Weekly journal-miner., 1920-03-10
(From Fridays Daily)

chism between the hithcr and yor
 sides of the mountain" is operating
 to delay the filing of the report oi
 the highway commission is the de
 claration of a member of that body
 to the "Journal-Mincr" yesterday.
 H. w. Lewis of Jerome and R. w.
 Wingfeld of Camp Verde, the yor
 side members, have failed thus far
 to respond to the invitation to sign
 the report so that it can be placed before the board of supervisors and
 the Yavapai County Chamber ,oi Commerce, which inaugurated the work, preparatory to being submit ted to the people for the election oi a bond issue.
 Provision that approximately $500,- GOO is to be spent on the Verde side and about $l,000,000 on all the rest of the county roads, is made in the report, but there is said to be fur ther provision that if one road can be completed for less than the esti- mated or apportioned amount, the hold-over money is to revert to the general road improvement fund ere ated by the bond issue.
 The Verde valley representatives on the board are accused of lowing up their backs over this proposition, and of wanting it changed, so that if part of the money is left, it must be spent in thsir own district. The project on the Verde side includes a little less than quarter of a million for a road to the Gila county line. That this money may never be spent is the contention of a prominent state official, who characterized the Fossil Creek road idea yesterday as a mild steal" Gila county, he as serted, is not enough interested in the proposition to send it's delegates to confer with the local highway board as to the proposition of con- tinuing the proposed route through Gila county to Globe Yavapai can- not afford to build a blind alley road to the Gila line and let the matter rest there; hence the $240,000 pro vided for that part of the work may never be spent. If Lewis and Wing field have their way, according to the commissioner, this fund will only be expendable on the Verde side, where it is now projected to spend $90,0O0I for a few miles of road connecting Jerome, Clarkdale and Verde. Good roads already cover that section, he said.
 "Of course the copper companies pay the big bulk of taxes and they have a right to expect a large sum of money to be spent on roads in districts where they are located" he continued. But these roads, as I them, are supposed to be for the purpose of facilitating inter communication between people in all | parts of the county, and secondly to provide good roads by which outside people can cross the county. If we wanted to be selfish, we could spend | all the money on few roads right l close around the cities, and let the rest of the county whistle while they paid their share of the bills"
 Three Working Members
 Active work on the commission has been done by but three of the Chairman Chester Dicker- son of Ash Fork and Charlie Hooker and Barney Smith of Prescott were the only members of the board to move a foot out of their home towns 10 follow the engineering party un- Ter H. L. Fishcl over the proposed -outcs. At times, the three went old and wet keeping up with the and more than once their work took them many miles horse ,ack in places where there were no roads.
 The contributions of Lewis and according to the commits toner, consisted in attending d few fice conferences in the comfortable ew courthouse and then of laying ack in the harness over the signing f the report
 At one time or another" quoth he commissioner, "every one of us as felt like resigning. Now, howl