A Mystery in the School District Archives
A search through district records reveals suspicious 'straw bonds' and contract irregularities in the building of a new school.
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Research among the archives of school district number five discloses some queer doings. Another one of the unique legal instruments on file there is the contractors' bond for building the new schoolhouse. The bond purports to be for the sum of $10,000, but no sureties are named in the bond, and none justify. The document seems to be a triumph of blundering ignorance, or a deliberately prepared straw bond.
“The document seems to be a triumph of blundering ignorance, or a deliberately prepared straw bond.”
This 1892 discovery of a 'straw bond' highlights the early, wild-west nature of municipal governance and public contracting, pointing to a time when checks and balances were often ignored or manipulated.
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