Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1907-07-18
MORE RAILROAD NEWS
The Contract Awarded

The Contract Awarded
The following article which wal
taken from the Atlantic Daily
Democrat, will be of interest to our
readers:
The board of directors of the At.
lantic Northern g. Southern Railway
Company at meeting held on Wed
nesday night awarded the contract
for grading the entire line to Messrs.
Thompkins, Fitzgerald and Petersen
of Omaha.
The price to be paid is eighteen
cents per ward for the entire yardage
of approximately 255, 900 yards and
the total amount TO be paid under
the contract will be in the neighbor-
hood of &c. 900.
Messrs. Fitzgerald and Petersen
who were there in person when the
final action was taken, will begin
work early next week and their
contract will provide that they COM
plete the entire grading by the lst
If November, but with the under
standing that if they keep out of the
way of the rail layers, they may
have until the 10th day of November
on the last mile of the road.
The original bids as presented to
the board called for an average price
of almost twenty cents a yard; but
this price was reduced as stated, by
giving the entire contract to the
company named and by reason OF
having the necessary money in hand
to pay the contractors the cash when
their work is completed.
With dirt flying as it will be early
next week the contamination of the
plans of the men who less than a year
ago took heart of grace and made the
initial move toward the building of
the Atlantic Northern & Southern
railway is as certain as anything in
the future can be. That many ob-
stacles have been met is true, and
that at times the men who had the
work in hand were discouraged and
almost hopeless, is also part Of the
unwritten history OF the read, but a
determination to win and loyal
people back of them has made the
progress already made possible and
the completion Of the road a
certainty.
When the writer returned to this
city a few days ago be heard q good
deal Of criticism of the board of di-
rectors and the one the most vehe-
mently made was that the board had
borrowed $48,000 on which it was
paying interest at the rate of $40 a
day, with no probability that it
would be used within the next six
months. An investigation devel ,ped
the fact that this $48,O0O bad TO be
taken at the time it was or not at all
1t also developed that instead OF
paying $40 day interest the board
was paying at the rate of $24O a
month. The money was borrowed
to pay for the grading and as the
grading will be completed within
five months, and as it will be paid
for as the work is completed and es-
Inmates made, the total of interest
paid will not amount to $1,000. AS
an offset to this the board was able
because it had this money on hand,
to save at least $500 on the grading
contracts, piece of business which
entities the board to approval rather
than the criticism it has had melted
out to it.
That which is true of the criticism
mentioned is likewise true OF al
other criticisms. The board as a
whole has been actua,ed by desire
to build the road at as low a figure
as possible and there is not thing
they have done that will not bear
the light OF day. The efforts by GER
tain individuals to make the public
believe otherwise and to queer the
project in many ways had ils animus
in attempted treachery of the most
bare-taced kind, the written evil
dence of which is in the hands of the
president of the company. The road
will be built and in operation before
the first of next January. 1t will
immeasurably benefit every body
whom it serves and it will be as
beneficial to Atlantic az this paper
has ever predicted it would be.
Having survived the assaults of
the few who always knock, and hav-
ing uncovered the traitors who
would Tor price have sol it out to
the Rock Island road and prevented
its cpnsumation, it is stronger in the
public confidence today than ever
before and there is not the remotest
reason tor dissatisfaction or failure
on the part of the public to keep it's
individual agreements to the letter.