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THE PUBLIC LIBRARY OF THE
CITY OF SOMERVILLE
CAT. :
CITY OF SOMERVILLE
ANNUAL REPORTS.
GIVES
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FREED
SOMERVILLE
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MUNICIPAL
84.2. ESTABLISI
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A CITY 1872. STRENGT
1878.
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SOMERVILLE, MASS .: SOMERVILLE JOURNAL PRINT. 1879.
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STACY 206078 Ref-352 569-1878 c.2.
ADDRESS OF MAYOR BRUCE.
GENTLEMEN OF THE CITY COUNCIL : -
We have met here to-day in accordance with the provisions of our charter, for the purpose of taking upon ourselves the oath of office, and to organize the City Council for the present year. When we reflect upon the influence, both direct and indirect, that is exerted by all governments, whether great or small, on the material, the intellectual, and the moral well-being of a people, we shall each of us be led to conclude that we are about to enter upon duties that cannot be looked upon lightly, and that a proper dis- charge of them will require the constant exercise of a sound and enlightened judgment, wise foresight, and a firm resolution to fol- low continuously a course of conduct that shall result to each of us from the use of our own judgments, uninfluenced by personal considerations of any kind or nature.
The best return we can make to our fellow-citizens for the con- fidence they have seen fit to place in us, is a year of faithful ser- vice and unselfish labor in behalf of the interests that have been confided to us.
In some respects, at least, we begin the new year under circum- stances that will give to us encouragement and materially lighten our labors. It is due from me to my predecessor to say, that he and those who have labored with him have succeeded in placing the government in our hands as free from unfinished work and embar- rassments of every kind as it was possible to do by the most faith- ful and conscientious discharge of duty.
It is not my intention, as it does not seem to me in any way needful, to enter into a detailed statement in regard to the con- dition of the various departments of the government, but only after presenting a few subjects, some of which will necessarily en- gage our attention', to submit some suggestions of a general nature that may possibly be of service in guiding and directing our steps during the year.
65 M 1922
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FINANCES.
From the books of the city treasurer, it appears that the funded debt of the city, on the first day of January, amounted to $1,606,- 854, the same as at the last annual report, and the sinking fund contributions for its payment in round numbers to $94,000. There is also a floating debt, composed of temporary loans, amounting to $270,000, and there is now due the city for taxes and sewer, side- walk, highway betterment and Broadway Park betterment, assess- ments in round numbers, $330,000, showing a balance due the city of about $60,000 in excess of its unfunded liabilities. From this it appears that the total indebtedness of the city on the first day of January, 1878, less its sinking fund and available assets, is about $1,410,000, or about five and one half per cent of its entire valua- tion as returned by the assessors in 1877.
There is one fact to be drawn from these figures to which I would especially call your attention, and that is, the large amount of our floating indebtedness, which is made necessary by the large sums still due and unpaid into the treasury. People are apt to look at the figures showing the total of our debts, and thus we gain the unde- sirable credit, that works greatly to the prejudice of the city, of' being more heavily burdened than we really are. You will see upon examination of the treasurer's annual reports, that there are sewer, sidewalk, and highway assessments, drawing no interest, that remain uncollected for a long time after they have been laid ; and being for special work, done generally at the request of those assessed, it is not right that the city should be a lender to such be- yond a reasonable period of time. The same suggestion is also applicable to our taxes. Here, it is true, the city gains by collect- ing a larger rate of interest than it is obliged to pay for its tempo- rary loans ; but I think this is of but small account as compared with the advantages gained by having its loan account as small as possible, and the sums due it collected as closely as may be done without inflicting any hardship on our citizens. These heavy ar- rearages, to my mind, injure the credit and good name of the city ; and I think all will cheerfully submit to a little more strictness on the part of the government towards those who have fallen into the habit of postponing payment of their taxes and assessments to the last moment. As the matter now stands, the whole responsibility is placed upon the city treasurer, and for the purpose of relieving him of it and freeing him from endless trouble, I would suggest the
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passing of an ordinance, making it obligatory upon him to enforce payment of all taxes during the year next succeeding the date of their levy, and all sewer, sidewalk, and highway betterments assess- ments within one year from the time the same are laid. This cer- tainly cannot be looked upon as in any way oppressive, and if adopted, will result in lessening the indebtedness of the city to a considerable extent, and leaving its accounts, at the end of cach financial year, in a much more satisfactory condition.
