The herald., 1896-10-03
The Claim for $1,000 Extra Be.
fore the Council
INSPECTORS STATEMENT
He Says the Extra Foundations Were q
Necessity
The Superintendent Of Buildings and the
City Engineer Also Give Testimony.
Action Is Deferred.

The city council met in adjourned ses-
sion yesterday afternoon and spent an
hour or two in committee of the whole
in talking over the demand of John Reb-
man, the contractor who built the new
city Jail, for $S70444 for extra work on
the foundation of the structure. 1t has
been known all along. almost from the
time the first excavations were made.
that there would be some extra cost for
the foundation, owing to the fact that
the site was partially filled with debris,
but no one thought for moment that
the cost of this extra work would amount
to 10 per cent of the contract price of the
building. But it did, and when the de-
mand was presented the councilmen al
most fell in fit. The site is not par
ticularly favorable one, in fact, while it
is large enough for a central station for
years to come, the chances are that it
will be branch in q comparatively short
time, owing to the location, and when
the $4,000 demand came in after the COM
pletion Of the building, there was con-
sternation all along the line, and the
matter was deferred until the city en-
gineer and superintendent Of buildings
could do some figuring to see whether
there had not been some mistake on the
part OF the contractor.
Those officers had their figures ready
yesterday afternoon, and the council
proceeded to investigate.
Mr.. Strange, the building superinten-
dent, who drew the plans, made state
ment and submitted his figures. He ex-
planned how the foundations had to go
deeper than he anticipated, but said
that when the inspector, Engineer S. o.
Wood. had presented his figures, he
thought there must have been some mis-
take as to the quantity of concrete used,
and he had made some plans and done
some figuring, and found that the
amount given by the inspector was
substantially correct. He had made the
amount Of extra concrete necessary TO-
S0225 feet, as against 21,860.04 turned in
discrepancy might have been caused by
the closer figuring of the engineer.
Mr.. Wood then gave his statement.
He said that the foundation ad been
put in under his supervision, and that
his figures as to the extra foundations
were correct. There was much more
excavating than at first thought neces-
sary, and in some places it was neces-
sary to 60 down fifteen or twenty feet
one place a cesspool had been struck
and in others the lot had been filled in
with refuse, on which 1t was impossible
to get a solid foundation for as heavy
building as the Jail. Besides, the con-
tractor had put in several tons of old
wire cable and railroad iron to tie the
walls. He considered this necessary,
and the work had been done under his
direction.
Contractor Rebman also made state
ment to the effect that the material had
gone into the ground as the ex-
ira work had been all done by direction
of and under the supervision OF the city S
Inspector, he thought he should have his
money There were many difficulties
encountered in putting in the foundation
and he had done much work for which
he would never receive pay, but he was
willing to accept the engineers figures
and let it go at that.
After all the councilmen had gone on
record as being satisfied that Mr.. Reb-
man had done good Job, and had done
all the work for which he had put in a
demand, Mr.. .Kingery moved that the
demand be allowed.
President iced also took occasion to
pay Mr.. Rebman high compliment,
and said that he thought the claim a
just one. Still, as there had been some
criticism in the papers over the matter,
he thought it would be best to defer ac-
ton for a week. He believed, in view
Of the evidence. that the claim was a
just one, and he thought that the other
members Of the council agreed with
him. Still. he thought that the people
should be satisfied, and as no one would
be injured, he thought 1t best to defer
action, SO that If any one wanted to
kick, and could show that the claim was
not right they could do SO.
This seemed to be agreeable, and after
changing the time from q week to Tues