The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1921-02-19
COUNTY FINANCES
Board of Commissioners Files
Annual Report With Presiding
Judge

10 Ills Honor, Judge James III. Peuri-
10Y, PRESIDING Judge. Court of GEN
eral Sessions. Spring Term, 1921:
We submit herewith for your con-
sideration copy Of our annual report
covering financial condition of the
county and summary of receipts and
disbursements together with the
monthly statements of claims paid
during the last fiscal year
Upon the various institutions of the
county which come under our care
and other matters of business relat-
ing to the management of county af-
fairs we would report as follows:
Roads and Bridges.
We have used every effort durin.,
the past year with the forces and
funds at our disposal to keep the
roads in good condition and improve
them wherever possible. With some
six hundred-odd miles Of roads and
seven hundred and eleven bridges in
the county to be maintained and
worked 1t will readily be understood
that this is no little task when the
means and funds at our disposal are
considered. With the character of
soils Of most Of our roads such as they
are we cannot expect to keep them all
In good condition all Of the time, but
we have endeavored to keep them oil
passable and to take care Of special
complaints from citizens as to bad
places as fast as they arose. We be-
lieve that under the administration
OF our present engineer who took
charge October 18th last, the roads
nave generally been improved
We have before called attention and
take this occasion to again call at
tention to the fact which does not
seem to be realized by many of our
citizens that under the CHANGING and
largely changed conditions Of traffic
from wagons, buggies etc., to auto
mobiles and motor trucks more con.
tlnuous and widespread work is re-
quired on the roads both because the
motor driven vehicles cause the roads
to deteriOrate more rapidly and be-
cause a better road is required by the
motor driven type.
Chain Gang.
We have endeavOred to see that
convicts on the chain gang forces were
humanely handled and supplied ne
cessities Of food, clothing and housing
as would keep them in proper con-
dition. The total cost oe the keep Of
Convfcts during the past year was a.
fraction over eighty cents per day.
This included all costs of feed, cloth
Ing, housing, guarding. etc.
Aims House and Paupcr.
We have endeavored to keep in
mates of aims house properly housed,
fed and cared for. We have made
some little repairs to the buildings
but owing to lack of necessary ap-
preparation have not been able to do
what should have been done in this
line. We have asked the legislature
this year for $4,000 for special re-
pairs. We notice in the supply bill
introduced in the house that this has
been cut to $1,000.
Public Buildings.
This item is confined mostly to court
house. An act was passed by the last
session Of the legislature authorizing
US to borrow the necessary funds to
thoroughly overhaul the court house
and put 1t in good repair. We had
architects to go over the proposition
and make up specifications for what
was needed i'm this line and called for
bids on same. We got two bids, one
for $4,000 and the other for SIS, 200
with certain reservations as to the
roof. We considered these bids too
high and thought that we would be
able to get this work done cheaper
this spring when the market on ma
terial and labor declines. Time has
sh hown the wisdom of this action. We
notice this same provision has been
made by the Legislative delegation in
this years supply bill as to providing
funds for doing this work but we
are inclined to think that under the
present financial conditions it will be
wiser to postpone this work, ex-
cept such as may be needed to keep
the building repaired. until financial
conditions get better. With one or
two exceptions the architectural de-