As a part of our financial standing, it ought to be stated that there are now pending, in the various courts of the county, seventy- five actions to which the city is a party. Twenty-three have been disposed of during the past year. Most of these suits are in rela- tion to taxes and the construction of various streets and the Broad- way Park ; and it is not believed that the city will be the loser to any great extent from this source. I shall take pleasure in doing what I can to aid the solicitor in bringing all of these cases to a speedy trial.or settlement.
BOARD OF HEALTH.
The State Legislature in 1877 passed an Act entitled “ An Act relating to Boards of Health in the several Cities of the Common- wealth," which has been accepted by the vote of our citizens ; and it will be necessary for us to comply with some of its provisions during the present month. The vote upon this Act took place on the day of the State election, and there were cast two hundred and seventy-eight votes in favor, and one hundred and sixty-seven votes against it. I think it safe to say that there were not twenty people in the city, outside the members of the past city govern- ment, who had any knowledge on the morning of the day of elec- tion that such a measure was to be submitted to a vote of the people. I cannot but feel that we have made a mistake. That a city, which, under previous laws, through the unpaid services of the Board of Aldermen, has been able to abate the greatest nui- sances that ever existed in any municipality in the Commonwealth, should now require a paid commission, with the great powers pos- sessed by it to incur expenditures, to perform the very small amount of work necessary to be done from year to year, is quite beyond my own comprehension. I trust that the compensation voted to the members of it will be fixed at a nominal sum, and that we shall be able to find men of experience and ability who will
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accept the positions on the commission from a sense of public duty, without regard to compensation.
SIDEWALKS.
One of the great attractions of any city is a succession of good streets ; and the most important part of a street, to a population like our own, is that part of it used by foot-passengers. As a rule, our roadbeds are worn out by the travel of non-residents, while all of our citizens are constantly using the walks ; and it has often occurred to me whether we do not spend a little too much money on the former and too little on the latter. With a clay soil, it is almost impossible to make a satisfactory walk except by the use of edgestones and brick ; and I think it would be wise economy for us to expend four or five thousand dollars annually in construct- ing brick sidewalks. It is not going to be the part of wisdom for us to say that our city shall absolutely refuse to do any work in the way of improvement, but we must confine it within the narrow- est limits, to the most needed improvements, and such as will result in the largest return for expenditures. If this recommendation should meet with your approval. I would further urge that, in lay- out this work, good judgment requires that it should be confined entirely to streets where the travel is greatest.
RAILROAD BRIDGES.
Something was done during the past year for the purpose of inducing the railroad corporations whose tracks run through our city, to replace the unsightly bridges, that by law they are under obligation to construct and maintain, with others that will be suited to the present width of our streets and the amount and character of the travel passing over them. Some of these,I am satisfied, are unsafe and dangerous to travel, and in appearance are in marked contrast with the structures built by the liberality and good policy of other corporations of the same character that run to the south and west of the city of Boston. I think it is due from these corpo- rations to our own, and to themselves as well, that this cause of complaint should be speedily removed. And I would suggest that this subject be very early referred to one of the standing committees, or to a special one, to effect the object desired, if possible, by con- ference and negotiation ; and if we fail in this way, by appeal to to the commissioners, who. after a personal examination, can hardly refuse a compliance with our reasonable requests.
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PUBLIC GROUNDS ON CENTRAL HILL.
I would suggest the inquiry whether the interests of the city do not require that a beginning should be made in grading and laying out of the lands about the City Hall and High School building. Lest it may be thought that, from the nearness of my own resi- dence, some personal interest may enter into this suggestion, I will state that I do not propose in any way to urge the measure, but sim- ply to state the reasons that would justify action on the part of the government.
