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Melrose Public Library Melrose, Massachusetts
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https://archive.org/details/cityofmelroseann1925melr
CITY OF MELROSE MASSACHUSETTS
Annual Reports 1925
WITH Mayor's Inaugural Address Delivered January 5th, 1925
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CHARLESTOWN IS?9 PONO FEILDE 1630
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PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE CITY CLERK AND SPECIAL "COMMITTEE
MELROSE, MASS. THE MELROSE FREE PRESS INC.
1926
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MELROSE PUBLIC LIBRARY MELROSE. MASS.
ALBERT M. TIBBETTS, MAYOR
Inaugural Address of HON. ALBERT M. TIBBETTS
Mayor of Melrose, Massachusetts January Fifth Nineteen Hundred and Twenty Five
Mr. President and Members of the Board of Aldermen:
I congratulate you that your fellow citizens have elected you to represent them in the City Government for the next two years. They have bestowed upon me a great opportunity for service. The service which you and I are to render carries with it a great responsibility and a great honor. If the motives governing our service are selfish or partisan, indifferent or desultory, we shall have had the responisbility without the honor. But if our service is founded on justice and fairness, and with no thought of personal aggrandisement, then our administration will close with credit and honor to us both.
Our Charter clearly defines the duties and prerogatives of the legis- lative and those of the executive. You have your work to perform and I have mine. It is my intention and purpose to interfere in no way with the functions of the legislative body, and I hope that you will have such confidence in me that you will allow the executive office to function without interference on your part.
If our administration is to be successful there must be between us at all times a spirit of helpfulness and cooperation. We must be fair with each other. We must work together in harmony and with mutual under- standing. If frankness and truth guide our every act, when our two years of service together are ended, we shall have fulfilled our responsi- bility with honor, and shall have merited the approval of our fellow citizens who have put their faith in us.
My inaugural address to you tonight will be a plain, business talk .. It will present to you problems and conditions which will confront us during our administration. There are several departments which I shall not refer to in my address; not because I do not realize the important place they have in our City Government, but because, from my personal investigation, and from interviews with heads of these departments, I do not find that there are any unusual problems in the administration of them at this time. There are departments which do present problems and conditions, some new, some old, and it is on these matters that I shall address you on this occasion.
Financial Statement
I am not going to weary you with a detailed statement of statistics and figures about the financial condition of our city. It is sufficient to state for your information that our net borrowing capacity within the debt limit was $178,318.97 on December 31, 1924; and that the net liabilities of the city on that date were $439,906.83.
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CITY OF MELROSE
Licensing Commission
With the reduction of the Board of Aldermen, each member of the new Board must naturally assume additional duties and responsibilities especially in the work of the committees. As a relief from some of the work now delegated to your Honorable Board, and which consumes a disproportionate share of the time given to your deliberations, I would suggest that you consider the advisability of creating a Licensing Com- mission, which shall have control over the issuing of all licenses, which are now granted by the authority of the Board of Aldermen. The creation of such a commission with duly authorized authority will relieve you of a large amount of detail which is of minor importance when com- pared with the larger problems to which you will want to give more time and deliberation.
City Hall
Our City Hall presents two problems for your consideration: one without and one within.
The citizens have refused to sanction an appropriation for a new City Hall.
Our present building must serve its purpose for some years to come. We ought to keep the exterior in repair. It has been sadly neglected. The woodwork is rotting away. It needs painting. It is poor business to let this depreciation continue longer. We ought to have some pride in the external appearance of our City Hall. It is the building in which the business of the city is transacted. It ought to be the best looking building in the city, in its present condition it is almost the worst. We ought to make the necessary repairs on it this year and paint the woodwork, regardless of the cost. We are soon to have a new Post Office building next to our City Hall. It will ill become us as a city, not to put the exterior of this building in first-class condition that the attractiveness of our business center may be preserved.
The problem within City Hall is one of congestion. It is clogging the efficiency of the various departments. Your Honorable Board has no suitable place in the Hall to hold its meetings. The Auditorium where the Board has been meeting for the past two years is wholly unfitted for this purpose, and certainly is even less adapted for the use of your smaller board. The old Aldermanic Chamber is now occupied by two City Departments. In spite of the reorganization of the office accommoda- tions of the various departments during the last administration, there is still a congestion which cannot be remedied by any material changes within the Hall as conditions now exist.
