PETITION ON RIVER ROAD.—Summer Residents and Farmers on the Highway North From This City Along East Bank of Hudson River Complain of Its Condition—Ask for Improvement or Reconstruction.Contending that their protests for the last three years have been unavailing several hundred farmers and residents of Schaghticoke as well as Trojans who own summer homes on the Upper Hudson have made preparations for a concerted effort to bring about either reconstruction or improvement of the River Road.Petitions containing hundreds of names have been prepared and will be sent to the New York State Commission of Highways protesting against what has long been termed a "deplorable highway" and local state representatives will also be petitioned in the interest of an improvement.The highway leads from what is known as the Horseshoe Road, along the eastern shore of the Hudson River, to Hemstreet Park, a settlement in the town of Schaghticoke opposite Mechanicville, a distance of approximately ten miles. The highway is much used, especially in the summer time. Residents along the road claim that little has been done to keep the thoroughfare in condition. Because of the soft nature of the soil the dirt road almost annually and sometimes several times during a year suffers from landslides and cave-ins. The petitioners contend that the only improvements to their knowledge consisted of the placing of a thin layer of gravel along the road from the old tollgate near the end of the Horseshoe Road to dam No. 1, about three miles north of the city line, about three years ago, and that a year later practically nothing was done except digging out three small slides. Last year about twenty loads of gravel were dumped on the road at the clay bank just north of Koolkill. At the Schwartz farm twenty-two canal boats of large stones were placed along the shore by the state authorities to prevent the backwater from washing out the bank.The road is of vast importance to the hundreds of persons who camp along the banks of the Hudson during the summer months and many of these complain that during last season a section of the road, for more than two miles, was in such a deplorable condition that signs were posted from May to October pointing out that the highway was closed and people traversing it did so at their own risk.Troy Times. January 17, 1920: 3 col 3.