Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1920-03-10

liz sui Wy upOIia WHICH ILLS WOIh
is based specifies that $500 cubic
yards of earth, much of it solid rock,
must be removed from the cut at the
top OF the hill and carried down to
make the fill at the bottom. Five
thousand nine hundred cubic yards of
earth would fill Madison street from
curb to curb to a height of 10 feet
from the Union State Bank to the
Congregational church The county
will pay its road workers $500 a day|
this year and the city will not get
them for any less. Compute if vou
can the cost of moving this pile Of
dirt one to one and a half blocks
why the little concrete bridge ct the
foot OF the hill on this road cost the
city approximately $500 in 1915! Do
you imagine for one moment that this
huge pile OF earth can be moved, the
oaIance OF the road properly graded,
a strip OF concrete II feet wide, 1920
feet long and s inches thick laid and
800 or 600 feet of guard rail erected
Tor 91a times what that little bridge
cost live years ago?
Inc condition of Beetown Road
from the Parke dudley place to the
CITY limits is a disgrace to the clty
II caffles ali the through tratnc from
bloomington, Patch Grove, Cassyille
BeetoWn-ln short from the entire
western and southwestern portion of
tue county-more traffic passes over
1t III a week than the cemetery road
carries Ill two years. And vet the
TACT that the same budget which car
res an appropriation OF 5000 for
the cemetery road aloe provides on
~ %o,OUO Tor ali other street i'm
proVements would seem to Indicate
mat this road will get but scant at
tention this year.
Inc amount saved by constructing
the cemetery loau oil Taryla ponn0-
hacadam would resurface this rood
with the same material and leave
cohSlderaDle surplus, giving two good
foauS instead or one.
within year or two we must re-
place our stand-pIpe with a modern
tower and tank. lhe amount saved
by building this road of ordinary
macadam added to the amount we are
sure to have to raise next year TO
hnish the job, if concrete is USED,
would build this tower and tank.
True an ordinary macadam road
would have to be oiled once wear 70
preserve it but the interest alone at )
per cent on the amount saved would
pay Tor the oiling and leave $3.50 to
$500 to be turned into the city treas
ury each year.
We are told that the contracts are
already let, that the grading is partly
done and that much of the material
is already on the ground. Admitted
that this is true, contracts have been
cancelled or changed and no hard
ship worked upon the contractor.
Though there may be some cues
ton of the necessity for the enormous
amount of excavation called for in
the survey it has probably progressed
so far that it must be finished no mat
ter what material is used to build the
road-bed itself.
OF the material only the crushed
stone is on the ground and this will
serve equally we'll for macadam or
Tarvla macadam so there would be
no loss on that score if plans were
changed
The contract could be changed to
specify one or the other forms of mac
adam, the contractor reimbursed for
the small amount Of expense incurred
in preparing for q concrete job and
yet the city may be thousands of dol
lars to the good
The writer of this article has never
been known to protest against paying
taxes, even the high taxes of this
year. He has always maintained that
the liberal but judicious use of money
for public works is, in the long run,
the truest economy. He does believe
that we should get value received for
public money expended exactly as we
expect it in private enterprises and
he does protest, with many others,
against seeing the money he pays in
taxes applied in such an extravagant
manner Tax money once spent is
never recovered. Excessive taxes
wastefully spent deprive us of other
things that we need and need badly
There is no question as to the legal
right of the council to orded this i'm
provement and to levy, as it has done,
a direct tax upon the people of the
city to pay for it, but we seriously
question its moral right to do so
without providing for referendum
vote of the tax payers.
Any member of the council will adj
NIT that he was elected to carry out.
not his own will, but the will of his
constituents Why not then deter
mine what is the will of the majority
before forcing through this enormous
ly expensive and wholly unnecessary
piece of municipal extravaganza?
In view of the proximity of the
spring election why not insert a ref
erendum clause in the ballot and de-
termine once and for all time whether
the majority Of the people are or are
not behind the council in this matter?
Such a referendum, however. should
present two propositions One for
a. concrete road as at present planned
and the other for a macadam or tar
via bound road. It should be pre-
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