Culbertson council moves forward with waterworks reconstruction, awards contract and secures federal loan-and-grant authority

The Culbertson Town Council adopted a series of measures in 1934 to rebuild the town's aging water system, authorizing bonds, approving plans and specifications, awarding a construction contract and securing federal loan-and-grant approval.

On Jan. 24 the council adopted Resolution No. 70, introduced by Alderman Geo A. Janes, authorizing the town to execute bonds or contracts for procuring and reconstructing the municipal water supply and water system and directing the hiring of J.E. Rucker, attorney, to file an application with the Public Works Administration for project funds. The council recorded an estimated project cost of $58,700 and cited the town's statutory authority to issue bonds under subdivision 64 of Section 5039, Revised Codes of Montana, 1921, and H.B. No. 19 from the 1933 special legislative session.

The council approved Roy N. Stewart's plans and specifications for the waterworks improvements at an Aug. 9 proceeding and voted to advertise for bids. Bids were opened at a special meeting on Aug. 24; the record lists Barnett & Record Co. at $54,765.00, C.F. Lytle at $55,594.01, Lease & Leigland at $58,218.40, E. Lindstrom at $58,269.75 and Threet Bros. Construction Co. at $54,195.84. The council voted to award the contract to Threet Bros. of Lovell, Wyoming, for $54,195.84, with the award expressly made contingent on satisfactory arrangements for the sale of bonds to the federal government.

To finance the work, the council adopted Resolution No. 75 on Sept. 27 calling a special municipal election for Oct. 22, 1934, to ask qualified property-taxpaying electors whether to extend the three-percent constitutional indebtedness limit and issue $46,000 in waterworks bonds (4% interest, payable semiannually, maturing over 20 years with optional redemption after 10 years). The resolution stated the town expected a federal grant not to exceed 30% of eligible labor and materials and provided the official ballot language, polling places and election procedures.

The council also approved a loan-and-grant agreement with the federal Public Works administration. Resolution No. 74, entered in the minutes, authorized the mayor to execute the agreement and directed the town clerk to transmit executed copies to the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works in Washington, D.C., to secure grant and loan aid up to an aggregate of $59,000 to help fund the project.

At a special meeting on Oct. 29 the council canvassed the Oct. 22 special election returns and declared the bond proposition carried; the minutes record the council's acceptance and certification of the returns but the transcripted minutes do not include full ward-by-ward tallies for the bond question (vote totals are not specified in the surviving text). The Aug. 24 contract award remained explicitly contingent on satisfactory completion of arrangements for the sale of the bonds to the government.

The council continued routine project work through the fall, recording part payments to engineer Roy N. Stewart and other contractors and appointing a building committee to oversee implementation details. The minutes show the municipality advancing formal approvals, procurement and administrative steps required to move from planning to construction, while preserving the contingency that construction proceed only once bond-sale and federal approval arrangements were finalized.

Next steps recorded in the council minutes were execution and transmission of the loan-and-grant documents by the mayor and clerk to federal authorities, settlement of final bond-sale arrangements, and mobilization of the awarded contractor for construction pending those financial steps. The minutes do not record the final bond sale or construction-start dates within the text provided.

Speakers and attributions in this account are drawn from the town minutes: Mayor L.W. Moen presided over meetings; Geo A. Janes frequently introduced the waterworks resolutions; Hans Smith is recorded as town clerk; J.E. Rucker was retained as attorney for the PWA application; Roy N. Stewart is recorded as the town engineer; D.W. McKinon is recorded as a Public Works Administration engineer present at the bid opening. Where vote tallies or other numeric details are not included in the transcript excerpts, this article states that those numbers were not specified in the minutes.