The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-03-25
DURKIN S LASS MUST MOVE BY CLOSE OF WEEK Otherwise Board of Educa- tion Will Declare Contract
 Has Been Broken. CoMLEY COUNsELs BOARD OF EDUCATION L.aborers File Claims Against City For Wages For Elk
 cavating Work.

Unless the firm of DuEkin & Lass, 1 by Satur day, makes some arrange l ment for the resumption Of work on the high school. the board of edu- cation, acting on advice of City At torney Comley. will declare the firms l contract void and action will be talk en toward placing the contract for completion with another firm. To- day City Attorney ComIey took the contract to Hartford with him in or- der to look over its provisions. There is a. clause in the contract which pro- v1des that if work on the building one time under circumstances which kthe contractors are able to remedy, the contract may be declared void. President Ravens of the school board intended to call a special meet ing of that body for tonight but Ar chttect J. G. Rogers is at Atlantic City and could not be here. After consulting with other members of the board, President Havens decided to postpone the meeting. Tomor- TOW afternoon at o'clock the mem bers of the board of education are to attend an exEd bdtion Of boys work at Lincoln school given und CT the di- rectfon Of Harvey c. Went. the p4ysi- cal instructor for the public schools.
 
 endeavor to get the opinion of the members as to when they desire 9 meeting called. In the meantime President Haven has written sArchi- tect Rogers acq1adntfng him with the situation and asking him to fix some board and talk over the matter.
 The most serious differenee that has been Known since the board of education was established is likely to arise from the present situation. There are 8 nunrber of members of the board who ara not in sympathy with the tactics of President Ravens on the new high school These members feel that more action. should pbe had in the building opera lions and that already the diIatory tactics pursued ver4ges on a. public scandal. Some of these members are talking about calling for a public investigation of the whole matter.
 For some time there was a story in circulation about town. that there was no record Of the contract for the. high school on the minutes Of the board Of education and that no con tract with Dur11in & Lass had ever been signed Miss Durkin, who is the senior member of the firm and w1no made the coitra,ct with the high school committee Of the board Of education was expected in Bridgeport today to straighten things out, but up to press hour she had not arrived. Most of the members of the board were inclined to think today that the best way out of the matter was to declare the contract with Durkin & Lass void and to place the conple- ton Of the building with some local firm
 President Ravens and other mem bers of the board today said they had no fault to find with R. H. Murphy for his attitude in paying off the work men and refusing to be responsible for bills for construction work at the high school any longer. MT. Mur- phy it is said, heard of several att tachments that would have been made against money which he had gnaran- teed. To protect this money it was necessary for him to order further an active part in the building opera tions. ss
 It was said today that representa-. tives of several local contracting firms and also a representative of the H. Wales Lines Co. of Meriden. had ap- preached members Of the board Of education with offers to complete the high school building according to contract in case the firm of Durkin & Lass withdraws or in case the con tract is taken from that firm.
 Representing about 30 1aborers who have not been paid for work in connection with the excavations for the new high school, Attorney A. J. Merrit erday filed claim with the city clerk for his clients They were employed by Robertson & Gio- vanni, who did the excavation and blasting for the new school The firm that did the excavating found more rock to blast than it's engineers had anticipated. In consequence the firm failed to agree with D1rIin & Lass on the amount of money to be paid for the work done. Robertson & Giovanni were obliged to discharge many of their Iajborers without pay, so they al1ege. These la:borers, un- der a recent decision of the supreme court. cannot recover by the process of filing mechanics liens because the high school is a. public building. The petition which Attorney Merritt has filed with the city clerk and which musts be submitted to the common council, reads as follows:
 To the honorable board of alder men of the city of Bridgeport: Your petitioners respectfully represent that during the month of October. 1914. they were employed by the Robertson & Giovanni Contracting Go, sub-con- tractors of Durkin & Lass, on the construction of the high school, and have been unable to obtain the wages, which are due them for their labor; that the following is list of petition CTS and the amounts due them:
 James Mondonaro, SIS % Foreman Charles Alshey, .... 26. co Pietro Pet1tto, ..s... .... 11.50 Giovanni Simmtnello. greece. 11.65 Andrew Sadrno, ............ 10.35 tContinued on Page Two)