The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-09-30

vitiate its contract to take the bonds after contractin; for sl0o,000 worth Of same. Afterwards they took S5000oO worth more of the bonds at 90 cents on the dollar. the contractors paying 10 per cent on the dollar, which bonds netted the county 100 per cent on the dollar. Some of the people of this county prob ably may regret the sale of the bonds was not had, but we are of the opinion that the people of this county are for tunate on account of the bonds not being sold because we think that the road bonds of this county have been reck- lessly handled, and so long as the bonas are not sold this money cannot be squan- dered by set of reckless and inefficient set of officials in charge of the road con- struction of this county.
 ROAD CONSTRUCTION
 we find that the board of revenue prematurely let contracts for the con struction of new and permanent roads that a great scheme was entered lnto between certain officials before the last primary election to survey as many or the roads of the county as possible, ana to this end a large force of surveyors and helpers was employed at a great cost and expense to the county; that the surveys were hurriedly made ene projects were drawn up and advertlsed' and that when bids were called TOT nv specifications were availaoie TOT con tractors to use in making bids, but that tbev were required to go to the office of the county engineer and there LOOK over A typewritten sheet of these sp'ci- fications there being no blueprlnts aVat'- able at that time. thereby deprlVlns seS eral responsible road contractors, "ho were not familiar with local conditions the privilege of bidding on said roads. and thus defeating competition; anu .nes
 y~nA bid excessively, in order to more tnah cover all nossible contingencies; and that when bidders and citizens called the board of revenues attention to tnese conditions they passed them up
 though they were not irreguihtieo "> ignored their protests.
 And we find, furthermore, that the oiue 2. prints. plans and specifications were hu, ~, available for individual contractors uh..i aid contracts were let. we Ilnu ds ead this was done on a great many rodus' and evidently was done for the purpose of leading the people in the country, re- siding on or near these roads, to thilA and believe that they would soon ha permanent highways, thereoy iu. ene. -,.S the candidacy of Jere Gwln, who was .. cha;rman of the road building commtt- tee and a candidat efor re-eiect'oh "s member of the board of revenue.
 eve find that many thousands or ooi. lars have been expended in the attempt to reconstruct roads, which nave III III. mediately thereafter proved to De unlI. and unsafe for public use we nios. heartily condemn the way and manhe, that the board of revenue has permlt.eu OUT highways to be torn up ana hepe ont of repair in this county. It is useless and it shows inefficiency and lncoH- petency on .the part of those ln contIoi' Miles and miles of our roads are In tns course of construction, and miles anu miles of roads around these places oi construction are already impassapie' we think that those in charge of this worh should see to it that contracts are pusneu and that so much road work is not torn up until the contractors are reaoy to use the road for the purpose Of maklns a new one. We recommend that there pc a law enacted to protect the county interest in the north, south, east anu west highways of the cities of this coun- ty. and that all contractors and plumbers permitted to make excavations in said roads be required to give indemnity bonds, guaranteeing that the excavations be replaced with like material and work manship as the same was before the ex- oavations were made therein, and that ,efore any permanent road work be done