USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Quincy > Inaugural address of the mayor, with the annual report of the officers of the city of Quincy for the year 1947 > Part 3
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During the year 1947, this Division was called upon to handle 884 new or reopened cases, involving a total of 4,220 persons. This is an increase of approximately 50% over the total number of persons aided in 1946. General Relief costs for 1947 rose 13.8% over those of 1946. These costs would have been much higher had not the Department carefully screened all cases. This led to the placing of many able-bodied persons in new jobs and the referring of many more to agencies outside the Department for relief. There were 185 case referrals from other cities, towns and hospitals; 88 of these were accepted and 97 denied. There were also 189 referrals from the Quincy City Hospital. Acknowledgements of 276 cases were re- ceived from other cities and towns.
The housing problem became more acute in 1947 and the Department was obliged to use emergency measures, such as hous- ing families in all kinds of dwellings, stores, warehouses and the like, in order to keep them off the streets.
CLINIC AND DISPENSARY: The increased number of welfare cases made it necessary to operate the clinic two days a week throughout the year. A total of 735 patients were treated at the clinic, maintained by a staff which included a physician (the City physician), nurse, pharmacist, and a social worker.
CITY HOME: Besides caring for its usual inhabitants, the Home in 1947 was filled to capacity on many occasions due to the housing shortage. No less than 14 evicted families were given shelter there during the year. Persons made homeless by disasters were also cared for in the Home during 1947.
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AID TO DEPENDENT CHILDREN: £ Originally set up for widows with children, this Division during recent years has, by the enactment of liberalized laws, included under its jurisdiction mothers who are divorced, legally separated or those whose husbands are serving long prison sentences. Case totals in this Division showed little month to month fluctuation, averaging from 107 to 109 cases per month.
Due to the increased cost of living, the state revised the Standard Budget figures effective September 1, 1947, which should further increase the total cost of assistance in 1948 over that of 1947. How- ever, the new method of budgeting income from employed chil- dren, resulted in a net decrease in assistance cost to a few cases in 1947.
OLD AGE ASSISTANCE: Though there were no substantial changes in the Old Age Assistance law in 1947, the State Depart- ment of Public Welfare did liberalize the requirements for eligibility as well as food budgets and hospitalization, which were the major factors in the increase of total assistance costs in this Division. During 1947 a total of 1,226 cases were handled by this Division. This is an increase of 10.9% over the 1946 total of 1,105 cases.
Material savings were affected in this Division by many new policies established in 1947. An example of this is the unification of drug pricing which reduced that particular cost by 19%.
Assistance in this Division will become larger and larger in the future unless the Federal Government greatly liberalizes its Social Security benefits. At present, Old Age Assistance is supplementing meager benefits given many under Social Security.
CITY PHYSICIAN
The City Physician has many medical duties connected with the function of municipal government. As usual the Physician reports a busy year during 1947.
ACTIVITIES OF THE CITY PHYSICIAN - 1947
Number of house visits 586
Number of office calls 25
Number of patients treated at clinics 742
Number of patients referred to eyes, ears, nose and throat specialist 41
Number of vaccinations
15
Number of operations and special treatments 15
Number of physical examinations 370
Number of police calls 22
The City Physician is also in regular attendance at Welfare Department clinics held twice weekly.
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SECTION V
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS' SERVICE
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ADAMS ACADEMY - DEPT. OF VETERANS SERVICES
Department of Veterans' Services
The Department of Veterans' Services was created by the City Council in 1943 and set up in operation the early part of 1944. Since that time, however, the activities of this Department have increased in both scope and magnitude so that in 1947 we find the Veterans' Services undergoing a radical change.
The State Legislature passed a law made effective January 1, 1947, which reimburses the City one-half the total expenses incurred by the City in assisting veterans and their dependents, depending upon compliance with the rules and regulations of the State Depart- ment of Veterans' Services. Previously all these expenses were met by the City.
During 1947, 18,841 visits were made to the office for advice and assistance by veterans and their dependents. The majority of these requests were concerned with education, G.I. training, insurance, job placement, legal advice, hospitalization, disability claims, pen-
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sions, evictions and home loans. Of the 1,047 investigations made on requests for financial assistance, 415 were aided. Some of the others were found to have either sufficient funds in banks or other employment. Others were placed in permanent employment. It is interesting to note that only about 30% of those seeking financial as- sistance are veterans themselves. The remaining 70% are either dependent parents or widows and children of veterans.
Whereas in 1945 and 1946, immediately after the cessation of hostilities, the most frequent problems concerned those of education and Government sponsored job training, in 1947 the questions asked most frequently were those dealing with service incurred disabilities, disability claims, housing and in- surance. Thus it becomes increas- ingly evident that although a large number have settled them- selves in school or employment, others have problems which are becoming more and more acute.
