Mexico weekly ledger., 1919-07-03
Estate ROAD BOOM
IS ON GOOD

jefferson City, Mo-, June 23.- Never
before in the history of the state has
there been such wide interest in road
building as has been developed since
Hawcs Road Law giving to each coun-
ty $1,000 per mile for bridging,
grading and surveying the roads that
arc to receive state and federal aids.
At first it was maintained in many
quarters that the amendment to the old
Road Law would result in building a
lot of dirt roads and squandering a
lot of state and federal money but
% the great satisfaction OF the state
highgway department and Governor
Gardner, who had taken a deep per-
sonal interest in road building in this
state, this has proven not to be a
fact, and instead there has been
aroused in counties where roads have
been backward in many respects a
deep interest in building real hard
surfaced roads.
Want Hard Roads or None.
Of the forty or fifty delegations that
have been before the board since the
new law went into effect all of them
| have either come forward with pledges
for hard surface roads or have gone
| home, after talking with the board,
and interested themselves in promot-
ing bond issues for hard surface con-
| struction. No section of the state is
showing a disposition to want to
merely grade and bridge the roads
with the state money allowed. Macon,
| Worth and Howell counties are soon
to vote on a y million dollar bond is
sue in each, and Livingston County on
a / million dollar bond issue. Pettis
! County has just voted a bond issue of
= million dollars.
Townships in Polk, Dade and Nod
away counties have voted for hard
surface roads. Petitions are being
circulated in Clinton, Andrew, Holt
and st. Francois counties for a million
dollar bond issue, and Marion and
Monroe counties are talking for a 1H2
! million dollar issue. Other counties in
their haste to get to work on building
good roads are pledging money along
the proposed state routes for rock
roads and roads of other hard sur
face character to cost from $4,000 to
$40, 900 per mile. In the northern part
of the state where there have been
mud roads for a long time, there be-
ing no rock handy, there is the great
est enthusiasm for real hard surface
roads.
Monroe County Leads Way.
The board has approved a rock road
from Harrisonville to Bolton, a dis
lance of eighteen miles, at a cost of
5000 a mile, and it has allowed the
bridging and grading of a 12-mile
stretch of road between Gallatin and
Jamesport at a cost of 5000 900. This
stretch of road has been under water
in rainy seasons, and in order to make
it passable it is necessary to raise
this road above the water mark. In
no county in the state is there a
keener interest for the building of
hard surface roads than in Monroe
County. The board has established
! two state roads in that county. No.
/ starts at the Rails County line west
CT Perry and runs to Paris, thence
northeast to the Monroe-Randolph
County line; and the No. 2 road run
from Paris south to the Audrain
County line on the Paris-Mexico Road.
At the last meeting of the board a
delegation from Hickory County ap-
peared in behalf of a road from the
Benton County line to Cross Timbers
and Preston, and thence on to the Dali
! las County line and from Preston by
way of Hermitage and Wheatlands to
Weaubleau and then on south to the
Polk County line. These roads are to
be hard surfaced and special road dis
tricts are being rapidly organized a.
long them for the purpose of raising
! the necessary funds.