The Fight for the Finley Highway

Considerable fuss it seems has been stirred up over the building of the Kennewick-Finley highway. The Taxpayers’ League of Prosser recently sent a committee here to pass judgment upon the work of the contractor. The Benton Independent devotes two columns of its space to a criticism of the county commissioners for tabling the report of that committee and to the citizens of Kennewick because of their failure to become wrought up or excited over the situation. If we interpret the action of the commissioners aright, they spoke quite eloquently and to the point when they filed the report without comment. As a matter of fact, the Kennewick-Finley road is being built as a part of the state permanent highway system in Benton county, and before it can become a part of such system it must pass the inspection of and be accepted by the state highway department. The contractor is not an unknown, irresponsible person, who is going to vamoose as soon as the job is finished. He has just completed a similar contract in the county to the entire satisfaction of the county commissioners. It may be that it was not good business to let the contract to a higher bidder, but it is too late now either to change the specifications or to let the contract to a Prosser firm, and little can be hoped from antagonizing the contractor and the commissioners.