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TO THE MEN OF QUINCY WHO SERVED IN THE WORLD WAR
DOUGHBOY
A surprising number of veter- ans are in immediate need of psychiatric treatment or hospitali- zation for psychiatric reasons. Prompt treatment is needed for many of these. Although the Gov- ernment has "emergency" lists for their already overcrowded hospitals, many veterans need im- mediate care before they enter the category of "emergency' cases.
This Department gives, free of charge, aptitude testing to those veterans requesting it, as well as education advice.
A careful survey of other Veterans' Services Departments throughout the State shows that Quincy has as complete a serv- ice as can be found in the State.
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SECTION VI
HIGHWAY MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS HARBOR MASTER PARKS DEPARTMENT CEMETERY DIVISION
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- SUTARY
QUINCY TRAFFIC CIRCLE AT FORE RIVER BRIDGE
Department of Public Works
The activities of the Highway Division are divided into the fol- lowing categories: 1. General Maintenance; 2. Street Lighting; 3. High- way Miscellaneous; 4. Curbing, Sidewalk and Street Construction.
1. GENERAL MAINTENANCE: This Division is responsible for street cleaning, street repairs, sidewalk repairs, maintenance of high- way equipment, drain maintenance and snow removal.
The early months of 1947 saw little or no snow on the ground; however, in the last ten days of the year we had a very heavy snow- fall, amounting to almost record proportions with each day. This necessitated heavy expenditures for snow removal, plowing and sand- ing. This task was aided somewhat by the arrival of a new Snow Fighter in the Fall, to supplement the snow removal equipment already on hand.
2. STREET LIGHTING: Besides expenditures on street lights and traffic lights, this Division is also responsible for lights on rail- road overpasses and subways as well as lights for skating rinks and football practice fields.
Late in 1947, a survey of the lighting conditions on Quincy Avenue was conducted. As a result, greater candle power lamps were installed as an aid in the elimination of the hazardous lighting conditions on this road.
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3. HIGHWAY MISCELLANEOUS: This category includes the care of bridges, fences, brooks, and many other incidental items such as the erection of stands for public Christmas trees.
Several bridges were repaired during 1947 and all fences were maintained in good condition. Wooden signs of all types were made up by the painters, ranging from "no parking" to "sickness - quiet" signs.
During the Spring, 160 crosswalks and more than 8 miles of street center lines were painted.
center line were painted.
4. STREET CONSTRUCTION: A special appropriation was passed for the installation of granite and concrete curbing on certain streets, and sidewalk construction in 1947. New construction was com- pleted on 12 streets during the year and 12 more streets were com- pleted in the street rebuilding program.
Municipal Buildings
CITY HALL, QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS
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The Division of Municipal Buildings, a part of the Department of Public Works, is responsible for the maintenance of the City Hall, the Police Station, the City Home, Welfare Building, City Dispensary, the Atlantic Community Building and the seven fire stations.
This Division also lets out all contracts for the construction of or additions to municipal buildings.
During 1947, one contract was let out for the construction of a new Houghs Neck Fire Station, and one contract was let out for the construction of an addition to the Squantum School.
Principal repairs consisted of relaying floors in the Police Sta- tion and Welfare Building as well as repairs, alterations and paint- ing in the Auditor's and Treasurer's Office and in the Police Station.
Harbor Master
The Harbor Master is charged with the patrolling of the 25 miles of Quincy coastline. He is responsible for the checking and tabulation of all incoming and outgoing shipping. All buoys and beacons are checked and reported to the Coast Guard if out of position or extin- guished. River and harbor traffic is controlled at all launchings and upon the arrival of ocean-going ships, the channels must be cleared.
During 1947, the Harbor Master reports that shipping consisted of 2,328 tons of coal and more than 130 million gallons of oil.
A total of 194 yachts were stored in the boat yards of the Town River in 1947.
Numerous calls were made to boats in distress, either aground or capsized, during the year. Several bodies of persons drowned were recovered, while several others were rescued and taken from the nearby islands where their craft had run aground.
During the year, the Town River channel was dredged to ease some of the turns and a mooring basin was dredged to a depth of 10 feet in the Town River.
Park Department
The Park Department, under the Board of Park Commissioners is responsible for the physical recreation of the younger citizens of Quincy.
Public playgrounds are in operation by this department in every section of the City. These range from small playgrounds for the group under ten years of age to baseball parks, skating rinks and football stadia for the older groups.
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OBSERVATORY - FAXON PARK
The demand for this type of service has increased considerably during the last few years. This is due to the fact that people are becoming more aware of the necessity of supervised recreation as is provided the younger children by this department.
