Daily inter mountain., 1900-08-02
CONTRACT FOR
FIRE STATION
AWARDED LAST NIGHT TO A. w.
PRICE By A VOTE OF SEVEN
TO SIX.
HAD WITHDRAWN HIS BID
TO COPY IT on TYPEWRITER.
Circumstance Occasioned q Hot Debate
Smallpox Settlement Routine
Business.

After very warm QeDate, tne cfty
council last night, by vote of to s.
awarded the contract for building the
! Quartz street fire station to A. w. Price.
his bid being the lowest.
For time, it looked as though all the
bids would be rejected. Macarthur leading
the fight against Price, while Mcconnell
; led the winning side.
Bids for constructing the fire station
were duly advertised for, and all were to
be in by O'Clock last night. Four bids
were sent in, among them one from Con-
tractor Price. He came around to the
council chamber early last night. and
met Architect Carter, who drew the
plans. The latter was aware that Price
was bidder, and in their conversation,
the architect told Price that he should
have sent his bid in on a typewriter
form which had been prepared. and going
UP to his Office. gave Price one. The con-
tractor Immediately withdrew his bid
from Clerk Callan, and going over to the
Butte hotel, copied his bid on this form.
He then returned to the chamber and
handed in the bid, the council being in
session at the time.
When the reading of the bids was called
for, Clerk Callan reported that he had
received four, but that one Of them was
sent in after O'Clock.
The architect informed the council that
this particular bidder had put his prop
osition in long before o'clock and had
withdrawn it merely to copy it upon the
regular form.
Upon the explanation, and upon
MayOs motion, it was decided to open the
bids, which were as follows:
Shackleton & Whitehill, complete. .$13,2 ,2S9
Shackleton & Whitehill Qess the
4 plumbing) ........ ................ 1887
Dolan & Hamill ..................... 13, 400
Burke & O'Connor .................. A,4S6
A. w. Prlce ...................... H,iSo
/ As soon as it was learned that the low
est bid was the one that came in late the
trouble commenced, some of the members
showing disposition to throw all the
bids out.
Mr.. Price was present, and being
granted permission to speak, made brief
explanation as given above.
Then several members and the mayor
Criticised the architect for interfering in
the matter, but all exonerated Mr.. Price
from any improper conduct.
! Macarthur finally made a formal motion
that all bids be rejected. Last year the
precedent was esta blished that all bids
must be in by 8 O'clock and on that occa-
sion bids for 5000 were thrown out Be-
sides that question, he believed these
| bids were an rather high, and the check
of Mr.. Price, accompanying his bid, was
not certified.
Evans made brief but pointed and
vigorous reply. He maintained that the
withdrawal of the bid merely to copy it
on form was immaterial and as to the
check, it was given by Mr.. Hodgens
cashier of the State Savings bank, and
was the same as the money. He believed
it the duty Of the council to accept the
lowest bid in the interests of economy
and looked upon the objections as mere
quibbles
i City Attorney Lamb being asked for ar
opinion, said that while the check in this
case was not certified, 1T conformed sub.
stantially to the requirements. 1t was q
deviation, but the council had before this
taken the cash in lieu Of a certified
check.
The motion to reject all bids was ther
put and defeated by this vote: Ayes
Congdon, Dempsey, Macarthur, Page
Siebenaler, Smith-6. Noes-Bausman
Elderkin, Evans. Gleeson, Kroger. Nc
ConneI. Mayo.
: The contract was then awarded to Mr.
Price by the same vote.
The special committee appointed t
and arrange for a settlement of the con
troversy with regard to the expense o
treating smallpox patients, and also witl
regard to the poll tax fund, reported a.
follows:
with the purpose in view of effectin,
an agreement relative to the expense o
the recent smallpox epidemic and to ad
just the road tax question, which haa
been a matter about which the count,