Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-11-22
BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS
City Engineer and ncGovsrn Co Could
 Not Work Together.

The board of public works met last
 night and listened to statements from
 William J. Griffin of the National Sure. ty Co, Thomas J. McGovern and City
 Engineer Cairns regarding the differ l ences over the contract of the McGov-
 erns to continue work on the outfall
 sewer into South Brooklyn. After q talk of nearly three hours the question
 hinged upon whether the board would
 repudiate the city engineer or change l the contract and have the McGovern Construction Go go ahead. No disposi- ton was manifested to question the
 Judgment of the engineer, and at the
 close of the session it was voted to order the NIcGoverns to discontinue all
 work on the job. The engineer was
 then instructed to proceed and com I plete such work as is necessary to pro l tect so much of the contract as is com l pleted until next Friday night, when
 an answer will be received from the
 surety company regarding their posi- l tion in the matter. They may decide ! to finish the contract themselves, or 1 for all one can tell at this stage of the i proceedings, the company may take the l construction company's view of the case and let the courts pass upon the l question. In such ali event both sides
 would have an interesting law suit or hand.
 MT Griffin opened the case for the
 National Surety Go and gave the board what he claimed to be the reasons why the McGoyerns stopped on the work. which, in brief, was that they couldn't
 do I satisfactory job under the .cone; tions that existed there, and after tho
 tunnel was built they would have to
 commence repairing it and keep at 1t
 until all the percentages withheld
 would have disappeared in repairs. The contract is specific upon all the ingredients with the exception of the
 quantity of water to be used, but here
 it is beautifully silent, hence the
 source of the trouble, the contractors,
 whom Mir Griffin termed no novices in the construction business, claiming that
 too much water was used, and the en-
 gineer insisting upon a certain quan-
 tity.
 Mir Cairns denied this and handed the attorney copy of the contract. asking him to read q certain section which referred to this point, adding that 1t called for Il jelly mixture. After reading the section Mir Griffin said he was quite familiar with it, but added that it does not state the quantity of water to be used At least he said that is the way understand it. to which Mir Cairns replied that if that were so he understood it very poorly. This appeared to hurt Mir Griffin and after brief pause and sharp look across the table at the engineer, he stood erect and replied: "Thank you. Mir Engineer. I may not have lived as many years as you have, but never theless have seen some of the world"
 This was followed by discourse be tween City Attorney Kellogg and Mir | Griffin regarding contract law, which | ended in nothing special except that | both limbs of the law knew thing or two about such matters. At this june | ture MT Griffin requested Thomas ]. | Metiovern to state where the company | stood in the natter and when the con- | tractor made an effort to speak the | city engineer requested the board to | in4tstse into his right to be heaxs.s1nd | suggested that he be denied a' heaffhg inasmueh as he is in no way author ! ized to represent the company, the sec retary and treasurer of the company informing him some time since that | Thomas ]. McGovern had been dis charged and never again would work for the company. Mir McGovern pro- duced documents to show that he has power of attorney for the company, and after examining the papers he was permitted to proceed, though with sew eral Interruptions Oh the part of the f engineer.
 "We have been constructing sewers for the past fifteen years" said Me Govern. "and worked under a numDer of engineers. but never had any trouble until we came here. It took us four days to lay the first ten feet of sewer something which should have been \ done in few hours with the facilities at hand. The assistant engineer insist ed upon pouring in water until the became so soft it required nine men to take it from the mixer instead of three It wouldn't stay on wheel barrow and men went to their knees In the forms. The result of this was that a large portion of 1t ran offs and left job which is bound to be unsatis. factory and the company would be called upon to start in repairing as soon as 1t had finished its contract. The aim appeared to get nice job. There were too many engineers and at times nobody could tell which of them To take orders from. When the first len feet of the work was finislied no flied the home office that they had better stop until some understanding .ould he reached regarding the con- 'tructiOn put upon the contract by the engineer and the way our foreman. who has been in the business for years. understood. but the officers didn't think his the best thing 10 do. thinking evi- his was not the case. The work went ,n until a crack appeared in the entire Irch and an examination would now how that parts of il can he pulled lpart with your hand. Recently We ,ompleted S19O.OOO sewer. large ,Bough to stow this away in. for tlle ity of Trenton. Mir Cairns was down here and examined it and was vel atisfied with the character of the york. That Is the reason we can do
 similar job here-
 Mr Cairns interrupted Mr Mct;oyerE Q remark that what he was saying Imply proved the difficulty the inspec. DTS had in getting him to comply with be terms of the contract. to which ! be- contractor replied that the fnSpec-