PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY BY· The League of Minnesota Municipalities Entered as second-class matter April 28, 1916, at the Post Office at The League and St. Cloud The League has honored itself in choosing to hold its next convention in St. Cloud. It is to St. Cloud more than to any other city that the League owes its organization. Its first meetings in 1913 were largely the result of the initiative efforts of Mr. J. E. Jenks, then City Attorney, and of Mr. P. J. Seberger, then Mayor of St. Cloud. Mr. Jenks became the first President of the League, and served as such during its first two years. Mr. Seberger has ever been active in the service of the League as trustee or committeeman. The League owes much of its growth and present success to the wise counsel and assistance of these two men. Going to St. Cloud for its Fifth Annual Convention, it pays its tribute of honor and esteem to the chief among its founders. A Matter of Municipal Economy A Minnesota village contracted for the laying of some 1,700 feet of water mains during the last summer. Mindful of the latitude and temperatures, the village specified that the mains should be laid eight feet deep and let the contract to the "lowest responsible bidder." After a portion of the work had been completed the village made a discovery. It became necessary to tap the new main for service connections and it was then revealed that the pipe was actually laid not eight feet, but only six and a half below the surface. The most immediate question which smote the authorities of that village was: Will it freeze? And the answer depends upon the caprice of the weather-when there comes a winter severely cold, without a snow blanket, it will; until then it may not. But there is no margin of safety to assure service regardless of the weather. And then, what remedy is to be had? Happily for this village it has made its discovery in time to withhold acceptance and payment. And this circumstance will doubtless instil a measure of sweet reasonableness into the contractor's subsequent conduct. The only real remedy would be to require him to relay the pipe at a proper depth, and if he is a man of means this will doubtless be possible. It means delays and double inconvenience of having the streets torn up again, but there is no other way to assure that village of dependable water service. The contractor would very probably prefer to settle by reducing somewhat the amount of his contract. The village will do well to hesitate long before accepting such a settlement, and better still to reject it. It would have neither a water main on which it could rely, nor money enough returned to pay for one. And it would be condoning an evil practise on the part of the contractor whose bid was accepted against those of competitors who did not figure on saving the cost of the last foot and a half of digging as specified. The village cannot altogether escape being the victim of an unfortunate circumstance, but it can keep its money until it gets what it agreed to pay for. The incident would furnish texts for discourses on several aspects of municipal administration. It brings up the question of letting contracts. The law very sensibly directs that contracts shall be let to the lowest responsible bidder. This appears to be a case wherein full responsibility did not accompany the contractor's disposition to bid low. It is another item contributing to the mass of testimony which affirms the wisdom of selecting contractors on the basis of an average bid and adequate, certain responsibility, rather than on the minimum bid and conjectural responsibility. He who bids far below the average on standard work is likely to save himself from loss by doing a substandard job. Another of the lessons which this case serves to impress is that not any municipality, howsoever small, can afford on any contract job whatever not to have an inspector constantly on the work to see that all is done as it should be. Shallowness of the ditch is but one of several defaults to be guarded against, and the most obvious one, at that. There is little warrant for supposing that the contractor who risks "getting away" with it, will be scrupulous to avoid others less open. Vigilance, eternal vigilance, is still the price of safety. The municipality which to save the cost of inspection, accepts work of any contractor who has covered over a pipe in a ditch, is risking dollars to save mills, on the chance that the contractor will be disposed to lay the pipe with tight joints and at a depth of safety. No municipality should pay for anything so costly as a water main until it has satisfied itself that it has it. It might in some cases be wise to require the contractor to furnish a continuing insurance bond conditioned upon the satisfactory service of the pipe laid. Yet this would not reduce the need of inspection and would necessarily increase the bid cost, by perhaps more than the salary of an efficient inspector would amount to, for the concern furnishing the bond would have to charge enough to pay all their risks and costs and would surely have an inspector of their own on the job. Unless the bond were continued indefinitely a shallow main might weather out a number of light winters only to freeze up after the bond had been discontinued. Moreover, the predicament of this Minnesota village impels us to consider the question of the wisdom of doing such work by the contract plan at all. Certainly it cannot be claimed that a contractor is a necessity, with reports coming in week after week all parts of the country of cities' con structing their public work with day labor on force account and claiming savings up to as high as thirty per cent of contract cost of like works. These savings they effect by cutting off the profits of the contractor and by an accommodation of the time of their work to seasons when it can be done efficiently and when labor is most available. On the other hand, it must not be overlooked that these reports generally come, not from the smaller cities and the villages, but from cities large enough to employ the machinery and equipment required during a comparatively long period of every year, whereas a village might not be warranted in purchasing this equipment for the amount of work it has to do. It will generally be cheaper for it to let the contractor do work which requires a paving plant or a trenching machine, even though it is necessary to pay him a profit which is a premium above what similar work, done on force account, costs the larger city. And, it must inspect. The thought everlastingly recurs whether the work be done by contractor or by day labor, that the municipality must see that it is done right. Work done with anything short of thoroughness is wasteful; taxpayers cannot afford it. Such harassing discoveries as that of the village mentioned can be avoided only by insistence upon the proper performance of every contract, with careful oversight of the work as it is done. Decide It Now The League is loth to strike any municipality's name from its roll. But there are many reasons wherefore the names of members whose renewal dues are not paid must be stricken off the list. There are municipalities which desire and intend to renew but which have thus far deferred payment of their dues. Their names will be carried as members until December 20. If there are any whose dues remain unpaid at that time, it will be assumed that they desire to withdraw from the League, and their names will be dropped from the membership list, and their officials from the subscription list of MINNESOTA MUNICIPALITIES. The Municipal Bookshelf The library should have a section devoted to literature of the municipality, as easily accessible to the public as the latest fiction, and conveniently at hand for the use of the city fathers. Municipalities which find their library funds limited could still enrich this section very materially by a judicious expenditure of postal cards and stamps. Many of the Bureaus of the Federal Government at Washington issue valuable bulletins from time to time which are furnished upon request. New York and other large cities issue many valuable publications free. Occasional bulletins from universities are of unusual value, and available upon request. It is the intention of MINNESOTA MUNICIPALITIES to devote a column of each issue to municipal literature worth procuring, whether published for free distribution or not. |