The Savannah morning news., 1904-01-19
CALL FOR NEW
CITY HALL BIDS
PLANS HAVE BEEN ALTERED.
PROPOSALS TO BE OPENED FEBRU-
AIRY q.

Building Committee Adopted Three
Specifications for Consideration of
COntractOrs-Mnny Interior Dec
OratiOns Are EIIfminated-BuiId-
ing VIII Cost About 500, OOO-Ar-
chitect WitcOver Has Notified Bid
ders of Committees ActiOn-COn-
tractors Required to Furnish Cash
Guarantee With Sealed Proposal.
The building committee of Council
met yesterday at noon in the Office of
Mayor Myers and approved the revis-
ed specifications for The new City
Hall, which were submitted by Ar
ckitect H. w. Witcover. The ad-
Vertisement for new bids was drafted
and ordered printed in the Savannah
newspapers. Mr.. Witcover was re-
quested to notify all the former bid
ders of the action of the committee and
request that they submit new bids on
the revised specifications.
1t was decided to open the new bids
Saturday. Feb. 6, at an open session
Of the Building Committee to be held
in the Mayors office. This will give
the bidders seventeen days in which to
revise their figures to meet the require
ments of the new specifications. All
bidders will be required to send
certified check for $1,000 or a guar
antee bond for $500 with their seal
ed proposal as a guarantee that they
will enter into contract with the city
for the erection Of the building for the
amount named in their bid and that
they will furnish the necessary bond
which is named in the new specifica-
tons, in case the contract is award
ed to them by the Building Commit
tee.
No Changes i'm Exterior.
The new plans which have been
prepared by Architect Witcover make
no changes. in the arrangement of the
exterior of the building, except that
he calls for three different grades of
material TO be used IN constructing
the exterior. The first proposal calls
for Georgia marble for the first story
and press brick and terra Gotta above.
The second proposal calls for Winns-
boro Blue granite for The first story
and limestone above. The third pro-
constructed of Georgia granite and
limestone above. In every case bid
ders are required to submit samples
finished in the manner called for in
the various specifications.
While the bidders are requested to
submit bids on all the three propo-
sitions of the material fhr the exterior,
yet any bidder may submit bids on
any one or any two of the proposals.
Changes in the Interior.
The interior is effected by the
changes in so far as cutting out many
expensive decorations which We're in
cluded in the original specifications
While these decorations We're desira BILE
Architect Witcover declares that they
can be omitted without practically eff
fecting the convenience or the beauty
of the interior. The result of cutting
out these decorations, he says, will tend
to bring the second batch of bids down
to "a more reasonable figure than were
the bids which were opened last week.
While the city administration is de-
sirous of erecting a City Hall that will
be a credit to Savannah. they declare
that the figures for the construction of
the public building must not exceed
the sum of 100000 1t was first esti-
mated that the building would only
cost $3.50 000 but since the opening of
the first batch of bids, it is now con-
ceded on all sides that the city will be
obliged to eXpend at least $4,000 more
than was first estimated.
Mr. Witcover will send copies of the
specifications to the bidders to-day, and
urge that they revise their figures and
return their sealed bids at as early date
as possible. The committee believe that
they VIII be able to select a satisfac-
| tory bid from the next batch which is