The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1919-10-16
WORK OF GOOD
ROADS COMMITTEE

invitation / submit a brief outline of
the plan recently submitted by the
committee of citizens appointed by
the board of county commissioners at
their meeting in April last, and
known generally as the county good
roads committee. / do not think it
would be proper for me to go into de-
tail in advance of the call for election,
which will be shortly published in Of
ficial form by the board. This is, as
referred to above, an outline only of
the plan for a good road system for
Marion county.
The committee referred to, of which
l had the honor to be chairman, is
composed of the following citizens:
Nathan Mayo. ]. X. Christian, G. A.
Vaughn, S. H. Bitch. A. c. Blowers
and T. T. Munroe. which you will see
IS fairly representative of the differ
ent sections of the county. | want to
say at the outset that / never served
with a committee or body of men of
any kind where there was greater
public spirit displayed in the work
sought to be accomplished.
The first thing to be found out was
how many miles of improved road
would be required to meet a reason
able demand for road improvement.
To get an estimate on this subject, at
the request of the board of county
commissioners, Mr.. Barnard, assist
ant engineer of the state highway
commission, and his assistant, went
over the roads throughout the county
with Mr.. Blowers and Mr.. Mayo, TAX
ing about a week for this task. Using
their report as a basis to work on, we
got an approximate idea of the mile
age to be improved and amount of
grading and construction to be done.
The next question to be consider
ed was the capacity of the county to
borrow money on the bond issue. Aft
er due consideration and consulta-
tion with the different authorities, the
committee decided to recommend an
issue of $1.50O.000. This, together
with the aid to be given by the Unit
ed States and the state would bring
the total amount to be expended up to
81 100000. Naturally we found that
there are more miles of road than We
had the wherewithal, and the next
thing necessary was to cut down the
mileage to nit the means. Here is
where the members of the commit
tee showed, as / consider, their best
qualities, public spirit and a proper
| feeling of concession toward one an
other in the awarding of mileage to
different districts. We held through
out, the idea that Marion county as
a whole was to be considered and not
any one district, and don't think that
| if the work could be reviewed by any
one competent, that any different con-
clusion could be arrived at as shown
| by our final report. You will realize
that sparsely settled parts of the
county, if judged by tax returns,
would be entitled to a small mileage
In a case of this kind we had to be
trunk line plan, so that in some in
stances aid was rendered to different
| localities from the county as whole
Another idea that the committee
kept in mind was a system and con.
struction that would be capable of lib.
eral extension and improvement in
the future. In other words. all worE
done now must be done according Il
scientific conclusions so that it viii
not be wasted and can be extended
later on.
1t goes without saying that the u.s.
of large sum of money like this will
necessitate an increase in taxes t.
meet requiremnts of interest ant
sinking fund. but firmly believe tina
, after this year the increase in value
: will have such an effect that in com
i. paratively short time our millage cal
{ be reduced to a normal level.
: The good road agitation began il
/ Marion county in 1897, when the i'm
? proved road known as the Kendric
!. road was built. From that time t