The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-09-12
THE PUBLIC Be pANkED
SENTIMENT OF THE BARBER AS
PHALT PEOPLE EXPRESSED
IN THEIR ACTIONS
STREETS TORN UP FOR WEEKS
Because the City Cannot Force an
Early Completion of the Work,
No Effort Is Made to
Hurry Up.

Suffering humanity on Arundel and
Jackson streets have been complaining of
the way in which the Barber Asphalt
company is filling it's paving contracts.
The company has several jobs on hand
and seems to be trying to economic at
the expense of the serious inconvenience
of the residents along the streets, which
they have kept torn up for the last month
or two Small gangs of men have been
put to work, and they have completely
blocked traffic on the streets. Then later
the same gang starts over the entire
work again and PUTS down one layer or
makes some addition to the general work
all along the streets. Other contract
paving has been done in sections. disturb
ing block or two and completing it be-
fore taking up more, thus reducing the
inconvenience.
While the manner of doing the work
seems unbearable to those most interested
no legal solution of the annoyance seems
possible. Such a case has never con-
fronted the engineering department Of the
city before. the latter asserts In such
contracts the successful bidder is always
given stated period in which to do the
work, but it is understood that he is to
hurry matters as much as possible. On
the other hand the intention of the paw
ing company this time seems to be to take
all the time possible and only complete
the work at the last moment While they
have the legal right to do this the resi-
dents along the streets claim it is an in
justice to the community who are paying
them a fair price for the performance OF
the work, and which in return asks for
nothing more than fair trea tment
The Barber Asphalt company has done
great deal of work for tie city, bur
never before has it adopted this policy,
which does not carry the appreciation of
the citizens who are Inconvenience.
Acting Mayor Schlffmann took the mat
ter up with the city engineering depart
ment yesterday but without much salts
faction. as the city has no ho,d on the
contractors until the expiration of the
time limit, after which the company is
subject to a fine of So per DAY for each
Gay each piece of work left unfinished
AGGRAvATING CASES.
The most aggravating cases are Arundel
street and Jackson. On the latter street
for some weeks past all the retail stores
have been at considerable extra expense
-
half a Lock in some cases, except where
there happens to be a back alley The
extreme time limit is a little less than
seven weeks for work that has been done
again md again in less than half that
time. The company in the case of Arun-
del street have been able to grab another
two weeks beyond the limit Of forty daN.i,
as they commenced the blocking Aug. .
the date on which their contract was ex-
ecuted by the board of public works al
though the comptroller did not counter
sign the document until Aug il. which,
according to the contract. is the first of
the forty days.
RESIDENTS WHO COMPLAIN.
W. S. Thorne, one Of the residents Of
Arundel street. yesterday declared the
whole proceeding to be an outrage. He
said that when the street was first torn
up he inquired of the street boss how long
the work would take on Arundel street
and was told that 1t could be done easily
in less than a. week. That was over a
month ago, and only the substratum had
been laid so far.
A. L.. Stoughton, another resident of
Arundel street, when seen at the West
Publishing company's offices yesterday
stated that the delay had caused him
great deal of annoyance. 1t is impossible
to get any coal in for the coming winter
unless it be carried half block. He
said there was music all day long from
the Infatuated icemen, grocerymen, meat
men and other retailers as they carried
their loads from the side streets. They
seem to be the worst sufferers, IS their
routes occupy them several hours longer
each day owing to the unpaved streets
Engineer Clausen has protested to the
Barber Asphalt company against their
hardness, but without success. The COM
terial and that their plant in minneapolis
is undergoing necessary repairs.