The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-10-15
WORK FUSS
ORANGE FIRM ATTACKED IN
E. o. COUNCIL.
Wright & Lindsey Lose One Contract
and Awarded Another-Claim
Made That It Is Slow.

A strenuous fife was made last nisn'
at the meeting of the East Orange City
Council to prevent the awarding OF TWO
contracts for street Improvement work tt
Wright & Lindsey, Of Orange, although
the firm mad been the lowest bidders
Stuart Lindsey, a senior member OF the
firm. is a brother of Councilman Charles
s, Lindsey, aNnember of the Council. II
was claimed by several members that the
firm had not properly treated the city on
other contracts. One contract was secureu
by the finn, and one went to Thomas M
Cusack. the next lowest bidder.
Councilman Pierson was the leader OF
the opposition, and when a vote was takeh
on the first contract Councilman Lindsey
asked to be excused from voting, whicn
was granted. He stated that ne had no
interest In the firm. This was for WORK
in Boyden street, and Wright & Lindsey
lost the contract. 1t did succeed, now
ever, in securing the contract for doing
work in Meadow street.
Late in the meeting, which did not adj
1ourn until midnight, Chairman Brown,
OF The road committee, recommended that
The Meadow street contract be glven the
trm. and Mr.: Pierson. objected, he
claimed 1t would be rather inconsistent
to award one contract to the firm and not
The other. He claimed that Wright u
Lindsey secured in December, 1906, the
North Walnut street. and that the job
was to be completed in June, this year,
but work was not started until after the
time limit had expired and the work was
hardly completed yet.
Mr.. Lindsey then presented n defense
for his Brother and claimed 1t was I'M
possible to do the work during the winter
months. In the spring the section of the
street where improvements were to pc
made was a mudhole. and measurements
Tor grades were not received from En-
gineer Reimer's office until long after the
time limit. for completing the work was
up; He SAID the lob could be completely
finished inside of a few hours.
Frederick A. Reimer assistant engineer,
claimed there was no reason why the
street should not have been completed on
Tune. Figures Were given from MS
fathers office on time, he said, and 1t was
possible TO get teams in the street to do
Then Chairman Ougheltree was asked to
consider various motions, Mr.. Brown be-
to the lowest bidder, and Mr.. Pierson de-
clared:
How can we face the people after all
t MS has become public? To award any 9f
place us in a very peculiar light"
Mr.. OuGheltree added that the city has
had trouble with all the contracts of the
firm, and it was recalled that Contractor
Snyder, who was recently criticized for
failing to finish work on time, was not
awarded any more contracts.
Jerome d. Gedney, city counsel, was
asked for a ruling on the word 'respon-
sible bidder" after Councilman Burr had
asked liza suit could be instituted against
the city for not awarding the contract to
the lowest bidder.
Mr.. Gedney said responsible general
ly means the financial capabilities, but if
1T could be proven that a firm had shown
prolonged slowness or been incompetent,
the exercising Of sound judgment would
be protected. He recommended that in
the future the engineer be instructed to
report at each meeting nov contractors
we've doing their work in the city, as the
Council had the right to take the work
away from the contractors IL the work
was not being lone on time.
Mr.. Burr then moved that the contract
for the Boyden street work be awarded
TO Cusack. Those voting in the negative
were MeSsrs. Lee. Brown, Lindsey and
ton to give the Meadow street work to
Wright & Lindsey were Messrs. Pierson,
Saxelby, Somer and Ougheltree.
The Fairgrounds Commission was
$1,000 in order that some needed
might be purchased TO provide a
better approach to the Orange Oval from
Grove place.