The Redwood gazette., 1935-01-10
Pease Succeeds Arends as
Chairman of Commissioners
Herman Muetzel Elected as Vice
Chairman; DR.. Cole Takes
Coroner Office
ENGINEER MAKES REPORT
County Road System Totals
578 Miles, Recommendations
Made in Report

E. A. Pease of Redwood Falls, was
elected chairman Of the Redwood
county board of commissioners at
the opening session, Tuesday, of the
boards first 1885 meeting. Herman
Muetzel was elected vice chairman.
Mr.. Pease, a veteran member of
the board, succeeds John Arends, who
retired at the expiration of his term
after serving "a years as commits
sioner. Mr.. Arend's place on the
board has been taken by Herman F.
Beckmann who took office Tuesday.
Tuesday also marked the start of
the terms of other county officials,
including DR.. Gordon Cole, coroner,
the only other new officer besides
Mr.. Beckmann to take office. The
oath of office was signed at the open
ing meeting. Richard Cook was re-
appointed county engineer and Mrs.
Katherine Praxel was renamed coun-
ty welfare worker. -
Following announcement that. the
state highway department has de-
clined to approve the planned ap-
proach to highway 10 and has sug-
gested that the county try to obtain
a more feasible connection, the COM
missioners tabled proposal to con-
truct county aid road from North
Redwood to highway 10 at Tiger
lake.
Continuing their session Wednes-
day, the board had under considera-
tion a recommendation favoring the
reduction of ERA wage scales from 55
cents an hour to 80 or 35 cents. Com
mittees on the boards various acti-
vities were selected during the Tues
day and Wednesday sessions. The
meeting was expected to continue
through the greater part of the week.
County Engineer Richard Cooks
annual report to the board showed
that the county maintained 237 miles
of state aid road and $40 miles OF
gas tax road. The state aid roads
were maintained at an average cost
of $66.59 per mile and the gas tax
roads at an average cost of $27.72 per
mile. In both cases a saving of about
10 per cent over previous years is
shown. However more graveling was
done last year than usual which
brought the total maintenance cost to
nearly the same figure as the year
before.
Twelve miles of state aid roads
were constructed and Is miles grav-
eled. These roads cost an average
of $1,038 per mile for grading and
1888 for graveling. One-half Of this
amount is returned to the county as
state aid. A total of 7O.5 miles of
gas tax roads were built at an aver
age cost of $640 per mile and So
miles were graveled at cost of $3.50
per mile.
The report points out that roads
built to the standards of Is to %
years ago seldom last over 20 years
and recommends that four or five
per cent be rebuilt each year, partic-
ularly in view of the fact that dry
springs cannot be expected regularly.
"a policy Of not rebuilding to keep
our system in as good shape at it
was when turned over to us is a
short-sighted one and I believe that
it is just as foolish to do this as to
bond ourselves or borrow money to
build. Failure to keep our system
built up will cause us to borrow to
rebuild later"
Mr.. Cook points out that the road
and bridge levy has been reduced
from $150,000 in 1881 to $4,000 for
1885 and states that this is about
$5, 900 lower than it should be, due
to the advance in commodity prices
and the governments attempt to
raise wages. He recommends that
the boards plan to buy one new pow
er patrol unit each year be continued.
Although the engineers office de-
Continued on page seven)