Will Camden County Choose Paved Road or Not? Feb. 27, 1924

Road Across Camden By Belcross or Not at All. . . Page Emphatic in Statement That No Route Other Than Belcross Will be Considered and Camden’s Refusal Except Belcross Route Will Mean No Road

Does Camden County want a 16-foot road from the end of Project No. 110, the State bridge floating concrete road, across the county by way of Belcross, or does Camden prefer no paved road at all?

That is, in effect, the question that is put up to the Highway Commission of Camden by Chairman Frank Page of the State Highway commission in a letter dated February 25, and addressed to the members of the Camden road building body.

If Camden will provide a right-of-way without cost to the State, the State Highway Commission is ready. Mr. Page sets forth, to award the contract on the March letting for a 16-foot road from the end of Project No. 110 toward Sligo for a distance of approximately 12 miles.

But, unless the Camden Highway Commission meets the terms of the State Commission relative to the right-of-way, no contracts for road building in Camden Count will be awarded at the March lettings and nobody knows when any more roads in that county will be paved.

Moreover, Mr. Page wants it understood that if a road across Camden from the end of Project No. 110 toward Currituck Courthouse is ever built, it will be built by way of Belcross. This is most emphatically and directly set forth in the letter addressed separately to the several members of the Camden Commission. The letter follows:

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“This route is estimated to cost $47,000 less than some other suggested route, and is approximately 1 ½ miles shorter.”

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Elizabeth city, of course, is not interested in the Camden fight as to the route of a Camden County highway, but Elizabeth City is intensely and vitally interested in the early paving of a road across Camden County and on toward Currituck Courthouse and the Virginia line. And, inasmuch as the State Highway Commission is committed to the building of a 16-foot road “as far as the money will go,” it become apparent that Elizabeth City is also interested, as well as Currituck, in having the road go by the shortest route, since choosing the longer would shorten it by 1 ½ miles, or more the length of road paved in Currituck County.

Members of the Camden Highway Commission are: Edwin Sawyer of Belcross, chairman; W.A. Gregory of Shiloh, and Wiley White hurst of South Mills. From the front page of the Elizabeth City Advance, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 1924