The Alaska citizen., 1916-05-01
FREE USE OF
 P|LEDR|VER IS
 OFFERED RIGGS
CITY WILL DONATE USE OF ITS HALF-NOYES OWNS
 OTHER HALF

Al tile CIJN tOulltH lItttiIls tue
 other night it was the consensus
 of opinion on the part of the cOun- i cilmen that the city should donate ] the use of it's half interest in the
 piledriver 10 the Alaskan Engineer i ing commission. The use of the ma i chine had been requested by Thomas 1 Riggs. Jr, in wire to Dave Petree i as chairman of the bridge commit tee of Fairbanks. and MT. Petree i had replied to the wire, stating that the piledriver could be secured by the commission for $40 per day. In his wire MT Riggs stated that the ! use of the local machine is neCes-
 sary only until a like machine can | be imported from the Outside by l the commission. F. G. Moves. or the Panama Mill company, is the owner of the other half interest in
 the piledriver.
 The expressed opinion of the city council however, has changed the aspect of things, although the mat ter has not yet been definitely set tied Therefore MT. Petree has wired Mr Riggs. telling him that he may have the use of the piledriyer for $2O per day, which means that Mir Moves must be paid for his half in terest However, if MT Riggs con cludes to take the machine for any i length of time over month, he can have it for $17.50 per day. But the Engineering commission may have the machine only after the temporary bridge across the Cinema river is installed this spring, as its free use for construction work on the bridge has been given to the Alaska Road commission.
 When it was announced that MT Petree had wired MT. Riggs that the use of the piledriyer would cost the Engineering commission S4o per day, the ownership of the piledriy- CT immediately became matter of considerable controversy. For it was the consensus of opinion among the people generally that the Engi- neering commission should be given the free use of anything the city for in the matter Of doing construC- tion work on the railroad. Particu- larly was this true in view of the l fact that many considered that it was a matter of the city taking money from the Engineering cOmmis- sion which could well be used else where, showing a lack of apprecia- tion on the part of the city to Com
 missioner Riggs for the work he has done. But, of course, with the
 recent practical decision of the city, l the matter, as far as the munici-
 pality is concerned, is all cleared up.
 The telling of the history of the 1 piledriver and the ferry might not
 be amiss at this time. Both were
 built in the early days of Fairbanks, ! for use when the bridge was out
 and to install it again. They were
 constructed with lumber furnished | by the Panama Mill company, the
 original cost being in the neighbor-
 hood of $3,5O0. To defray the eX- pense of building the equipages, a
 number of the business men of Fair banks banded themselves together and formed the Fairbanks Bridge
 committee And to the committee a title 10 a half interest in the
 property was given by the mill
 company.
 Therefore the half interest in the
 piledriver and ferry really belongs
 to that committee. However, after
 they have served their use this
 spring, both will be deeded over to
 the city by Mir. Petree, as chairman of the bridge committed