Plentywood herald., 1931-06-11

Herald)
The contract was awarded
without bids and without calling
the representatives of the different
na,,ers before the board, or in other
words without the exercise OF any
discretion whatsoever.
find the above comment in the Pro-
ducers News, edited by Chas. t. Taylor
who. like Brother Crawford's S wife, is very
unhappy.
what Editor Taylor publishes about myself
or one Of my business partners Harry r.
Polk who. with S. Th Westdahl and Mrs
Anna Nelson. own all of the stock in the
Plentywood Herald corporation, it might IN
terest Herald readers and taxpayers in gen
eral to read few facts concerning county
printing in Sheridan county
The Contract of 1925
One would think that the action OF the
present board last week was the first time
in history that the Sheridan county printing
contract had been let without calling for
bids The law in this respect has not chang
edit does not require calling for bids.
Dolin in | I9l6 without calling for bids. 1t was
let again in 1920 without calling for bids.
In 1925 the board gave the contract to
the Producers News without calling for bids
or giving any other newspaper a chance to
compete Moreover the News got the con-
tract at FULL CODE PRICE. But the full
code price was not enough for Taylor. who
charged the county almost double full code
price for most everything it furnished
How About Prices?
The present contract lists the publica-
ton OF commissioners proceedings at w
cents per folio and reductions on practically
every other item of from | 0 to SO per cent.
Taylors 1925 contract listed commits
sioners proceedings at S SO per folio and
full code price for everything else, which
would not have proven SO expensive had he
made any pretense at abiding by the terms
of the contract
A Vast Difference
During the last two years (not includ-
ing the six months previous Taylor men
tions) that the News had the contract, Sher-
idan county paid that newspaper the sum of
SIS, ,4S2O8 for printing and supplies
During the next two years, lo27-lo2o,
Sheridan county paid the Plentywood Her
aid $4,000 for printing and supplies.
Just a difference of $13,103O8.
Doesn't saving of $l3 ,l0308 amount
to anything to the taxpayers of Sheridan
County? Or would it mean more to them
to donate that much to Taylor and the Pro-
ducers Newso
What is Discretion?
If the commissioners lacked discretion
in awarding the contract this year without
the formality Of calling for bids, then the
commissioners lacked discretion in 1916,
1920, 1925 and 1929
Does it show a lack Of discretion to save
$l3,000OOp
Does it show lack of discretion to
award the printing contract to the news
paper which furnished the county printing
and supplies cheaper than any other news
paper ever did in the history of Sheridan
county?
Does it show lack of discretion to
award the printing contract to the only news
paper in the county which has not padded
its claims and filed fraudulent claims and
collected thousands Of dollars fraudulently
from the countyl
Difference in Newspaper
Taylor knows that the Producers News
collected thousands Of dollars fraudulently
from the county. Everyone else who has
taken the time to examine any of its claims
knows that to be true.
Taylor claims that Of that $25 ,48208
it collected from the county much was for
equipment
Yes, we find hardware items. purchas-
ed from Sears-Roebuck But Taylor added
20 ner cent to the cataIOp price and COLLECTED