The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1922-01-12

after squandering lot of 1t in UNI
necessary operations. If ] have the
right understanding of it, Bingham
county would have been a great deal
better off If 1t had never tried to
get dollar of the state money for
its road building. People who have
had some texperience in getting fed
eral money for road construction
work, say it is worth the money to
get it. They had to comply with SO
many things and wait so much to get
surveys and approval of the work,
it places them at so much disadVant-
age in various ways that when they
get done and get the benefits of the
federal money they conclude that it
has been so dearly bought that they
had better have left it alone. All
these years of maneuvering to get
the state money we find they have
handed our own money back again.
Or they had handed us money which
the state had borrowed and which
we had to relay Even NV our
county commissioners are studying
the roasl program with the state and
federal government to see just what
they have to do to get them to match
the money which we put up on what
is called the one, two, three basis
The state puts up one dollar, the
county two dollars and the federal
government three dollars.
Shrcwd Management Needed -.
The particular proposition before
the commissioners for getting, state
and federal money is this: The state
owes Bingham county S10,2S440
and agrees to pay on the following
conditions: If we will spend $780,
$3.50 on state highways in this
county, and spend it according to
plans of the state highway commits
sion, they will pay the $10,2S5.40
by expanding it on the same road
proposition in connection with what
we spend. We have to put up two
dollars for every dollar we get them
to pay to us or spend on our roads,
The total is $3O,S53.2O, and when
we have arranged to expend that
much of county and state money
jointly, the federal government will
set aside an equal amount to be
expended on the same project, pro-
vided it is expended under the plan
approved by the federal road de-
partment and their engineers This
is what they call the one, two, three
plan, making roads jointly The
state puts up one dollar, the county
two dollars, and the federal govern
ment three dollars. The road pro-
ject that we have to plan and have
approved by the state and federal
government in order to get the col
lection of this $10,2S4.4O from the
state is 61,7O6.40 and if the whole
plan is carried out that whole sum
of money is expended in our county.
1t is my understanding that we
can enlarge upon this road plan and
project if we wish to and get CO.
operation of state and federal money
to the following extent if we put
up an additional $12,146.SO the
state will put up $6,073.4O, making
total of $18,219.20 and then the
federal government will match that,
making a total of $36,438.4O that
we can have expended on the roads
of this county by putting up the
$12,146.80. This is the greatest
problem that the county commission
ers have before them to figure out
and to get put into execution.
In the light of past experience it
seems rather doubtful whether to
puruse this phantom of state and
federal money any farther or not.
But with our past experience we
might be able to protect ourselves
and get over $90,000,000 worth of |
road work done for $30,000,000.
A String Attached
Some of the conditions of this |
proposition are that the money must |
be expended on a thru line of state |
highway and the only thru line that |