The Medina sentinel. [volume] (Medina, Ohio) 1888-1961, 1920-01-16
MAY Be Forced TO
ABANDON FULL ROAD
BUILDING PROGRAM
Increased Costs of Material
which Have Become Effective
In Past Six Weeks May Cause
Retrenchment by Officials.
EVERY MILE OF ROAD
WILL COST $2SOO MORE

or three weeks ago the county had
plans under way for the building of
about "a miles of road for the year
1920. While it was not thought posi-
BILE, at the time the article was writ
ten, to finish all the work laid out,
it was thought that greater portion
Of it could be completed before the
muddy season next winter. Since
this time, however, new angle has
developed in the road building busi-
ness.
County officials and especially the
county engineer now question the
advisability of building any roads
this year that are not absolutely
necessary, and their reason or rea-
sons for contining operations to this
score are good and admit of no argu-
ment according to the Sentinel's
view. Good roads are an absolute
necessity and every dollar spent for
GOOD roads is a dollar we'll invest
ed, and the but tits a stumbling block
as regards this questionable county
can well afford to get along for
another year or so without all the
improvements planned for if these
improvements at this time are to
cost an excessive amount And, ac-
cording to figures offered, the build
ing Of roads in the county this year
will be excessively high. To i'm
prove roads which are not an abso-
lutte necessity with the present high
costs would, in the opinion Of many,
be a waste of the taxpayers money.
To support this contention the fol-
lowing figures will be interesting:
Cement, at present prices, costs rs
cents barrel more than at any time
last year, or during the war for that
matter. The present price is STAT a
barrel.
Stag or stone is 80 cents a ton
higher than last year, the present
price being quoted at from $1.35 to
$1AU a ton. - r-.-.5. s.-
The price of cement is abnormally
high. Costs in Stag and stone have
jumped in the past few years from
| as low as IS cents ton.
To the average taxpayer raise of
rs cents on barrel of cement is
small, while the raise of 80 cents on
a ton of Stag or 20 cents on a ton of
sand seems so small as to hardly be
noticeable. But the opposite is the
truth.
A ton Of sand OF a ton of Stag is
but yard. Reduced. to yards OF
rather square yards, the increase of
80 cents barrel in cement alone will
make difference Of 12h cents per
square yard on concrete. To this
12h cent increase must be added the
advance in cost per ton Or yard of
sand and Stag. To this amount must
be added profit approximately 25%.
By means of pencil and paper it
will readily be seen that there ap-
parently small increases in material
have increased the cost of concrete
about 30 cents per square yard. In
order"to confine the raise to 80 cents
labor, which has increased slightly
in the past year, must be figured at
the prices paid last summer.
Thus it will be seen that to build
the ordinary 16-foot concrete pave
ment which is common over the
county the material increases in the
past six weeks will boost the price of
road building approximately $4,000
per mile. And to cap the climax con-
tractors are being advised that they
will not be protected on prices quot
ed them for a longer period than ten
days, which fact alone, practically
prohibits a contractor from SUBMIT
ing bids on any work of this nature.
Men who know disagree somewhat
on how long these high prices will
continue, but are unanimously of the
opinion that they will probably never
be higher. While certain pieces of
road are absolutely necessary and
will be built in spite of the prices,
yet the average taxpayer will opine
that many of the strips Of road which
the 1920 road building program
called for can best be postponed, at
least another year, with chance
that some of the excessive costs will
have ahated