Omaha daily bee., 1889-07-28
MAJOR BALC0NBE WAS HOT.
He Executes War Dance on
Cedar Block Pavem ant.
GOOD CAUSE FOR BEING WRArHY
The Rottenest Kind of Material Bein q
Used by Negligent Contractors
In Various Portions OF
the City.


by the eternal, this thing must be
stopped An outraged public can't stand
such imposition any longerr'
The speaker was Chairman Balcombe, of
the board OF public works, and he was on
the war path.
When discovered bv a BEE reporter at 2
o'clock he had his fighting clothes on and
was executing war dance on the Cedar
block pavement between Seventeenth and
Eighteenth streets, on Clark, and singing a
war song, the text Of which would not read
we'll in Sunday morning paper.
The cause of the majors wrath was the
discovery that the contractors who are lay
ing the pavement on this street had made an
attempt to wiring in lot of rotten paving
blocks on the job.
at is time a halt was called" continued
the major, when questioned concerning the
trouble; Such robbery must be stopped,
and will be II there is not another yard OF
pavement laid in this city this year. I've
telcphoped for FuraY and Tiilson, and they'll
be here in a minute"
They came.
The city engineer was bubbing over with
anger, nnd'wanted to speak, but was awed
into silence by the abundance of vigor-
GUS English that was let loose by
the two majors. Fifty men who were en-
ployed on the work gathered around the two
their burning denunciations.
After Major Balcombe had cooled down q
little he explained the trouble and its cause.
He had discovered that j. E. Riley & Co.,
who have The contract for paving Clark
street from Twenty-fourth to Sixteenth, and
j. I3. Smith & Co., who have the contract for
paving Tweuty-fourth to Spaulding, and
Spaulding to the Belt Line railway, have
been using cedar blocks that do not conform
with the specifications adopted" by the board
of public works.
1--WE have had trouble all this season with
these contractors. They have made all man
ner of promises and have broken them
with impuni,y and becoming regular,
The the work on on Clark " street they
were using the poorest kind of blocks. We
stopped them. The board then held meet
ing, and had about decided to condemn all Of
the cedar and cypress poles in the city that
are used for the manufacture of paving
blocks. The contractors agreed to furnish
better material, and we allowed them to go
on. They furnished decent material for a
few days, not good blocks by any MEANS but
passable ones. To-day, however. came out
ard found them using this stuff" and the
major pointed to a pile of blocks that he had
kicked to one side of the street.
What's the trouble with the blocks!"
asked the reporter, innOcently.
Great Caesar, man, are you blinds' inter-
iected Major Furay. IF you can't
see anything wrong, smell them.
They're so rotten that they stink"
''rhe whole trouble is right here" said
Chairman Balcombe. 1.-The men who fur
nish these blocks have bought lot of second
hand cedar some place, that they are trying
work in on these jobs. The specifications
call for blocks made from live, sound cedar
posts. these contractors have lot of
stunted, rotten poles that they are saving
up for use on these jobs The cedar was
bought from culied lot or from dead timber.
You will find that almost every block shows
worm traces and other evidences of decay.
Even the blocks that look sound are
them, and an examination will show
that the sap has already commenced to rot
and the blocks are pithy and soft"
"Whay per cent Of them are in this condi-
tionr'
~ am not given to exaggeration and will
put it at 80 per cent. AS matter of fact
however, l am sure that if a proper examina-
ton were made we would find that fully rs
per cent of the blocks are unfit for use. If
decent material were used we would not
have to reject more than per cent of the
material offered.
IF we allowed them to go on
with this kind of material, the
pavement would be rotten and would go TO
reject at least 10 per cent Of all the material
offered by the contractors this year, and in
this case it is all worthless"
What will you do about the present state
of affairss"
'We have ordered both J. b. Smith & Co.
and J. E. Riley & Co. to stop work on their
cedar and cypress blocks, and we will see
that DO more work is done unless proper ma
terial is furnished"
j. K. Riley & Co. have the contract for
laying all cedar block pavement on sand and
plank at Sl.341s Der square yard, and j. Is,
Smith & Co. for all cedar block pavement on
concrete at $l.6l per square yard.
Major Balcombe states that no complaint
has been made against the size of the block
used or the manner in which the pavement
is beng laid. The trouble has all been
caused by the defective material that the
contractors have attempted to use.