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ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
TOWN OFFICERS
OF THE
Town of Merrimac
For the Year Ending December 31.
1938
R
F
VMOL
MASS
INCOR
1876.
ORATED
Printing and Binding by the Newburyport Herald Press
ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
TOWN OFFICERS
OF THE
Town of Merrimac
For the Year Ending December 31.
1938
OF
TOWN
MASS
INCO
1876.
P
RATED
Printing and Binding by the Newburyport Herald Press
Directory TOWN OFFICERS 1938
ELECTED OFFICERS
Moderator Clifford R. Howe
Selectmen
Albert P. Wadleigh Hazen M. Emery
Fred T. Hopkinson
Fred T. Hopkinson
Board of Public Welfare Albert P. Wadleigh Hazen M. Emery
Assessors
George B. Crofut W. Harold Whiting Term expires 1939
Term expires 1941
Roscoe Child Term expires 1940
Town Clerk C. Howard Phillips
Tax Collector
Fred C. Twombly
Town Treasurer Roy C. Journeay
Municipal Light Commissioners
George F. Wilde
Term expires 1941
Irvine G. Burbeck Term expires 1939
John Marshall Term expires 1940
Board of Water Commissioners
George F. Wilde
Term expires 1941
Charles A. Lancaster Term expires 1939
John Marshall Term expires 1940
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TOWN REPORT
Engineers of Fire Department
Aaron A. Hume Fred O. Bailey J. Arthur Ollis
Inspector of Milk, Slaughter and Animals
Fred H. G. Chase
Inspector of Wires
Irving G. Burbeck
Sealer of Weights and Measures George R. Hoyt
Moth Superintendent
Samuel C. Doust
Forest Fire Warden
Aaron A. Hume
Burial Agent
James S. Schiavoni
Superintendent of Streets Aaron A. Hume
Town Forest Committee
James T. Colgan Samuel C. Doust
Frank N. Rand
Term expires 1941 Term expires 1939 Term expires 1940
Registrars of Voters
George W. Berry Isaac A. Williams C. Howard Phillips
A. Lawton P. Crane
Janitor Town Hall
Andrew O. Nicol
7
TOWN REPORT
THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SEVERAL OFFICERS OF THE TOWN OF MERRIMAC
SELECTMEN'S REPORT
To the Citizens of the Town of Merrimac:
The sixty-third annual report of the Town of Merrimac is here- with presented for your consideration being a review of Town busi- ness for the year 1938.
For many years the Merrimac Selectmen have endeavored to maintain a "pay as you go policy" and it has been and is the policy of the present Board of Selectmen to continue that course of action.
Until the last few months of the year 1937, it appeared that business conditions in general were improving, and that relief costs were being reduced to some extent. From October 1937 to date the improvement ceased and since that time the unemployment situation has gradually grown worse. This condition naturally reflects itself in various forms of welfare costs to the Town. With the possible excep- tion of the years of 1933 and 1893, the burden of unemployment has fallen heavier on the people of Merrimac in 1938 than any other pe- riod in the incorporated history of the Town.
Aside from the normal functions of administration of Town gov- ernment, it has been an increasingly difficult task to obtain work re- lief for the unemployed in striving to keep down the costs to the town, yet so far this has been done to a reasonable extent.
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TOWN REPORT
While it may seem that a tax of $51.00 per thousand valuation is high, it must be remembered that as compared with many other towns in Essex County, that the valuation in Merrimac is low, and that as a test of the financial soundness of Merrimac as a Massachu- setts Town, that of the 167 towns in Massachusetts under 5,000 popu- lation, only fourteen have a lower ratio of net debt to valuation than the Town of Merrimac. According to the latest State report, the ratio of net debt to valuation in the case of the Town of Merrimac was only 0.32 on a hundred dollars, the highest ratio being that of South- borough at 8.82 per hundred dollars, and the lowest being that of the Town of Boxford and the Town of Rochester with percentages each of 0.08 per hundred dollars.
