The $20,000 Road Left to the Wind

Who looks after the maintenance of the new Kennewick-Finley road? Here is a piece of road costing a little in excess of $18,000.00 to build, $2,000.00 more expense put on to add oil to the surface, and a fund of about $1,000.00 available yearly to keep it in repair. Now, after this twenty thousand dollar experiment is turned over by the contractor as complete, those interested up to that time—county engineer, state engineer and other experts—leave, never to return and see how the experiment is succeeding, but abandon it to the gentle caress of our southwest winds and the steady grind of wagon and auto wheels. A delicate epidermis of oil covering a soft and yielding body of sand and boulders with some good gravel cannot withstand the rough impact of travel of three or four wagons per day without making deep ruts and bringing the hidden sins to the surface. Our county engineer knows the exact composition of every cubic foot of this road, for he was a special representative of the state as well as the county during construction, and should know what wheels would soon do to this surface. It seems to us that he should have a personal, if not an official, interest in seeing that part of this $1,000.00 maintenance is used NOW, before things get worse. So we want him to point out to us who is responsible for this expensive piece of neglect, if he has no official or delegated power to act himself, and we'll try an experiment of our own with a "Live Wire Spark."