The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-05-21
SanitayCOmnissiOn OisappOint-
ed BY Lack Of Competition
FIRMS COMBINE ON WORK
All Bids Referred to Construction
Committee, and the Matter viii
Come Up at the Meeting
In June.

The Jefferson County Sanitary Com
mission passed a resolution last night
refusing to accept or reject any or all
of the bids for the construction of the
trunk sewers of the big system which
will be built in this county. The bids
were opened at noon yesterday and this
action was the result Of the fact that
very little competition was manifested.
and because Of combination of inter-
ests by three firms.
The resolution refusing to act on the
matter stated that any or all contractors
might withdraw checks given as evil
dence of good faith and ability to make
bond in case the contract should be
granted them; and further stated that
action might be deferred for one month
or more. In executive session later a
resolution was passed referring the mat
ter to the committee on construction to
investigate and determine whether or
not the bids were low and on reason
able basis.
The Bids Opened.
The bids were opened at noon. Each
contractor submitted separate bids on
each section of work These bids in full
were as follows.
C. NJ. Burkhalter & Conc. l, s30,694;
No 2, $21,5SS.5O; No. 8, $19,s5s.6o; No. 4.
$50, 6661O; No. s. s25 400.
Dunn and Lallande Bros.-No. 1, $780,
07e.5O; No. .. s2S 42S.25; No. 3, s26,511.65.
Donelson Construction Conc. s, SPA
1855; No. I, S27,O61; No. s. S2,797.50; No. .,
s29, 6i35O; No. 10, $17121.
Lightning & Butler-No. I, $347O4; No.
8, $40, $685. No 9. s29.O76
Pennington Construction COMO. II,
1874 44S; No. II, sS2,171,5O; No. Is, 21,ooS5o;
No. IA, s2o,555; No. Is, $245S7.
The Southern Paving & Construction
Conc. 12 s34929; No. 49, $225l5.
BurkhaIter & Co. Lowest.
The lowest bids were C. NJ. Burkhalter
& Co. for the first five sections Donel-
son Construction Co. for the second five
sections, with the Pennington Construc-
ton Co. for the last FIVE sections. Meth
er com peted With the other in their bids
and all openly stated that on account Of
the enormous size of the contract they
could not undertake the entire job and
had agreed to bid only on portions of 1t.
They stated, however. that their bids
were very low and they had expected
competition from Chattanooga, Nashville
and other sources.
The full amount of the lowest bid open
ed would place the total cost of the trunk
sewers at 1886, 5i110. It Is estimated by
Engineer Kendric< that this amount
would be lessened by fully $4,000 on ac-
count of the fact that the amount of
rock estimated to be moved was larger
than is the case and not nearly as much
brick and cement work will be required
as is given in the specification.
The construction committee which will
investigate the bids Is made up of Mr..
Robert Jemison, Mr.. McAdory, Mr.. T. II.
Motion, Mr.. Nolan and Mr.. Gillespy.
They do not expect to be able to report
until the next regular meeting in June.
Bids Are Unsatisfactory.
The commission in executive session at
noon opened the bids for 100000 of the
bonds to be issued in payment of the
work. None of these bids were satisfac-
tory, however. and all were rejected. 1t
is understood that none of the bidders
offered the amount the commission
thought should be paid.
At the night session the question was
further discussed, and afterwards refer
red to the finance committee, of which
Mr.. Arthur w. Smith is chairman. This
committee will make a report at the next
meeting and 1t will then be determined
whether or not bids will again be asked.
Bids were entered by several persons,
but all were so made up that the commits
sion refused to accept them. Either not
enough was offered by each bidder or
some clause was attached to the bid of
each is the whispered cause of the re-
lection.