The Washington times., 1908-12-28
HEAD OF STREET WORK
THINKS CITY IS SAFE
Captain Markham Confirms Overpayment, Ex-
plains Measurement, and Says Treasury Holds
Balance on Contract Price

/ Capt. Z. NJ Markham, Assistant
Z Engineer Commissioner. who is IN direct
charge OF District street work, has
/ issued a statement in which he con-
! firms the story Of the overpayment to
B the Brennan company, estimating the
amount at about $4,000. Captain Mark
ham also states that the District will
not lose anything. by reason Of the fact
that there is also retained In the United
+ States Treasury a certain per cent Of a
contract price. which may be appro-
priated in a case like this.
Captain Markham's explanation Of the
manner in which the change in meas
urements occurred and the OvcrTay re-
suited, is as follows:
Known Six Months.
THE matter brought to the attention
OF the public in a Sunday afternoon
! journal is a matter which has been
known in the office OF the Engineer
Commissioner for about six months, and
the Engineer Commissioner, with the
advice of the Corporation Counsel,
through myself, has been looking up all
available data concerned with the mat
ter TO get such light on the case as pos
sible.
1T should first be stated that, for
possibly twenty years. the contractors
for repairs to streets have bean paid for
material used in patching asphalt streets
BY the cubic foot for material used, and
that this material, I'm the first contract
made with the Crawford Paving Com
pany a great many years age, was paid
for, according to the specifications, by
the cubic foot, measured IN the cart at
the site Of the work. The same method
was followed In all subsequent contracts
with the Crawford Paving Company. al
though these subsequent contracts pro
vided only that material should be paid
FOR by the cubic foot, measured in
carts
In the spring of 1903 the Brennan
Construction Company was successful
in the competition against other con-
tractors, among whom was the Gran
ford Paving Company, and that com
pany was awarded the contract tor re
pairs to streets beginning July /, 1903,
the contract being for Two years. with
the privilege Of extending Tor an ad-
ditiOnal two years. provided the work
Of tho contractor was satisfactory. At
this time the Brennan Construction
Company did not have an established
plant Of It's own, but worked for SeV-
eral months on the contract. in pdrt
using the plant OF the Crawford Paving
Company and in part the plant OF the
Warner-QuinlCu company winch Adu
had a contract for paving streets expir-
ing at about this time In the mean
time the Brennan Construction Com
pany was assembling a plant OF its own,
and in the spring of 1904 was prepared
20 begin opera tiOns, using its own plant
Change in Method
1T then became necessary for the
District 70 make a measurement OF what
is known as the charging box 70 de-
termIne the cubic foot capacity on
" hich payment should be based It was
at this point that the change IN method
Of measurement was made. the method
adopted at that time being the measure
ment Of the material as It dropped into
the cart Immediately after being mixed
and before it had been shaken down
in the cart BY the passage TO the site