May Modify The Plans

New York, 1895

BIDS FOR BUILDING THE NEW HIGH SCHOOL OPENED.

There Will Not be Money Enough for all Purposes and the Six Lowest Bidders May Have to Compete Again—$70,000 of the Bonds Still Unsold.

The board of education of the village of Jamaica held a meeting Friday evening and opened bids for the erection of the high school building on Hillside, Union and Hardenbrook avenues. Thirty bids were received, The lowest bidder was Frank Mapes & Son, of Brooklyn, who were the builders of the Jamaica Bank. The bids were as follows: Mapes & Son, $58,646; Carpenter & Woodruff, Long Island City, $65,225; J. H. L'Hommedieu, Great Neck, $75,329; Savage & Smith building company, Bridgeport, Conn., $61,215; A. W. Buritt company, New York, $68,504; John T. Woodruff, Long Island City, $61,912; Isaac Van Riper, Freeport, $70,687; Randal & Miller, Brooklyn, $70,187; L. W. Seaman & Son, Brooklyn, $63,000; Whitehead & Uris, Brooklyn, $68,500; George Hilderbrand, Brooklyn, $65,500; W. & T. Lawd, Brooklyn, $63,891; R. B. Furgerson, Brooklyn, $64,500; W. A. Kassner, Jamaica, $62,945; Valentine Bangert, Jamaica, $66,900; Peter Cleary, Brooklyn, $61,400; Thomas Styles, Jamaica, $62,700; H. W. Otis, Kingston, New York, $74,604; Peter W. Philips, New York, $69,593; T. Mahoney Sons, New York, $75,400; Charles Hoffman, Jamaica, $66,800; Henry Glazer, Jamaica, $69,000; Stephen M. Randal, Brooklyn, $59,250; Alexander Brower, Union Course, $70,125; H. Watson, New York, $74,000; Probst construction company, New York, $65,920; James O'Toole, New York, $71,755; James W. Thompson, Brooklyn, $71,000; John Darragh, New York, $81,231.

The bids, on motion of I. U. Hyatt, were referred to the building committee.

It is now rumored that the board propose to have the plans modified so that it can be erected at a cost less than that of the lowest bidder by substituting a tin for a slate roof, washed brick instead of hard brick, and making other alterations in the plans which will materially lessen the cost of the building. To do this, it is stated, that they propose to pick out five or six of the lowest bidders and ask them to figure on the modified plans.

There is no question but that the board have the right to reject all the bids, but it would be manifestly unfair to Mapes & Son to ask them to figure on modified plans after their figures for the work have been made public. If the board consider Mapes & Son's figures too high, they should readvertise for bids on new plans and let everybody come in.

The board of education have still $70,000 of the bonds in their hands. It is passing strange that the bonds will not sell, and it really looks as if some legal flaw had been found in them, but which is kept secret. Only a few weeks ago 4 per cent county bonds sold at 108.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 1.