Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1908 — CONTRACTORS ARE REPAIRING STREET [ARTICLE]

CONTRACTORS ARE REPAIRING STREET

W. F. Smith & Co. Are Completing Contract By Repairs on Division and Main Streets.

The street and road w<rk wll be completed by Saturday night of this week, and Contractor W. F. Smith now has his force of men and teams pand the big steam roller working on Division and Main streets. It will be remembered that a dlsagr:ement arose between the contractors and the property owners over the manner fa which these streets were rebuilt last year, and. tkaL bofa wamAl and the county commissions s refused to accept the parts of the streets for which they were to make settlement The original contract for the streets in Rensselaer called for only 12 feet fa width, and then Division and Main property owners petitioned for -a full width street with cement curbing. Thus, the center of the street was under the control of the commlssioners, and th e side sos the- streoV under the supervision of the city council. The street had previously been macadamized and the old stone was stirred up and new put on, but the contention was that there was not the required amount of stone on the street and the investigation made showed that tbe specifications had been changed by the city engineer after the contract had been let, and the contractors claimed that they had put on the required yardage but had found the old specifications impracticable and the change they had made gave a better street, but the city council held out that it was not sufficient on their part and so the contractors hauled more stone. and built up the sides of the street,' and this left a gutter down the center of the street. The commissioners and the contractors failed to agree and so the contractors decided that the best way to settle would be to fill up the center of the street, and they are doing this -by putting on two inches of rock and two and a half inches of screenings, and tie street will now cretainly be the best ever built in Rensselaer and should last for many years without repal s. I

It is expected to complete this work by Saturday night and as all of the other work, both city streets and country roads, has been finished,, that will conclude the big contract. The contract for the construction of these streets and roads was let two years ago after a special election had been held and the improvement voted. In all there was almost 35 miles, of which almost 17 were in the city and sAmost 1% fa the wranfcry. The contract price was $79,700, and in addition to this about $15,000 worth of other curbing and street widening work was done. The road work was begun in the fall of 1896 and from 30 to 50 men and from 10 to 30 teams have been employed all the time since then. The labor has been largely local, the conractors bringing in a few men when they were unable to hire men at home. They have paid good wages and the work has been completed with verf little friction between the contractors and employees. Last year the excessive rains caused the work to proceed: slowly, but this summer has been, ideal for the work. A vast amount of rock has been used in the construction work and the banks of the new Iroquois ditch fa many places have been cleared of all the rock thrown out from the river channel. But there will be rock there for many miles more of road, and there is no reason whjr Jasper county should not have the best roads in Indiana.

The couhty has pvrsed a wise plan In buying a crusher and hiring it run, and in this way Superintendent Ancil Woodworth has repaired, much of the county road. This plan might profitably be used for construction work, and a force of men kept working almost all the year round. There is some talk of some other street work in town next .year, but It will probably be small. Smith & Co. have about 15 miles of road still to build in Carpenter township.