Charlevoix county herald., 1921-07-08
G. and S. S.
VS.. Concrete
Uncle Georges Views of Good
Roads in County.

| Every mile OF RraVel rOau
built in Charlevoix Immediately
becomes a mortgage on the
county, which grows larger and
larger each year, because it
will have to be repaired all of
the time and rebuilt every two
or three years. Now, when
the difference in the cost be-
tween a gravel road and
good concrete road is so small
why not build concrete? Note
the concrete on Dixon avenue
which has already been down6
years, and the same as Main
street, East Jordan.
Accept my Christmas greet
ings for the year 1917.
Yours truly,
George H. VanPelt.
President Charlevoix County
Good Roads Association.
To the Board of Supervisors the
Taxpayers of Charlevoix County, Mich
igan:
Inasmuch as heretofore in 1916 and
1917 we all worked together so har-
moniously, | ask you to read carefully
my 1917 Christmas card regarding gra-
vel roads. AT that time | was your
President of the County Goods Roads
Association. When you have digested
it take ride over the entire system of
the G. and S. S. Gravel and Soft Stuff
road and then take a ride over the
concrete roads which are now eleven
or twelve years old and by actual
measurement show only a scant Ia of
an inch wear in all this time. Now
note the cost of the upkeep, only four
teen dollars for eleven years, and this
for filling the cracks with tar. One
dollar and twenty-seven cents ($1.27)
per mile per year. Then find out Gf
you CAM how much or how many hun
dreds of thousands of dollars we tax
payers have paid ont for the G. and S.
S. Gravel and Soft Stuff roads since
the beginning of our highway system.
| estimate II at between five and six
hundred thousand dollars. The con-
crete roads in 1917 cost us eleven
thousand dollars built by John Monroe
the gravel between five and six thou
sand. We bonded in 1917 so we could
have built the Is miles on the Dixie
Highway during the year 1918 for
about the same price, but to be sure
and make safe estimate, the engineer,
MIR. Sloan, and myself allowed fourteen
thousand.
blame the city of Charlevoix for
not having had this built but they
were asleep and no one so far as can
learn lifted finger to pnt it through.
In 1919 bid was made you to build
the six miles from Greensky hill to the
Emmett county line for $26, 10000 per
mile. Had this contract been let the
road would have been all finished dur
ing the summer of the same year. But
the bid was turned down as / under
stand it by the Board of Supervisors
and given to the same parties who
built our G. and S. S. because they
could build it for less than $4,000 per
mile.
You know the rest, and that instead
of the Petoskey road being out of
commission only one year, we are
now in the third year and the road is
not finished. AS have been told on
the street there is no money left with
which to build a concrete road from
Charlevoix to the Antrim county line,
but they talk of building G. and S. S.
| have never been able to learn what
the 3 or miles of concrete road cost.
Nobody seems to know. Is this good
business for our beautiful county to
continue building roads this way? If
am wrong in any Of these statements /
wish to be corrected, because it is the
earnest desire on my part to do no one
an injustice and it is for the good of
the county that bring this before you.
Yours truly,
Uncle George VanPelt.
Charlevoix, Michigan, June 80 1921.