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What about costs? I have no idea how many millions it must be costing, but I am sure it is a lot! I dug through some of my old records and found that in 1855, the Union Grove Township Board authorized the Highway Commissioner to levy a tax of $275.00 to "build a bridge across
Rock Creek, where the road leading from Sterling to Fulton crosses Rock Creek in Union Grove Twp." I assume the bridge was built.
In 1878 the town board moved to build a new bridge for $1,600. That motion was defeated. It was then moved to borrow $1,600 to build a new bridge. That motion was also defeated. I don't know when they finally got their new bridge, but in 1892 they increased the road and bridge budget, so they could put a handrail on the bridge.
I suppose they needed a handrail, because by 1869 there was a sidewalk stretching from Morrison to Union Ville (as it was then called.) In 1871 the Whiteside Sentinel noted that "the new sidewalk was much appreciated."
Now let me explain--this wasn't just any sidewalk. This was a wooden sidewalk, and the Union Grove town board obviously didn't want anything happening to it. In 1869 they passed a resolution stating that any person driving or leading a horse or mule on the sidewalk would be fined $5.00. Half of the fine was to go to the township fund and half for repairs to the sidewalk.
The City of Morrison passed an ordinance in 1864 to build wooden sidewalks, but it wasn't until 1893 that an ordinance was passed specifying how the sidewalks were to be built. They were to be five feet, four inches wide and one-and-one-half inches thick. There were other specifications as to the foundation under them. The sidewalks on Main Street were to be eight feet wide. It was hardly worth drawing up the specifications, because in July 1900 a new, brick sidewalk was placed in front of two residences on West Main. In August a brick sidewalk was placed in front of 107 West Main.
In 1902, a number of Morrison business owners presented a petition to the Board of Local Improvement, asking that the two blocks of Main Street between Base and Cherry Streets be paved. There were to be two layers of brick, and they were to install curbs and gutters. The Sentinel had been publishing comments for several years about the poor condition of Morrison streets; they urged the City Council to pass the ordinance. The estimated cost was $6,822.09.
I guess it all worked out, because today the streets are paved or blacktopped, we have sidewalks, and they built the Lincoln Highway over Rock Creek. Who knows where we will go in the future? I guess it is all called progress--then and now.
I hope these Good Old Days stories, that I have had the privilege to share with you over the past few years, have brought you some enjoyment. I know I have enjoyed writing them. Perhaps, fifty or one hundred years from now, someone will write stories remembering the Good Old Days that we are living. Perhaps, something like--the year the Mustang football team was the best in the state!
Think of what those banners on Main Street say--Memories Are Made In Morrison!
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Op/Ed 
