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Show Post-War Plans for Roads Discussed At Beaver Meeting Some of Beaver County's highway high-way needs were brought to the front and details of the recently enacted Robinson federal aid highway high-way bill were explained and discussed dis-cussed at a meeting held Wednesday Wednes-day evening at Beaver and attended at-tended by state, federal and district dis-trict highway officials and representative repre-sentative citizens of Beaver county. coun-ty. The meeting, arranged under the joint sponsorship of the Beaver Bea-ver Lions club and Beaver Chamber Cham-ber of Commerce, was held at George C. Murdock's Early Bird :afe and was preceded by a very fine dinner. The meeting was harmonious throughout and proved a most helpful preliminary to early setting-up of Beaver county's ipost-war road program. A week previously, Ernest G. Joseph, chairman of the Beaver county board of commissioners,, had explained to the Milford Lions club a plan whereby a county committee com-mittee of six members would act in an advisory capacity to the board in setting up a post-war highway program, their recommendations recom-mendations to be presented in turn to district and state officials. Under the plan, three members of this advisory committee will be named from the east end of the county, including Beaver, Greenville Green-ville and Adamsville; . one will come from Minersville, and two will be named from Milford. Highway officials present at the meeting Wednesday evening included in-cluded K. C. Campbell, highway engineer from the United States Public Roads administration; Ray H. Leavitt, formerly of Washington Washing-ton comity, newly appointed as chairman of the state engineering and highway commission; D. Lay-ton Lay-ton Maxfield of Delta, member of the commission for the past four years; Roy W. McLease, chief engineer for the commission; M. C. Moffet, location engineer for the commission; R. A. Gillis, maintenance mainten-ance engineer for the commission, former district engineer at Cedar City; Sheridan F. Fiack, new district dis-trict engineer at Cedar City; D. Watson Adams, district maintenance mainten-ance supervisor at Cedar City; and Henry Willesen, maintenance foreman at Beaver. Representing Milford at the meeting were William G. White, Union Pacific engineer, newly elected long-term member of the board of commissioners and chairman chair-man of the local Lions club road committee; M. H. Pool, president of the Milford town board of trustees; trus-tees; O. W. Evans, Union Pacific agent at Milford, and a son of John S. Evans of Lehi, retiring chairman of the state engineering and highway commission; and David S. Williams, publisher of The News and secretary of the Lions club. Representing Minersville Miners-ville were Elmer Marshall, county commissioner, and F. D. Williams. W'ilson Murdock, president of the Beaver Chamber of Commerce, called the meeting to order and officiated as presiding officer from time to time, turning the meeting over to Mr. Joseph to explain the purposes of the meeting and introduce in-troduce the guests from Milford and Minersville, which he did, then designated Mr. McLease to act as toastmaster and introduce the highway personnel. Mr. Leavitt, new chairman of the engineering and highway commission, com-mission, made a very good impression impres-sion on the large crowd and was given a big hand as he concluded his remarks. He said he felt more or less timid as yet in meeting groups of people to whom roads mean so much, but hoped to be able to do the right thing under the responsibilities of his new (position. (posi-tion. He stated that in his opinion, the people should forget any ideas they may have of new construction until the war is over, but rather devote themselves to plans for post-war projects and in shaping up a program that will be comprehensive. compre-hensive. As to details of the newly new-ly enacted Robinson bill, providing provid-ing federal funds for cooperation in post-war construction, he felt to leave them to be explained by Mr. McLease, who was well prepared pre-pared to do this. Mr. Maxfield. who was appointed appoint-ed to the commission in 1941 when the state senate rejected the nomination of J. Ed Wilson, Milford Mil-ford railroad man, paid a nice compliment to Hyrum Lee of Beaver, Bea-ver, representative in the last sej- sion of the state legislature and also commented on the fine cooperation co-operation which the state commission com-mission had received from the Beaver county board. The state body, he added, realized fully that Beaver county had had no participation partici-pation in military installations but would receive due consideration considera-tion in highway construction. Mr. Campbell, only representative representa-tive of federal agencies among the group of visitors, reminded his listeners that some $150,000 had been spent in western Beaver county in the construction of access roads, largely to mining areas, most of this being spent on roads to the Cougar Spar and Wah Wah mining properties. He barelyi touched on the Robinson till provisions, only stating that $500,000,000 of federal funds would be provided for the first three post-war years. Mr. Gillis, who is wellknown throughout the county by reason of his previous work as district engineer, commended