Minutes 11/12/1919 - Laserfiche WebLink

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November 12, 1919 "Dear Sst.- Referring to the term. er from the Construotzng Quartermaster, U. S. October 18th, and which you handed me November 3rd. A., date~ "All of the items listed by Captain Vandervoort have been completed in so far as the Govern- merit wo~d consent to complete them. "The War Department ruled in reference to this work that the City of Portsmouth had no voice in the type of equips_cut selected, the marker of performing the work o~ the cost of same and my request made early in the year for a statement of the overhead charges, rented equi~ent, automobiles hired and officers salaries remains unanswered. "I do not know tb~t signing the letter would co,mit the City in any legal way, but I do not' think the letter ought to be signed-~til a statement of the cost of the several items has been received from the War Department and the City Attorney has given careful consideration of the matter as to what the Government's legal obligations are under the contract and whether the Government has discharged these obligations. No doubt the Government will claim that any omis- sions on their part or any ir~ferior workmanship or material ~ill be passed on by the Boa~?d of Appraisal when the property is taken over by the City, but in mar~ instances these omissions and defects may be overlooked by the Board of Appraisal. "In the contract between the Government and City of Portsmouth there were ten specific items agreed upon of which the last item - ~ 20" main across the river to Berkley and Norfolk was not put in, and item ~Y, additional supply ma~n frgm Lake Kilby P~mping Station to Portsmouth Pump- ing Station ~as not comPleted as per origznal ~ntention, the $0" cast iron pipe on the Suffolk end havir~ been omitted. "In ~' ~ Ar~zo-e ~, the Government agreed to submit to the City of Portsmouth for oo.~ment its plan or program for the additions to property; if any plans or program was ever submitted for approval of the City Autho~ _tmes or for comment same has not passed t_hrough this office "I am aware of the fact that working conditions during the period that these additions were made were not favorable and tb~t the Government had many obstacles to overcome, and this should be ~orne in mind in considerir~ the following comment s on the several items of work: "1st. Installation of meters. "No meters were installed in Suffolk and no objection is made to this as the Government did not start this item of work there, but the Goverr~.ent did undertake to place meters in Portsmouth and Berkl~y ~nd did not finish the ].ob in either place, leaving the work u~completed and necessitating a great deal of work on the part of the City in Barkley and necessitating the ohsmging on both ~_at rate and meter in Portsmouth. "The work of installing meters was not satisfactory as bent.couplings were used in almost every case, and hundreds of meters have been removed and sent to the shop to be repaired, test- ed and replaced. "2nd. Raising the dam at Lake Cahoon, together with necessary lands. "~he Goverr~r~enthas Been very dilatory ~n handling the purc~a~e of ian~ flooded by, the raising of the dam at Cahoon and this land has not yetbeenpurcha~ed.. In rais~ngthe dam eEcavations were made from the Cahoon property near the County road which practically sp6tls the ~ropertyand which I believe was unnecessary. "The bridges over C~hoon-_t~n~ee in number- should in my opinionhave been much shorter and of steel with concrete abutments; all of these bridges are of wood and one of them is about ~0 feet long; all of them will be in bad condition ~n a few years and the upkeep will be very e~pensive, and in order to build the proper sort of bridge the lake will have'to be practically emptied again. "The most Lmpnrtant item of work done by the Government is the thirteen and a half miles of 30" wood main between Suffolk and Portsmouth. It may be that we will not have any trouble with thi's wood main, but I do not believe that it is adapted to our service and for the location in which it is laid, tbmt is, on the right of way of the A. C. L. Railways paralleling theirc~wcelS ~ main lines and through the Dismal Swamp. This main is laid at various grades and there is ly any point along the line where if a siding s_.ould become necessary from either railroad that such siding could be put in ~ithbut removing the wood main for probably five or six h~mdred feet and replacing it with cast iron main. That portion of the wood main in the swamp from mile posts l~ to l0 along the S. A. L. Railway is subject to some risk from swamp fires. "The Flemmlng ~ngine installed for the additional dynamo at Suffolk Station was a second- hand engine which b~d been in use for some while in a Western State, and this matter should be borne in mind by the Board of Appraisers. "Tb_~ee concrete culverts were placed under the Virginian Railway track'at Algren Station near the ~uuction of the Virginian a~d S. A~ D. Railways. As one of the B0" mains re-arranged by the Government at Algren was in service before the Virginian Ry. was constructed all of She e~pense incident to the rearrangement of this main should be borne by the Railway Company and not by the Government or the City of Portsmouth. "As stated in the beginning of this letter, I see no reason why the City should sign for~ the several items until we have in hand a statement of the cost from the Goverrm~eht, as set forth in Article ~ of the contract° "Yours truly, ~. L. Davis, Superintendent." (SiMned) C.H. Herbert, Chaibr~n.