| Transcribed by Norma Knotts Shaffer from microfilm
of the Calhoun Chronicle dated 1/2/1941.
Can We Afford to do Without a New Court House?
(Illegible) column of the Chronicle will be found a call for an election
to ratify or reject a special levy of taxes for the next three years for
the purpose of helping the federal government build a new courthouse for
Calhoun County.
It is proposed to lay the following levies on each one hundred dollars
valuation: class I 4.7 cents; class II 9.4 cents; Classes III
and IV 18.8 cents, for the years 1941, 1942, and 1943.
More than $100,000 of the funds alloted by the federal government for
the courthouse and jail project remains unspent.
The levies proposed, based on the present valuation of property in the
county will raise about $12,500.00 each year.
No one can deny that Calhoun county needs a modern building in which
to house records of vital importance to every owner. A lighted match
or cigarette dumped in a wrong place and left to smolder may wipe out the
deeds, leases, contracts, and other records that have been accumulating
for some eighty-five years. This is the big reason why Calhoun should
have a modern, fire-proof courthouse.
Next of vital importance to taxpayers of the county is the fact that
the present building is entirely too small to house county offices.
About $3,000 a year is being paid by the county court for outside office
rooms which are required by law to be furnished for various agencies such
as the DPA, board of health, state police, WPA, board of education, NYA,
etc. A saving of those rents amortized over a period of a few years
will pay the taxpayers share of the new building.
The Chronicle does not kid itself about these expenditures of federal
funds. The fiddler must be paid to dance. Our idea is that
if we go thumbs down on this federal money alloted to Calhoun county it
will be used to build a swimming pool in Kankakee, Iowa, or some other
seaport.
The proposed levies will cost taxpayers each year for three years about
this way:
A man with $1,000 in the bank, 47 cents.
A man with a home or farm assessed at $1,000, 94 cents.
A merchant, gas station operator, or anyone trying to turn an honest
dollar, with an assessed valuation of $1,000, $1.88.
Another thing to think about is the employment situation in Calhoun
county. Calhoun county has no factories, mines, or industries to
take up the slack. Men and their families must be fed and clothed.
The courthouse project will give employment to a large number of men who
otherwise will be idle.
If Calhoun county does not heed this knock of opportunity at the door,
we will never be able to have a modern courthouse. | 
