Weekly journal-miner., 1916-03-08

awakened by Mir. Stephens at the
 request of the architect.
 Subsequent to the 24th day of
 February the plans were carefully
 gone over, measurements and
 areas of the different offices care
 fully checked, specifications care
 fully checked against the blue
 prints and estimates by both Mir.
 Stephens and Mir. Suder - Mir.
 Heaps time being so occupied
 with his own business and social
 affairs that he devotes very little
 time to the consideration of the
 affairs of the county, not only to
 tine plans and specifications of the
 court house, but to the general
 business of the county. This fact
 is generally known to all of the
 officials of the county
 As to the sufficiency of this
 contract with the architect, the
 contract was drawn by the county
 attorneys office, it being the duty
 at all times Of that office to see
 that the interests of the taxpayers
 of the county are fully protected
 as to the legality of all contracts.
 As to the objection raised to
 the paying of the actual and nec-
 essary travelling expenses of the
 architect, so as to enable him to
 properly supervise and construct
 the building, will say that this is
 a question that has been given
 considerable consideration, and
 find that this item is allowed in
 all buildings of any size which re-
 quire the services of an architect.
 WILLIAM STEPHENS,
 Chairman Board of Supervisors.
 HENRY ]. SUDER,
 Member.
 It is to the above statement that Mir. Heap replies, throwing consider. able light into dark places and giving an insight into the manner in which a transaction involving quarter of a million dollars, was handled. It is in teresting and instructive in a number of ways, and will bear careful perusal by every man and woman in the county.
 MT. Heaps Statement.
 have never found it necessary to apologize for the fact that have had business training, and that it has made me conservative in matters oi spending money-even spending oth- CT peoples money. When I look back at the slipshod methods and wholly inexcusable laxness which has ac' companied, so far, the proposal to spend nearly S250,0O0 of the people money for a court house in Yavapal county, l cannot help but feel that ii would be far better if all supervisors had outside business interests" even through it might give them something else tc do than sit around the court house drawing down Sl00 per montn That is not why this is written. however, but because l feel that the people of Yavapai county would op- pose vigorously any doing politics in connection with the building of the new court house. In order that they may know what is being done, l sub init this record every part of which can be fully verified. The bonds for the new court house were sold in Denver. Of the three architects sub hitting plans in the final competition, only one had gone to the expense of drawing fully the various detail plans. and working drawings. It is some thing q conservative man would harI- iv do unless he felt sure beforehand that he was to get the contract since it involves an expense of at leas, S2.OOO. which would be thrown away ii his plans were rejected. The archi- tect who had done this extra work, which would not help in the least in reaching a decision as to whether his plans were the most desirable, was w. N. Bowman. Gle comes from Denver the bonds were sold in Den ver). In the final vote on the plans, voted for those submitted by a MT. Coulter of San Francisco. My reason for so doing was that the building proposed by Mir. Coulter was guar anteed to cost less than that proposed bv the Denver architect; in fact he offered a certified check for Sl 900 to guarantee that the building could and would be constructed within the esti- mate submitted by him. It IS very doubtful in my mind whether it will be possible to construct the Denver planned building for the money VIC will have available, since neither O. the otier supervisors know any more about it than ! do, and they refused 70 take the time necessary to investi- gate. consequently none of us know much about the matter.
 I urged . delay on the vote to select the winning plans. in order that the people of Yavapai county, might be able to study the work of the various architects. and give some expression of their views This was voted down by the two supervisors.
 When t came to the matter of en- tering into contract for the con -.-,,c,;o,, OF tba huitdinO the suDer-