The daily gazette., 1883-03-06
A QUEER Way OF BlDOING.
The True 1nwArdness of the Awarding of
the "Contract " for the Bridge.

the Contract - for the Bridge.
Thomas NJ. ogle made the following
statement to GAZETTE reporter yesterday
regarding the awarding of the work OF
building the bridge to Philip Quigley SIN
1857 was called upon by the gentlemen in
terested In the erection Of the Third street
bridge to go to Dover aud assist them In
getting the bill passed. 1t was finally
agreed in the Senate, (the bill having passed
the House) that those asking the erection
of the bridge should secure the payment for
bridge similar TO the one over the Chris
tiana at Market street. The bill in this
shape was passed, and agreed to by the
House, the understanding being that the
Levy Court should build the bridge as soon
as 1t should ascertain what the
cost would be TO build bridge
similar to the one at Market street.
That was the positive understanding. The
Levy Court met and appointed Messrs.
Hawkins, Derringer, Hollingsworth, ,Zebley,
Bellville and McClelland as a committee on
the bridge They notified me as a bridge
builder to be present at a meeting Of the
committee which was held at the foot Of
Third street in an old office which stood
there at that time. ! attended and the
proposition was made to build bridge sim
liar to that over Market street. | said
1t should have improvements such as the
Market street bridge did not possess. Mr..
Quigley was the only other bridge
builder present. Tommy Writ, pile
driver, estimated that the Market street
bridge would cost $4,000, but that
had nothing to do with my bid. Mr. Quig-
ley then produced plans of the Penrose
ferry bridge, which he had built, and all ex-
cept the Levy Court were invited to with
draw. After time we were told to come
In, and found that the Penrose ferry plans
had been adopted. | asked, Where will
the plans be placed, so l can make my
specifications and bldg Mr.. Quigley an
swered, You can't get that PLAN asked
why and Quigley said, THE plan belongs to
me and you can't make specifications from
that PLAN said the Levy Court should
pay him for the plan, but he said the plan
was his private property and threw other
hinderaDces in my way. ] went up to
the Penrose ferry bridge with A. d..
Barrett and George G. Lobdell and having
carefully measured 1t / made my bid for
S25, 900 and put IL in at an adjourned meet
ing held in Squire Stats Office in the old
market house on Fourth street between
Market aud Shipley. City Council met the
committee, and after they were through ]
handed my bid to Bronough M. Derringer,
and that was the only bid handed in. Mr..
Hawkins went into the inner room where
the committee sat, and he was In there 10
or 15 minutes Then he came out and took
a seat beside Mr.. Quigley, who was also
present, and they had q consultation In
which Mr.. Quigley persisted in refusing to
put in bid, and Mr.. Hawkins seemed 10
be persuading him to do so. OF course then
Mr.. Quigley knew what my bid was.
No decision was made, and three
or four days afterwards met
Mr.. Quigley and | said suppose
you are going to build the bridge He
said, No, you know am no bidder for the
work. In day or two heard he had the
contract, met him and asked him II 1t
was so. Ne answered that 1t was, but mot
at my bid He then said he had agreed to
take the job If they would agree to give him
81 500 additional over my bid for
putting cap over the centre
pier. My contract took into consideration
the approaches to the bridge, but Mr..
Quigley, who had the contract, built the
bridge and left 1t with no approaches at all,
which cost the county, the city and the
Railroad Company, $1,000; and then, in
my opinion the bridge was not half built.
The contract was secured for Quigley
through Mr.. Hawkins, and him alone.
While the bridge was being built met Mr..
Ouigley and offered him 5000 for his con-
tract, and he refused it he seemed to take
It as a joke, but meant 1t; know he made
$40, 900 out of the job"