Omaha daily bee., 1922-03-03
Probe Will
Be Taken
Counties
Records Not Kept Accordin,
TO Law and Road Inycsti-
CATION Body Will In.
spect Books.
Johnson Answers Attack


Frank Stewart. assistant state en-
gineer. rendered his resignation after
: IS check for work performed was
found and a SIS receipt. on which
he collected that much money. was
discovered in the state auditors Of
fee.
George Johnson. state engineer,
answered two OF three charges flied
against him officially this morning
hy Representative Charles Epperson.
he third charge will be answered
tomorrow as soon as fguies can be
compiled in Johnson's Office.
Johnson charged that the reason
Tor alleged unrelenting and yene-
nous attacks by Epperson agains,
his department for two legislative
terms is that the Clay county board
OF commissioners and the state de-
partment OF public works decided to
run the state road directly south
from Clay Center 10 Nelson and re-
fused to deviate eight miles out of
the direct line and take in Epper-
sons home at Fairfield.
Read Questionnaires.
Attorney General Clarence 4. Da-
Wis read answers OF so OF the 90
counties TO questionnaires asking for
| information as to where the Sl7,500.-
900 spent by counties for roads had
/ gone and only four counties an
swered the questionnaires in detail.
Forty-three did not answer the
questionnaires in any manner.
The probe committee adopted a
resolution offered by Davis, pro-
viding that in April it visit certain
counties to be designated later and
endeavor to learn If there is any
way to find the amount Of money
spent on various county road pro-
jects.
The deplorable condition OF coun-
ty records and the defiance of the
law by county officials in refusing to
comply with a law passed in 1917,
which would have given taxpayers an
idea on how much every county road
project cost just as state records do
on state roads. is of vital concern
to every taxpayer in the state" Da-
Wis said.
Could Force Records.
"The 1917 laws demanded that the
exact amount spent on every county
road be kept by proper county Off
Gals
Eppcrson asked Johnson if he had
mt known for sometime that such
conditions existed in counties and
whether he had done anything to
impress county officials with the ur-
gency OF keeping books on the Sl7,-
100000 expenditures.
Il couldn't force them to, but
wrote advising them to keep such
records and at state expense sent a !
uniform set Of books, so the book
keeping would be uniform through
out the state" Johnson said.
One charge filed by Epperson
against Johnson was that the state
had purchased a gravel pit near Ash
land for $4,000, which had been sold |
a few months before for $4,000.
This same charge has beer.
dragged out at two previous inves-
legations, and explained to the sat
istaction Of the committees, but III
go through it again." Johnson said.
I'VE hadn't been building state
roads long until we learned that the
gravel companies were uniting into |
a corporation in Nebraska and grav-
ell prices would go up. We began
looking for gravel pit of our own
and found the one at Ashland, |
which was for sale for $4,000 and
as | believed it was worth $4,000 |
to the state, l bought it.
Saving Of 100000.
"Since that time gravel companies
have sold US gravel cheaper than any
state in the Missouri valley is get
ting it aud in the next 10 years the
fact the state has gravel pit it can
open at anytime will keep prices on
gravel down and in my judgment
will be the means of saving the state
100000 in that length of time,
When the pit was purchased for
$4,000, we didn't know of the con-
templated increase, in price of gravel
and so we were not buying a pit.
There always is first time to know
a thing and the first we knew we
wanted sandpit was when it was
for sale for $4,000"
Another charge was that in Keith
county the first contract for 49,
mile stretch of road was let by the
Keith county commissioners in the
presence OF the state engineer for So
cents a cubic yard and it was later
sublet for 19 cents yard.
There is no telling how much of
the state machinery was used i'll
making this price possible on that
two-nile stretch" Johnson said. IS.
{. Peterson, one of the county COM
missioners, had charge OF the con-
tract and the subletting must have
been satisfactory to the board"
Turning to Epperson, Johnson re-
ferred to repeated charges by Ep-
person that many state road con-
tracts had been sublet three and four
times. He said:
"These reports from the counties
show how useless to try to make
a comparison between county and
state road-building when such condi-
tions exist. Surely this body would
not advise turning over the state road
funds to people who paid {
no more attention to law than docs
the county road-building boards"
Morrill, county residents living on /,
the north side of the North Platte
river appeared to complain against
the placing of state highway on the
south side OF the river. because il {
was FIVE miles longer than the north
side route would have been.
Johnson replied that the county !
tTwn 10 rase Two, Column On. 4.