The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-16
GRAVEL COSTS TOO MUCH.
COMMISSIONER KEHOE WILL RE-
FUSE TO APPROVE BILLS FOR 1T.

1t Was Not Measured and Inspected,
lie Claims, as Required Under the
Contract - Signatures of Three
commissioners, However, Make
the Bills VnlId-SayS Chatham
should Not Pay More for the
Gravel Than Richmond County.
More About the Convict whose
Fine Was Paid.
Commissioner william Kehoe continues
to take active issue with other members
of the Board of County Commissioners
with regard to certain matters with which
that body has to deal.
Just at the close of the meeting of the
board Thursday afternoon he called up a
matter with reference to a convict being
brought into the city, which the other
members of the board present did not
seem inclined to hear, and it was not
further pressed. An account of the mat
ter was published in yesterdays Morning
News. together with the statement that
the mans fine had been paid by Mr.. w.
F. Chaplin, superintendent of public
works, for whom he is working.
1.-THE facts of that matter were not cor
rectly stated" Commissioner Kehoe said
yesterday, land 1 would like to have an
account of the whole matter given to show
just what I complained of. The convict
in question, Neptune Golden, as l learned
on investigation, was sentenced from the
City Court to pay a fine of $25 and costs,
or serve twelve months. This was on Oct
5, 1897, and on that day he went to the
chain-gang. According to the report TO
me from Quartermaster ]. j. Stevens, Col
den was absent from the camp from about
Jan. 7, except on one day in February
when he returned and got pair of Shoes
and then came back to the city. The rec
ord shows that his fine was not paid until
March %, 1898, and that is the day on
which Quartermaster Stevens discharged
him by orders of Mr.. Chaplin. The fine
was not paid until began to make an in
vestigation of the matter"
With reference to the Augusta gravel
matter, Mr.. Kehoe said he had found by
actual computation that the gravel COM
pany is charging Chatham county about
10 cents per cubic yard more for the paw
ing material than is charged to the people
of Richmond county.
1--WE are paying $1.20 a ton for the mate
rial" he said, while Richmond county
pays 68 cents. This is per cubic yard de-
llvered. Taking off the freight payed by
each county 1t will be found that we pay
the company As cents per cubic yard while
Richmond county gets it for 80 cents. That
is why L say We ought to find out why
the Chatham county dollar is not just as
good as the Richmond county dollar 1
do not see why we should pay those peo-
pie any more profit on their material than
does Richmond county. Yet we have been
doing it right along, and the board does
not appear to mind the expense. But
when 1t comes to making the county poor
fund $1,000 instead of 81, 900 and recognizing
the poor in the city as poor of the county
as well, for such they are, the board re-
fuses to do it, though heretofore the
board has appropriated from $1,000 to 5000
year for the county poor
L do not propose to approve any of
the bills of the gravel company which
have been presented 10 us, and some of
which have been paid, because L consider
that the contract has been violated. There
is in the contract this provision: The
county will make monthly payments for
the material furnished, and win cause the
quantity of each car load to be measured
on arrival by duly appointed officer.
whose certificates of measurement SHAH
~ o'NH'~iiou " edCAl HOntnly claim Tor
payments
'As a matter of fact, there has never
been any such officer and there is NOT
attached TO a single one of the bills any
certificate showing whether we received
the amount paid for or not The whole
thing has been taken simply upon faith.
and L do not consider that a very good
way of doing business, especially when il
is being done for the public When the
matter came up in caucus l insisted thar
Mr.. w. F. Brown the county engineer.
he designated as the officer to make the
measurements required under the contract,
Being the engineer, L considered that he
was the proper person for that duty The
chairman shut me off with the remark
that | was out of order. Therefore no
provision was ever made for measuring the
gravel we received, and it has not been
done in accordance with that specjdca.
ton.
"Of course, the bills have been paid.
most of them, and the others probably
will be paid. 1t requires the signatures
of three members of the board to make
the bills complete, and two members CT
the board have already signed them Tns
chairman's signature will complete the
approval of the bills. but as a commits
sioner and as a member of the commit
tee on accounts of the board, I do nor
see how can sign them We do not
know whether we have received what we
paid for or not 1t is this loose manner
of doing business that 1 complain of"
----s--o-s--
For Selling without a License