The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1919-10-17
Editor Ocala aBnner:

Editor Ocala aBnner:
In response TO your invitation
submit brief outline of the plan re-
Gently submitted by the committee
OF citizens appointed by the board OF
county commissioners at their meet
ing in April last, and known general
ly as the county good roads commit
tee. / do not think it would be prop.
er for me 20 go into detail in advance
Of The cali for election which will
; be shortly published in official form
{ by tne board This Is. as referred
. 70 above, an outline only of the plan
for good read system for Marion
county
! The committee referred 10, Of
which / had the honor. to be chair
man. is composed Of the following
citizens: Nathan Mayo, ]. X. Chris
tian. c. A Vaughn, :. H. Bitch. A.
/ G. Blowers and 7. 7. Munroe. which
you Will see is fairly representative
Of The different sections Of the coun-
y. want 70 say at the outset that
! never served with committee OF
body Of men Of any kind where there
vas greater public spirit displayed in
The work sought 10 be accomplished
The first lhing 10 be found out was
how many niles OF improved road
would be required 10 meet a rea-
sonable demand for road improve
nent. To get an estimate on this
subject. al the request OF the board
Of county commissioners, Mr.. Barn
ard, assistant engineer OF the state
highway committee, and his assis-
tant, went over the roads throughout
( the county with Mr.. Blowers and Mr.
Mayo. taking about a week for the
TASK Using their report as a basis
to work on. ne got an approximate
.dea Of the mileage 10 be improved
and amoan- Of grading and construc
+fcr 20 be done.
The aeE1 question 70 ne consideced
vas he capacity Of the county 70
borrow 40oney On The oond issue,
A<-e~ due consideration and consul
lation w5-1 he different authorities.
the committee decided II rec0mmend
lin issue of $1.5o0.o00. This. together
Nt-A ne a5d - ae given bv ten Uni
Ted States and the state would bring
the tatol amount 10 he expended up
% $3.50 000 Naturally. we found
that there are more miles of road
than We had the wherewithal. and the
next thing necessary was TO cut down
me mileage 10 II the means. Here IS
where the members OF the committee
showed. as~l consider. their best
qualities public spirit and proper
feeling of concession toward one an
other il me awarding Of mileage to
different districts. We held through
cut. the idea that Marion county as
whole was 10 be considered and
not any one district, andI don't think
tha, if The work could De reviewed
by anyone competent, that any differ
ent conclusion could be come 10 as
shown by our final report. You viii
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 tC
liberal IL order 10 carry out ouy
tTunkllne plans. SO that in some in
stances aid was rendered 10 different
localities from the county as a whole
another idea that the committee
kept in mind was a system and CON
sctruction that would be capable OF
liberal extension and improvement in
the future In other words, al
work done now must be done accord
ing 10 scientific calculations 50 that
il will not be wasted and can be ex-
tended later on.
II goes without saying that the use
Of large sum Of money like this
viii necessitate an increase in taxes
to meet requirements of interest and
sinking fund, but I firmly believe
THAT after this year the increase il