The Struggle for the Road
Finley residents demand action after a state highway project fails under heavy traffic.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Our perseverance has at last brought results. The county engineer has been heard to ask, 'What’s the matter with those fellows down at Finley? What do they want?' We will inform him just what is the matter and what we want. The six months’ traffic over our $20,000.00 state highway has put the road 'on the bum.' Today 80% of the horse traffic and 50% of the automobile traffic has abandoned the new road and returned to the old, ungraded, unworked road over the sand hill. It is too late now to discuss who is responsible or what should have been done. What we want now is to have something done that will repair the road and keep it in such shape that the next six months’ traffic will not ruin it. We believe that if one man were put on the road to work it continuously for several months, at least, he could eventually put it into pretty fair shape and keep it up.
“The six months’ traffic over our $20,000.00 state highway has put the road 'on the bum.'”
Public outcry over crumbling infrastructure and the burden of maintenance costs is a recurring theme in the Tri-Cities. The frustration of Finley residents in 1915 mirrors current regional debates over highway expansion and who bears the cost of upkeep.
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