[St. Charles Cosmos-Monitor, November 9, 1940]
Build TNT Plant [?]
Contract for
$$11,325,000 Was Awarded To-Day
Construction Expected
to Get Under Way By the Latter Part of this Month
An
$11,325,000 contract for construction of the Weldon Spring[s?] TNT plant was
awarded today by the War Department in Washington, D. C., to the Fraser-Brace
Engineering Company Inc., of New York.
Construction
is expected to start as soon as sufficient acreage in vital tracts of the area
are obtained and predictions are work will begin by the end of this month.
As
previously announced, the plant, when completed, will be operated for the
Government by the Atlas Powder Company of Wilmington, Delaware.
Officials
of the Atlas Company and Fraser-Brace are expected here the early part of next
week to designate the sites where construction will begin. Representatives of
the R. Newton McDowell Company, official government purchasing agents, will
then concentrate their activities on those sections.
Awarding of
the contract and the mailing of a letter, authorized by War Department
officials to resident of the area, has relieved all doubt in the minds of
people over the project. The letter cites the law which gives the government
authority to condemn the land if it cannot be obtained by sale and it also
approves the addition of the commission to the sales price.
Col. R. D.
Valliant of Washington, D. C., chief of the real estate section of the War
Department came here by airplane Friday and inspected the site. He was taken
over the area by R. Newton McDowell who is buying up the land for the
government.
The the
Howell meeting McDowell said that people living in the safety zone of the area
would hardly have to move before four months but that others in the zone of
immediate construction would probably have to give up their land within 30
days.
The visit
here with McDowell and Col. Valliant and the awarding of the contract to the
New York [?] in addition to the self explanatory letter mailed out today is
expected to settle all doubt in the minds of the residents. That they must move
out of the area, there is no doubt. The Government has assured the people a
fair price for their [?] which in the long run will be more than obtained
through condemnation proceedings.
The letter
follows:
Howell, Missouri
November 9, 1940
Dear Friends:
This letter
to all of the farm owners, farm tenants and business [?] within the Weldon
Springs TNT Plant Area has been prepared [?] consultation with the members of
the Committees announced in a letter dated October 26, 1940 from [?] Clinton,
Home Demonstration Agent and Mr. Langenbacher, County Extension Agent.
It will be
recalled that the letter sent on October 26, 1940 to all of [?] announced that
a local committee had been selected to assist and advise you in the taking over
of [?] land for the T.N.T. Plant Area. [?] letter also announced that the [?]
Land Use Planning Commi [?] would be
asked to cooperate [?] survey to determine the chara [?] of the assistance that
might be needed by farm owners and farm tenants in getting located elsewhere.
The two
Committees represen [?] by Mr. E. M. Miller, Mr. Claude Muschany, Mr. Geo. H.
Hackmann, Mr. L. E. Wackher and Mr. R. H. Sin [?] for the community and Mr. J.
[?] Monin, Jr., Mr. Ross Silket, Mr. [?] W. Burch, Mr. S. H. Hughes, Mr. [?] C.
Wood, and associates of the [?] States Land Use Planning Com [?]
(Continued on Page 2)