As of January 1, 1938 the total indebtedness of the Town of Merrimac was only $3600.00, this being for money borrowed in 1933 for relief purposes. This note was paid in September 1938, which paid off all the funded debt of the Town incurred in previous years. It be- came necessary in July to meet W.P.A. expenses of the Town, to bor- row $3000.00 payable over a three year period, maturing $1000.00 a year in 1939, 1940, and 1941. This amount of $3000.00 is now the only outstanding funded debt of the Town as a serial loan extending beyond the year 1939.
The following figures prove conclusively the financial stability of the Town.
Dec. 31, 1933-Funded debt $24,000.00 Temporary debt $25,000.00
Dec. 31, 1934-Funded debt 18,400.00 Temporary debt 25,000.00 Dec. 31, 1935-Funded debt 12,800.00 Temporary debt 30,000.00
Dec. 31, 1936-Funded debt 7,200.00 Temporary debt 25,000.00 Dec. 31, 1937-Funded debt 3,600.00 Temporary debt 25,000.00 Dec. 31, 1938-Funded debt 3,000.00 Temporary debt 20,000.00
Dec. 31, 1933-Surplus revenue $19,927.38 Dec. 31, 1934-Surplus revenue 26,416.74 Dec. 31, 1935-Surplus revenue 32,387.22 Dec. 31, 1936-Surplus revenue 30,381.49 Dec. 31, 1937-Surplus revenue 27,720.64 Dec. 31, 1938-Surplus revenue 30,600.73
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TOWN REPORT
The enactment by the Legislature of the so-called "Tax Title law" which allows Towns to borrow money to meet current expenses against property taken by the Town by Tax title subject to owners right of redemption, has been of great benefit to cities and towns in realizing on the values thus taken, by borrowing on these tax titles from the Commonwealth at an interest rate of one per cent per year. By the calling of special town meetings during the year to borrow against Tax Titles, it was made possible to finance the increased W.P.A. local costs required of the Town without any additional levy or direct taxation, and keep all projects going without loss of time to the persons employed.
The following table shows how the taking of and borrowing against Tax Titles has made possible that part of the financial struc- ture in financing Town business in the last six years.
Dec. 31, 1933-Tax titles $ 471.69 Dec. 31, 1934-Tax titles 2,433.84
Dec. 31, 1935-Tax titles 2,091.92
Dec. 31, 1936-Tax titles 10,651.65
Dec. 31, 1937-Tax titles 18,055.51
Borrowed
$3,000.00
Paid by Redemptions
Borrowed
Obligated
Dec. 31, 1938-Tax titles 23,719.14
$14,750.00
Jan. 1, 1939 $13,243.13
The amount of $3,000.00 borrowed on Tax titles in 1937 was paid in 1938 by money received from owners redeeming their prop- erty. Of the $14,750.00 borrowed on Tax titles in 1938, an amount of $6,000.00 was voted by the Town at annual town meeting to be used for the purpose of tax reduction, and an amount of $5,000.00 was voted at a Special town meeting for local W.P.A. expenses. Of this amount $1,506.87 has already been paid in by redemptions, leaving as of Jan. 1, 1939 an obligated amount against the tax title properties held by the Town of Merrimac of $13,243.13; and an unobligated balance of tax titles plus town owned tax title property of $10,476.01, still available for use if needed. As tax title are thus taken for non- payment of taxes, the value of this amount of uncollected taxes can
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TOWN REPORT
be used by the Town by pledging the amount borrowed to the Com- monwealth at one per cent interest per annum.
Of the remaining $3,750.00 borrowed against tax titles, the sum of $2,500.00 was voted for Old Age Assistance, due to the fact that reimbursements from the Federal Government through the State, are about two months delayed, and $1,250.00 was voted by the Town to provide for the storm emergency of the hurricane of September 1938. About five sixths of the $2,500.00 thus raised for Old Age Assistance will be returned to the town from the Federal and State Government. Of the sum of $1,500.00 voted by the Town outside the debt limit for snow emergency removal to be paid in the tax levy of 1939, only $428.27 has been spent, leaving a balance of $1,071.73, which can be taken into consideration in fixing the appropriation for snow and washouts in 1939.
