The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-05
No CHEAP BIDS, THESE
COMMISSIONERS; STAGGERED BY
FIGURES ION STAIRWAYS
AND APPROACHES
ALL THREE BIDS REJECTED
Lowest Offer Received Was $273,227
and Highest Nearly 100000
Quarrymen Declare Them
Reasonable.

when the pie was opened and the
birds began to sing" the king, in the
classic nursery rhyme, for whose deIecta-
ton the dish had been served, was prob
ably no more surprised and taken back
than were the members of the state cap
1toL commission yesterday, when the bids
were opened for the granite stairway
terraces and approaches for the new
building. The figures struck them as
appallingly high. There were three bids
the lowest of which was that of 2. M
Hennessy, $273,22 Fhe difference be-
tween that and the next higher bid,
which was that of the Bhtler-Ryan COM
pany, was a mere matter of $l07,S73 the
latter company's figure being 1881, 100. The
other and highest I'D was that of
Charles S. Decks, 1892, 600. The work pro-
vided for in the specifications on which
these bids were based includes the ap-
proaches to the building, the steps, ter
races and balustrades. All of the pro-
posals were far in excess Of the estt-
mates made by Architect Gilbert.
When the bids were read, Commissioner
Corliss promptly declared that he would
not vote for any Of them, and moved
that they all be rejected.
Then followed a long discussion as
to possible alternatives in which several
quarrymen, who were present, were ask
ed to give their views. The specifications
designated Minnesota granite as the ma
teriaI to be used and the board desired
to ascertain If there was any other stone
than granite produced in this state which
could be made to answer the purpose.
John Clark, foreman for Mr.. Hennessy,
and whose opinion was generally deferred
to by the board members and others
present as a quarryman of many years
experience in this state, gave mis- views
raOnnSt He discussed the nTOOartiaG
of the various Minnesota sandstones,
and, in fact, the products of the Mime
sofa quarries generally, but finally ad-
Vtsed the board that as means of cut
ting down the expense he couI. only rec
ommend some modification of the spec
ifications as to THE surface dressing of
the stone to be- used in the approaches.
He would not advise any change OF ma
terial Walter Arnold, who owns several
quarries at and near st. Cloud, stated
that he had not put in a bid because his
equipment was not heavy enough to get
out the large stone required for certain
parts of the work. He thought that the
large size of the stone required was one
reason why the bids were so high. An
other reason was that a great deal of
the stone was to be dressed on four sides.
He offered to let amy contractor take the
required stone from one of his quarries
III SOllSlUOIdIlOIf u d. ldlE SluIHpdS0
or remuneration for the material taken.
George Reed, another quarryman, stat
ed positively that there was no other
stone than granite in Minnesota that
could be used for the work in question.
All Of these gentlemen stated that they
did not think the Ulds would have been
appreciably lower had the requirement
that the stone must be from Minnesota
been omitted from the specifications.
After this discussion, the board went
into executive session, and the result of
their deliberations was that all of the
bids were rejected, and the architect was
instructed to modify the specifications
and readvertfses for bids tt was decided
to accept alternative bids for other stone
beside Minnesota granite.
Only one bid was received for the $780,
600 OF certificates of indebt edness. That
was from State Treasurer julius B.
Block, who, on behalf of the commits
sioners appointed to invest the state per-
manent school fund, offered to buy the
certificate.