The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1919-02-11
Road Matters Take Precedence

q the Board was urged on by the recon-
: mendations of the jury for there ha.
: never been disposition to neglect.the
1 roads, the only thing that has been in
C the way has been the lack of funds
e necessary fol- the necessary repairs and
e for new work.
County Engineer Logan has made a
suggestion that permanent improve
, lnents be made to cover a number of
years at an estimated cost of $40O, 900.
) A bill is now before the Legislature
that will allow this idea to be carried
. out and the Board showed a DISPOSE
, lion to go ahead and improve at least
I; twenty miles of the county's roads
this year. Having in view the assur-
ance OF authority to proceed in issuing
bonds that course will be taken to
cover the cost of the work, state allot-
lnents to be applied to paying interest
on the bonds and retiring them at
maturity. The idea in mind at pres
ent is to resurface the good macadam
foundations with sheet asphalt.
A delegation appeared from Moores
town with the proposition to extend
the road between that town and Mer-
chantville through Moorestown. 1t
now stops little over mile out of the
latter town. The taxpayers of Chester
township said they would bear the ex-
| nense of all UorL II, avoasS Of a;obtoo,,
feet wide and assume financial respon-
sibility for the future maintenance of
the roadway. This subject was re-
ferred to the road committee.
Another proposition referred to the
road committee was the desire of the
citizens OF Burlington city to have the
county's roadway on High street in
that city improved with sheet asphalt.
Unlike the proposition from Chester
there was not any suggestion that the
city would bear any part of the ex-
pense.
Freeholder Barrett, of Bordentown
township, may always be counted on
to get in more than one word when |
there is road question to be settled. |
He was not quiet on Wednesday but !
was on hand with suggestion that
the county borrow $50, 900 to improve
the road between Bordentown and
Trenton. Brother Barrett made long
speech in favor of his idea and then he
received jolt from solicitor Peacock /
who told him that nothing could be
done legally along that line.
Section No. of the Burlington and
Florence river road was given consider
alton by having directions issued to
county engineer Logan to advertise for
bids looking towards the improvement
OF the road and the solicitor was in
structed to institute condemnation
proceedings wherever it is necessary to
give clear path for the improve
ments
A new opinion took the breath of
several members when request was
made by the township committee of
Lumberton to have ratings put up
along dangerous portions of roads in
that township. Solicitor Peacock said
the county cannot spend money on
township roads. This brought Mr..
Wilkins to his feet with the remark
that the county had been doing that
very thing for number of years. The
request was declared out of order after
Mr.. Peacock said that because the
practice had been the custom that did
not make it legal.
The road committee was directed to
look into the request of North Han
over township to take over the road !,
from Cookstown to Jacobstown. In I,
1914 the township improved the road
with the understanding that the
county would pay portion of the
expense and assume control. The {
county's burden in this transaction :
to $2.3S.
When the committee appointed to
revise the rules reported some snags
were struck. One change was that the
public roads be placed in the hands of
the road committee and the other was
that not stroke Of work be done
unless authorized by the road commit
tee. These questions created much $
Mr.. Smith, of the road {
favored the propositions
because he did not think it was proper |
for the members to act as their own =
foremen, approve their own bills and
then hand them to the road committee
for further approval when the latter
did not know anything about the work
that had been done
Mr.. Barrett was also heard on this
question. He had been subjected to
criticism by the public aud the courts
because OF condition of roads under his
supervision and he did not think it the
fair thing to have the responsibility of
keeping roads in repair and then not
have any authority to act on the mat.
ter. In connection with this subject
Mr. Barrett commented on the patrol
system and said he would heartily 8
favor its adoption. The two sugges-
tons made by the committee on rules J
were voted down.
Another matter that took up much
time in discussion was the price to be
paid for teams employed on road work, +
but the matter was laid over until the
next meeting. !
Solicitor Peacock offered a report of Z
the work done by him since he took. {
Office. He had thoroughly Investigated
several cases of widows pensions and 2
had found that money was being ex.
pended unnecessarily. BY having {
these revoked much money had been
saved. Epileptlcs had been main
tanned by the state where 1.-THE parents
were able to bear the expense. This L,
had been stopped. He was directed to
proceed against the bondsmen of Pat
rick A. Hennessey against whom a
verdict OF $1,000 had been secured
against the contractor in default of
living up 60 his agreement in building
bridge at Burlington.
All bids received in January for fur
nishing broken stone for road repairs
this year were rejected on recommen-
dation of the road committee and it
was directed that new bids be requested
for the April meeting
The following bridge work was auth