Jo Daviess County Starts 



Road Improvement 



Program 



To Use Unemployed In Gravelling Dirt Farm to Market Roads 



WHAT promises to develop into a 

 state-wide secondary road im- 

 provement program on a ceunty- 

 wide basis was launched by the Jo- 

 Daviess County Board of Supervisors 

 recently when they approved a plan to 

 hard surface some 214 miles of dirt 

 roads in that county at a cost approxi- 

 mating $350,000. 



The Whiteside County Board of Su- 

 pervisors started similar action the same 

 week when it considered a half million 

 dollar farm-to-market road improve- 

 ment program. 



The JoDaviess county plan, it is esti- 

 mated, will give labor and employment 

 to an average of 380 men daily for more 

 than a year. The plan has been ap- 

 proved by the Illinois Emergency Re- 

 lief Commission as the first step in a 

 proposed state-wide farm-to-market road 

 construction program. 



Secondary road improvement for work 

 relief has been advocated consistent!} 

 by the Illinois Agricultural Association 

 in place of the dole. ' 



The JoDaviess county plan will place 

 75 per cent of the farmers in that coun- 

 ty on a hard road and every farmer in 

 the county within a mile of one, accord- 

 ing to reports. Monejr for labor total- 

 ing in excess of |1 10,000 has been al- 

 located by the State Commission to 

 carry on the work for the first four 

 months. 



Illinois Relief Commission, funds to 

 carry out the program throughout the 

 state are expected to be supplemented 

 by Federal allotments. 



As its share of the cost of the proj- 

 ect, JoDaviess county will pool all the 

 county and township road equipment, 

 provide $24,690 worth of material, most- 

 ly crushed rock from quarries in the 

 county, and fuel, plus skilled labor for 

 operating crushers, graders, etc. at a 

 total cost of $95,890. 



At a recent meeting'iof the JoDaviess 

 County Board of Supervisors action was 

 taken turning o^er all road equipment 

 for the work which will be supervised 

 by George Schroeder, county superin- 

 tendent of highways, and the 23 town- 

 ship highway commissioners. 



The plan outlined calls for the grad- 

 ing and draining of dirt roads and re- 



surfacing them with crushed stone. 

 There are now 240 miles of all-weather 

 roads in the county and when the new 

 project is completed the county will 

 have 454 miles of hard roads. 



Work relief labor will be hired to 

 work on the roads and jobs will be pro- 

 vided for 350 common laborers, 30 truck 

 drivers, 15 quarry workers, five time- 

 keepers, 20 operators of teams and 10 

 operators of trucks. The work is ex- 

 pected to start at once. The State Re- 

 lief Commission will provide nearly all 

 the labor. 



In Whiteside county more than 200 

 miles of dirt roads will be gravelled 

 under the proposed program and ac- 

 cording to Highway Superintendent 

 Hauck, the Whiteside project will be 

 even larger than the one in JoDaviess 

 county. As we go to press the White- 

 side authorities are working on the 

 problem of securing funds for gravel 

 and other materials. 



The State Relief Commission offers to 

 furnish all necessary labor and the 

 townships and coUnty are to furnish 

 the trucks for the transportation of 

 the gravel and materials necessary to 

 complete the project. Whiteside coun- 

 ty is well supplied with gravel and 

 stone that can be crushed for road 

 building purposes as is JoDaviess coun- 

 ty. All gravel sources have been located 

 and marked so that material may be 

 secured at the point nearest the roads 

 to be improved. 



On March 13 the township road com- 

 missioners in Whiteside met with the 

 county highway superintendent to dis- 

 cuss the program. The graveling pro- 

 gram will be pushed hardest in the 

 townships having the most dirt roads. 

 The Whiteside half million dollar road 

 program was drafted several weeks ago 

 at the suggestion of relief authorities. 



President Earl C. Smith of the I. A. A. 

 has been conferring from time to time 

 with federal authorities at Washington 

 to expedite the secondary road improve- 

 ment program in Illinois. The I. A. A. 

 has insisted that taxpayers are entitled 

 to tangible benefits for the money they 

 are spending on unemployment relief. 

 The Association hopes that at least 

 10,000 additional miles of secondary 



WITH OMZ BTO>E 



roads may be hard-surfaced in the state 

 this year. 



Improvement of farm-to-market roads 

 is one of the leading approved projects 

 in the $4,800,000,000 work relief appro- 

 priation pending in the United States 

 Senate. 



According to Major A. R. Lord and G. 

 B. Stephenson, work relief administra- 

 tors with the Illinois Emergency Relief 

 Commission, between 30 and 35 Illinois 

 counties are now considering the county- 

 wide farm-to-market road improvement 

 program. This plan involves pooling of 

 township road-building equipment and 

 personnel under a unified county man- 

 agement. Heretofore there has been 

 much "piecemeal" effort by townships in 

 marking farm-to-market roads for im- 

 provement, said Mr. Stephenson. But 

 little work has been done. Up to Feb- 

 ruary 1, this year, more than 15,000 

 miles of Illinois farm-to-market roads 

 had been approved for hard surfacing or 

 repair. Only a small percentage of this 

 mileage has actually been worked on be- 

 cause of the difficulty of raising funds 

 in the counties for buying gravel, rock 

 crushing equipment, and other materials. 

 The Relief Commission only undertakes 

 to provide labor and in extreme cases a 

 little more. 



Upwards of 80,000 able-bodied men 

 now on the relief rolls in Illinois have 

 been certified for work relief in the 

 downstate counties. Approximately 119,- 

 000 heads of families, or 37V'2 per cent 

 of the 316,000 families on relief rolls 

 throughout Illinois in February earned 

 their budgets on work relief projects ac- 

 cording to Assistant Administrator 

 Stephenson. Most of the work was done 

 on public property. 



In Richland county steps have been 

 taken to crush rock for road building 

 and sell agricultural limestone as a 

 sideline. Unemployed men, it is con- 

 templated, will be taken from the relief 

 rolls in that county to spread the rock. 



APRII,. 1935 



