The mirror., 1922-04-20

contractor is to come away with any
profit especially when you realize there
will be ten or more contractors wanting
the job as anxiously as he.
When the day arrives for the opening
of bids, each contractor or his representa-
tive is there to personally place in the
hands of the State Engineer his sealed bid
accompanied by certified check for from
five to ten per cent of the total bid, the
check being merely his signal of good
faith. The bids are then opened and read
aloud and invariably the lowest man wins
but sometimes all are too high and in that
case the Commissioners drop the matter,
hold all bids, and let the contractors think
it over. There is system, which, while
not really crooked, tends to lean that way
and is being used as one of the tricks of
the trade, and while the State will not
tolerate it when discovered, it does no
perceptible harm where the prices are
within reason. A number of contractors
will agree to form a ring and assist one
another to get a contract by bidding over
certain one who is selected beforehand
naturally he allows everyone to know his
figures and each one bids higher than he
on the total, when the final bids are read
he being low as rule will get the con-
tract, but he must reciprocate until all
have found job, they then disband until
the following season. When the contract
is awarded the contractor who is successful
must procure surety bond for the entire
j5b, relieving the State of all responsible
ity and guaranteeing all bills will be paid
and all work done in workmanlike manner
according to the blueprints. All the rest
of the bids and checks are then returned
held until the above mentioned bond is in
the State Highway Commissioners hands.
Meanwhile the State Engineer has
placed the County Surveyor on the job,
acting for the State and from now on he
will be the final authority and when you
consider him as being from a small town,
then elevated to position as the last word
to a company with probably thousands of
dollars worth of backing and experience
YOU may realize what life he sometimes
makes a contractor lead My impression
of County Surveyor or Engineer would
not look exactly proper in print and per-
sonally my experience with them does not
classify them under the heading of Angels,
perhaps those whom I've seen are excep-
tons, | hope so. One occasion placed me
in hands exceptionally disagreeable, and it
came to such pass that sometimes won
dered if the clothes l wore, or the oats that
were fed to the mules were alright for the
contract, but soon discovered everytime
he stopped some piece of work because OF
this or that he was compelled to write a
notice on his official etterhead, as the rules
of the game point out, he would go to
town only six miles away and carefully
type his order, sign and seal it, and by
the time he returned the work was far
along or done. He certainly seemed an
unnecessary evil on that contract They
are as "a rule though very expert in sur
veying and that they do with speed. First,
according to the plan, they stake the limits
of the roadway and place stake two
inches by eighteen inches every hundred
feet. The stake beginning from the start
is numbered zero, the first one, one !; the
second, two; etc, until the page 4, Col ~