Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-22
STEVENS MAKES CHARGES
EX-SUPERINTENDENT OF BATH.
ING BEACH TALKS.
Says He Has Been Deprived of Part
of His Salary-Criticism of
Officials.

Mr.. w. x. Stevens, who recently resign
ed as superintendent of the local bathing
beach, yesterday made the following
statement to reporter of The Star:
1.-The last paragraph Of my letter of
resignation as superintendent of the bath
ing beach reads: But the direct cause of
my resignation is the peculiar manage
ment by the District office of inspector of
buildings. whereby, in my opinion. con-
siderable sum of money which was ap-
propriated for the use of the bathing
beach has been wasted.
The style of management to which l
object comprises four counts:
81 The contract drawn up by the build
ing inspectors Office for the favored bid
der does not cover anywhere near all the
work that was called for at the bidding.
40 When asked by the Commissioners
TO see If some portion of the proposed ex-
pense could be avoided, Condemning In
spector Webster reported as follows: i
have carefully gone over the conditions
with the present needs and find that 1t
would not be advantageous to the depart
ment to eliminate any portion of the pro-
posed work And yet after thus fixing
the price, they did eliminate large por-
ton of the proposed work.
80. BY a peculiar private agreement be-
great deal of the work specified in the
contract was left undone.
~ The work as accepted. and as 1t
now shows, is disgracefuly shabby.
Alleged Plan of Operation.
by invitation, few contractors met
at the beach, heard a verbal statement
made by Mr.. Webster of what was re-
CURED and three Of them-whom we will
call A, B, and M--put in bids. The bids
of A and enumerate what was to be
done, and are high. The bid of NJ covers
the same general field, but is loosely
worded, yet 1t was a very close hit at
the sum total available for this purpose,
but it was a little above that amount
and the records show that on the next day
following his bid. II made an offer to re-
duce 1t by $1G0 if the Innings of the pools
were-left out. So his bid stands at 81 ,6l5
Many days passed and nothing was
done. 1t is fully decided that concreting
the lake bottoms is the only means of pre-
venting the growth OF water weeds. AS
there are no data to be had about con-
cret1ng on soft mud | was very anxious
to try an experiment so that we could in
form the present Congress exactly what
can be done and at what cost; SO ! want
ed to save enough money of the present
appropriation to concrete the little pools
within the building.
name l carried the offer Of Il contractor
to do all that had been asked for, and, in
addition, To put up lattice to lnclOSe I'M
der the sides of the building, for $1,000
AS this would save the District $500 and
accomplish our great object | supposed
the inspector of buildings would favor the
offer in every possible way. On the con-
trary, he became very angry. used abusive
language, and said the contract with Nj
was already closed and no further bids
could be entertained. But. as fact. the
contract was not closed nor the agree
ment to prices settled until several
weeks later--So long that Mr.. Ashford-as
he told the Commissioners in my hearing
suggested to Nj that he go to the beach
and If he would still stick to his bid
or whether there was deterioration to
prevent
Deterioration Reported.
lit does not appear that NJ had in
timated any dissatisfaction with his bid
but, thus invited. he reported deteriora-
ton to the amount of $50 There was
no one present representing the beach or
the District to require the deterioration
to be pointed out, but MIR Ashford al
lowed the claim for 1t. Here let me state
as / was to back lip the $1,000 offer | eX-
amned every part carefully and noted
| that it held its own perfectly. There was
no deterioration 20 increase the cost of
repairs by one dollar.
| "As there was no more money available
| that $50 was allowed by Mr. Ashford.
| leaving out at his discretion enough work
| to cover it: and ] think he surely did
| leave out $50 worth of work.
THE contract was not signed by the
Commissioners until after the work was
all done, ard it does not contain a word
| of reference to alV item left out To X.