St. Paul daily globe., 1893-12-09
Tue ACME COMP ANY WON.
VAN SLYKE ALONE VOTED IN FAVOR
or SEEGER.
OLD CONTRACTOR DIES HARD.

The Joint Committee of the Com
mon Council, After Listening
to Arguments of the Acme
Company and Robert Seeger,
Decides by Vote of Five to
One in Favor of the Former.
By vote of five to one, the special
joint council committee yesterday after
noon recommended the awarding of the
contract for lighting the gasoline lamps
for 1894 to the Acme Vapor Stove COM
pany. The committee was appointed
for conference owing to the board of
aldermen and assembly not being able
to agree as to the awarding of the con-
tract. The board of aldermen passed a
resolution rejecting all bids, and di-
recting a readvertising for proposals for
the reason that the bid only called for
$500 lamps. when in the opinion of the
board at least 3,700 lamps would be
needed. The assembly put aside the
action of the aldermen, and by vote of
Z to awarded the contract to the Acme
company as being the lowest bidder.
The aldermen refused to concur, or.
rather, sufficient number voted so that
the contract was not awarded. TO set
tie the difficulty special committee of
three from each body was appointed,
consisting of Aid. Cullen, Copeland
and Montgomery and Assemblymen
Schuette, Lightner and Van SlYke. and
these gentlemen held the session of yes
terday.
Mr.. Seeger said that he had been in
business for twenty-five years. and for
twelve years had done the lighting for
the city. To the best Of his knowledge
and belief the firm known as the Acme
company could not do the work if the
contract were awarded to it, owing to
the time being so short that they could
not secure the necessary burners and
attachments. He advised the readyertis-
ing for new bids under two contracts,
one for sixty or ninety days and the
other for ten or nine months. This, he
said, would give the bidder who secured
the contract chance to make the
change and secure the necessary burn
ers and attachments. In the meantime
he would agree to lightly the city for the
next sixty days at rate not to exceed
SLIP per lamp. The burners and
attachments now used by him
were his own property, and
he claimed the city would not
be lighted after the 1st of January, as it
would be impossible for the firm seek
ing the contract to make the change or
secure the necessary appliances between
now and the end of the present month,
when his contract expired. There was
some question raised by the members of
the committee as to the position taken
by Seeger regarding the ownership, of
the attachments on the lamps; but O
perusal of the contract of 1890 between
Seeger and the city carried out his
statements. Mr.. Lightner said this did
not cut any figure IN the present discus
sion, the main question being whether
| the contract should be awarded to the
lowest bidder.
Jacob Heilbron. manager for the Acme
Vapor Stove company, explained to the
committee that he would have every
thing ready to light the city on the
night of Jan. 1, and as fast as the burn
ers and attachments were removed by
Seeger he would have others placed In
position. He also stated that the firm
he represented was willing TO have a
supplemental provision in the contract