In the year 1932, heavy rains in the month of May, what remained of the old road at the Ladder Bay, was covered with rocks.
Ondergezaghebber (Vice Lt. Governor) X.H.C.M. Krugers in 1934 renewed the road, on the Ridge that is, with cement steps and walls, so that a curving road of 524 steps (200 meters) was made possible. The old historic road which was in the ravine on the left side of the new road was then abandoned.
Krugers also restored the Guard House, which before that time was a Police Station and Customs House.
Erroll Hassell served as a Local Councilor. There were two who advised the Vice Lt. Governor when budgets had to be approved. He like most other Saba men had visited the United States and other countries where there were motor vehicles. Each year the Council would meet to approve monies for the upkeep of the Public Roads. These were mostly goat paths. My grandfather James Horton Simmons and others would be obligated once a year to serve time in the upkeep of the roads. He would be offered the choice of five cents a day in cash or the equivalent in Rum. Horton had a bunch of daughters and chose for the five cents. Anyway, Erroll in July 1938 put his name on the road. Rudolph Johnson found it somewhere between the Fort Bay and The Bottom. When the budget was being approved Erroll suggested that ten thousand guilders should be approved to make a motor vehicle road to The Bottom. The Vice Lt. Governor thought he was out of his mind and turned it down. However, Errol insisted that the Governor on Curacao who had the final word should make a decision. The Governor must have lost his pen of correction and overlooked the budget, and it went to the Parliamentary Colonial Council for approval and there too it must have been overlooked. The money was approved by law and so could be used. My grandfather James Horton Simmons was paid sixty-five cents a day as a labourer and my father Daniel Thomas Johnson who was a foreman was paid two guilders and fifty cents a day and so in 1938 the road was started.
The Saba Islander 