The New York herald., 1879-01-04
PARK DEPARTMENT.

THE CONTRACTS FOR RIVERSIDE DRIVE AND THE
MUSEUM OF NATURAL HIsToRY-A COUNTER
ON MR. LANE.
The Commissioners of the Department of Public
Parks held stormy meeting yesterday. Commits
soner Lane took aggressive part and taunted his
colleagues upon the recent developments OF the
Riverside avenue improvement The subsequent dis
cussion took lively and personal turn, may be
inferred from the following minutes of the proceed
ings which furnished to reporters--
Acting upon the report submitted at the last meet
ing by the Commission of Civil Engineers upon
the manner in which the contractors-Messr
Decker & Quintard-had performed their contract on
the Riverside avenue improvement. and which
fected adversely the superintcnding engineer,
President wonman offered the following resolution.
which unanimously adopted:--
gluecr appointed investigate the conduct OF the work Of
Riverside drive thai in of The lax supervision
opinion Board Engineers performed By the
% s
the depa rtrnsnt in the same therefore, -.
copy of this preamble and the said supcrin
tending engineer. and notify him 70 appear before this
and no wish make why he ,hord
engineer
THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY.
After the passage of the above resolution discussion
arose of protracted and acrimonious nature IL was
urged the side that certain Irregularities had
transpred in regard the granting of contracts par
ticularly in the Of contract work awarded
for the repairs OF the Museum Of Natural His
tory. 1t has been alleged that the bids for
this contract had nll been sent in according to tho
regular routine. Messrs. Bransdorf Metz, furni-
ture dealers being the lowest bidders they contract
ing to perform the work according to the specifca-
ton for 81 5l5. The Board disposed OF the contract
In their favor. Some days subsequently, alleged,
Commissioner Lane Informed his colleagues OF tho
Board that he had received bid tor the work from
firm in East broadway. but he had inadvertently
failed to place IL record He advised that it
then too late to reconsider the subject, that
any subsequent action would be irregular and ile-
gal. Undetcrrcd by this warning IL is alleged that
Commissioner Lane overruled the previous actions of
the Commissioners. and awarded the contract to tho
East broadway hrm. whose bid was 81 lower than
that of Brsunsdorf N Metz. This action tho part
Of Commissioner Lane gave deep offence to his
brother commissioners and led to an official inquiry
~ TO it's Legitimacy. Commissioner Conovcr by
mutual consent appointed umpire. and lie proceeded
20 take testimony and reported the result OF his in
ycsiigations TO the Board yesterday Commissioners
Conovcr concludes his report by sayng:-
fail TO find any such power. au,horty recognition Of
law as Lane by his deposition arrogates to
tonary power awarding work parties applying for
he IL his judgment deem for the hes, interest Of the
cannot agree with Commissioner Lane when he
that the object OF Obtaining estimates IL that may bc
guide for the arriving a, whai fair price al
which TO award the work.
ACTION or THE BOARD.
After the reading and acceptance OF the above re-
port Commissioner Conover offered the following
resolution, which was adoptcd:--
Resolved That the President bc requested to confer with
the Counsel To the Corpvration submitting 10 him all the
papers connection with the work on for Museum Of
as TO che duty the depsrmsnt 10 view Il a the sc,s in
the case as 10 the Board this day presented
The following resolution was offered by President
Wennan and adopted by the Board
Resolved, That a special committee be appointed TO
eonsdsr ssd report Tor shs confederation of lie Board