Large sums given for unemployment

Money is coming into Clarke County for unemployment relief for all the new projects getting underway. Seventy unemployed would have jobs that would last seventeen weeks.

All of that is at no expense to the community, the entire cost being furnished by the federal government. The money from the Civil Works Administration is the government’s huge proposal to put a large portion of the unemployed of the country to work on federal financed public works. Money was to be allocated with a lavish hand. County and city officials made every effort to get a much for Clarke County as possible. All but one project of those asked for were promptly approved.

Members of the county board of supervisors, mayor, city council and county engineer gained approval for nine relief projects for which the government would pay more than $25,000, this is addition to the grading and surfacing of several miles of county truck highways and by the highway commission. 136 men in addition to those employed by the highway commission projects would be given work. Unskilled labor to work 30 hours per week at 50 cents per hour on all this work.

Seven of the nine projects would be in Osceola and include the resurfacing of Main Street through the city, work on the cemetery, extension of water mains, grading and surfacing of four blocks of city streets, repairing concrete paving and cleaning city water tank and septic tanks.

The county projects included the operation of two Clarke county stone quarries and surfacing of four miles of county road from Highway 34 south to one mile north of Lacelle.

The cemetery will be fenced, terraced and landscaped under the direction of the cemetery board. The new city reservoir fenced, four blocks of water main to be laid and some dirt streets graded and drained preparatory to surfacing with crushed rock. The estimated labor costs in the city would be in the neighborhood of five or six thousand dollars with the cost of materials coming from a different source from the government.

The work to be of the greatest benefit to the city was of resurfacing of Main Street. The brick has been in place for many years and under the pounding of heavy traffic has become very rough. The brick will be taken up, concrete base and sand cushion laid and the brick turned over. The brick cleaning machine invented by local resident Otho Griffin in the 1930’s was used to clean the bricks. The machine had brushes, pulleys, and a pancake type turner which turned the bricks over for the cleaning work.

When completed it would be as good as new paving. A greater portion of unemployment in the county will be relieved with those projects and if may be that every unemployed man in the county who can work, will be made self-supporting through the winter. - 1933