Tacoma Refuses to Pay Water Contractors—and Keeps Building
The city council rejects more than $22,000 in damages from contractors cut out of the Maplewood Springs project, then votes for a new South Tacoma-to-West End pipeline, reservoir and pumping station.
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The contractors who claim damages by reason of the present administration's playing politics with the water question and refusing to allow them to complete their contracts for the building of the Maplewood Springs water system will have to go to court to collect. The council last night refused to pay the claims.
Lawyers say they have a good case, and their claims aggregate over $22,000.
In the meantime the administration is rushing into other big expenditures for water. Last night the council adopted the resolution to build a big stave pipe from South Tacoma to a new standpipe to be built in the West End. It also started legislation for the standpipe itself and for the condemnation of four lots to put it on. The council also adopted a report to go ahead and build a reservoir and a new concrete pumping station at South Tacoma.
“Lawyers say they have a good case, and their claims aggregate over $22,000.”
A city refusing to honor contractor claims while expanding a water system is a familiar civic story: public works, lawsuits and accusations that politics is steering the taps. The 1909 fight over Maplewood Springs shows Tacoma has long argued over who pays when infrastructure plans change.
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