Imperial Valley press., 1910-12-31

Contracts for building the protec- tive levee along the Colorado river
 in Mexico territory were let by Col.
 Ockerson on December 12, but no
 arrangements having been concluded
 with Mexico for remission of duties
 on stock and supplies, the contractors
 and their outfits were held up at the
 border for two weeks while the ot-
 flcials at Washington were running
 around like headless hens and try
 ing to do what should have been done
 last summer.
 Because the Mexican government
 had politely assured the American
 Minister that duties would be remit ted, the Washington officials as- stunned that arrangements had been
 made and instructed Col. Ockerson to
 go ahead with the work, but they
 had not reckoned with the manana
 ways of our polite neighbors and at
 the last moment they discovered that
 no jngtKuctions had been sent to Mex
 iccEcustoms officers on the line and that animals and supplies taken
 across the border were contraband and liable to siezure. Oscar Lawler
 was sent to the city of Mexico to straighten things out, and in the
 meantime the contractors had to
 hustle their outfits back into the
 United States to save them.
 This week Col Ockerson found a
 way to get around part of the dif-
 ficulty by advancing the duties for contractors on the understanding that the money is to refunded when Mex
 ico gets the red tape unwound. J. Il.
 Maxey, of Yuma, who has the con- tract for the first ten miles of levee,
 sent 15O head of stock over the lines
 on Tuesday and expected to nave
 450 head on the job by the end or
 the week. He will employ 300 or 4OO men. Maxey, who was in El Centro on Wednesday, says his grubbing gangs have cleared camps and rights of ways every ten thousand feet along his ten miles of work, so that he can stasE five crews on the levee work at 9once. The grubbing gangs will then be able to keep ahead of the teams.
 Norton & Mulligan, who have the sections below the Abejos, are tied I'D in Arizona because they have to pass through Sonora to get across the river and there is no custom house on that side. The officers at Mexlcah have no jurisdiction in Sonora and |cannot collect the duties, but the TUT ales can stop or seize stock and sup plies entering from Arizona, and so Norton & Mulligan are held up and are said to be losing about $500 day.
 Maxey does not know how much ! dirt he will have to move to build his Isections of the levee, but roughly es- Inmates the quantity at 5OO,OOO cubic wards. The contract provides for an Increase or decrease of sixty per cent | in yardage and for changes Of line and grade at option of the engineers. Because of changes made after his bid Fg opened and accepted, an ex- fra allowance of five cents yard has been made to Maxey. It is evident that no adequate survey of the ground < had been made when bids were asked | for and that the line of the levee 'had not been located. The specifica- 'tions provided for bidders were vague and the estimates were mere guesses
 based upon information supplied by 'C K. Clarke. The Chief Engineer had not been over the line, and 1t Is
 reported by men who have been be- I low the Abejos within the past few lays that there are no indications of
 survey having been made in that
 region. The engineers have had five months in which to do their work, md they are still guessing at the To- ,ation and cannot tell the contractors sven how deep they will have to go with their muck trenches.
 w. x Bowker, who is doing the N..