For the first time in the history of Merrimac, the Common- wealth of Massachusetts failed to pay before Dec. 31, 1938, the amount of its share for Highway work due the Town under the provi- sions of Chapter 81 and Chapter 90 General Laws. The allotment by the State to the Town for Chapter 81 work in 1938 was $4,650.00 of which amount $1,605.91 had not been received and of the sum of $1,500.00 allotted by the State to the Town under Chapter 90 work none of the State's share had been paid. It thus was necessary in De cember before the close of the fiscal year for the Town to borrow $1,600.00 for a four months period on Chapter 81, and $1,500.00 for the State share of Chapter 90 work for a two months period under that section of the General Laws which provides for borrowing by Towns in anticipation of reimbursements due the Town from the Commonwealth. The Selectmen have been assured by the State au- thorities that these amounts due the town should be received in a few weeks. This situation does not apply to the Town of Merrimac alone, being a small part of the monies owed by the State to Cities and Towns for reimbursements. Also, the amount owed the Town by the State for aid given by the Town to so-called State Welfare cases for the year July 1, 1937 to June 30, 1938 totalled $5,887.52, of which amount $5,216.36 was received as late as Dec. 31, 1938, still leaving a balance of $671.16 owed the Town by the State on these cases for
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TOWN REPORT
the period July 1, 1937 to July 1, 1938 plus over $2,500.00 paid by the Town on State cases from July 1, 1938 to Jan. 1, 1939.
The State Tax paid by the Town of Merrimac in 1937 was $3,- 307.50. In 1938, the State Tax in Merrimac had increased to $4,- 760.00. With State payments due Towns like Merrimac still unpaid for a longer period than in previous years, it can be readily seen that the State Tax will be even higher in 1939, unless legislation is enacted allowing credits for certified claims of Towns against the State in fixing tax rates, otherwise the situation is neither comfortable nor encouraging.
However, the rates of interest paid by the Town in 1938 for bor- rowed money have been the lowest of record, the Town having re- ceived a rate as low as twenty nine one hundredth of one percent on a short term note.
We particularly call your attention to the fact that the general cash balance of the Town at the close of the fiscal year Dec. 31, 1938 was $8,401.71 or only $37.39 less than the general cash balance on Jan. 1, 1938, while the temporary debt of the Town has been reduced $5,000.00 by cash payment during the year.
The Board of Selectmen organized with Albert P. Wadleigh chairman, Hazen M. Emery, clerk and Fred T. Hopkinson, and then organized as a Board of Health with the same officers and members. In Merrimac the Selectmen also act as Soldiers Relief Commissioners, and as License Commissioners as part of their several duties. Select- man Albert P. Wadleigh was appointed Co-ordinator of W.P.A. or other Federal or State Relief projects for the term of one year.
The cost for Soldiers Relief in 1937 was $3,763.38 and in 1938 was $3,639.68. As the Town only appropriated $3,000.00 each year for Soldiers Relief, transfers had again to be voted by the Town to meet the excess requirement. It would seem that the appropriation for Soldiers Relief in 1939 should at least be $3,600.00 to meet the probable needs.
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TOWN REPORT
As very few people in Merrimac in 1938 were employed in pri- vate industry, the relief work provided by the Works Progress Ad- ministration to Merrimac citizens has been of great value. During the year an average of 120 persons have been continuously employed, the most at one time on W.P.A. having been 132 persons and as of Dec. 31, 1938 the number being 112 Merrimac persons on W.P.A. pay- rolls. Counting dependents in families of W.P.A. workers, this repre- sents aid to nearly 500 men, women and children. The W.P.A. money received in 1938 for labor payrolls in Merrimac was approximately $84,000.00, the contributions required by the Town for W.P.A. work being $14,860.45. A detail of this work is outlined by the Co-ordinator elsewhere in the town report.
