St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-02-28
And With Him the Monopoly
on the City's CURLING Con-
tracts Dropped.
Other Interesting Matters
Discussed in Yesterdays
Council Meeting.
Insurance Men Demand an In
vestigation Of the Fire
Department.
Louis Belts Says He Was I'M
posed On--General News
Of the Day.


roll call yesterday afternoon and put
away their pipes on President Potter
requesting all to cease smoking. 1t
soon became evident that members of
the council who went to Canada had
seen something new, and were deter
mined to introduce innovations. Cries
of Hear, hear" greeted every telling
point made by every speaker, and
whenever a member wandered from the
point under discussion, he was greeted
with an appeal for ''Order."
The struggle of the day was over the
award OF the contracts for curbing. The
Parkhurst combined curb and gutter
monopoly fought hard. but was whipped.
and It's mOuthpiece, Aid. Loye, sum-
marily sat upon.
When the report of the committee on
paving was reached in the regular
order of business 1t was discovered that
there were two reports, a ma Ority and
minority. The majority report, signed
by Aldermen Blichfeldt, Niichli and
Parry, was the one outlined in the
GLOBE of Wednesday morning and
recommended the award of the con-
tracts for about 10000 feet of natural
stone cdrbing to Ring d robin. and for
about 80, 900 feet Of artificial stone curb
ing to the Standard Stone and Side
walk Company. The minority report
was longer than the majority. 1t was
signed by Aldermen Loye and Flanders.
1t was in the interest of the Park
hurst company, manufacturers OF
patent combined curb and gutter. The
two reports were read and the fight
began.
The minority report recommended
that the contract be awarded to Ring d
TObin for all the natural stone curling
ordered by the old council, only COM
paratiyely small portion Of the whole.
and that all bids on artificial stone curb
ing be rejected and readvertised for.
Various reasons were given for this ac-
ton. The principal reason advanced
was that the city had not advertised for
straight artificial stone curb without the
gutter. Bids for combined curb and
gutter had been called for, and the
Standard company had accidentally
sent in bid on straight curbing. More
over, it was urged that the special as
sessments levied for artificial stone
curling could not be collected, accord
ing to the opinion Of the city attorney,
should natural stone be put in. Bllch-
feldt moved the adoption of the ma
jority report. Loye moved the adop-
ton of the minority report as Substi-
tute. Then the desks were cleared for
action.
President Potter. who had called Aid.
Barrows to the chair, was the first
speaker. He advocated the minority
report for the reasons set forth in that
report. Kiichli followed in long
speech supporting the majority report.
He accused the minority of the COM
mittee of working in the interest of the
ParkhurSt combined curb and gutter.
He didn't believe in freezing out every
body who bid on straight curb simply
because the city engineer had made
mistake and inserted the word 'com
bined" into the specifications. Aid.
Loye SHE'D his chewing gum into the
cuspidOr and began to reach out into
illimitable space for words in which to
defend his minority report. He wore
his most SuperciliOus smile, used his
most expressive gestures and appealed
to the world to uphold him in his fight
for the taxpayers. Aid. Parry followed
and declared uneQuivocally that Aid.
L0ye had made mis-statement every
time he tried to make any sort of
statement. Blichfeldt, MCGOWAN and
Reeves all spoke for the majority re-
port, and Kiichli again "came to the
center" He recited some history. At
the first meeting of the committee on
paving Loye opposed the postponement
of action on the bids. Loye wanted to
settle the matter then and there, fear
ing that the Parkhurst people might
suffer from delay. Now the Park
hurst people had failed and Loye
wanted to do the whole business over
again. Nearly every alderman made a
little speech. Aid. Loye emulated Ajax
in his historic skin-glove contest with
the lightning, and defied the whole
council. Aid. Haynes supported the
minority report because he believed
that the specifications were faulty. The
city attorney was called for, and First
Assistant Simson declared emphatically
that special assessments levied for arti-
fetal stone curling cannot be collected
on natural stone curbing.
The ayes and nays were called for on
the substitution Of the minority report,
and it was rejected, 10 to Is. Aid.
Flanders Immediately offered another
substitute in the shape of resolution
awarding the contract for natural stone
curling on Riverside avenue aud First
avenue northeast, where ordered by the
old council, to Ring Il Tobin, all the
other curbing to go to the Standard
Stone and Sidewalk company. There
was another debate on this resolution,
which had been prepared beforehand
by the minority of the committee for the
purpose of knocking out the Ring
q Tobn people. On all aye
and nay vote the substitute
was lost, to Is. Aid. Brazie then
moved to recommit the whole matter.
Bradish's substitute to defer action a
week was lost, II to IA. The question
required on the original motion to
adopt the majority report and the re-
port was so adopted, to Is. The ques-
ton was raised that two-third vote
was necessary on the award of con-
tracts, but the president ruled other
wise. Loye had voted with the major
lty that he might be able to give notice
of motion to reconsider. But Kiichli
was too quick for him. moving for i'm
mediate reconsideration. 1t was lost.
Parkhurst's ''cinch" was broken. Loye
rubbed his whISkerS and chewed gum
viciously. The aldermen WHO'D stood by
Parkhurst we're: Barrows, Haynes,
Lowell, Brazie, Flanders, Reeves, Farms
worth, Gray, Potter.