Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1895-03-14
THE NEW COURTHOUSE.
SOMETHING ABOUT THE CONTRACT
GIVEN FOR ITS PLANS.
Architect Myers, of Detroit, Has Been
Paid $4,000 by the Commissioners,
Who Did Not Ask for Bids Bonds.
An Injunction to BE Applied For.

position by their hasty payment of $40,
900 to Architect Myers, of Detroit, who
was selected to furnish the plans of the
new courthouse. Local architects in
Wilkes-Barre and other parts of the
county are indignant at the shabby
treatment given them, and the press is
exceedingly severe in its criticism of the
unprecedented and unnecessary action of
the county officials in paying man an
exorbitant sum before he has rendered
any service.
From what can be learned the COM
missioners, during their tour through
the country viewing public buildings,
saw nothing that suited them better
than the one at Lansing, Michigan.
They hunted up the architect, who was
Myers, and did not conceal from him
their delight in finding an ideal building
for Luzerne. Without giving the tax
payers, the people who will be compelled
to furnish the money, any knowledge Of
their intention, the commissioners in
structed him to prepare plans, with
some slight alterations, and signed a
contract agreeing to pay him per cent
of the total cost of the buiding-esti-
mated by the commissioners at 100000,
but double that figure by others more
competent to judge the cost.
Myers has the reputation Of being a
shrewd financier as well as an architect.
He did not fail to notice that he had the
Luzerne commissioners "on string"
and in the contract he stipulated that
he be paid $4,000 in advance. A little
thing like that was unimportant in the
eyes of the commissioners, and upon
their return the money was promptly
paid. The report that this sum had
been donated to the architect before he
touched pencil for the plans leaked
out a few weeks ago, and the public
very naturally concluded that Myers
has taken an undue advantage of the
commissioners, has secured more money
from them than he is entitled to for the
labor he has performed, and has made
enough out of them so that if he choose
he can drop the contract right whore it
is, and, in the absence of bonds, which
the commissioners did not require of
him, they have no remedy. 1t is not
said that Mr.. Myers will do this, but it
is said that should he do so he would
have already made nice thing out of
his brief connection with the Luzerne
county courthouse that is to be.
One of the commissioners has admitted
that there is nothing to hold the archi-
tect to his contract except the contract
itself-nothing but the contract to pre-
vent him from dropping the work if he
choose to do so. OF course the commits
sioners have no thought that he will do
so, perhaps no one else has, it being re-
allied that he cannot afford to thus com
promise himself, still it is a possibility
that it would seem ought to have been
guarded against. The commissioners,
when they saw one building which he
had planned, were satisfied that he is all
right, and, being satisfied, they took his
word for the manner in which he should
be paid and gave him the money, as he
said it was customary for architects to
receive it.
failed to suit many who were anxious to
see the new courthouse built, and it has
strengthened the arguments of those
opposed to a new building. The arch-
tects of the county consider themselves
sighted by the commissioners, and
claim they could furnish equally as good
plans and designs as the $40, ,000-in-ad-
vance man from Detroit.
To offset some of the criticism the
commissioners announced they had ar
ranged with the architect to furnish
plans suitable for either the Square or
the river-common site. This not only
failed to allay suspicion, but aroused
new opposition. 1t is not known yet
where the building will be erected, and
the commissioners are awaiting a de-
cision from the court before making a
selection, but plans drawn for either
location cannot be used for the other.
The present site will require style of
architecture which would be entirely
out of place on the river common, and
in making the commissioners believe
that he could prepare one set of plans
equally suitable for both sites Myers
again demonstrated his shrewdness and
the commissioners display inexcusable
ignorance.
The action of the commissioners is
said to be the most unbusinesslike and
ill-advised proceeding ever known in
the county, and the indignation OF upper
end citizens has led them to prepare to
apply for an injunction to restrain the
county from erecting a new courthouse.
II this is granted the Detroit architect
will be $4,000 in pocket, but the tax
payers of Luzerne will be saved at least
one million dollars.
Yet there are some people in the lower
end who do not want to break away
from misgovernment and mismanage.
ment as carried on at Wilkes-Barre,