The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1921-10-27
THE PEE DEE BRIDGE PROBLEM
Engineer johnson Presents His Side
of the Controversy.
The Editor Dl'on Herald:


/ Dr. St0CkhOuse has published both
! n The Herald AID in the state arti-
/ cl"S ON the Pc, Dee Bridge affair in
correct in al essentials. even in his
/ Iccnclusion: Tina, ,h.rt VIII be no
bridge across the Pee Dee at Mars
Buff Ferry.
lie say that contract was made
Tor the construction OF bridge g.
! 600 feet above the y. c L. On that
question th" writer is unlnformed ex-
cept by hearsay Marion and Florence
officials on the Bridge Commission
say that no contract was made DR..
lStackhouse probably knows better
fer, am Informed, that he was rep
resented at the meeting, when this
alleged contract was made by hi.
son as his proxy.
H says that a heavy red line
drawn from this proposed site TO
Dillon on the blue print made his
friends at Marion seek to avoid being
side tracked in highway matters. The
bridge thGt will be built at Mars
Bluff Ferry will give the same oppor-
tunity for this direct road to Dillon
and will save $40 of a mile between
Dillon and Florence over that posi-
Die where the Highway Commission
ccntended the bridge should be built
Marion runs the same risk of being
side tracked with the bridge at
Mars Bluff Ferry as if the bridge
were built where DR.. Stackhouse has
always wanted il: Near his own
plantation.
DR.. Stackhouse knows that before
the Oct. 18th meeting that all fig
ures for crossing the Pee Dee were
for high water road and that the
Highway Commission and Florence
and Marion counties calculated thai
at Mars Bluff Ferry il would be pos
sible at about $2S0,000. He now says
however hat the great divergence in
cost is due TO the fact that Marion
and Florence counties have always
compared cost of a highwater road
by the State Highway Commission to
a low water structure by themselves
He entirely fails 10 say that the
. Government Engineer at the October
meeting said or all solutions for
crossing the Pee Dee that a low vat
er road with a highwater bridge, OF
course. was the best possible solu-
tion and that IL had been eliminated
simply because federal aid conld moi
be had on such structure. This in
exactly the solution that Marion and
Florence counties had arrived at
, some months ago, thereby saving
$13O.O00 as compared to a highwater
! structure at Mars Bluff Ferry and
about 100000 at any pace suggest
ed by the State Highway Commission
or the Federal Aid Bureau. This de-
signed low water road will interrupt
traffic about one day each year, prob
lably less and instead of being a few
inches. only, higher than the present
road il will be about feet higher
There is no objection to the crossing
LAT Cheraw, and il too is below e1-
ltreme highwater
i This road will be built by Flor
ence and Marion counties and will
cost them just about the same
amount as if they had gone into the
other proposition, and they will OWL
the bridge and road. Tolls will pay
its maintainence, upkeep, interest ana
retire the cost. No additional tax
: burden will be placed on the people
Of either county as the bridge win
be paid for by those who use IL. The
. expenditures by the Federal Aid
. Government. Dillon county, Berkeley
4 land Charleston counties will be saw
ed and only those from those counties
who cross the bridge will participate
i'll the cost thereof
/ DR.. Stackhouse seems to have en-
= tirely forgotten that Florence and
[ Marion counties alone are burdened
V with maintainence OF this cOnstruc-
= tIcn and that once begun they alone
| are irrevocably committed TO the
ccmpletion. regardless of cost II
seems to make no difference to DR.
Stackhouse if the first cost would
run about 100000 or If the main
{ flamenco would be a per annum cosf
l OF $40, 600. OF course Dillon county
! was TO pay $4,000 no more, no less.
] and he can afford to be 40 indiffer-
2 cnt to cost.
DR.. Stackhouse has interrupted
promising plans to cross The Pee Dee
before and always on the grounds
that IL must he crossed above the A. c.
l.. X. K. had he been sincere IL his
efforts to secure a crossing OF the
Pee Dee. either at this latter or al
former times, il would not now be
necessary for Florence and Marion
counties 10 undertake it alone.
DR.. Stackhouse's closing remarks
are just as insincere as the other
parts Of his publication. He does not
s fear al all that we have lost our op-
portunity to secure bridge ccross
the Pee Dee. what he really fears is
that we will have bridge at Mars
Bluff Ferry and more remote from
his special interests and that, there