Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1940-04-04
ROADS, STREETS, ETC, IN
COUNTY BY WPA

/ Addition of more than 101A miles
of roads, highways and streets in
the latter half Of 1899 brought the
total production Of Morgan county
WPA workers, during 4 " years of
the federal agency, to 31712 miles,
it was announced by Fred L.
Roose, acting manager of the
Southeastern Ohio district of WPA
in Ohio, in the first of a series of re-
ports to the public.
, Of the total, 314 miles consisted
of rural roads of the kind which
open year-round routes for farmers,
farm-to-market produce, school
busses and mail carriers. The re-
mainder was 334 miles of streets
and alleys in McConnelsville, Malta
and Stockport.
The Morgan county blanket road
project was the principal means of
getting new construction work done
last year, and it's outstanding jobs
in the rural areas were completion
of 1903 linear feet of county
highway 63 in Manchester township,
5,808 feet of county highway 13 in
Penn township, large amounts of
work on county highway 4 in Ho-
mer and Marion townships and
county highway in Deerfeld and
Malta townships.
The state highway department.
WPA project in this county got un-
der way last June 16, and before
the year ended it had resulted in
the painting of the 811-foot Mus
kingum river bridge at Stockport
and good start on reconstruction
of route $50 in York township,
from the county line to Deavertown.
A major Difficulty of bodybuilding
in hilly Morgan county-the ever
present drainage problems we'll
illustrated by the fact that 156 cul-
verts were installed in improving
the above list of roads. These
brought the total of culverts in
stalled Or improved on WPA prof.
ects to 932. If placed end to end,
these would form tube Of metal
and concrete of varying size more
than 1a miles long.
In the heels of McConnelsville's
street project, which produced work
that was lauded by state WPA Of
fetal as among the best in Ohio"
the village of Malta last fall i'm
proved 1,050 feet of Front street,
complete with black-top surface and
concrete curb and gutter, and
Stockport rebuilt 1900 feet of Mar
ket street, also with black-top
surface. The latter was 22 feet
wide.
Other items in the 4 u year road
summary: One bridge built and 80
improved, 4.84 miles of sidewalks
hr,i1 ;rSap e
curbs built or improved
Construction work remains the
backbone of the WPA program in
Morgan county. On recent date,
1876 out Of $40 assigned to projects
were doing this kind of work
Past accomplishments include
the major item of three public
buildings erected and IL improved.
The new ones were school buildings
near Ringgold and in Bristol town
ship and a storage and toilet build
ing at Big Bottom state park in
Windsor township. All improve
ment at the park was done by WPA
workers.
School properties improved in
clude: McConnelsville high, Rein
ersville, Deerfield township school
at Triadelphia, and Stockport high.
School properties improved in
clude: McConnelsville high (re-
pair); Reinersville (painting)
(sewer); Deerfield town
ship (sidewalk); Manchester town.
ship (painting).
Residents of every township have
benefited through road improve
ments, and those in the coal mining
section can point to lessened stream
pollution as the result of the seal
ing of 62S openings at abandoned
mines. Pennsville uses water from
a 1,500-barrel cistern built by WPA
workers. On the record, the reser-
voir serving Crooksville, built in
York township north of Deaver-
town, is listed as a Morgan county
project