It was a mystery in 1959 that concerned the Allegany County commissioners so much that they set Allegany County Investigator Edwin Lilya on the case. The commissioners wanted to know what happened to the brass handrail leading up the stairs to the front doors of the county courthouse.
It had been removed in March 1957 when aluminum and glass doors were installed in the courthouse. The handrail had cost the county $1,100 or around $13,000 today. Commissioner John J. Rowan said he had had been told the railing was solid brass. The county could resell it for a significant amount of money to go into the county budget. Still, it was odd that the missing rail would become an issue two years after it had been removed.
“It was stated that the installation of the handrail and pointing up the steps cost $1,100 and that the salvage of the rail amounted to 50 cents,” the Cumberland Evening Times reported.
A solid brass rail was worth more than half a dollar, and selling it for scrap could have more than paid for the installation and removal.
Lilya looked into the matter and reported to the commissioners that the George Construction Company in Mount Savage had performed the work. A representative of the company told Lilya that the handrail was not solid brass but iron with a brass covering. If that was the case, then the commissioners wanted to know why the handrail had cost so much in the first place.
Commissioner John Tucker said the county should ask the construction company what went into the contract. “He also said it was a shame the board had to take up time ‘with trifles’ but he had been asked many times during the recent election campaign and since then about the brass rail,” the newspaper reported.
Hearing that the commissioners had brought his company into their discussions, Charles George with the George Construction Company came to the next meeting. He told the commissioners that after speaking with Lilya, he had his employees do a deeper look into the brass handrail contract. It turned out that the company had not only done the removal but also the original installation in 1954, a job that the county had never paid for.
The company had gone through the old orders and contracts and found that the original brass-clad steel handrail installation invoice had never been paid. The outstanding invoice totaled $485 or about $5,700 in today’s dollars.
The company had a CPA check their records. He found the original invoice for material and labor, but he couldn’t find a record of payment. James Stevenson, the clerk to the county commissioners, checked on the county’s end and could also find no record of a payment being made.
“George said this was due to no fault of the county commissioners, but through a bookkeeping oversight on the part of his staff,” the newspaper reported.
George also let the commissioners know that his search had turned up something else. Although he had thought the handrail had been sold for scrap, his search had found the actual handrail in their warehouse. George said they were waiting on an order from the county and what the company should do with it.
Earle Cobey, the attorney for the George Construction Company, told the commissioners that although he agreed that the board should have investigated the contract, the commissioners should have spoken with the company first and avoided making themselves look foolish.
Instead, the county now discovered that instead of saving some money, they have cost the county even more, but at least they knew where the brass handrail wound up.