We wish especially to express our appreciation to State W.P.A. Administrator Lt. Col. John J. McDonough and all his associates in the State and district offices for their cooperation with us and other officials of the Town of Merrimac during the year.
The work of the Highway Department has been conducted in a very efficient manner under the direction of Aaron A. Hume as Superintendent of Streets who also in that capacity exercised super- vision for the Town over the W.P.A. Farm to Market and Cement sidewalks project.
The $1,500.00 appropriation voted by the Town for Chapter 90 maintenance work to be used with an equal amount of $1,500.00 to be received from the State, was used to resurface with crushed stone and oil upper Church St. and part of the Highland Road, Broad St., part of High St. and Bear Hill Road.
A large amount of new fencing reinforced by guard rail cable has been built along the river bank at Merrimacport; together with the installation of new drains and culvert work in several places.
The W.P.A. Farm to Market Road improvement project has been in operation the whole year employing about 60 Merrimac men and several trucks. The use of the new Town truck on this project has long since paid for itself as against what it would have cost for extra truck hire. The Newton Road from the New Hampshire line to the
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TOWN REPORT
Birchmeadow Road was widened and rebuilt and as now completed is more of a thoroughfare, instead of a narrow dirt road. The Middle road from the corner of Emery St. to the Amesbury line was rebuilt, being cut down several feet to improve vision, and the road oiled. Lower Emery St. from the Middle Road to Merrimac St. was cleared of the heavy side underbrush, the road widened and wholly rebuilt. This short road now affords one of the most beautiful views of the Merrimac river from the high point and should be seen by all who appreciate scenic beauty. Westminster, Billings, Belmore and Ridge- field roads have been rebuilt and now in the form of entrance to a joined rectangle is in itself a revelation as to the transformation produced. Abbot St. has been built up, gravelled and widened with improved approach. Part of the Red Oak Hill road was rebuilt. Win- ter St. is now being rebuilt as well as part of the Battis road.
The claims of Ernest Rice against the Town for work done in Locust Grove Cemetery prior to Dec. 31, 1935 have been adjusted ยท and $134.50 accepted by him as final payment after several confer- ences between Attorneys of Mr. Rice and the Selectmen.
The Selectmen have represented the Town at three hearings be- fore the Massachusetts Public Utilities Commission at Boston in an endeavor to prevent increased rates to the users of gas as sold by the Haverhill Gas Co. in Merrimac, and also to secure reasonable freight rates from the Boston and Maine R. R. to local shippers.
The Selectmen have also attended the meetings of the Massa- chusetts Selectmen's Association and the Essex County Selectmen's Association in 1938, and from the information thus derived have been able to better understand many of the more recent difficult problems of town government. Albert P. Wadleigh, chairman of the Merrimac Selectmen was in April 1938 elected President of the Essex County Selectmen's Association and now holds that office.
A new large flag was purchased for the staff on the Town Hall and two smaller flags, one National, and one State for display on the stage in the Town Hall.
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TOWN REPORT
The revenue received by the Town from fines and forfeits through the District Court according to the records of Chief James P. Donahue of the Police Department was $97.60 in 1938. The Se- lectmen appointed three new special police officers in addition to the two regular and several special officers reappointed. The efficiency of both the Police and Fire Departments in Merrimac is a credit to the Town.
Eight new voting booths were made prior to the State election bringing the total number to twenty voting booths to be used at primaries and elections. This eliminated the congestion of persons waiting to vote, as the list of registered voters in Merrimac has great- ly increased in the last few years.
