Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-10-07
DECIDE ITEMS
were ALL 0. K.
Council Puts an End to Seventh Ward
Sewer Quarrel, Accepting
Engineers Report.
CONDITIONS NOT FAVORABLE
Aldermen Learn Why Figures Were
Hish-Select the Pump for the
Reservoir Station.

Business of considerable Importance
was transacted by the city council
last evening in committee of the whole
session. Among other things the con-
troversy over the cost of the section
of the Seventh ward sewer system
constructed in connection with the
Seventh avenue paving improvement,
was ended, the council approving the
report of the city engineer and freeing
the engineer from al censure." In
fact 1t turned out, as had been sug-
gested before. that there was little
merit to the complaint of Alderman
Ellirwood as to the cost of the work,
$1,909
City Engineer Treichler stated that
owing to The fact that he had been
occupied all day with the Forty-first
street case in the county court. he
had been unable to prepare a written
report on the matter, but he submitted
his report verbally, taking up the
items of the bill one by one, to show
that the cost of the material was rea-
sonable, and showing just what the
material had been required for in the
work. He stated that in addition 10
the large section of the storm drain.
1t was necessary TO run two smaller
lines of drain, one 15-inch line and
the other an S-inch drain These
feet from Thirty-fifth street. and ex-
tended into springy wet fill. Asa
result the conditions for the construc
ton work were decidedly unfavora
BILE, and this added 70 the cost of
labor, and the character of the fill
made it necessary 20 use larger guam
titles of material than might have
been required for plain work One
instance of this use of additional ma
teriais was in the coating of the To-
inch and S-inch pipes with concrete.
and the construction of foundations
for these drains. This accounted for
80 yards of stone end for 26 yards
of sand. The total amount of cement
charged was 494 sacks, or 127 barrels,
but in addition to this there were 80
barrels of cement used i'll this extra
work, for which the contractors, the
Mccarthy Improvement company, paid,
as {; protection to themselves against
future repairs on the drain.
Conditions Are Explained.
When he had finished Mr.. Treichler
relinquished the floor to Mr.. Film
wool and the engineer proceeded to
begin a decidedly embarrassing line
of cross examination, under which the
alderman was unable to hold up his
end of the argument. This cross fire
between the engineer and the alder
man was ended by Alderman Bloch
linger, who insisted that the matter
be taken up by engineers. and that
the council might hear from some
one who does know about this with
emphasis on the words does know
He called on Mr.. Hogan of the Nc
Carthy company and Mr. Hogan ex
planned to the council the very diff
cult character of the work involved
He explained that 1t had been neces-
sary to spend number of days in
preparation for the work, and that
when the dam had been built, and
the ditch had been constructed, the
whole preparation was undone by d
heavy rain that washed away the dam
and filed up the ditch This of course
caused extra labor cost.
MIR. Hogan, in response to an in
quiry from the city engineer, stated
that considerable of the cost of labor,
lumbcr, stone, sand and other material
went into the work in this fill.
Engineer Kimball of Davenport,
who made an examination and report
at the request-and the alderman says
the expense also-of Alderman Film
wood, was then called and in response
to a question from the city engineer
he stated that his report was based
entirely on apparent dimensions, and
the figures furnished him. He stated
that he was not aware of the condi-
tions, and that of course. being aware
of the conditions, he would not have
estimated the cost per lineal foot as
he did. Hhe stated that he considered
between 10 and % per cent reasona-
BILE allowance for profit and the I'M
certainties of sewer construction. Mr..
Treichler had made an allowance of
10 per cent.
Kinball Qualities Report.
Mr.. Kimball declared emphatically
replying to Alderman Lawler, that he
absolutely refused to go on record as
stating that the amount of the bill
was unreasonable. and added that nc
one not entirely familiar with ali con
ditions could make such statement
Mr.. Kimball later added that in MAX
ing the report he had intended no re
Elections against the city engineer. ant
that all he knew of the purpose of his
report was that it was to be used IA.
a check on the work, as to the ap
parent dimensions and the figure
given him.
Proceedings UnjustifabIe.
Alderman Ostrom, who has facul
ty of putting things very plainly, in
obliged in some plain talk on the sub
ject, and among other things statet
that this controversy he had found Il