Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 239, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 October 1913 — No Supervisor Elections Until General Election, 1914. [ARTICLE]

No Supervisor Elections Until General Election, 1914.

The Republican erred in stating in a recent issue that the toad supervisor elections would be held this year. The law providing for elections on the second Saturday following the first Monday of December of every odd year, was amended by the last legislature and it is now provided that the next road super visor election will be held at the same time of the general election, Nevember, 1914, and thereafter at the biennial elections. By the act of the last legislature the terms of road supervisors was extended almost eleven months. Provided the township roads in a township do not exceed 10 miles in length the trustee shall be ex-officio road supervisor. Each road supervisor shall, at the time of his election, be a qualified voter of the township. Road supervisors receive 25 cents por hour for not to exceed 60 days in the year, except that where there is only one supervisor in the township the trustee has the power to extend the number of days he can work and receive pay for to 120. Before any trustee shall receive his pay he must file with the trustee a sworn statement specifying the days and roads upon which such services were performed. The supervisor is liable under a bond of S2OO required by the new law, for failure to perform any of the duties imposed and he may be removed from office by the trustee.

A road supervisor is authorized to collect commutation monies due the district, and is required to notify the trustee whose duty it is to see that the money is collected. The trustee has the right to change the districts whenever he believes the interests of the public will be subserved by so doing. On dividing the township into road districts the trustee is required to record a plat thereof in the highway record of his township and this must be done whenever there is a change in the districts.

The supervisor is required to order out all able bodied men except those exempted, who are between the ages of 21 and 50 years, between the first day of April and the first day of December. He shall require them to furnish such tools as are needed, provided the demand be a reasonable one. Teams, wagons, road scrapers, etc, owned by persons in the district, shall be used on order of the supervisor. Persons who do not work out the road tax must pay at the rate of $1.50 per day. Ten days after warning the supervisor shall notify the trustee of all who have neither worked nor paid and suit shall be begun. The money collected shall be used to hire road work done. Eight hours constitutes a day for road tax labor.

The road supervisor of each district is required to make a full and succinct report, under oath, on or before the first day of December of each year, showing the names of all persons liable to perform, or who have performed, labor on the roads of the district, the amount of commutation money received from any and all sources and how the same was expended and if he has on hand any balance it shalrte paid to the trustee. The trustee audits the books of the supervisor.