Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1905-03-30

work which should have been com
menced, according to the contract
within ten days from the signing Of
the contracts. was not begun until
May, 1904, and was not completed
until late in the summer. The con-
tractors instead Of paying to the city
the penalty, were allowed to escape
that altogether, and the people can
figure for themsel YES the losses that
they have sustained in failure to re-
ceive this penalty in lieu Of compile
tion of the work which was let at
prices intended to be performed dur
ing the winter, when the ground was
frozen and extra labor was required
10 digging trenches. No penalty has
ever been turned into the city and
no rebate has ever been allowed on
the cost Of the work by the contrac-
tors. -. ,.
After it was seen that the contrac-
tors would not carry out their part of
the contract the council had from
January until May to re-advertise for
bids to get competition among CON-
tractors for the work, with the very
probable result Of securing a much
lower bid than was received.
Al the time the contract was let
and at the prices 1t was let for, the
contractors we'll knew that it would
be necessary to dig through solid, froz-
en- ground at least, for the water
works, the full depth :.about 7 IL it,
and with the sewer the same. a @
It is unnecessary to comment on
the difference in the cost of digging
through unfrozen ground III the sum-
mer time with the expense OF diggi ing
thru l-2 feet of solid frozen earth in
the winter. Each taxpayer can Judge
that for himself. II it costs Sl.12 to
excavate, re ill and lay a sewer Is
feet deep in January February and
March. how much less should it be
done for in May, June, July, and
August, and at an average depth of
less than ten feet at that? n. .a
The price of Kennedy's sewer con-
tact is said to have been about LILO
a foot and in addition received for
an ejector or hydraulic lift, $2,24O, an
extra compensation of $50 each for
each brick man hole and flush tank
and Sl45 for each com bination man
hole and siphons. Each of these ex-
ira pieces OF work competitive con-
tractors would liked to have figured
on since they were said to have been
furnished at very large source of
profit.
On che contract for the water the
Porrett- Kennedy people secured a
contract for six inch pipe at Sl.12
per foot, with eight inch pipe at
81. IS foot. and each hydrant $40.
The same criticism that applies to
the failure to enforce ths sewer con-
tract applies with equal force on the
water contract. Many think the
council instead of allowing the con-
tract for this water and sewer to
stand in January after the contrac-
tors had failed to do their part,
should have re-adveltised for bids
and secured competition for the work
In the spring, even II the same had
not been sufficiently advertised for
in the fall. From an Investigation
of the items of additional cost of the
sewer and water contract over the
contractors price, it is seen that the
only bills for advertising In connec-
tion with the work was fol that done
by the Capital which received war
rants for 1858. N there being no other
bill from any outside paper in which
the proper advertising OF this i'm
portant work was supposed to have
been done. VI #
This may or may not account for
the fact that there was 70 competi-
tion from any other contractor,
either at home or abroad, to do this
work. Contractors who might have
gone In to competition for this work,
could not have been expected to know
that their bids for doing the work in
the winter would not be called upon
to be fulfilled, and that the work
could have been done so much cheap
or in the summer time. That may
have been . reason why there was no
other competition In letting the
work. 55 s 2Si u II Y :s3. 4, ~.
II The engineers reports shows that
there we're 10, ,437 feet Of sewerage and
4.487 feet Of water exca ation or o
total Of 24,905 feet, that the water
main was to be eight feet deep, and