The year 1938 will long be remembered for the hurricane, high water and floods. During the last two weeks of July owing to the severe rains, a section of Water St., Merrimacport was badly under- mined a distance of approximately two hundred feet, one side of the road settled two feet, and a whole section of Water Street began to slide into the Merrimac River. A formation of clay under the road, with the softened condition above, caused the slippage. If the road fell into the river a large section of a high bank on the north side of the road would have been carried away. To protect this location from the possibility of a recurrence of such damage a terraced retaining wall was considered necessary involving an expenditure of several thousand dollars. As the Town could not afford any such expenditure, Mr. Wadleigh represented the Town before the State Emergency Finance Board on grants for flood relief, as a result of which confer- ences Merrimac was allotted the sum of $4,000.00 by the State as an outright free grant of funds to repair this damage and this work has been carried on for several months, also giving considerable addi- tional employment to Merrimac men. During this period the water in Lake Attitash also rose to exceptional high levels causing a dangerous health situation. The torrential rains of Sept. 20, followed by the hurricane on Sept. 21, were terrifying in their nature and destruction throughout New England and Merrimac while suffering considerable damage was fortunate in the small amount of loss as compared to other localities. Several hundred trees were blown down, streets tem- porarily obstructed, and roofs of several houses damaged. The worst
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TOWN REPORT
condition was at Lake Attitash on the north west side. An authoriza- tion was secured from the W.P.A. State Office to allow thirty men to be taken from the W.P.A. Farm to Market project for a period of ten days to help clear up the debris. This represented a grant of about $800.00 from the Federal Government for labor costs. Pleasant St., Merrimacport was badly washed out, and the break on the river bank on Water street again weakened, and a portion of Merrimac St. at the Port, badly cracked. The costs to the Town of the flood, water and hurricane was $1,175.60, of which amount $148.00 was used to repair the rear end of the Fire Department engine house where the chimney blew down and part of the roof caved in.
Under the provisions of Chapter 500, Acts of 1938, the Legis- lature allotted five million dollars to cities and towns in proportion to the State tax, being taken from the State Highway Fund "to enable municipalities to carry out local projects for the purpose of alleviating existing conditions resulting from unemployment." Of this sum the Town of Merrimac received $1,400.00. As yet none of this amount has been spent. It is the hope of the Selectmen that this amount can in some way be used in 1939, to either reduce or prevent an increased tax rate, but rulings covering the use of this money will be obtained before the annual Town meeting.
Acting as a Board of Health more health problems were consid- ered by the Selectmen in 1938 than in the whole preceding four years. In 1937 only 32 cases of diseases dangerous to public health were re- ported, while in 1938 the number of 166 of this class of diseases was reported, viz,-chicken pox 125, dog bite 11, measles 5, whooping cough 8, scarlet fever 4, mumps 3, rat bite 1, german measles 2, lobar pneumonia 7. Two boarding house licenses for the care of infants (state cases) were issued. Leslie R. Eaton was granted a permit to collect and remove garbage through the streets of Merrimac. The high water at Lake Attitash created a bad health condition, for a few days it becoming necessary for the Merrimac Board of Health, to re- quest the Amesbury Board of Health to secure the consent of the Merrimac Valley Power Co. to lower the dam at the lake, to release the water in sufficient quantity to remove the health menace in the rear of the cottages, and also it was necessary to clean the whole bed of the brook leading from the 'swamp in the rear of the cottages,
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TOWN REPORT
southerly across East Main St., near the entrance of Lake Attitash Road.
We wish to express our gratitude and appreciation to all citizens and residents of this Town, officers, boards, departments or employees who have cooperated with us in the year 1938, and also to all those connected with the Massachusetts Department of Public Works, Dis- trict Engineers Office, W.P.A., State, Regional, District and Field offices, and all Federal, State, County or Municipal officials or em- ployees who have aided us in any way to the benefit of the Town of Merrimac. We especially acknowledge the thorough, accurate and faithful work of the Town Accountant W. Harold Whiting and for his full cooperation with us and of all other departments of the Town.
