Red Lodge Daily News Combined With Carbon County News

GLACIER LAKE DAM
BIDS OPENED BUT AWARD IS HELD UP
Red Lodge Firm Is Low In Bidding At Helena Saturday

S. J. Groves and Sons company of Red Lodge submitted the low bid of $86,742 for the Glacier Lake dam construction, second in the series of water storage reservoirs planned for construction, in this county as part of the Rock Creek project of the state water conservation board, when members opened bids at Helena Saturday.

Award of the contract was deferred by the board, however, because figures, submitted for the dam's construction, were higher than anticipated. The board was to have passed on the high figures Tuesday, but deferred action again until the coming Saturday.

The Glacier Lake project, which is to be located about 19 miles southwest of here, was to have been constructed at an estimated $40,000 to $50,000, according to engineers' surveys. The necessity of transporting all materials to the site by pack horse makes it imperative to raise the original figures considerable, observers say.

Besides the Groves company, other bids submitted Saturday were as follows: Inland Construction company, Omaha, $87,892; Leach Brothers, Billings, $89,411.80; and Lobnitz Brothers, Townsend, $93,735.

The Glacier Lake dam, when finished, will be 620 feet long and 35 feet high and impound 5,500 acre feet of water. It will be supplementary to the huge dam to be erected on Red Lodge creek, construction contract for which has been let to Utah Construction company of Ogden for $470,121.

The last legal impediment involving the Rock Creek water storage construction was overcome last Wednesday when the Montana supreme court decided in favor of the state water conservation board in the test suit brought against it by John Normile and E. L. Grewell of the Rock Creek Water Users, Inc., questioning the validity and constitutionality of the state board's action in calling for bids and awarding contracts for construction of the project.