The Battle for the Road into Ritzville
Local farmers are organizing to repair the treacherous road leading into town, demanding the city match their efforts to improve the final stretch.
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.
It has been suggested to us that by the fencing of the Ritz land south of town, the wagon road which has been traveled since Ritzville was a town has been fenced up, and the farmers south of town are anxious for a new road to be made. A movement is on foot among the leading farmers south, including Buchanan, Scott, Kennedy, and Danekas, to make donations of work in addition to their road tax to put their Ritzville road in first-class shape up to the city limit. They reasonably expect the city to see that the part inside the city limit is made as good. It is a common expression among the farmers who come to town that the worst road they have to contend with is found inside the corporate limits, and that they could bring in or take out larger loads if the town would mend their streets.
“It is a common expression among the farmers who come to town that the worst road they have to contend with is found inside the corporate limits.”
Infrastructure disputes between rural producers and town councils are a recurring theme in Washington’s history. The frustration of farmers struggling with urban roads mirrors modern debates over the maintenance of rural transit routes and who bears the fiscal responsibility for them.
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