Los Angeles herald., 1906-06-02

fact that If anything like adequat,
relief of the present overcrowded con
ditions were to be provided at the be
ginning of the next school term, tn,
building committee will have to b,
given full sway in the matter of the
erection of new buildings, and his mo
ton to the effect that the committed
be empowered to employ superintend.
ents of erection was carried.
j. NJ. Quinn, chairman of the build.
ing committee, stated at that time that
bids for two new buildings would be
called for at once, but evidently the
members finally have been brought &c
something like a realizing sense of the
situation, and have been spurred tC
action, for instead of the two buildings
promised it has been found possible tC
advertise for bids for four.
No Relief for Year
Furthermore, it is promised that af.
falrs now are in such shape that in
all probability bids for three or -four
more buildings will be called for ir
the next few days. Altogether. there
are about twenty new buildings and
aodltlons projected, so that it seems
Ialr to assume that even though a
beginning finally has been made, the
work cannot be fully completed before
means that Los Angeles will have tc
endure present conditions to a greater
or less extent for practically another
year.
Various reasons for the delay in the
matter of awarding contracts for the
proposed new buildings are given
among others the failure of the ar
chitects to prepare plans on time.
Doubtless this is in a measure true
out many taxpayers probably will find
IL dlfhcult to understand why these
architects were not required to hurry
their work little more. Another ex-
cuse is that some difficulty was expe-
r1enced in the matter of securing avail
able sites for some of the new build
1ngS. This excuse is considered valid
as far as it goes, but it hardly relieves
the board of responsibility for delay
IN construction work on those sites
which 1t already owns, and in a mum.
Der of instances, has owned for severa
years, The city owns a site at Eu.
cid and Stephenson avenues on which
1t was understood one of the first OF
the new Buildings, an eleven-room
structure, would be erected, and vet
bids for this school have not yet even
been called for.
Wilson Explains Delays
Speaking of the reasons for the de.
lay, Emmett H. Wilson, a member of
the building committee, said yester-
day:
While it is unfortunate that greater
progress in this matter has not been
made, 1 do not see how any of the
members of the board can Justly he
blamed for the delay Those Who crit.
lclse us are not fully conversant with
the facts. 1t is true the bonds for
this purpose were authorized quite a
while ago. but it was impossible, or al
least impracticable, for us to go ahead
Immediately after the election. We
first deemed it advisable to secure the
opinion of eastern experts as to the
validity of the bonds and that having
been obtained, a sale of the securities
had to be effected.
ITO do all this required considerable
time once we found ourselves in a
position to go ahead we were con-
fronted with the task of making a
complete revision of our apportion-
ments for the various districts. The
growth of the city has been so rapid
that in several districts it was found
necessary to provide for much larger
buildings than originally had beer
planned, so that the apportionment
Whlch had been made some months be-
1ore was found to be of practically nc
value.
"Then came a delay on the part OF
several of the architects who had been
employed to draw the plans. The
members of the board have been doing
the best they could in this matter, but
one difficulty after another has pre-
scented itself, and the result is that con-
siderable more time has been required
to close up these contracts than was al
rrst supposed would be necessary.
Not Deliberately Wasting Time
zone of the projected new buildings
now IN is course of construction. and
we hope to have that ready in time for
the opening of the fall term. -Four
others for which bids are now being
advertised also should be completed
| Immediately after that date. We have
assurances from the architects that
plans for other buildings are prac-
tically completed, so that it should
be possible to call for still more con-
| tracts within the next few days.
Whatever the views of the general
public may be in regard to this mat
ter, the members of the board are not
deliberately wasting any time, but on
the contrary are as anxious as any
body else can be to have these build
| ings ready for occupancy as soon as
possible. If the buildings are NOT
completed by the middle of September
it will of course be up to the board tc
handle the problem of caring for the
overflow of pupils"
j. M. Quinn, chairman of the build
ing committee of the board of educa-
tion agrees with Mr.. Wilson i'm placing
| responsibility for the delay in award
( ing contracts for new buildings on the
architects. "It seems to have been
impossible to hurry up this work." he
says, "but the indications are that
from now on matters will progress
much more rapidly. AS a matter OF
TACT we could not proceed under the
plans Of the architects so far as they
relate to additions to old buildings
even II we had them in hand. Work OF
that Kind necessarily will have to be
delayed until the close of the present