Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1906-09-03
CROISAN'S
CONTRACT
DISCUSSED
Entire Board Will Take Hand
in North Salem School
Cement Floor Matter

The contract for laying cement
floor in the basement of the North
Salem school, which was arbitrarily
awarded by School Director Croisan.
over the heads and without the
knowledge or consent of the COM
mittee to which the entire matter
had been referred by the board, has
been taken out of the hands of the
committee at it's own request and is
now vested with the board as
whole.
It will be remembered the board
decided to have the floor placed in
the building, and turned the matter
over to the committee on repairs
with power to act. This committee
is composed of Directors Lee and
Smith. Two bids were submitted,
one by Mr.. Keenan, for $575, and
the other by Gus Kerberger for 1OH
cents per square foot. The commit
Jtt lOlu Nll Sci " IldhC
other bid for fiat rate and in the
meantime there was no further
meetings of the committee, or of
the board.
However at this juncture Director
Croisan stepped into the breach one
Sunday afternoon and on his own
hook, awarded the contract to Mr.. ]
Kerberger, who Immediately went to
work and has partly laid the floor.
Mr.. Lee, DR.. Epley and others of |
the board say that Mr.. Kerberger is |
a political lieutenant of Croisan and |
that the embryonic statesman sim
ply resorted to this autocratic meth
cd to pay off a political debt at the '
expense of the Salem school fund. !
There was a meeting of the school
board Saturday night. After a small
amount of routine business had been
disposed of, DR.. Byrd, the chairman,
said that he would entertain a mo-
tion to adjourn.
Then DR.. Epley took the floor. He
said that he had been over to the
North Salem school and saw that
some one had laid some cement
after a fashion and he would like to
know about 1t. He knew 1t had
been referred to a committee but
here was no record of any contract. ,
Dr. Byrd read from the minutes
hat the matter was referred to the
on repairs.
AT this juncture, Mr.. Croisan did a
iome talking in which he fully sus- l
aimed his reputation for being as
mooth an article as Is usually turn v
ID out in these parts. Without the $
east embarrassment or without ex- S
claiming that he overstepped his v
ounds, and apparently taking il for c
that he had a perfect right 4
o expend all the money, he calmly I
aid; Il told old man Kerberger to d
% ahead and do the work, 1t had {
lways been the custom to give work r
D the lowest bidder and | under Il
TODD they were in a hurry for II and Il
lr. Lee was on at the coast and Z
alked with Or. Byrd over the tele-
hone and through some mistake got
n idea that | was on the committee Y
nd | told the old man to do the -
ork.
Mr.. Lee do not consider that ;,
ny one can tell which Of those bids
the lowest as Mr.. Kerberger is
'aving undone work that should be
one and which the other bidder q
cured on. | may be TO blame for .,
DING to the coast but have missed -
My three meetings in two years. II
think Mr.. Croisan understood well W
nough that he was not on that .,
as told him myself he .,
as not"
"Kerborger did the work y,
East Salem and in South Salem ..
hen Dr. Byrd aud were on the a,
| got an idea l was on .,
rs committee but / don't want N 10
on any cnn,p,ftt,., g. ~