East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1908-07-01

company offers to give 800 to char |
ity IL he cannot prove that his bid on |
the levee work was the lowest sub
claim he asks that the council again
ask for bids upon the levee. work.
AS the council meets tonight to rat
ity the contract with Belts, to whom
the contract was awarded by the levee
committee, the letter is of interest
and is hereby given in full:
An open letter to the City Council of
Pendleton.
Gentlemen:-Almost two years ago
your city advertised several times for
bidders for the levee repair work
which was badly needed for the pro-
lection of your city. No satisfactory
bids were received. 1t was recognized
as hard job and being late in the
season contractors of any ability re-
fused to look at it, Late in Septem-
Der our concern was urged by the
chairman of the levee committee to
make a price on this work. We re-
fused to do so at first, but after re-
peated solicitations on the part of the
committee and other prominent citi-
zens of Pendleton, we made proposal
which was readily accepted. We did
the work, and whether satisfactory
we leave it to any citizen of your town.
Mr.. Kelsey of Young & Kelsey. en-
gineers in charge, pronounced it a
most satisfactory job. Several other
civil engineers who inspected the rip
| rap said they had never seen better.
And another matter due your consid-
Grafton is the fact that after the work
was completed we were compelled to
carry a large sum of our pay in city
warrants that we could not negotiate,
as your banks were already loaded
with such paper. Part of these war;
rants we held for almost a year be-
fore We secured the money therefor.
Another matter that we desire to
call your attention to is the fact that
we are a home product. We are a
Umatilla county, Hermiston-Pendleton
contracting company, built up at
home. We purchase a large part Of
our supplies of your city merchants.
We employed many of your citizens
who always got their pay for work
| performed. We consider our company
credit TO the county of Umatila. as
it is, the largest and best organized
contracting concern in the state of
| Oregon east OF Portland today And
we have always been on the square in
any contract we have ever undertaken
and can refer to such men as w. ].
| Furnish, and to your street commit
/ tee, about our repairs on Court street
which our contract did not require US
to do. We gave no guarantee on such
work, but we came back and have
made an excellent street of East Court
at an expense of several hundred dol
lars to us, because we always made
good on anything We undertake.
We have mentioned this to show
that our ability and reliability has
never been questioned and we could
not be turned down on any such ac-
count.
Now we will proceed to present the
matter of levee bids. There seems to
be great many "holes in the skim
mer," We claim that we had the
lowest bids on the levee work when
the bids were opened on the oath inst.
Furthermore, we will make this offer,
viz: If we cannot show to any dis
interested civil engineer or reliable
contractor that our bid was from one
to two thousand dollars lower than
any other bid submitted for the entire
work we will donate 800 to any
charity that the editors of the Tribune
and East Oregonian may select.
The bid of our principal competitor
was made for riprap SO cents per
square yard He did not bid on old
riprap or new riprap, but just riprap,
and we want to know If there is any,
moment that the bid was not intended
to cover all riprap at this price? A
little figuring will show the differ
ence this little matter makes. Add to
$500 square yards Of new riprap 1000
yards Of old riprap and you have
total of 1880 square yards Of riprap
at his bid of SO cents per square yard,
means s13,230. Now take our bid on
| $500 square yards of new rlprap at 80
cents, which is $3.50, and 1000 square
yards of old riprap at As cents, which
is $500, making a total on new and
old riprap of $10,350. After the prop
er deduction is made you will find a
difference in favor Of our bid of
| $3.50.
Now we will go a little farther:
The specifications in reference to ex-
cavation says that whenever the ma
terial excavated from the trench for
the toe wall can be used in the en-
| bankment, within the distance of 100
feet, 1t will be paid for in excavation
only, but Mr.. Belts in his bid says
plainly that he will make no reduction
Oh account of using gravel in levee
from excavation. We make no such
reservation but made our bid In ac-
cordance with the specifications and
expected that at least 1000 cubic yards
OF this material would be put into the
embankment without extra cost to the
city. Now suppose you take this 1000
cubic yards and multiply 1t by his
lowest price per yard for excavation
or S3 cents you have 1890 which up
or being added to the balance already
r. our favor makes $4,000.
But we will not stop here. We will
now take up the matter Of stone ma