Baseball fields are maintained in every section of the City and hundreds of playing permits are given out each year to teams of all ages in many leagues for the use of these fields.
There are several football fields available for use. One of these being the beautiful Quincy Municipal Stadium, the finest in this section of the State.
During the winter months, various ponds are kept in condition tor hockey and skating in general. These are lighted at night, af- fording more use of skating weather. During 1947, hockey rinks were located at Stony Brae, Manet Lake, and Old Sailors' Home. However, unfavorable conditions prevented the full use of these rinks as there were only ten days of good skating in 1947. Many requests have been
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received for the flooding of playgrounds for skating in the winter. Previous experience has proved this to be impracticable as a clay surface is necessary to prevent the water from being absorbed by the soil after it has been sprayed.
During 1947, Macy Park in Ward One and the Kendall Estate in Ward VI were purchased and small playground equipment was erected for children up to ten years of age. Land was purchased at Stony Brae in Ward V and Columbia Street in Ward III for playground purposes. Stony Brae was ready for use in 1947, under a male and temale instructor, and Columbia Street has been graded and seeded for use in the near future.
Extensive improvements have been made to O'Rourke Field ir West Quincy and to O'Neil and Welcome Young Fields in North Quincy.
Softball is becoming more popular and so the demand for playing fields is increasing. Many baseball fields are being use for this pur pose but the shorter playing area required in softball is injurious to these diamonds. The only solution to this problem is the building of more regulation softball fields.
During the year the Park Board had a Baseball, Football and Basketball League in operation and these proved very successful.
During the Fall, seven sets of bleachers in several Parks were condemned as unsafe by the State Department of Public Safety. One of these, in the stadium, was repaired wtihin a week. The others were taken down and an additional appropriation will be sought to have these replaced for use in the baseball season.
A very attractive Field House was erected by the Bowling Green Club, at their own expense, on the Bowling Green grounds.
The tennis courts were made more usable by the accessability of certain equipment which had been unobtainable since before the war. These were in constant use during 1947.
The annual Field Day, the climax of summer playground ac- tivity, was its usual success. A great many boys and girls participated and many spectators were attracted by the keen inter-playground competition.
MUNICIPAL STADIUM
It is recommended that field houses be built at several playing fields in the future, at the rate of one each year. Permanent flood lights at the Municipal Stadium and a retaining wall at Maypole Park are also recommended.
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MAIN ENTRANCE - MT. WOLLASTON CEMETERY
Cemetery Division
This Division, under the Department of Public Works, is respon- sible for the administration, maintenance and care of Quincy's two municipal cemeteries, Mount Wollaston and the Hancock Cemetery. The latter is maintained mostly as a public shrine as burials there have become rare.
During 1947, there were 574 burials and 5 removals at Mount Wollaston Cemetery .Heavy snowfall in December made it exceed- ingly difficult to open graves but all burials were carried out on schedule. This eliminated the necessity of entombing and the delay- ing of burials until Spring.
The new section on the Sea Street side of Mount Wollaston was graded and plotted into 180 large lots, which will be numbered and then finished in the Spring of 1948 for future use.
Two hundred single graves were laid out in 1947 as well as thirty new lots of four graves each.
Many cemetery streets were repaired in 1947 and it is recom- mended that some of these should be rebuilt in the near future.
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SECTION VII
HISTORICAL PLACES LIBRARY SCHOOLS
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THOMAS CRANE LIBRARY
Library
The Thomas Crane Public Library, as it is now known, was es- tablished as the Quincy Public Library in 1871. In 1880 the family of Thomas Crane made a gift to the Town of Quincy of the Thomas Crane Public Library. This was formally dedicated in 1882 and at that time, by a vote of the Town, it was officially called the "Thomas Crane Public Library".
Since that time the Library has grown to such proportions that in 1947 we find it occupying two beautiful buildings in Quincy Square as a central library, and thirteen branches located throughout the City.
As of December 31st, 1947, the Library maintained a book stock of 136,638 volumes; of these 96,058 were adult books and 40,480 were for juveniles. This is a net increase of 3,385 over the 1946 total of 133,253 books. In addition to this, the Library had on hand at the end of the year 3,345 phonograph records and 18,000 mounted pic- tures, of which 5,967 have been cataloged. During 1947, the Library subscribed to 5,967 periodicals and newspapers. This does not include duplicates and extra copies provided the branches.
Books and periodicals borrowed from all branches and depart- ments amounted to 500,681 items. In addition, 5,520 mounted pictures and 14,533 phonograph records were loaned out. This makes a grand total of 520,734 items loaned out in 1947.
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There was a total of 20,507 borrowers' cards on record at the end of 1947; this is an increase of 243 borrowers over the 1946 total.
