Arizona republican., 1903-09-02
CONTRACTS AND CONSTRUCTION
With Arthur P. Davis Re-
 spectins Storage Enterprise.

Arthur F. Davis of the geological survey arrived here yesterday morning and Is a guest of the Hotel Adams. | He expects to remain in the valley for about week, going from here to New Mexico for a day or two, thence to Denver, from there to the Irrigation congress at Ogden and then back to Denver for a consultation with the other engineers of the survey. and the reclama tion service and for considera- ton of the bids that have been asked for on the four matters to be later re- ferred to. About the first of October he expects to return to Phoenix and thereafter his headquarters will be here.
 MT. Davis yesterday gave an ex planation of the situation respecting construction that will clear the minds of the people here who have been more or less confused by the fact that Sec retary Hitchcock has not yet ordered the building of the dam, while on the other hand the preliminaries necessary to it's building have been energetically pushed. He said that the survey has been besieged by enterpriisng men who desired to furnish materials and that it was also desirable to have things ready as soon as possible. It was therefore on his own reSpOnsi- bility that he announced to the world that proposals would be received at the office of the reclamation service in Denver on or before September 21st for the construction of the cement mill building, for the furnishing of the ma chinery for cement manufa cture, for the building of the telephane line and for the building of the temporary power plant with steam and electric equipment the plant to be that needed for use in construction work; not the one that is hereafter to furnish cleo tric power for the valley. These bids are all subject to rejection by the gov ernment if the secretary so orders and as stated above are called for on MT Davis responsibility. After they have been received, and acted upon by the officers of the reclamation service. if satisfactory. authority will be asked of the secretary to execute contracts. The granting of that authority by the sec retary. would by inference at least, mean the construction of the dam- But the law places all these things in hands of the secretary and if he decides even after all the proposals are in that he does not want to construct the dam it will not be too late to declare if off. It is probable that the secretary will issue a formal order for the dam construction sometime, and very likely ccntemporaneously with his approval Of the contracts the reclamation ser vice will ask authority to make, if he does approve them. But when this will be cannot be said for 1t Is a matter for the consideration of the secretary alone. That MT. Davis feels sure that the preliminary work of the reclama- tion service will be approved and that the order for dam construction will follow, is patent or he would not be thus energetically rushing the work but he is careful in each interview to state that he cannot anticipate the orders of the secretary, nor speak for him in the matter of ultimate decision. He is proceeding with his part of the work as fast as possible and will con- tinue to do so until contrary orders are received. Like the people of this valley he is not only hopeful but confident that when affairs have progressed to the proper stage the formal order of the secretary will be issued.
 Respecting the activity at the basin it may be predicted that if it all goes well. there will be as large a force of men at WOfk there Dy the holidays as there will be any time during the construction. The latter part oi Sep tember will see the considera ton of the proposals on the preliminary enter prises named. It is to be expected that the following few weeks will see d final order from the secretary and the closing of contracts. This done the contractors will at once begin ac- tive operations and their respective enterprises will necessitate the employ ment of as many men. perhaps more. than the actual building of the dam which cannot begin for more than d year. It will be almost d year before the actual manufacture of cement can begin but long before that time there will be occasion for much freighting. The largest single item of freight will be that of fuel oil which will be re-
 quired in the manufacture of cement as well as in other operations. It is estimat ted that this will be approXi- mately 15000, ,000 pounds.
 In the matter of road building MT. Davis verified the previous announce ment that the road necessary to build for the construction of the telephone line and later the transmission line. has been definitely located via Fish Creek. The matter Of freight road, however, has not even been considered from an engineering standpoint; that is no sur,