This land was purchased quite a number of years ago, before the adoption of our city charter, and from the number and character of the public buildings placed upon it, the unoccupied portion would be of little value for purposes of sale. It is not probable that any one would think it advisable for the city to dispose of any part of this property. It has been valued for several years at $175,000. I suppose the grounds on which public parks and squares are commended to public favor and support are, that they bring back to a city or town an annual return equal to the interest on the money invested in them by the opportunities they afford as resorts for recreation, pleasure, and health, as standing examples of neatness and taste, and more directly by attracting people to build and make their homes around and about them. If this theory is correct, then we have been practically losing large benefits for neglecting to spend a very small sum of money. I would recom- mend the adoption of the simplest plan for laying out of the land, and feel certain that the whole can be accomplished for the sum of $8,000. It is desirable, however, that a beginning only should be made at the present time, and that the expenditures for any one year should not exceed $2,000. If such a course should be fol- lowed, and followed strictly, it would, in my opinion, receive the general approval of the people and result in a permanent ornament to the city in which all would feel a common pride.
With the exceptions that I have mentioned, it seems as if we should be called upon to do but little except carry forward the necessary work required by the various departments of the govern- ment which are now placed in our hands to administer.
For one about to enter upon the important duties now placed upon each one of us, the first thing to consider is the wants and needs of the city, - not what may be the wants of a few individ- uals, but what the city itself wants and needs, from its present
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position, financially considered, and from the present condition of all departments of the public service.
We now have a city completely organized in every particular, with an abundant supply of pure water ; a system of sewerage that will probably require but little change for many years, and so nearly complete as to call for only a moderate sum from year to year for its maintenance and gradual extension ; our streets, as a rule, well built and at present in a very creditable and satisfactory condition, with no probability of a demand for new ones at present ; our public buildings ample for present wants ; the police and fire departments certainly large enough and well organized and equipped ; our public schools represented by those familiar with them as ranking as high as the average of the best city schools in the State, - so that our duty will be, with possibly the few excep- tions that have been referred to, not to organize and extend, but the rather to properly look after and wisely maintain what already exists.
But all of our fine public buildings, our long list of macadamized streets, our water-works, our system of sewerage, and other pub- lic improvements built within a short space of time, and at a period when prices of labor and materials were unnaturally high, have left us with a large debt, which we are now obliged to provide for and must pay finally in money of much greater value and much harder to earn than that received by us when the larger part of our bonds was sold. Nearly, if not quite, one third of all the money we shall be called upon to raise the present year will be required to meet the interest account and the requirements of law in regard to contributions to our sinking funds ; and if I am not mistaken, we shall be obliged, during the next ten years, to raise annually by taxation nearly $150,000, provided our indebtedness remains as at present, for interest and the sinking funds alone.
I mention these facts for the purpose of informing our citizens generally just what part of all the taxes they will be called upon to pay will be required for other purposes than that of maintaining and carrying on the work of the city government ; it is certainly with no intention of finding fault with those who were instrumental in creating the debt. Indeed, who, under our theories of govern- ment, can properly be called the authors of it but the people them- selves? Having voluntarily placed this burden on our shoulders, it certainly is not becoming in us to grow impatient and fault- finding at any high rate of taxation, so far as it is made necessary
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by the past action of the city. The members of this city govern- ment are to be held responsible only for those expenditures over which they themselves exercise a control.
It is perhaps worthy of notice that there is but little difference in the financial exhibits of all the cities and towns in the State, situated near enough to the great centres of trade to be directly affected by the wild fever and excitement that ruled and controlled the commerce and trade of the nation during the ten years pre- ceding the year 1873. There are, of course, a few noticeable exceptions to this general statement. I think, considering the large amount of our permanent improvements already completed, and the small requirements for the future, there are few cities in the Commonwealth, if any, whose prospects give greater cause for encouragement than our own. If there has gone abroad into the public mind an impression that our city is more heavily burdened than others, that investments in real estate are. as a rule, less secure here than elsewhere, I desire, in as public a manner as pos- sible, to say that there is no real ground for such an impression to rest on.
