The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1922-03-06

Annapolis, March 2-COunty Com
missioners from several counties of
| the Eastern Shore came to the State
| House this afternoon by the appoint
ment and conferred with the Senate
| Committee on Roads and Highways
| regarding the two road bills intro
duced by Senator Harrison and Tow
ers John n. .Mackall, chairman
and chief engineer of the State Roads
Commission also was in attendance.
| Mr. Mackall said both bills have
! inherent defects and all the county
| commissioners objected to Senator
Harfison's bill, which proposes to
give the State Roads Commission
control of all the public roads except
in counties which have roads en-
gineer. Those counties may elect to
adopt the provisions of the bill.
President Robert Stag, of the
Board of County Commissioners of
! Worcester county, said at meeting
of 200 taxpayers in his county only
| three had stood up in favor of the
I Harrison plan. He had no sugges-
tons to offer, but said the feature of
| free assistance by land owners in the
way of materials and hauling was al
! ready in practice in the county. Wor-
| cester county only leVies SIS, 900 for
| county roads and $1,000 of this is
used for bridges.
| President Hearn, of the Wicomico
| County Board, said the county pre-
ferred the present plan. The same
view was taken by County Treasurer
Dennis and Commissioner Insley. 1t
was brought out that in Wicomico
county last year $4,000 was levied
for roads, but $4,000 was expended.
Commissioner ]. ]. Garris, of Car
oline county, said the system in that
| county works we'll but they have
just made a change by permitting no
scraping of roads alter July, kang
drag then being used. Caroline levi
| ed $4,000 for county roads last
year and has 10 per cent. of it left.
Commissioner Frank Porter, of
Somerset county, objected to- the
State Roads Commission having
| charge of the county roads on &C
count of too much overhead expense.
! Senator Harrison said that was just
| what his bill seeks to avoid. Senator
Byrn, of Dorchester, said the Com
| missioners of his county are opposed
to any plan to- take the roads from
! their control. Senator Snader said
| the same sentiment prevails in Car
| roll county, but that they would be
| glad to see some plan by which they
| could cooperate with the State Roads
! Commission.
Senator Towers explained his bill
which is modelled after the local road
| law for Caroline county. but with
| the provision that it is entirely OPP
] tional If any county decides to
| adopt it, the State Roads Commission
is to nominate three competent road
| engineers and the commissioners
must appoint one OF the three. This
| engineer will have charge of both
| State and county roads in his cOun-
| ty, and State and county will each
pay one-half his salary, which is not
to be less than $4,000 year.
Senator Brady seemed impressed
with the Towers bill, and said be
| would like to have something like it
for Anne Arundel county, which
spent $1S0,000 for roads last year,
but Chairman Mackall said the fatal
defect of the bill was in having one
engineer to serve two masters, the
State and the county. He said the
success of the State Roads Commits
sion has been due chiefly to its con-
centrated authority and undivided re-
sponsibility He suggested that it
would be good plan for the Legis-
nature to designate some commission
to make survey of the money spent
by the various counties on roads in
the last 10 years and make report
to the next session. The State
Roads Commission, he said, would
do the work if desired.