The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-07-22
CONFERRED ON PAVING
Council and Other City Officials Met
Saturday Night.
Action to Be Delayed Until More Infor-
mation Is Secured.
From Mondays Daily.

Auas evening Dy tHe uluelllen ana
members of the board of public works
and the city attorney to talk
over the paving situation. 1t developed
that information has been received from
the Mccarthy Improvement company
that it has never laid any asphalt pave
ment anywhere and that it is a brick
paving company that is about to branch
out and do asphalt paving also, as the
demand for asphalt pavements is becom-
ing so great all over the. country The
company has ordered a full outfit of
paving utensils and machinery, which it
expects to receive July 9th, and if it
was to secure the contract for paving
Front and jackson streets, for which
it is the lowest bidder, it would do it's
first work here. 1t proposes to use GER
tain kind of California asphalt, and to
employ experts who have worked for
other paving companies.
The board of public works has been
trying to find out whether this kind of
asphalt is as good as Trinidad Pitch
lake or Bermudez or other well known
kinds. That on Broad street is Trinidad
Pitch lake and is giving splendid salts
faction. Then, again, if the kind of as
phalt proposed to be used is all right,
there is the question whether it would
be well for the council to allow the COM
pany to do its first work in Mankato,
and experiment, as it were, on two of the
principal streets.
The Mccarthy company failed to fur
nish the bond required in the call for
bids, or twenty per cent of the amount
of the bid. 1t should have furnished a
bond for $4,000, but did not employ a
local attorney and made the mistake of
presenting bond for only $4,000 There
is a question whether, not having COM
piled with the requirements in the
specifications, its bid should be consider
ed at all, as being an unlawful prefer
ence. 1t failed in another respect, also,
and that was in not having samples of
the brick bid on for the cutters present
when the bids were opened. This is not
so serious, however, as the brick arriv-
ed later and are of excellent quality, be-
ing the burlington repressed brick from
Galesburg, Ill.
The next higher bid after the McCar-
thy company was presented by the Bar
Der company, its bid being $4,000 higher
for Front and jackson streets than that
presented by the Mccarthy company.
Under ordinary circumstances there
probably would be little hesitation in
rejecting the Mccarthy company's bid
for the reasons that it has never laid
any pavement and that its bond is in
sufficient, and awarding the contract to
the Barber Asphalt company, the next
highest bidder This is what almost
any individual would do in his own
case, but the council realizes that if
it were to do this it would start howl
from a few who are looking for a
chance to make as much trouble as
possible. The Barber company laid a
pavement on Broad street that almost
every citizen would like to have dupli
Gated on Front and jackson, with brick
cutters, and it is likely that the great
majority of the property owners would
prefer to have the Barber company do
hon hot
should be done by company that has
never laid any asphalt pavement. Of
course, it might be possible for the
city to secure the services of an expert
as a superintendent, if the Mccarthy
company did the work, but there would
always be the question whether much of
the work was not experimental in its
nature. On the other hand, the McCar-
thy company might do an excellent job,
hoping to establish reputation upon
which to secure future work. The COM
pany has a contract to do some paving
in its home city, Davenport, Iowa, this
year, also.
No action was taken Saturday night,
but it was decided to wait for a few
days. Some advocating rejecting all of
the bids and advertising for new ones,
in the hope that the injunction suit hav-
ing been decided favorably to the city
lower bids might be secured.
Some advocated calling the property
owners together to get an expression of
opinion as to which company they prefer
red to have do the work, the Mccarthy
or the Barber About the main thing
to be ascertained about the Mccarthy
company is as to the quality of the as
phalt which it proposes to use. AS a
brick paving company it has good
standing, and the brick which it pro-
noses to furnish are first class. If the
officials could be assured that 1T VIII
Law as satisfactory an asphalt pavement
as that ON Broad street, even at the
same price asked by the Barber COM
pany, they would prefer to award it
the contract for this years work in pre-
ference to the Barber company, because
of the prejudice that has been aroused
against the Barber company by few
agitators.
The Mccarthy company bid on brand
of California asphalt to be equal to the
best in that state, without naming what
il was. 1t has since informed the board
of public works that it bid on the Maltha
brand. City Engineer Thompson was In
structed to telegraph to the company