Imperial Valley press., 1909-05-15
An Inaccurate Map of the City Said to Be Cause of
 the Trouble.
Contractors and City Engineer Ab- solved of Blame by olmstead q Gii- leIan, Who Offer to Pay Half the Cost of correction--Defeet Only Trivial Matter.

El Centro's new septic sewer sys- tenn, now under course of construc- tion by Prick & Ware, of Los An geles, is hustling along at a rate which is gratifying, and which indi- cates that the job will be completed within the time limit.
 All of the 12-inch pipe from the septic tank to Fourth street and the 10-inch and S-inch pipe south on Fourth street have been laid, and pipe has been laid through the four south alleys to the west line. In the aggregate 17,000 feet of sewer have been completed out of the entire 36.- 900 called for in the contract.
 About 20O0 feet of the outfall have been laid, but work on that section was delayed this week by the flooding of the trench with irrigation water IT, rigators along the line of the out fall have disregarded the sewer work and impeded the ditching machine by flooding their fields inopportunely. In one case the contractors were obliged to apply for an injunction to avert serious interference. The flooding of the trench caused delay that will set back the work about ten days
 The ditching machine is now op- erating east of the Dogwood canal. Steel for reinforced concrete construc- tion of the septic tank has arrived and when-the cement arrives work oB the tank will start. Ten carloads of gravel have been brought in from the Whitewater gravel pits for use in lay ing sewers and constructing the sep tic tank, and thirty carloads of sewer pipe have been received. The pipe has come in good condition, with but little breakage. Construction of man. holes has been started, and taken as a whole, good progress has been made on the construction of the system.
 It was discovered last Monday that sewer pipe laid through the west blocks of the city were coming too close to the surface, ana some exci- table citizens jumped to the conclu- sion that either an awful blunder had been made or that someone was grating. There are persons so con- stituted that the sight of telephone pole two degrees out of. plumb causes them to emit shrill yells of graft"
 It was made plain at the start of the inquiry that Prick & Ware, tho contractors, were not responsible for the error. Trustee Brown conceded that they were doing good work in every respect, but he refused to audit their bill and the payment due them was held up, pending determination of the cause of error. In response to telegram to Olmstead & Gillelan. engineer Gillelan came to El Centro on Wednesday to see what was the matter and after inspection he ab- solved the contractors and the city engineer from blame.
 Nothing very serious was the mat ter, and the contractors estimated that the trouble could be correcteCu at cost not exceeding $350 MT. Gillelan offered to stand half the ex- pense and the contractors offered to do the extra work at actual cost
 It appears that the map of the city adopted as official Is incorrect aud that the actual distance from the railroad to the west line Is more than 1t scales on the map. Consequently the grade, as given on the protiles, runs out at the surface inside the block lines.
 1 Had the Los Angeles engineers been
 on the ground during the progress or
 the work, probably the error would
 have been detected sooner and cor
 rected before the pipe was laid, They
 are getting paid well for supervising
 construction work. and 1t might be in order for the city of El Centro to
 suggest that 1t is entitled to service | in return for the fee.
 Discovery of the discrepancy be-
 tween the official map. which was not
 made for the city however.
 and the blocks as marked
 on the ground. brings out the need
 for correct survey and an accurate map. It win cost about $500 to make Ia proper map.