The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1905-12-14
President Theirs of Board Of Edu.
cation Declines to Execute
Contracts for Building
MUST BE GIVEN 10 BOARD
The President Opposes Contracts on
the Ground That They Are Not
in Keeping With Estimate
of the Architect

President Edward C. Theirs of the
board of education, this morning re-
fused to sign the contract for the new
heating plant to be installed in the
proposed West side school and an
nounced at the same time that he
would not follow the instructions Of
the board and sign contract with
the general contractor until after
these contracts had been submitted to
the board and given the sanction of
the members by ma jority vote.
The action of President Theirs is
not exactly to the liking of the differ.
ent contractors but there is no doubt
but that he will stand firm in his con-
tention and insist that the board and
not the secretary make the contracts.
AT the regular meeting of the board
Tuesday night it was expected that a
hard fight would be made to secure
some action to reconsider the former
action in letting the contract, but this
fight proved to be of very small i'm
portance and when the matter was
submitted to vote the board by a
vote of eight to four instructed the
secretary and the president to enter
into contract with Fred Larsen as
general contractor and with Peter B.
Bogart as heating contractor.
President Theirs and Attorney
James Cavanagh had led the fight
against the order for the signature of
the contracts and when the agents of
the company having the contract for
the heating plant appeared this morn
ing the president set his Ifoot down
hard and declared that he would not
sign this or any other contract uatil
he had called meeting of the board
and submitted the written contracts
to every member. Mr.. Theirs stated
that if after the contracts had been
read to the board, the board was still
in favor of their being signed he
would have no choice but to affix his
signatureaas president of the body.
In speaking of the matter Presi
dent Theirs said, sThere is no use Of
Earguing this matter to any great ex
tent, but as the guardian of the pub
lies money do not want to sign thai
lscontract until forced to by the board
The contract is far above the estimate
of the architect as to the cost of thu
building, and for this reason some
steps should be taken to have the
matter re-considered. y
AT the time the board opened the
bids for the new building, but three
bids were sent to the board and the
lowest of these was nearly seven
thousand dollars in excess of the es.
innate made by Architect Gaastra
The board had expected that the es.
innate of the architect would be the
high water mark but there seems to
be some of the members of the board
who are anxious to rush the work to
such an extent that no attention is
being paid to the amount of the con-
tract.
Not single out of town contractor
presented bid for the work, and it is
known that the bid of out Of town
contractors on the Durkee school
were much lower thanthose presented
by local contractors. The building is
almost aneexact duplicate Of the Dur
kee school, with the exception thar
the auditorium is left off. It was
stated, when the plans we're made,
that the change in leaving off the au-
d1tOr1u UNI would make a difference of
$40, 900 in the cost OF the building.
The matter is now being carried out
before. the people, and it is possible
that some taxpayer interested in the
financial condition of the city may
seek an injunction to prevent the
board making the contract for the
building at these figures. Such an
action would be welcomed by some
members of the board, who are of the
opinion that undue haste has been
used in making SO important a con.
tract.
In the meantime the matter of site
for the school is still unsettled, but
the city attorney will appear in the
circuit court on next Monday and
make an effort to secure an order
authorizing the sale of a portion of
the orphan asylum plat. If this order
is granted the property will be pur-
chased by the city as site for the
school. Under any circumstances the
work of building can not begin until
next spring.
The expected resignation of Clerk
Guardiola failed to materialize, and it
is announced that the clerk has so ar
ranged his business that he will be
able to serve out his term.
SEEK MISSING Roy