Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1913-08-26

basis than the last. He paid lower
prices for labor, and for teams and
completed the work with more dis
patch. The concrete trade was an
expensive and unfortunate one for
the city. Seemingly no effort was
made to complete the concrete walks
in time for the park to be opened
May l, as was contemplated. The
work was delayed by one pretext or
another until patience ceased to be
a virtue and was finally stopped
with some parts Of the work left IN
done Mr., BJale5 charged the city,
not including possible charges on his
lost vouchers, a rental Of S. a week
or 500 50 for use Of tools in putting
down 500 feet of walks, a sum |
believe to be excessive, and | con-
sidered some of the other charges
much too high.
Believing that Mr.. Boales' &C.
counts should be gone over thor
oughIy, called several meetings Of
the Park Committee, at one Of which
the City Attorney was invited to be
present, and after a careful inquiry
items amounting to 1921. sc were dis
allowed and this amount was order.
ed returned to the fund from which
it had been drawn by Me-. BoaIes.
The amount included $186.56 of L.
Dor items, $38, so excess for rent of
tools and $3.50 for cement sacks
lost and for lumber, etc, which had
been used in the concrete work.
The amount of 1927 Sc returned
and $70.72 worth of cement and
$12. 10 worth of stone used by the
other contractors we're allowed as
lcredits on the 2,l71.99 above refer
red to, reducing that amount to ST.
851 81. expended by Mr.. Boales. An
effort to separate the several items
of work was made but found to be a
very difficult matter. as the same
hands were working on the different
kinds of work with no separate esti-
mate of the labor costs. AS nearly
as could be arrived at the work was
separated as follows:
Concrete walks at sixteen cents a
square foot 1872 90
Work on fences and trees. 10000
Shrubs planted and cared for 100 90
Hauling bills paid ............. 90 20
Work on urns. sodding and
general cleaning up grounds LAG Al
Total, Sl,85l 81
Mr.. Boales, without authority to
do so, placed his advertisement as a
contractor in the concrete walks
constructed under his supervision,
although the work was not being
done by contract. These mislead,
ing advertisements have since been
removed.
have not gone into an investiga-
ton of all of the expenditures made
by Mr.. Boales or of materials sup.
piled on the work he was doing,
but have corrected only such irregu-
larities as referred to above. Should
the Council wish to order a more
thorough investigation, | shall rem
der such assistance as | am called
upon to give.
Should legal inquiry be made in
to the expenditures, would recon
mend that the investigation also in
clude an inquiry into bills aggregat-
ing 5000 rs paid more than a year
ago for hauling excavated material
from the sewer constructed on Tenth
street. Ihave frequently laid this
matter before the Council and have
estimates from several engineers
showing that the bills for hauling
the excavated material were far in
excess Of the hauling required on
the job. These estimates have been
borne out by actual measurements
of the soil by members of the Coun-
ell and an investigation legally con-
Quoted will show that the city paid
from $3.50 TO $500 TOO much. The
employment of an expert account
ant, with a knowledge Of construc
| ton work Of the kinds done, to cor,
rect the bills as rendered, would re-
suit in furnishing the city with a
proper basis for suits to recover