The morning journal-courier., 1908-12-24
IVES LIBRARY
 WORK WARDED Committee Votes to Let Con tracts for Structural Work to Amount of Over
 $225,0OO.
LOCAL FIRM GETS PLUM
Spcrry X Treat Are Given Contracts Amounting 10 Nearly S1O,OOO-- Mechanical Equipment Yet
 Undecided Upon.

After many months of work, tho Ives Memorial library committee last night voted to award several of the most m- portant of the contracts for the con struction of the new library building. Of these contracts by far the largest one and one of the smaller ones will go to the Sperry and Treat company of this city.
 The contracss which 1t was voted to award last evening are those having to do with the general construction work, and It will probably De several weeks before the letting of those for the me- chauIcal equipment of the building will be decided on The total amount of the contracts given last night will, however, amount to nearly two-thirds of the total cost of the library, or over S225,GoO
 The committee was greatly pleased l that it was possible to award the larg- est contract to New Haven concern, and hopes that lt may be possible to let some of the remaining smaller work | alec to local bidders All Of the eX- cavating, masonry and plastorng as well as the masonry on inc halustrade on the street llnc, wlll he done by the Srerry and Treat company and the contract will amount to between sixty ard seventy thousand dollars
 This award k especially aattering to 1 New Haven. as the number of bidders on cach contract was large and there | g,i1 tee and the architect Class Gilbert of New York studied all the bids, from | the standpoint both of cost and char acter of the work very carefully when Iit became necessary to revise the plans Mir Gilbert submitted them to at least three of the lowest bidders, on the has- Is Of whose revised bids tho contracts were awarded
 The next largest contract will go to the Vermont Marble company, being that for the exterior and interior mar hle work and the hallustrade on tho Elm street side This contract will amount to nearly as much as the Sper- ry and Treat work. and Is for the i'm portant one of furnishing the white Vermont marble which will figure SC conspicuously in inc now library An other. contract amounting to nearly fifty thousand dollars Is that for tho miscellaneous iron and structural stec work, and will go to tho Hay Foundry and Iron Works of Newark. N. l.
 All tho members of the committee, including Mayor Martin, Judge Stud |, ley and Messrs. Watrous. Wier Sey- mour, Avis and Burton Mansfield, were present at the meeting last even ing and went over the estimates with Mir Gilbert his engineer, Mir IIarri- son, and his assistant, Mir Wells, The : session was a very lengthy ono last Ing until almost midnight as the com mittee used every caution and consid- cred the matter from every point of view. From the very first they have had continually Ave points before them and these were kept in mind : last night and account for the fact , that the mechanical equipment was not contracted for These consdera- / lions are the conspicuous site of the building. the architectural skill which ! lH consequently Hft'SSdiN, lllN tVu' , venience ol the public, the convent. cnCe of administration and the econ. ! omy of operation This has made tho
 committee especially careful in thu matter of contracting for the plumb . Ing, heating,N lighting, ventillating 2 power plant and kindred mcdaniel [ equipment, and it may not be unti e after several moro sessions with thu . architect and engineer that these con Q tracts will be awarded,
 r For instance. 1t will take much dis
 cussion, from the viewpoints of orig
 lnal cost and cost of up-kecp, 10 de
 eide on whether the library shall havr
 it's own lighting and power plant o'
 get its electricity from tho Illumin
 ating company. And if the building i
 to have its own power plant, whethc
 that power shall be generated b,
 steam or gas, 1t Is these many ap
 parently minor but nevertheless i'm
 pOrtant considerations which hay,
 made the work of the committee $,
 arduous Another point which Is nov
 under careful consideration is that O
 thc kind of brick to be used, as Mir
 Watrous has insisted from the frs
 that a way must be found to avoid thu
 elaboration which appears on SO man,
 of our buildings.
 As result of the receipt from tn ! { fad