Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-05-14
COUNTY ENGINEER IN ADAMS
MAKES GOOD At ONE
STROKE.
,cRlTicrsM OF ROAD LAW
SHOWN NOT TO BE JUSTIFIED
Aceion Of Engineer in Insisting on
Competitive Bidding Prevents Over.
charge Of 81 800 on One Contract
Highway Commission Not Hamper.
ina Local Boards,
to rlmes-Republtcan.

Special to Times-Republican.
Des Moinea. MaEt14.-Fsepresentative
Walter Newcomb, OF Adams county.
comes back hard at local politicians
who have been cr1ticiztng him for sup
port Of the law which looks to better
roads for Iowa. the highway commits
sion bill. An attack was made on the
ground that fixing a salary for the
county engineer was q waste of money.
The Office of county engineer Is one
created by q prior assembly or rather
a change from county surveyor to en-
gineer, but by the last legislature It
was made Of some value.
Representative Newcomb In a let
ter he has circulated in his county,
calls attention to one instance where
more than tho entire amount Of the
county engineers salary, in Adams
county, was saved by the new road
law, and also a saving to cover all the
expense of that office. He states. in
substance, that Pierce Metz, bridge
contractor. met one Of the county SUI
,pervisors at Nodaway, and had the en-
gineer present, that the supervisors
signed contract for q new seventy
six foot steea bridge and Mr.. Metz tried
to induce the engineer to 0. K. the or
der. The latter refused because there
had been no chance for competitive
bidding. The engineer also computed
the drainage area and found that
much smaller structure would serve
1.-THE purpose. In the end concrete
bridge was built at saving of about
~, 500 from the proposed contract. The
waving was to the county and the loss
10 the bridge company.
Local Boards Not Hampered.
Regarding an allegation that the To-
sral boards and officers are hampered
by the highway commission, Repre-
sentative Newcomb says:
Such is not the case, as the spirit
and intent of the law Is to give them
more freedom. The commissioners
duties are mainly Of an advisory char
acter. Will we say that the freedom
OF our district court Is threatened by
the existence Of the supreme court?
1.-The latter IS court Of resort, used
when the findings Of the lower court
are appealed from. Or will we saw
that the rights and duties Of our coun-
~ sheriff are infringed upon because
Governor Clarke sits in the executive
chair? 1t can not be presumed that
our governor would interfere with the
duties Of any sheriff unless said Off
Ger should fail to enforce or carry out
the mandates OF the law. And still
the functions Of both the supreme court
4 and the chief executive are necessary
10 properly interpret and execute our
laws. The highway commission will
not interfere where there ls a DISPOSE
tion on the part of local boards to fair
~ interpret and carry out the law
In the last service bulletin of the
Iowa highway commission an illus
tration OF the way the law works out
to effect saving IS given in a case in
Woodbury. county Bids for bridges
were rejected on the advice of the
county engineer and the field engineer
OF the commission. the prices being
considered too high. A month later
bids were secured for the same bridges
and saving Of S3,7sS was effected
Similar instances are said to be easily
located all over the state.