The situation in City Hall can be relieved. I offer the following plan for your consideration. I am convinced that the time has come when the entire Public Works Department should be centralized. We should this year erect at the City Yards on Tremont Street, a building which shall provide suitable offices for all the divisions in the Public Works Department. At the same time we should build a modern city stable
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MAYOR'S ADDRESS
at the yard, which will do away with the old dilapidated city stable and the unsightly conditions surrounding it, which have always been a menace and eyesore to the citizens in the Wyoming District. Our city yards are located away from the residential district and attractive buildings of the right type will in no way be objectionable in that locality. Proper buildings should be erected to house all the trucks, cars and apparatus of the department which are now scattered in different parts of the city and for the housing of which we are paying a large rental. The work of this department cannot be conducted on a sound basis under present conditions. It cannot function with efficiency and economy so long as its various divisions are located in different parts of the city. The ma- chinery and apparatus of the department cannot be protected and its depreciation kept at a minimum so long as it is housed in rented quarters with only desultory care and supervision. Under this plan the entire Public Works Department will be centralized,-offices, stable, and stores, all in one plant, efficient and economical.
With the removal of all divisions of the Public Works Department from City Hall the congestion will be at once relieved. The old Alder- manic Chamber can be restored to its former use, and with a smaller Board of Aldermen will be adequate for its needs. The offices vacated by the Public Works Department can be re-arranged for the accom- modation of other departments, and there will be room to take care of the city's official business for some years to come.
Highways
Our highways are in bad condition all over the city. It will take large appropriations to put them in good repair. We cannot expect to do it all in one year. I shall ask this year for a somewhat larger appro- priation than usual for this purpose. Before any work is begun. I s all have a thorough survey made of our highways, that the money appro- priated this year may be expended on those streets which, in my judgment, are in need of immediate attention.
West Emerson Street from Main Street to the railroad tracks, and Franklin Street from Franklin Square to the railroad crossing, should be constructed some time within the next two years. They are main thoroughfares with heavy traffic, and have been in bad condition for many years. We should begin a progressive policy of doing some per- manent construction work on our streets at once. It is poor economy to waste our money year after year in attempting to repair highways that will never be right until they are built on a permanent foundation.
Fire Department
The two platoon system, which was adopted by vote of the citizens at the election on November 4, 1924, will go into effect permanently on February 2, 1925.
Chief Newman has recommended that eight new permanent men be added to the Department. In a letter addressed to the public in the
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local papers under date of October 23rd, he says, "There is only a small added expense to our tax rate offset by the efficiency the public is receiving in return." The addition of eight permanent men will mean an increase in expense in this department of about $15,000 a year. I recommend that this year four (4) permanent men be added to the department. This will give us a department of 22 permanent men and 10 call men. There is likely to be a call from so many departments for additional appropriations this year, that I feel we can add no larger number of permanent men to this department at this time. Furthermore, Chief Newman, in the same letter mentioned above, says, "Under the two- platoon system, when on trial, the efficiency I have received has been 100% far greater than anticipated by me." With the increased efficiency in the department under this system with the same number of men, four permanent men added to the department should still further increase the efficiency.
There is another matter in connection with this department which I wish to bring to your attention. Other Mayors in their inaugurals have referred to the Fire Station at the Highlands. I am in accord with all they have said on this subject. The building is in poor condition. It will take quite a sum of money to make the necessary repairs. It is ques- tionable whether the expenditure of such an amount would be justified. The location of the station was all right at the time it was built on its present site. It is not the place for it now.
Franklin Street carries heavy traffic. It is the main thoroughfare through the Highlands. There is always danger of an accident when the apparatus comes out of this station onto Franklin Street to respond to an alarm of fire. There is always a chance of its being held up at the railroad crossing. This section of the city deserves a new fire station on a new location away from traffic and from the approach to the railroad crossing. I have no definite recommendation to make on this matter at this time. I am only stating facts as they exist, and bringing to your attention a problem which we may have to consider together during our administration.
Police Department
I recommend that two permanent patrolmen be added to this depart- ment. Three factors have determined my decision to make this recom- mendation. The fact that two men are off duty every day, the problem of increased traffic due to the automobile, and that certain parts of the city are inadequately protected during certain hours of the day.
There are at present in this department 15 regular patrolmen and three officers,-Chief, Captain and Lieutenant. With the addition of two regular patrolmen, we shall then have on duty 17 patrolmen, which is none too many for this department to function efficiently. It is abso- lutely necessary for the Police Department to give more attention to directing traffic, especially during the summer months and at other times and on other occasions when traffic through our city is abnormal. There
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is only one patrolman on duty from four o'clock until eight o'clock in the morning, and he only covers Main Street. The Highlands District and the Wyoming District are entirely unprotected during these hours. They are as much entitled to protection at this time of the day as is the center of the city. With the addition of two patrolmen, the beats of the men can be reorganized; and the various sections of the city will then be covered at all hours.
