The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1922-01-21
FROM Mr.. FORT

Editor Star: You've been in the
newspaper business for many years
and you are an adept at the business.
don't know thing about it, but /
do know little about road work,
When man gives fourteen of the best
years of his life in that capacity, isn't
it reasonable to say that he does know
something about it. 1t seems to me
that you've built road castle on
theory. You have a zeal without
knowledge or practice. Yes, you'd
have only one road boss, one engineer,
one overseer: You'd dispatch a gang
of men wherever the roads needed
work (and that would be all the time)
in every direction, going ten, twenty
or thirty miles from your base to
patch hole, fix culvert, etc You'd
have out from three to five gangs all
. the time, going from and coming to
the home base, yet you'd only have
one overseer. Have you figured the
loss of time going and coming, the
eternal friction and disorganization of
your work. Mr.. Editor, I believe I
gave as much study to the road work
during my years of service as any
man, always trying to protect and
conserve the interest of our people,
with the result of having taken over
$50 miles of public road in the fourth
district, consisting of sand beds, mud
holes, quagmire, etc. You know / had
but little money compared to the con-
dition of the roads; however, spread
what little had over all the district,
giving each section it's just proper
tion, with the result that when / left
the board there were not five miles
of bad road in my district. Do you
think this would have been possible
under. the one-boss, one-overseer plan
as advocated by you. Let's reason for
a moment. The ever destructive en-
envy to the public roads, the automo-
bile, is here to stay, therefore we
should work out the best methods of
maintenance possible, for this is
about all that can be done with the
money derived from the annual road
budget. Hence, my experience has
been that each district should have a
well organized crew, always ON the
alert, to move quickly to any point to
repair damage, etc. wish to say
without any fear of successful contra
diction that unless there is always a
crew of men moving over the roads
like a railroad section crew, repairing
the damaged places, you'll always
have bad roads. This cannot be avert
ed by your plan. You're right in con-
demning any county commissioner al
lowing road overseer to sit by the
roadside, or taking Rip Van Wrinkle
maps with only one or two men work
ing. / saw this condition last August
II few of this sort are fired well
have less of it. Please don't get the
wrong impression of my position
namely: where county bonds to con.
struct highways, then your position is
the correct one. When we have all
the roads to maintain from a direct
levy fixed in the annual budget, ther
each district should have its own crew
We tried an engineer two years. W.
discontinued him because we were no
getting results justifying the ex
pense. N. A. Fort.
We thank Mr.. Fort for his kin,
compliment and will ask him in re
i turn please to remember that we hav
often praised his zeal and efficiency il
the public service. We do not remem
Der ever writing anything in criticism
of Mr.. Fort, either as an official or
man. We not only admit but proclaim
that piece of road built under MI
Forts direction would almost certain
ly be better than the same piece Q
road built under our direction. But a
this, like the works of the watch, ha
nothing to do with the case. Tn
opinion we have given in favor of
county engineer and concentrate
road force is based on the advice G
men who have far more experience
road building and public affairs tina
Mr.. Fort and the Star put togethe
Mr.. Fort speaks of his district, fc
which we gladly admit he did hi
II best. His district by itself is bigge
than any one of large majority
the counties in the United States.
is days drive with horse ar
wagon, more than days walk for
man, to cross it from side to side
end to end If g road is washed OF
or bridge burned in any part of th'