Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1898 — The Court House Accepted. [ARTICLE]

The Court House Accepted.

The Contractors Turned Over The Building: Saturday Morning:The new court house is at last finished and accepted by the commissioners, and the latter were given possession Saturday. There are several matters which have been in controversy between the contractors and the commissioners. Some of these are fully settled, and a few are still to be adjusted. One of these was in regard to the door hinges throughout the building. The specifications were rather obscure, but by agreement the matter was left to several wholesale hardware houses, and the majority of them decided that fnll bronze hinges are required, and these will be put in by the contractors. The contractors have asked for $1,764 for extra hoisting of all the material above the basement, owing to the basement being made three feet higher. This claim, with a counter claim made by the commissioners of about $1,500 penalty for over-time in completing the building, are .still to be adjusted. Also some other claims of small amounts, made by the contractors.

The furniture for the building is all here and as soon as it can be placed in the buildjng, it will be ready for occupancy. The total cost of the building can now be stated with approximate exactness. Not including the boiler house and tunnel, nor the sidewalks and yard coping and filling it is $140,000. The tunnel and boiler house cost $6,000 and the yard work, walks &c. about SB,OOO. Thus the total is about $155,000. This does not include the cost of the extra sessions of the commissioners nor their traveling and other expenses, but these all together will probably not exceed $2,000 or rd,ooo.

It is a pretty costly building for this county, but while the cost is considerably greater than could be wished, the people can find a good deal of satisfaction in the reflection that not only is it among the very handsomest public buildings in the state, but very few of them are as good for the money as this is. The ten cents on the hundred dollars increase in county taxes which the court house has occas*ioned, is, it must be admitted, quite a large increase. It means that a man who is assessed for say $5,000 worth of property, must pay $5 a year court house tax. That is 10 cents, or the price of two cigars, every \\eek. A pretty large tax, but it won’t cause wholesale ruin and bankruptcy, neither now nor in the years to come, asour contemporary, the Remington Press, for purely political purposes, is trying to make appear. In fact, until the Press can explain its inconsistency in claiming, as it did a while back, that a town waterworks tax in Remington of 50 cents on the SIOO will bo too small to bo felt, and at the sjuno time asserting that a county court houso tax of only 10 cents on the SIOO will ruin everything, sensible people will estimate its court house howl at very little value.