In connection with this department I want to call your attention to traffic conditions in our city. The Police Department with the present number of men is doing as effective work as it can in directing traffic, but we have no regulations and ordinances governing the parking of automobiles. Without such regulations and ordinances the Department is without authority to remedy many of the existing conditions. On certain evenings in the week our Main Street and the streets leading from it are lined for hours on both sides with parked automobiles. It seems needless for me to warn you of the danger in allowing this condition to longer exist.
Let me mention but one possible danger that is likely to arise at any time. Suppose an alarm of fire should come in from any box south of Essex Street on any Saturday evening. It would be impossible for the apparatus in the Central Station to respond by taking its course down Main Street or any of the streets leading from it without loss of time, and without endangering the lives not alone of the public but of the firemen themselves. This is only an instance. It is likely to happen any week. I recommend that your Honorable Board, in cooperation with the Police Department, take up this problem as early this year as possible, and formulate a few ordinances and regulations which will relieve this dan- gerous condition with as little inconvenience as possible to the automobile owner. I know that you will find some opposition to this proposal, but I believe that your duty in dealing with this matter is clearly defined.
Park Department
Melrose for a city of its size and wealth has a park system which is on a par with that of any surrounding cities or towns. These open areas in different sections within the city limits are of inestimable worth in a city of homes such as ours. When once developed the cost of upkeep is a small part of the city's annual budget, as is shown from the fact that for the past three years, without any change or additions our parks have been maintained without any substantial increase in cost. One addi- tional park recently given to the city by our public-spirited citizen, Mr. Frederick P. Bowden, remains to be completed this year, and I recommend that such a sum of money as the Park Commission needs for this purpose be appropriated in the annual budget.
Our largest park area is that at Ell Pond. That part of this area known as the "Knoll" is now hallowed ground. It has been set apart as a memorial to the Melrose boys, both soldiers and sailors, who gave their lives in the World War. It is no longer common ground. It should
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not be used by children as a playground, nor desecrated by a thoughtless public. Some action must be taken to protect this hallowed spot. I recommend that a sum of money be appropriated sufficient to erect suitable bronze tablets, so that the public, and especially our children, shall be educated to know that this Knoll is a Memorial and a sacred place which they should regard with reverence and veneration.
We now have three supervised playgrounds, two of which are adjacent to a public school. They are fully equipped with playground apparatus adapted to the needs of young children and boys and girls of high school age. Statistics as a rule are uninteresting, but it is of interest to know that in the months of July and August 1924 the daily attendance for the summer, including the bath-house, was 32,025. These figures surely indicate that our children do appreciate the opportunities we give them for play and recreation during the summer months.
One section of the city has been neglected in this playground devel- opment. It is the intention of the Park Commission in cooperation with the School Committee to establish a new playground this year near the new Ward 7 school, if land adjacent to the school is available. I shall include in my annual budget for the Park Commission an appropriation sufficient to start this project in that section of the city, and I commend it to your serious consideration.
The Library
The circulation of books from the main library shows a substantial increase each year. The increased circulation each year in the branch libraries now established in various sections of the city shows that our citizens appreciate the opportunity given them of having easy access to books and magazines, and justifies the expense necessary to maintain these branches.
A new activity in connection with the main library building has recently been started by the Board of Library Trustees, and is playing a most important part in the lives of many of the children in our com- munity. In the early months of 1923 some little boys were found playing a game with cards, a children's game, in the children's reading room in the library. Such play activities are not allowed in this room. The thought presented itself to Miss Hatch, the librarian, why should there not be a place in the library where children could amuse themselves in a quiet way. It was found that two large rooms in the basement of the Library could, by changes and renovations, be adapted admirably for recreation pur- poses, and the Mayor and Board of Aldermen in 1924 provided the funds of $800 or $900 necessary to put these rooms in condition, by an appro- priation in the annual budget. Benevolent organizations and individuals contributed toward the necessary equipment. Early in October 1924 the rooms were opened to children between the ages of 5 and 14. Up to the present time about 500 different children have come to these rooms, which are open from 3 to 6 in the afternoon. Frequently as many as 70 children from all parts of the city have been there on an afternoon.
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1925
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MAYOR'S ADDRESS
The project has been successful from the start and justifies the action of the Trustees in creating a center in the Free Public Library Building for such child activities. Children who would otherwise be on the streets come to these rooms and play all sorts of games under the intelligent and sympathetic supervision of Miss Leila Allen, a trained recreation worker, whose services the Trustees secured for the balance of the year.
