Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1919-06-20
FARMERS Held PICNIC STATE ROAD CHANGED


Hard -surfacing of the state road be-
tween Little Falls and theBenton coun-
ty line, which it had been hoped would.
be begun this. summer, will be indefn-
itely delayed as a result Of the action
of the state high way commissioner in
changing the route Of State Road No. 2
from the Jefferson Highway and run
ming it parallel with the Northern Pa
cifc right-of-way.! =
Announcement of the change was
county commissioners at the court house
Wednesday afternoon. G. A. Forbes,
travelling engineer for the highway com
mission, and Mr.. Kipp, chief engineer,
were at the meeting and told the board
Of the change that had been made.
As re-rOuted, State Road No. 2 will
connect with First street southeast, this
city, thence running south parallel with
the railroad tracks, on the east side Of
same, to Royalton.. The road is routed
directly through Royalton instead Of
crossing the Platte river and continues
along the east side Of the tracks as far
as Sauk Rapids, connecting with the old
road at the Benton county line.
The reason given by the commission
for the change is to eliminate railroad
crossings. The new route would have
but one crossing over the spur from
Gregory to the East side in this city
and would pass under the 500 railroad
with viaduct. The commission points
out that the route is also in this way
shortened two miles, which will save
$55, 900 on the cost Of hard-surfacing.
To change this road,lfhe county board
figures, will represent an outlay over
and above the saving in the shortening
of the route of more than $4,000. An
entire new road would have to be built
between this city and Royalton, as
there is at present no road along the
east side Of the railroad right-of-way.
Most Of the land along the tracks as
far as Royalton is low meadow land,
which is another bad feature. To open
up road there would cost at least $780,.
900, it is estimated and then to secure
the right-of-way from the railway COM
pany would perhaps cost another $780,
900. Consequently the county board,
having no such sum to expend at pres
ent for this work, decided to do moth
! ing more regarding the hard-suffacing
for the present, but leave the matter
entirely up to the state Highway COM
mission to secure the right-ofway and
open up the new road.
Bids were received at this meeting
for the graveling of State Road No. 3,
from this city to Pierz, a distance Of
l1.9 miles. Only one bid was received,
from Peter Nelson Of Minneapolis, for
$42,3O1.O2. AS this bid exceeded the
eng gineer's estimate by $4,000 the
board decided to do the work by day
labor. They will purchase two small
tractors and stone crusher and other
necessary equipment and will proceed
with the work as soon as possible.
City Attorney Vernon submitted the
complete designation of state roads
through Little Falls and same were of.
fcially designated by the board, In
the previous designation the route Of
the state road to Brainerd had been left
out owing to the fact that some wanted
it to go up First street, but the coun-
Gil decided to route it over Fourth
street to Eighth avenue, Eighth avenue
to Fifth street and thence to the city
limits.