University of Virginia Library

RESOLVED, by the Board of the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia
that this request be and the same is hereby approved, and the letter is directed to be
spread upon the minutes of the Board.

I am writing in the name of the Rector and Board of Visitors of the University
of Virginia to request you to authorize them to create a deficit in the sum of $25,000
for the construction of the West Extension of the University of Virginia Hospital, putting
this additional $25,000 as a recommended appropriation in your Budget to the General
Assembly of 1940. This means that the Legislative Appropriation of $250,000 for the
construction of this building would be increased to $275,000.

This is necessary for the following reasons:

1. Anticipating the inability to get the building within the appropriation, we
cut out all requirements which were not absolutely necessary in the preparation of our plans
and specifications.

2. We have availed ourselves of all deductible alternates which would not leave
the structure in an unsatisfactory incomplete condition.

3. Bids have been opened publicly for this construction and the lowest bid
exceeds the available money by $31,800. It is our purpose to forego reconditioning the rooms
in the old Wing where they join on to the new; to give up all walks and landscaping, and to
effect other economies in administration, which reduces to an absolute minimum a cost of $275,000.

---

343

4. To bring the construction within the $250,000 appropriation would be to leave
unfinished and unfurnished the entire fourth floor of this building, which would leave out
entirely all space for the important department of Ear, Nose and Throat, and when this work
comes to be done at some later date, when the rest of the building will have been occupied,
it means not only great inconvenience and trouble in the operation of the Hospital, but a
substantial increase in cost necessitated by building over floors which are occupied and in
the upstairs of a building which has been closed off. I estimate the increased cost to be
at least 40%.

5. We think it would be decidedly unwise to reject these bids and ask for new
ones, because we are convinced that in the re-bidding on this job the low bid would be above
the low bid of the present contractor. The price of materials is increasing all the time,
and a careful estimate made by us indicates that the present low bid is a very favorable
one for us.

We feel strongly that a real emergency exists here which can only be wisely
remedied by an authorization of an additional $25,000 of money, and we beg that you will
make this authorization, both in the interest of efficiency of the University Hospital,
and in the interest of economy for the State.