Trained supervision is absolutely necessary to a project of this kind. The Trustees desire to open these rooms in the evening to older girls and boys. They want to continue the trained supervision. They are going to ask in their budget for a sum sufficient to carry on this work this year. I know of no better investment we can make of the small amount required. We make ample provisions for the recreation of our children during the summer months with our supervised playgrounds. Why should we not make provisions for indoor recreation for them during the inclement months? What place is more fitting for such activities than the Public Library, which is the only building in the city which is free to all?
Schools
The school building program, as recommended by the School Com- mittee, has been partially completed by the construction of the Roosevelt School, the addition to the Washington School, and a new school in Precinct 2 of Ward 7. This is a good beginning. It has relieved the congestion in our schools to some extent, but there is immediate need of continuing this program.
Every classroom is now filled to capacity; the number of pupils in many cases still running to fifty (50) to a room. The portable building at the Washington School is still in use. The Sewall School, which everyone condemns, is still used to capacity. The school population is growing at the rate of two classrooms a year. There*is pressing need for five (5) classrooms now. Rooms containing forty-five (45) or fifty (50) children should be split into smaller units, if our children are to receive proper instruction. Because of crowded conditions in some of the school buildings, notably the Washington, Winthrop and Livermore, the School Committee has again had to put classes in small, poorly ventilated rooms that were never intended for classroom purposes.
As the next step in the School Building Program the School Com- mittee has already recommended on two separate occasions the con- struction of a new building in the Winthrop District, on land which the city now owns adjacent to the present Winthrop School. I am convinced that conditions ahead of us are serious enough to necessitate the con- struction of this building this year. I recommend that your Honorable Board pass the necessary legislation authorizing the Mayor to obtain from the Legislature a permissive act enabling us to borrow $200,000 outside the debt limit to construct and furnish a twelve (12) room school building with a gymnasium that can also be used as an Auditorium.
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The construction of this building should be begun this year, so that it will be ready for occupancy not later than September 1926. With the conditions which I have just mentioned as existing at the present time, and with the probable increase in pupils sufficient to fill two more classrooms in September 1925, we shall on that date be seven (7) class- rooms short to properly house the school children, and nine (9) classrooms short by the time the building is ready in September 1926.
There is need of a thorough reorganization of the courses of study in our High School. Its present courses are antiquated and narrow. Their viewpoint is that of long ago. They practically offer educational training only in the sciences and liberal arts. Aside from the course in Commercial branches, our boys and girls are offered no opportunity to obtain an education that will prepare them in practical ways of living. We should have in our High School courses in domestic and household arts for the girls, and a course in manual arts for the boys. Every high school of any standing in Massachusetts offers such courses. Melrose is far behind the times in this respect. I hope that you will be willing to act favorably on an appropriation to establish such courses when the School Committee has reached a proper solution of the matter amd is prepared to make some recommendation.
One other matter in connection with our schools demands your serious consideration. Every available foot of vacant land adjacent to our school houses should be acquired by the city at once. There is no need for me to offer any arguments to defend this statement. You surely realize the necessity and wisdom of such action.
Memorial Building
The Board of Aldermen in December 1924, passed an order appro- priating $40,000 for an addition to the Memorial Building. This money will become available this month. Plans and specifications will be pre- pared immediately and work on the construction will be begun just as soon as these have been accepted and the contracts awarded. An addi- tional $10,500 to be included in the tax levy of this year, will be needed to repair the roof and re-decorate the interior of the building.
It is unfortunate that our citizens have been deprived of the use of the Memorial Building this winter. They miss it. They never realized before how important it is as a center of our civic and social activities. They will not begrudge the expense necessary to put it in repair. It will be turned back to them for their use at the earliest possible date; and I hope at that time, it will be re-dedicated to the purposes for which it was originally erected.
Final
And now, my fellow-citizens, I want to say a few words to you. I thank you for the honor you have conferred upon me by electing me to this high office. I appreciate the responsibilities that go with it. I have
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no easy task ahead of me. I am moved by the expressions of good will and promises of support that have come to me from so many of you. It inspires me to take up my task with courage and with optimism.
I have promised to give you a sound business administration. To that end I shall summon to my aid the best brains I can command. In making my appointments I shall select only those who I feel confident will bring to each department something of value in training, experience and judgment, that will help to make that department function more efficiently for the benefit of the people. I shall invest your money in time-saving and labor-saving equipment, that I may secure for you the maximum amount of value in service and improvements.
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