The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1940-02-01
An Open Letter To The State Roads
Commission And The Garrett
County Commissioners,

County Commissioners.
Gentlemen:
We, up here on stop" of District
Six (the Pine Swamp-Lake Ford Sec
tom, have long suffered in silence the
deplorable conditions of this particu-
lar community. We have even dared
to hope that, with each coming year,
our road might have its turn, in some
adequate measure of improvement,
with others in the county. Each year
these hopes have been blasted. We
are determined to suffer no longer in
silence. Our patience, which has been
enduring, is almost exhausted. We
are now determined that these con-
ditions shall be made public and that
something shall be done.
To begin with, our road, from the
West Virginia line at M. H. Frank
houser's and continuing through Lake
Ford, is an R. F. d. mail route and
a school bus route as we'll 1t is also
our only artery in the procurement Of
needed food and supplies; and our
only means Of making the money ne
cessary to meet the cost of living de-
ponds upon the travelling facilities Of
said road.
We have little objections to the con-
dition of this road in dry weather. But
considering the fact that fully two
thirds of our weather is either wet
or winter weather (barring excep-
tional seasons), the road is in poor
travelling condition by far the greater
part of the seasons.
In wet weather, this road becomes
full of ruts to the point of impassa-
bility. Upon frfeezing, then these
ruts do serious damage to vehicles
passing over them. On this particular
road, numerous springs have been
broken, tires cutsand ruined, and even
tenders torn loose because Of the ruts,
while the ground was frozen.
In winter, the road is closed by
drifts the larger part of the season.
Snow, coming from the west as it
usually does, sweeps across the fields
and into the road (the road runs es-
sentially in a north-south direction.l
The road, being lower than the ter
rain catches the snow and large drifts
accumulate. Drifts six feet deep are
common. This condition is not
peculiar to spots but holds true along
practically the entire length.
N.B.-This winter, so far, we have
had no mail service since Christmas
and no bus service since December
LIST. The road is drifted full from one
end practically to the other.
These conditions are needless and
show little else than utmost neglect.
With the aid of a few, good, we'll
placed fills, this road could be made
reasonably free of ruts. With the aid
of at least 5000 feet of snow fence
this road can be made reasonably
drift-proof. As for snow pillow service
in this section (Which we desperately
need) we have had NONE! Yet we
note that other mail and school bus
routes are promptly kept open Just
because our post office is located in
West Virginia and because our chill
dren are carted to West Virginia
schools does not mean that that state
takes care of our community or even
has any right to do so (for it has
not).
We, up here, are taxpayers as well
as those in the remainder of the coun-
ty. We help pay for road equipment
and repairs as well as the other tax
payers. But we fail to get the service
we merit. A meager levelling of the
road in dry weather is about the crop
Of the road service we get. We want