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Show WSxtle Creek - : h High School counselors are quick to advise students who are poor in mathematics to stay away from the engineering profession, and that's good advice. Skill and aptness in handling numbers and coming up with the rigiit answer is the basis of successful engineering engin-eering practice. In the face of this fact one wonders what" kind of training our Utah State Road Engineer must have had, since they so consistently con-sistently over-estimate the contractors' con-tractors' bids on highway projects. pro-jects. A review of five such contracts con-tracts recently let will illustrate this wide disparity. The first figure in each case our Utah State Road engineers estimate, the second is the successful suc-cessful contractor's bid and the third is the per cent the engineers over-estimated. Salt Lake County project, $45,200, $40,325, 8 per cent. Davis County project, $637,129. $560,814, 9 per cent. Morgan County project, $1,-239.199, $1,-239.199, $972,120, 7 per cent. Carbon County project, $174,-805, $174,-805, $148,854, 9 per cent. Carbon-Emery County project, $411,305, $393,997, 7 per cent. To practically-minded taxpayers taxpay-ers it seems that if the State Road gentry are interested in keeping construction costs down, they should not consistently estimate es-timate costs above the actual value. Of course its public money involved and that doesn't worry the politicians unduly. About 16 months ago, the PI. Grove streets department attempted attemp-ted to consumate a curb and gutter gut-ter project in the central area of town. The major part of the cost was to be paid by the property owners involved. The engineer's estimate was so far out of reason that the property prop-erty owners rebelled and a worthwhile worth-while civic improvement went by the board. The failure of Uiis unwise venture ven-ture illustrates the truism that common people arc pretty levelheaded level-headed and will usually make a reasonable decision if they are given the opportunity. And that's the trouble with "big government." govern-ment." Too many decisions that affect the rights and pocket money of the rank and file are made by politicians and bureaucrats. These career public servants often are endowed with too much power and too little regard for the people who comprise the nation and pay the bills. Perhaps if the term "taxpayers "taxpay-ers money" would be used instead in-stead of "federal funds," more people would realize that when we demand government aid for local benefits, we are actually spending our own money for projects pro-jects we could secure more efficiency effic-iency and economically ourselves. The growing popularity of the "do it j'ourself" idea is proof of this wise philosophy. So long 'til Thursday. : |