Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 August 1905 — STEWARTS QUIT. [ARTICLE]

STEWARTS QUIT.

Bidders In Iroquois Ditch Decline to Go Ahead. ATTORNEY SAYS SALE’S ILLEGAL. Will Demand Contract on Their Lowest Separate Bid, They State, Which Was Much Higher. H. H. Stewart, of H. H. Stewart & Sons of Kokotno, the low bidders in -the Iroquois ditch contract, was here Monday and said that they would decline to proceed further in the matter of entering into contract and filing bond; that their attorney Judge Shirely of Kokomo, holds that the letting was irregular and illegal. Stewart stated also that they would take the contract at his low separate bid, of 98 cents for the rock and 18 cents for the dirt above the rock, and that he would be on hand here next Thursday with a bond and demand the contract on said bid. The Stewarts’ $2,500 forfeit is in the hands of the engineer, and it is thought by many that the above statement of the elder Stewart is simply a bluff to get back this forfeit. It looks now very much like the ditch would have to be re-adver-tised and sold again, which will so delay matters that little can be done this fall, and no benefits can be expected by the farmers effected next year at least. Bodette, who was to have the dredge work, has filed his bond and entered into contract, but of course he can do nothing unless Stewart goes ahead. It is unfortunate that Bodette did not get the entire contract, as he would at least have gone ahead under the presumption that the proceedings were regular, and evidently would not have been subject to influences that is generally believed to have had much to do with tieing up this matter.