The Ballard Sewer Standoff
A local contractor and city engineer lock horns in a heated public council meeting over the technicalities of neighborhood infrastructure.
Robert Rath is the contractor constructing a sewer in Ballard on Second Avenue, from Ballard Avenue to Salmon Bay. S. K. Smith, the city engineer, is superintending the work. Mr. Smith and Mr. Rath have not worked in harmony, and Mr. Rath filed a complaint with the city clerk that was brought before the council Tuesday night. The consideration of the complaint occupied nearly the entire evening, and some of the councilmen were considerably excited. Mr. Rath brought O. F. Wegener, the engineer, from Seattle to represent him, and about twenty Germans were present in sympathy with Mr. Rath. The complaint sets forth that the city engineer is making such unreasonable demands for the completion of the sewer that the contractor cannot finish the work, including ordering work to begin from the top rather than the bottom, which the contractor claims makes it impossible to form a proper connection. The contractor also stated the engineer was changeable, having ordered him to do the same work in three different ways in one afternoon. The council ultimately referred the matter to the street committee.
“The contractor claims this will be a great damage to him on account of the dirt caving in and the liability to breakage of the pipes.”
Infrastructure disputes between contractors and municipal engineers have been a hallmark of Seattle's growth since its early days. The frustration expressed by the Ballard community at the time mirrors the ongoing debates over civic oversight and the pace of development in the city's rapidly changing neighborhoods.
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