Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 181, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1916 — Newton County Has System of Good Stone Roads. [ARTICLE]

Newton County Has System of Good Stone Roads.

Good-land Hamid. Our county pock road superintendent, Elmer Skinner, in company with the county surveyor, Ross Deardiurff, both of Morocco, were in Goodfliand last Friday afternoon. They were making requisitions for new bridges to be brought ibefore tihe commissioners and council next September. Mr. Skinner informed us that Newton county can boast of over 300 males of rock roads—but something has to ibe done to maintain them a® the heavy traffic on some of them is wearing them out. He is experimenting in several sections of the county and may in time determine just what is needed to meet the need's of the roads to enable them to stand the increasing traffic. He says many more automobiles travel through here between Chicago and Indianapolis than ever (before. The road affected the most is the one that runs about thirty , miles long in Newton commencing at Thayer and south to Enos, Morocco, Aid, Kenti,land, and east through Good Hand to the county line, Most of these are heavy touring cars and are hard 1 on the roads. Mr. Skinner say® the work on the two miles of road south of Conrad will be completed this fall and is being rolled and prepared so when it is completed it will be ready for use. This will give us a twelve mile shorter route to Chicago and will divide up (the travel in the north end of the county. Mr. Skinner is directly opposed to toiling streets, claiming oil does more injury to streets than good, stating that it destroy® all the binding properties in the roads and that the material lays dead in the road. He claims when this stage is reached in road materials that it soon wears out and becomes full of ruts and bumps. Mr. Skinner has fourteen men under him in the county and some of them are working all the time on making the road® better in this county.