And still the most that can be said is that we are as well off as the average of the cities of the States Before 1860 municipal debts of a magnitude sufficient to excite discussion or to become a cause for alarm were unknown in New England at least. Up to that date a moderate tax-rate had been sufficient to meet all current expenses, and effect such improvements as the wants of the people repuired, and under this policy a steady growth and prosperity went hand in hand ; labor was in constant demand and met with a fixed and sure reward. The wide-spread distress among the laboring and other classes, now one of the most alarming features of the time, was unfelt, or, if felt at all, only temporarily, and meeting with a speedy relief. Without tracing the causes of this wide departure, we are all now conscious thas we have been riding, as it were, in a financial storm, that has carried us too far from the course of true wisdom, and we are now reaping the rewards of our own imprudence. It is for us to repair these mistakes, manfully, boldly, and without repining. Certain it is, that sooner or later we must go back into the beaten path of economical expenditure, and the city or town that first returns to it will earliest experience a return of growth and prosperity. This is not the voice of one person, but the universal sentiment of all reflecting men at this time. Nor think that such a course is recommended for the rich
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alone ; from it the poor and those in moderate circumstances will first find relief. The interests of all classes are alike, and there is no antagonism between them, so far as they are affected by the action of municipal governments.
Our citizens generally are prudent and careful in the management of their own affairs, and they expect and will demand prudence and care on the part of those to whom they have confided the manage- ment of the affairs of our city. They do not expect us to imitate or follow the example of other cities, only so far as will result to their own good. What would be wise and prudent for one person may be unwise and imprudent for another. The same rule is true as applied to municipal and town governments. There is no abso- lute standard by which our actions can be tried ; they are to be governed by the circumstances that actually surround us. Last year the appropriations for current expenses were less than the preceding, and I feel certain that they can be reduced still further without in the least injuring the efficiency of any arm of the public service ; and I ask of you, gentlemen, and the chiefs of the various departments, to co-operate with me to this end. There is apt to be a rivalry on the part of committees and departments to secure as large a sum as possible for each, and instead of such a course, I would invoke a friendly rivalry among all, to secure the largest reduction consistent with prudent management. It is for us, also, to secure the best agents possible to carry out our purposes, and if we find that any are not performing their duties well and aiming to promote the interests for which they are employed, we should not hesitate to demand and secure their instant removal.
Before the passing of the annual appropriations, there will be sufficient time for each committee to become familiar with the wants and needs of the department committed to its care, and it would be a very creditable and desirable result if this city government could close its work at the end of the year with none of its accounts overdrawn.
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GENTLEMEN OF THE CITY COUNCIL :
I have now stated to you briefly all the suggestions and recom- mendations that have occurred to me as necessary and fitting to be presented at this time. The cares and duties which others have laid aside we are now to take up and carry forward during this present year. The people who sent us here will be watchful of our
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course, and we cach must be watchful of ourselves. The good name, present and future, of our city has been placed in our keep- ing. It is a charge that no one of us, either wilfully or by neglect, can well afford, in any particular, to either violate or loosely keep. We have been sent here to exercise our own judgments, formed, of course, after mature deliberation, on all questions that may come before us, and not to follow the dictation or leadership of any per- son or persons, whether in the city government or out of it.
I feel sure that if we commence a record - and continue it through the year - that shall be the expression of the deliberate judgment of the two branches of the city government, it will meet with the general approbation of our fellow-citizens.
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TREASURER'S
SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
FINANCIAL CONDITION
OF THE
CITY OF SOMERVILLE.
1878.
CITY OF SOMERVILLE.
IN BOARD OF MAYOR AND ALDERMEN, Feb. 3, 1879.
The Report of the City Treasurer and Collector of Taxes for the year 1878 was received, accepted, and referred to the Committee on Finance, and sent down for concurrence.
