Evening star., 1953-01-03
Housing Board
Awaits Result
Of Court Order
Low Bid Token Back
As Southern Move
Prevents Awarding
By Tom Burke

Dy lOW 0uIkS
The future of :. proposed 148-
unit low-rent housing project ap-
peared uncertain today, as men,
bers of the Alexandria Redevelop-
ment and Housing Authority. pre-
vented by a court order from
awarding a low bidder the con-
Struction contract, sat back to
await Developments.
The low bidder, Victor R. Beau
champ, Inc. of Washington, with
drew the bid at noon yesterday,
as it lRd threatened to do unless
1t were accepted.
Members Refuse Comment.
At the end of an all-day ses-
sion behind closed doors, mem
bers of the authority refused to
comment on any phase of their
deliberations. Glenn U. Richard,
chairman of the agency. issued the
following statement as the ses-
sion ended:
1--WE have made a decision to
forward certain information to
the Public Housing AdminiStra-
ton (Which must approve any bid
awarded made by the Alexandria
agency. and the contents of that
material will not be divulged until
after it has been delivered"
Mr.. Richard said he thought the
information would be given to
John Taylor Egan. PHA commits
sioner early Monday. He refused
to comment further on the explo-
sive situation brought about when
the authority. on November 6, re-
jected the low bid, only to have
the PHA refuse to go along with
its decision.
The authority indicated its de-
sire to give the contract to Eugene
Simpson and Bro, an Alexandria
firm, after Southern Iron Works,
Inc. an Alexandria steel fabri-
Gator. protested non-union shops
would be excluded from doing
subcontract work if Beauchamp, a
union shop firm. got the award.
Cites Terms of Agreement.
But PHA said terms of its
agreement with the Housing Au-
thority specified that all contracts
must be awarded to qualified low
bidders.
Southern obtained the court
order, Today injunction, from
Alexandria Circuit Court Judge
Paul E. Brown. 1t charged that
award of the contract to Beau
champ would violate the Virginia
right-to-work law.
The injunction also prevents
Mr.. Egan and any other PHA
officials from taking any action
affecting the contract award orl
funds allecated for the Alexandria
project. Mr.. Egan earlier had
stated Alexandria might lose Fed
eral funds because projects were
being approved on a f1rst-come
first-served basis.
Late yesterday, Mr.. Egan said
he received a copy of the injunc-
ton at his Washington Office, but
he said PHA lawyers doubted the
legality of his being served by a !
United States marshal since the
order was issued by a Virginia
court. He said the question has
been referred to the Department
of Justice for a decision.
Mr.. Egan added that no money
IS actually allocated to the Alex
andria project except through a |
contractural agreement with the
authority. He said. the agreement
was invalidated by the authority's
refusal to accept the low bid.
Would Accept Award.
James B. Davis, jr., secretary
treasurer of the Beauchamp firm,
said last night his company would
still accept the contract award but
only if the subcontractors he re-
ceived bids from agree to stand by
their prices quoted last October.
The Beauchamp bid of $1,157,-
$40 was $62,500 less than the
Simpson bid.
The first Is minutes of the
Authority's all-day session were
opened to the press. Letters from
five Alexandria subcontractors
were read during this period. All
complained that the award of the
contract to Beauchamp would re-
suit in their being excluded from
working on the project.
They based their arguments on
the ground that Beauchamp has
a labor agreement with the Wash
ington Building and Construction
Trades Council excluding use of |
open shops firms on it's projects.