Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1905-08-07
Paving Contract for Fifteenth
Street Awarded to George
{. Bailey.
CITY COUNCIL TAKES ACTION
Passes Resolution Advising Board Of
Local Representatives.
Begins at once.

teenth avenues AT the special meeting
held Saturday night. The vote showed
first that the council was opposed 10
anv hitch that might prevent the i'm
provement of the street with asphalt,
according 10 the desire Of the property
holders: and second that il was OPP
posed 10 taking the matter out OF the
hands of the property holders. where
il had been left on their guarantee that
the work would be done for 10 per
cent less than the figure of the Nc
Carthy Improvement company. which
was awarded the contract in the first
place. A resolution was adopted, with
but one dissenting vote. that it was
the sense Of the council that the board
Of local improvements sign the con
tract with the property holders through
g. Il Bailey, as their agent, 10 pave the
street and 10 sign il at once.
This result was not reached without
sharp discussion. Mayor McCaskrin.
IN calling the meeting TO order stated
the circumstances and said the board
of local improvements desired to be ad-
vised before shoudering The RESPONSE
bility of awarding a contract in which
the specifications did not call for a
binder course when all other jobs
done in this vicinity included that feat
urC. The mayor read kilograms in
answer TO inquiries from a number of
cities all of which stated the binder
course had been used.
TreIchIrr Heard.
Then City Engineer TreiChler was
called on To give his views, and he en-
tered into the subject AT some length.
lie asserted that there has been an in
huonce at work that prevented the test
ing of asphalt in this city heretofore.
When the Improvement Of Twenty -firsr
street with asphalt was attempted, the
Barber Asphalt company had refused
TO bid on the work save on their own
specifications. and then indicated the
work could not he done before the fo,-
lowi1g year. As the Barber people had
no competition there was nothing to
do but drop the attempt.
Then Mr. TrCiChler reviewed the his
tory of asphalt paving. charging that
through control Of the business. poor
work had been foisted upon the larger
cities till asphalt for street improve
Inent bad come into bad odor in the
east. He held that there was some
mysterious reason for the including of
IA binder course in specifications and
quoted authorities to show that this
feature was being done away with.
with good success.
City Engineer Anderson. of Moline.
who attended the meeting at the invita-
ton of the mayor. was called upon and
stated that a binder course had been
used in all Molin~'s work of this sort
and he believed it served useful pur-
pose. If made of the right material it
should be softer than the wearing sur
face and serve TO eQualiZC the pressure
and minimize the effect of contraction
and expansion i'm addition TO holding
the surface to the concrete below The
binder. also. he stated. helped to feed
the surface and keep il i'm good condi-
ton. All depended upon the honesty of
the firm doing the work, Mr.. Anderson
said. There was likely TO he trouble
with any asphalt paving. and hence
the contracting firm is required to
keep II in condition for given length
of time
Mr.. Anderson was subjected to a !
sharp fire of questions. but he insisted
he was not an expert on asphalt and
did not feel like saying what should
be done in the case in hand. CITY En-
gineer TreiChIer's queries were calcu-
lated tn bring out whether in fact the
binder course does what II in theory
should and whether il is not commonly
made of such poor material that it is
not a detriment To the paving Mayor
McCaskrin and Aid. Sexton PROFOUND
cd questions seeking to support the
view that the binder course is neCes-
sary hut Mr. Anderson refused To he
come an ally to either side in the con
trovsrsy further than to repeat that in
theory the binder course serves a good
purpose Both he and Mr. Treichler
agreed that a good foundation IS the
first requisite TO insure the wearing
qualities of the pavement
Ruled out Of order.
Finally Aid. Trenkenschuh introduC-
ed a resolution iustruCting the board Of
local Improvements to close the con
tract with the property holders at
once. Mayor McCaskrin declared the
resolution was out OF order. inasmuCh
as the council had not the power at
that stage of proceedings to arbitrarily
direct what action the board should
take
At this stage the atmosphere grew a
trife warm and a number of aldermen
were heard 10 remark that IL was not
clear to them what the object of the
meeting was. anyway. But the mayor
fastened 10 explain that advice would
BE- acceptable. so the resolution was
amended that il be the sense of the
council. etc. and, put 10 an aye and
nay vote. IL carried IL 20 l, Aid. Sexton
alone opposing.
As the time for the closing of the
contract with Mr. Bailey ended ar mid
night Saturday. the board of local i'm
provements met Immediately after the