Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-06-02
Bo4RD OFPUBLTC WORKS.

bpectoF 2a1RSc the Charges OF tyranny
He is to Resume the Work at Once or
the Contract Will bs Finished by the City.
At the regular meeting yesterday after
noon, the full board were present, with the
exception of President Harrington, who
was excused, and the following business
was transacted:
The assessment for grading Pleasant
| avenue from Sixth street to Ramsey street
| was completed.
The protest of thirteen property owners
| against the grading of Hoffman avenue
| the grades now established, was sent to the
council. the order for said grading having
| been recalled from the engineer.
The following were the bids for grading
Beech street: F. Boyer, $3.50; q.
$6,154; j. D., Moran, S4,495;
Moline and Andrew Ostend, $4,954; John
Gehrke, $780,; w. L. Norton, 1891; John
Fogelburg, $4,650. Awarded to j. D. No
ran.
The complaint that the sidewalk laid by
Peter Berkey in front of lots 10, IL and y,
Bronson's addition, was not laid to grade
tract, and also another on Partridge street.
was referred to the engineer for a report
of the facts
The award of contract for constructing
a sewer from Ninth to Tenth street for
$1,575, to Daniel Mullen, Jr., was recon
sidered and the bid rejected, the advertise
ment for bids being an error, the board
having no final order for the work
The Ordar 70 oonefr11nf -, n
Soto street was ordered returned to the
board.
protest against sewerage on Virginia
avenue was placed on file, and a protest
against grading Josette street also.
The vote in favor of grading Josette
street was reconsidered and an adverse
report ordered sent in to the council.
In list of property to be assessed
under sidewalk contract, the clerk was
ordered to procure abstract, and give
first notice. The walks are as follows:
Ramsey street, Fort to Forbes, Louis
street, Nelson to Rondo and Rondo to Car
roll, Michigan street, twenty one feet of
Western avenue; Dale street, Summit to
Marshall; Kent street, Dayton to Summit;
Chestnut street, north and south on Wash
ington street; Eighth street Robert to
Eagle, Third to Sixth and Fourth to Fifth;
Burr street, Hopkins to alley in block
9,Partridge to alley in block 5, and Wood
ward to alley IN block 8; Lafaye cite avenue
to Bruno, and on Robert street, Sixth, Min
nesota and Ninth streets and on SeIby ave-
nue..
A Voluminous document was received
by the board from j. j. Palmer, the con-
or q WY no
ment on Seventh street, stating that he had
been engaged in various cities in laying
pavements for thirty-five years, and com
planning of petty annoyances and tyran-
n.y. on the part of the city engineer and
inspector which delayed his executing the
work and resulted in seriols loss and dam
age to himself. He furthermore asserted
in this document that both the city
engineer and inspector were incompetent,
and that their interference was the result
of their Ignorance of the science of paving
of which he was a perfect master.
In addition to the papers presented by
the contractor, himself and son appeared
before the board, and about an hour was
consumed in the earring of the case. The
contractor stated that he had been tyran-
nized over by the Inspector, that he had
gravel between the blocks five times; that
he was obliged by the inspector to use too
large tamping bars for the space between
the blocks, and to sum the matter up into
nut shell, it appeared that the cause of the
controversy was determination on the
part of the contractor to go on and do the
work in his own particular style on &C
count of his superior knowledge of how
paving should be done, and to leave the
asserted incompetent city officers in es-
pecial charge of the work without any
more to say than Othello, when his ''occu-
patton was gone"
In this hearing it was brought out that
the engineer and inspector had been fully
up to their duties and no more in the
premises, and the contractor admitted that
when he obeyed their instructions he had
no trouble with them and experienced no
tyranny. They, it appeared, were bound
that the gravel used upon the works should
come within the size from pea to wal
nut. mot to exceed one inch in diameter)
and be screened to this size, according to
the specifications under which the contract
was awarded to Palmer, but he insisted in
throwing unscreened gravel, in bulk, upon
the blocks, some of which was as large as
mans fist, and what he could not dump
into the crevices, cart off at his leisure.
Mr.. Koch, of the board, said that he
passed over the work nearly every day,
and claimed that he had not only been
able to thrust light cane down between
the insterstices of the blocks on the COM
pleted work and touch the plank beneath,
but that instead of three inches of sand
being placed below the planking, in an
instance of personal examination, there
was hardly an inch below it as required
in the specifications. Mr.. Barrett, of the
board, substantiated Mr.. Koch in some of
these particulars, and stated that when
persons had spoken to those in charge of
the work in regard to looseness in construc-
ton therein, they had had opprobrious cpl
thets applied to them.
The result of the hearing was that the
board concluded that they had faithful and
competent officers in their engineer and
inspectors, and put down their foot on the
contractor and the tyranny complaint as
decidedly as a granger in new brogans
upon the first potato bug of the season.
The city engineer, it seems, demanded
of the contractor on Thursday that he
should remove the loose dump of promls-
cuous sized gravel stones from the blocks
ond t0 scraap oil tho eyraveI used aooordipt,