The Advocate and news., 1898-06-15
Pay for Work
Not Done.
The State Pays Its rIOney to Con-
tractors, But Gets Nothing In
Return for II.
THE RECORD DIsCREDITABLE.

900 and it was the same contract In
the letting OF which the plastering firm
of Hallahan & Kelly figured. At the
first opening of bids Henry Benefits
bid for carpenter work, taken with that
of Hallahan & Kelly for plastering,
would have been the lowest complete
bid. It will be remembered by readers
of the Advocate and News that Mr..
Kelly swore that his plastering bid was
withdrawn as a result Of deal made
with representatives of Fellows & Van
SAINT, who promised to and did give them
$500 more for doing this work than
their original bid amounted to- OF
course some means must in turn be pro-
vided by Fellows & Vansant to even up
for their liberality to Hallahan & Kelly.
The history of the completion Of the
work under the contract, which was
given to Fellows & Vansant at the sec
ond letting Of bids, will show how this
was done When the preparations for
work on the building began the archi-
teCt prepared an estimate showing that
93,775 worth OF work was necessary be-
fore the contractors could begin opera
tiOns. For this purpose 1t appears that
there was paid the following amounts:
$l,528.07, $1,582.9O, $3,373.26 $1,15926,
making a total Of $7,643.49 In q state
ment recently made by ex-State Archi-
tect Holland it Is alleged that these
amounts were not all properly charge
able to the account of the preparatory
work. II he is correct about the matter
then the only other account to which 1t
can reasonably be charged is that of
Fellows & Vansant under their first con-
tract. AS most Of these amounts were
paid for day labor this view would lead
to the belief that the State paid Fellows
q Vansant's employees for work which
that Arm was doing under a contract
with the State. AS matter of fact Eel
lows & Vansant lost nothing on the plas
tering deal with Hallahan & Kelly be-
cause they were given the contract at
$2,86S more than Hallahan & Kelly's
original bid and after fulfilling their
agreement to give that firm the work at
$500 more than their original bid, they
had a profit left amounting to $1,S6S.
This iR a pretty comfortable margih on
work which did not require the invest
ment Of single dollar In labor or ma
terial.
III addition to this the plasterers were
paid off when their work was not i'm
ished. The four air-shafts, which were
included in the contract were not
touched. There should have been 1888
yards Of Portland cement plastering In
these shafts. A reasonable estimate for
this work would have been 81 ,416. 1t was
not done at all and is not done to-day.
This was not all Of the plastering which
was omitted The ceiling in the south
basement, which should have been plas-
tered, was also left without anything
being done to it. BY failure to do this
work the contractors were saved about
STA. A nice strip Of plastering away
up In the dome was left undOne. 1t costs
money to work at that height. 1t takes
an army Of men to erect scaffOlds, hoist
material and do the work. 1t costs sew
eral times as much TO do work at that
height as 1t does to work close to the
ground. Work included In the contract
to the amount of $3.50 was left undone
up there. In addition, the plastering Of
sides Of the dome away up toward the
top above the diaphragm was not done.
This work would cost $100. 1t was In
an Out-Of-the-way place and it was very
convenient to overlook 1t. The State
is now having it done, and it is neces-
sary to pay the new contractors for do
ing It notwithstanding that Fellows &
Vansant had already received pay for 1t.
Two. jobs Of cementing were entirely
overlooked. 1t would have cost $1S1.32
to have done this work. The ceiling
under the floor of the rotunda should
have been plastered 1t was missed,
thereby saving to the contractors about
SIG.
But omissions to perform work In ac-
cOrdanCe with the terms of the contract
were equally numerous In other classes
nR .nrl,t.lL Among nhhnr Akinnn rnrnuidnd