St. Johnsbury Caledonian. (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1920-1920, 1920-05-26
FEDERAL AID
FOR VT. ROADS
EXPLAINED
st. Johnsbury Club Hear
From State Highway
Department

At Il rather lightly attended meet
ing of the Commercial Club in Py-
THAN Hall Thursday evening hhe
officials of the State Highway depart
ment explained what the Federal gov
crrNlcnt was doing in aidin" Vermont
in road building and also touched
upon some of the problems of the
coming season.
At the business meeting these were
admitted to membership: Edward c.
Peterson, |. G. Rolfe. c.. A. Cham
pouy, Robert p. Wakefield, W. u.
Hall, W. J. Swan, J. NJ. Pelham, y.
J. Blake.
The secretary explained the alb
scnce of the promoters of the Roose-
welt Trail from Burlington and Mont
pelier and said they were coming
later in the season. He also suggest
ed The feasibility of l,avin" better
acquaintance tour this summer to the
manufacturing communities in Or
leans county with view of inspect
ing their industries and meeting the
business men of that section.
The committee on mercantile at
fairs reported a resolution they had
adopted against advel Using in pro-
grams, booklets and other schemes,
but endorsing newspapers and peri
odicals that have Il valid circulation,
or are sold for cash. This rcSoIu
ton was unanimously adopted by the
club.
Before the arrival of the speakers,
of the evening, President Brown call
ed on William p. Russell of Kirby,
one WHO has officially had much cx-
pericncc in road building. Mr.. Rus
sell spoke particularly of the prob
lens that confronted the small towns
in Vermont who often had large road
mileage and always had small re-
sources to build and maintain the
roads.
State Highway Commissioner
Bates devoted most of his time to ex-
planning how the Federal government
aided the various states in road
building. He said S1,244.OO2.07 had
been allotted to Vermont in Il five
year program. OF this amount Mr..
Bates said he had allotted S1S3 ,G35.:1
to Caledonia county on the same baS-
is that the Federal government work
ed out the appropriation. Already
two Federal projects rad been com
pleted in this country, a strin from
Hardwick to Craftsbulv costing APP
proximately $4,000, and another
strip on hill in Barnet costing over
$4,000. He said there was S140,0CO
still available for more work in Gale
donia county and he would be glad
to have suggestions from anyone as
to where this money should be laid
out.
He then explained the Townsend
bill, now before the post roads COM
mittec in Washington, which provid-
ed for much larger Federal appro-
priaticn and the ownership of all
trunk lines built by the Federal gov
eminent. The present system was
Federal aid while the new system
provided for roads owned bv the gov
eminent.
Mr.. Bates said the good roads
movement had very close connec-
ton with the shortage of food sup
ly and that the farmer could not get
a decent road to his farm. To main
tain and improve these unsolicited
roads the State had an appropriation
of $4,000 from the automobile fund.
Mr.. Bates said that Vermont had
; 1911 miles of road and of this
amount 4,339 were selected roads. He
then said one of the greatest prob
lens was the bridges, many of which
CONTINUED, from wage onc)
weight of the heavy trucks.
State Engineer Mcintosh said the
the action of the frost in the winter
were the most difficult problems I'M
Vermont road construction. He said
when the Federal government decid-
ed to adopt road program they
came to Vermont for their law and
to Now York for their standardiza-
ton of plan. He then explained
somewhat in detail how particular the
Federal government was to have
plans of all projects very carefully.
stating that one project called for
1913 separate sheets with all the topo-
graphical details appearing on the
plans.
NJ. M. Stockcr of Danvillc, district
road commissioner, was introduced
as the man that came from the town
with the largest road mileage in the
state, it being announced that Dan
vile had 1876 miles of highway. Mr..
Stocker said he had the II Caledonia
county towns in his district and sew
len in Essex county with total mil
cage of 1888. He then gave figures
showing the cost of patrol work, re-
surfacing, construction, and the
amount spent on unsolicited high
ways. He urged that the tourists en-
courage the work of the patrol men
by speaking to them as they passed
by and said that the State was spend
ing $270,000 annually in patrol work.
Following adjournment the visitors
held an informal reception and ans
Wnrp1 pupStinn- I.olofirU IN tho yvorly