committee.
1.-THE good roads committee was
allotted $1,000 to spend the past year,
but found it necessary to use only
1884 of it for road work and $14. Is
for road signs and trail marking. But
Ia addition to these sums, the board
OF governors expended ST. for pay
ing for road work previously done
and $50 toward the cost of marking
the Blue and White trail, which ex-
tends from Sioux City to Minneapo-
lis, a most important highway for
this city. The roads leading into the
city are now pretty well signed I'D
for distance of ten to fifteen miles
out from Mankato, and all trails pass
ing through the city are well marked.
Present signs will have to be re-
painted occasionally, after deing
used as targets by thoughtless marks
men. new signs put up further out,
and the trail markings freshened up
when necessary. The value of sign
boards and trail markings are too
we'll known to all of you to need re-
iteration. Except for the Blue and
White trail, l have done this work
myself out as far as GAINESVILLE, Ma
pleton, New Ulm, etc., assisted with
the signs by local sign painter, and
have donated my time and the use
o. my car in putting up signs and
sign posts, painting trails, logging
roads, etc.
tS"The executive boards of the Au-
tgnaobile and Commercial clubs las,
winter authorized me to prepare
strip road maps to cover ten roads
otrt OF the city, and authorized an ex-
penditure of 500 for the purpose. ]
Was able to get out eleven maps in
much. greater numbers than was ex-
pected, at cost of S121, including
envelopes, postage, etc., and from adj
s,ertisements on the backs secured
$50, 80 that the net cost of the two
clubs was only $31. We have the
plates and small supply of maps
and envelopes on hand. The maps
have proved SO valuable to tourists
and such an excellent advertisement
to the city and our lake resorts that
/ would recommend printing anoth-
ef edition of them, and also maps OF
FIVE more routes for which there was
a demand last year that we could not
fill / have had several applications
for advertising space on the back, sc
the expense to the two clubs ought
to be small. A greater effort than
ever before is to be made the coming
year to bring summer tourist trade
to this state, and we should try, to
get our share of it; but aside from
this, the. maps have proved exceed
ingfy helpful to our own members
and are one of the valuable premi-
upis that go with membership.
Board Of Governors.
The board of governors, last win
ter, decided to establish headquart-
ers for the club by paying portion
of the rent of the Commercial club