Merrimac as a Town has met its problems and survived the de- pression of 1938. Though general business conditions are not much improved, yet there is still much cause for hope. The last five years have been trying to extremes. To those citizens of Merrimac who keep their copies of the Annual Town Report we suggest that during some period of leisure time, that it will be both profitable and instructive, if they will also read the Selectmen's Report for the years 1934-'35-'36 and '37 and thus have a more complete picture of the many physical improvements that have been made to Merrimac streets, roads, side- walks, school repairs, and town property through relief work, and see how during that period the Town of Merrimac has paid its bills and reduced both its funded and temporary debt.
Respectfully submitted,
ALBERT P. WADLEIGH, HAZEN M. EMERY, FRED. T. HOPKINSON,
Selectmen of Merrimac
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TOWN REPORT
ANNUAL REPORT OF MERRIMAC BOARD OF PUBLIC WELFARE
To the Citizens of the Town of Merrimac:
The Merrimac Board of Public Welfare organized March 8, 1938, with Fred T. Hopkinson, chairman; Albert P. Wadleigh, clerk, and Hazen M. Emery as the third member.
This year has seen more people in Merrimac unable to find em- ployment in private industry than in any other year on record with the possible exception of 1933.
The daily problem of the Merrimac Welfare Board therefore has been to give adequate aid within the limits of the Town appropria- tion, and cooperate with all Federal or State agencies to provide re- lief employment so to keep down the cost of local welfare rolls.
The situation while acute, the percentage of persons in Merrimac receiving public aid in some form in 1938 was about 34 per cent; yet this percentage was not higher than the average for the State, while the percentage in many communities was much greater than Merri- mac.
The money received in labor payrolls from the W.P.A. in Merri- mac in 1938 was approximately $84,000.00. The cash values of free food and clothing distributed by the Federal Commissary in Merri- mac this year not only to welfare cases but also to needy persons was about $25,000.00. This sum of Federal funds of over $100,000.00 given outright for purposes of relief, is larger than the amount of money assessed by direct taxation on themselves by the people of Merrimac in 1938 for all local purposes, and if it had not been re- ceived the Merrimac tax rate would have been nearly $125.00 per thousand valuation, or most of the people who received this aid would have been forced to live on a much reduced scale of existence.
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TOWN REPORT
Despite every effort used to hold local public welfare costs to a minimum yet the number of persons who required aid in 1938 was 36 larger than the year 1937 ..
Comparative costs and persons aided in the last five years fol- lows:
1934-Public Welfare costs $28,115.90 for 428 persons aided 1935-Public Welfare costs 24,157.22 for 415 persons aided 1936-Public Welfare costs 19,416.32 for 271 persons aided 1937-Public Welfare costs 16,763.32 for 299 persons aided
1938-Public Welfare costs 18,647.64 for 335 persons aided
The above figures refer only to public welfare cases and aid to dependent children, and do not include recipients of Old Age Assist- ance, Soldiers Relief. State Aid, W.P.A. workers or T. B. hospital cases, these other costs to the Town being detailed in another part of the Town Report.
The case records and folders telling the history and facts of each case have been kept up to date by Mr. Wadleigh as Clerk of the Board who has checked and rechecked the dates of expiration of settlements, and the determination of settlements which cover the status of over 750 individuals, who have received public welfare in Merrimac during the last fifteen years.
On July 23, 1936, the Merrimac Board of Public Welfare was designated as the local W.P.A. Certifying Agency. On Aug. 28, 1936 Albert P. Wadleigh was authorized by the Essex County W.P.A. Re- gional director to act as Certifying Agent of the Merrimac Board and has performed that work without any compensation since that date. This fact was referred to in last year's town report, and is now re- peated because some persons still seem to think that Mr. Wadleigh has been paid for keeping the W.P.A. employment records of over 160 W.P.A. workers, and trying to obtain employment for them, whereas he has and is still doing this work gratis to lessen the costs to the Town.
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