CHARLES E. GILMAN, Clerk.
IN COMMON COUNCIL, Feb. 4, 1879.
Concurred in.
DOUGLAS FRAZAR, Clerk.
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IN COMMITTEE ON FINANCE, Feb. 20, 1879.
To the City Council of the City of Somerville : -
The Committee on Finance, to whom was referred the Treasurer's Re- port for the financial year ending Dec 31, 1878, have attended to their duty by giving the same a rigid and thoroughly faithful examination. by comparing the treasurer's books with vouchers on file and pay rolls from the various committees with warrants of the mayor. We report to have found the system of the transactions complete and correct in every respect, and are gratified to state that the strictest honesty and impartiality have been practised by the treasurer in the discharge of his arduous duties as guardian of the city's exchequer. For these reasons we recommend that the report be accepted.
IN BOARD OF MAYOR AND ALDERMEN, Feb 24, 1879. Report accepted and adopted. Sent down for concurrence.
CHARLES E. GILMAN, Clerk.
IN COMMON COUNCIL, Feb. 24, 1879.
Concurred in.
DOUGLAS FRAZAR, Clerk.
CITY OF SOMERVILLE.
TREASURER'S OFFICE, Feb. 3, 1879.
To the Honorable, the Mayor, and the City Council of the City of Somerville :
GENTLEMEN, - The undersigned presents herewith his Seventh Annual Report as treasurer of this city.
The value of the public property, as appears by an inventory and Report of the Committee on Public Property, dated July 6, 1878, is $1,121,400.
The funded debt, Dec. 31, 1877, was $1,606,854. Sidewalk Loan Bond No. 6 for $10,000, which became due on the first of October last, was provided for in the order for laying the annual tax, and was paid at maturity. Other bonds matured during the year, and were provided for by the issue of new bonds, leaving the funded debt, Dec. 31, 1878, $1,596,854. The new bonds were made for sunis, and to mature at periods, within the time pre- scribed by the law to regulate and limit municipal indebtedness, accommodating the several sinking funds, and were sold to the com- missioners of the sinking funds.
The unfunded liabilities are, temporary loans (i. e., city notes given for money necessarily borrowed to meet the current expenses, because of outstanding taxes, assessments, etc.), $205,000, and the credit balances of the following named accounts, subject to with- drawal by the Committee or Board having charge, severally, of the departments : - Sewers (Beacon and Elm Street sewer), $7,051.33 ; Somerville Water Works, $523.62; and Public Library, $478.06. Total, $213,053.01. The credit to Public Park account, $33,709.95, is contingent upon the receipt of the park betterment assessments, and when collected will, with the credit to Excess and Deficiency account, $19,748.05, be subject to the order of the city council.
The assets available for the payment of the unfunded liabilities are : - Taxes, $180,973.63 ; Real Estate liens (i. e., real estate held by the city on tax titles, and subject to redemption upon payment of the city's claim), $19,253.44 ; Sidewalk assessments, $2,288 97 ; Sewer assessments $4,547.27 ; Water Service assessments, $577.06 ; Public Park Betterment assessments, $39,016.79 ; Highway Bet-
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terment assessments, $16,039.83; State of Massachusetts for State aid, $4,308.50 ; State of Massachusetts for support of soldiers and sailors, $2,440 ; and Cash, $6,748.78. Total, $276,194.77. On taxes there will be some abatements, and the amount will be car- ried to the debit of Overlay and Abatement account of the present year. On Real Estate liens, and Sidewalk, Sewer, and Water Service assessments and the sums charged to the State, there should be no loss. The Public Park Betterment assessments are all in suit. With the exception of $3,182.71, the Highway Bet- terment assessments are in suit (Highland Ave., $7,660, Win- throp Ave .. $1,957.50, and Chauncy Ave., $3,239.62).
From the foregoing, it appears that the financial condition of the city Dec. 31, 1878, aside from the public property, is : -
Funded debt,
Unfunded liabilities,
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