the Union Pacific railroad and its employes for the grand job being done in Milford in getting the heavy traffic traf-fic over the railroad in good shape, also speaking commendatory commenda-tory of Beaver county's commissioners. commis-sioners. He expressed himelf as very certain that any project not directly concerned with the war effort is out. and maintenance will have to he curtailed, due especially especial-ly to the serious condition of rubber rub-ber on the wheels of maintenance equipment. Mr. Moffet, who has had a long period with the highway depart-(Continaed depart-(Continaed on last pae) Roads Discussed (Continued from page 3) ment as location engineer, and has thus become intimately acquainted w-ith every nook and corner of the state, explained that it was his duty to gather and compile information infor-mation and turn it over to higher j officials for their use. j Mr. Fiack, who succeeds Mr. McLease as district engineer at Cedar City, stated that he would exert his best efforts to do well j the duties of that position, but hej could not hope to take the place of his predecessor. He in turn was I followed by Mr. Adams, who told' of his pleasure in working with Mr. Maxfield and Mr. Blackner, 1 who remain as members of the1 state commission, and John S. Evans, retiring chairman of the . commission, who had given fine, sci vice throughout the period of i is appointment. Among others who spoke briefly were President Pool of the Milford Mil-ford town board, County Commissioner Commis-sioner Marshall, and F. D. Williams Wil-liams of Minersyille and S. G. Hickman Hick-man of Beaver, who drew attention of the visiting officials to the need for imm'bving highway 21 leading into tne Beaver mountains and also west of Milford to the Nevada Ne-vada line. H. D. Thompson, mayor I of Beaver, in a few remarks, com-1 mended Mr. McLease for his ready ! response to appeals made to him from time to time while he was district engineer. Mr. McLease, as the concluding speaker, explained that, under the Robinson bill, five million dollars would be allocated to Utah for each of the first three post-war years. While federal funds are to be made available to the states on a 50-50 basis, credit for federal lands acreage in the western states eases this percentage participation par-ticipation for them. In the case of Utah, it will be necessary for the state to put up only 28.5 percent to the 71.5 percent furnished by the federal government. Primary roads, he explained, include highways high-ways !)1,89, 40, 50 and others and these will come in for a large part of the federal funds. Secondary roads, for which there is apportioned appor-tioned $1,685,000 for each of three years, may consist of state roads, county roads and city roads, under the "rural area" provisions of the bill, but funds for their construction construc-tion can be made available only under a priority of importance basis, as set up through the county advisory committees, boards of county commissioners and district dis-trict highway officials, and this only on a basis of 10 percent of total mileage in the county, with ! some leeway for sparsely settled i counties. In this connection, it is j recommended that advisory com-' mittee, working through the other agencies, set up the priorities program pro-gram on a five-year basis. Under the Robinson bill, .the counties are not required to put up any money if state" highways are recommended for priority con. struction, but county participation will be required for other secondary secon-dary roads. However, class "'B" money, coming from participation in state license plate revenue, may be used for this purpose as well as class "A" funds from state apportionment. ap-portionment. Elaborating on the "B" and "C" classification of funds coming from the state, license fund, Mr. McLease explained that "B" money is to be spent on county roads and "C" on streets and roads within incorporated communities. However, under provisions of the LeeFreer bill, enacted by the last legislature, a city now may spend class "C" money on curbs and gutters of class "A" roads passing through a community, while counties coun-ties also may, spend class "B" money on class "A" roads, if they so choose. As a mark of respect for Laban Burt, a member of the Beaver Lions club, who had just received word of the loss in action of his son, Pfc. W'ard M. Burt, the group arose and observed a minute of silence with heads bowed. ; Following the dinner mieeting, the state and district road officers met with the Milford delegation for the purpose of discussing the railroad crossing problem which exists locally. Complete plans of surveys made some time eight years ago were shown and discussed dis-cussed under the able direction of Mr. Moffet, location engineer for the state commission. It was shown that about the only practical solution of the prob- lem would be the construction of an overpass south of the roundhouse, round-house, but nothing could or would be done until after the war is over. Since it would be necessary for the overpass structure to have 30 feet clt-aiance in the air and be 2000 feet long, the location south of the loundhouse would be the only feasible one, and this would almost certainly bring a re-routing of the state highway to bypass the town westward from the overpass. |