I have in my possession an audiotape of a city council meeting, where bids are opened and Bobby Ryan's is accepted, for the erection of the electric shed, described in
an article in the West Plains Daily Quill earlier this week about city work crews doing the work on a project which an outside person was contracted to do.
The sound quality is terrible, but some important details are clear.
Here is a transcript of the relevant portion:
TRANSCRIPT
Deckard: Okay . . . Old business . . . [garbled] . . . got some quotes on construction, putting up that building out there, don't we Rosie?
Simpson: Yeah.
[unintelligible]
Deckard: Okay, Bobby Ryan, labor on installing the building for the electric shed and rental on the scissor lift. That's just labor on installing it . . . $3800.
[unintelligible]
Rogers: . . . that's not the ends?
Deckard: No. No. This one sounds like it's the same way . . . Elmer Russell, labor to erect building at industrial park, $8340, labor only, no material.
[unintelligible]
Deckard: James Pace, bid on the metal building, city of Thayer construction of metal building [unintelligible] metal building, $10,000.
Harber: I think before we uh before we have somebody else do that we ought to see our . . . let our crews try it. Van says he can get it . . .
[unintelligible]
Deckard: Van's been busy. . . I'm gonna get this . . . How long we been trying to do this, two years? Is that not right? $3800 is not that bad, guys. [unintelligible] ...scissor lift.Alford or Grimes: [unintelligible] . . . pretty cheap.
Deckard: It is. . . What do you think about this?
Rogers: Well, [unintelligible] our guys can't do the [work?] let somebody else.
Deckard: The parks guys is NOT going to do this, I'm just telling you that right now. The parks are NOT doing it . . . It's NOT going to save us money. We're going to have . . . $3800 is 3800, a lot of money but that is still . . . The building has cost us twenty something thousand. What did we put in the, uh, concrete?
[unknown]: Eighteen.
Deckard: Eighteen? So I mean [that's still not the best thing we can do on it?]
Alford or Rogers: [unintelligible] Is this right, this is to get it erected?
Deckard: This is to get it erected; that's what all of this says, price of erection.
Alford or Rogers: [unintelligible] ... I know awhile ago . . . [unintelligible] . . . to get the ends on it . . .
Deckard: Well, at least we get the building done. And THEN we can worry about [unintelligible] other things.
[unintelligible]
Alford: . . . [Are you going to let?] keep the doors to unlock it with? Whatever . . .
Deckard: Right, right. . . . Right.
Alford: Is that the bolts, bolting it down and everything? They're going to bolt the building down to the ground?
Deckard: They'd have to do that.
Alford: Because there is no bolts there.
[unintelligible]
Deckard: What do you think?
[unintelligible]
unknown: I don't think so.
Deckard: All right, moving right along . . .
...
Sounds pretty clear to me; Bobby Ryan was awarded $3800 to erect the building himself, without the help of city crews.
UPDATE: I am trying to send a sample WAV of a copy of the recording to the
Quill and the
Hill 'n Holler to prove I indeed have it and that it is authentic. Even with the terrible sound quality, the voice is unmistakably Allen Deckard's.
For some reason, it's not going through. Maybe it's too big.
Labels: Alford, Allen Deckard, Bob Grimes, Buddy Rogers, City Council, city work crews, Grimes
# posted by The Last American @ 1:27 PM