Further analysis of Library records indicates that there is a grow- ing demand for adult nonfiction. For many years the percentage of adult borrowing was 75% fiction and 25% nonfiction. However, in the past ten years the trend has changed somewhat so that in 1947 we find that nonfiction borrowed was 35% of the total loaned. At the main Library the percentage was 46.3%. This is due to the fact that the caliber of nonfiction is increasingly higher while books in the field of fiction are deteriorating in quality.
In the juvenile department we find a rather interesting note. In 1947, though there were actually 659 fewer children registered than in the previous year, the circulation of juvenile books increased by 5,000. Ths is due in part to the increased stock in children's books; but more so to the efforts of the children's librarian and the branch librarians in simulating interest among the younger people.
The music department, though not operating on a full-time basis, loaned out a total of 15,533 phonograph records in 1947. The advent of a six-day schedule in this department, which can be realized only by the addition of personnel, should find this a more popular and busy department in the years to come.
The library reference department was kept busy with dozens of questions aimed at them daily.
The Readers' Advisor is constantly occupied with preparing reading lists of selected books on a variety of subjects, as well as select- ing books to be sent to permanent shut-ins and editing "Leaves from the Library", a weekly book column in the local newspaper.
Thus, by these few preceding paragraphs, it can be seen that the use of the Library is made up of a number of other services be sides the circulation of books.
The thirteen branch libraries are located in every ward and district of the City so that there are few, if any, homes that are more than a mile in distance from a library. Though these branches contain but 40% of the total books in the system, they are responsible for two-thirds of the books loaned.
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BOOKS IN LIBRARY -JANUARY 1, 1947
Adult
Juvenile
Total
General
1,794
712
2,506
Periodicals
4,162
24
4,186
Philosophy
1,684
37
1,721
Religion
1,872
328
2,200
Sociology
8,395
2,092
10,487
Language
673
98
771
Science
2,356
1,402
3,758
Useful Arts
7,094
1,483
8,577
Fine Arts
6,322
1,568
7,890
Literature
8,411
2,548
10,959
History
11,461
3,963
15,424
Biography
7,522
2,221
9,743
Fiction
34,312
24,004
58,316
Totals
96,058
40.480
136,538
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Historical Places
2
BIRTHPLACE OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
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BIRTHPLACE OF JOHN ADAMS
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NORTH QUINCY HIGH SCHOOL
School Department
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE
To the Citizens of Quincy:
Your School Committee submits herewith its annual report for the year 1947.
The report of the Superintendent and the attached statistical tables give the detailed record of the year's activities in our schools and the needs of the future as seen by our staff. It is worth reading by all who are interested in our public schools. We wish in this report to call attention to the major problems met and dealt with during the year and to some of the problems which are still with us.
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The members of the School Committee, who serve without pay, devoted twenty-six evenings to meetings of the School Committee to work on these problems. Also, there were many sub-committee meet- ings. All of these members will continue in serving the schools this coming year with the exception of Mr. L. Paul Marini, the senior member who retired this year after 10 years of service on the Com- mittee. His place will be taken by Mr. Alexander Smith.
School problems naturally fall into three classes: (1) Buildings and Equipment, (2) Curriculum, (3) Personnel-all closely interwoven.
In common with many other cities we have a particularly serious building and maintenance problem. Thanks to cooperation from all concerned, real progress has been made this year in this field. Be- lieving it imperative for the health and safety of the pupils and teachers that our schools be put in a better state of repair, your committee has continued the sharply increased post war mainte- nance budget. We have created the position of assistant superin- tendent for Business Affairs and employed Mr. Rudolph Lofgren to see that this increased budget is spent effectively. We are developing our own maintenance crew in order that a systematic program of maintenance can be carried on with less dependence on outside con- tractors. This program is already bringing results in cleaner, brighter, healthier schools. Also during the year construction began on the Squantum School addition which should be completed in time for occupancy in September, giving that section a thoroughly modern school and the city a standard for comparison.
In the curriculum field the staff has continued its cooperative restudy of the curriculum. It seems clear that our present program, while fundamentally sound by current standards, needs the addition of a kindergarten grade, permitting the upward revision of the en- trance age for grade I. We must also consider the eventual expansion of the system to provide for junior college training for the ever-increas- ing number of high school graduates who need further training. These needs, as well as an increase in physical education, in the practical arts, and in trade training, must be kept in mind in our building pro- gram.
Finally, we turn to the most vital field of all-Personnel. It is nice to have good buildings, but the quality of the teaching staff is the most important factor in any school system.
We have taken several steps to improve our staff. We have elected our Superintendent, Dr. Paul Gossard, to tenure, which we hope will assure Quincy of his capable and devoted services for a long time to come. Few people realize how hard Dr. Gossard has worked and the range and scope of the problems he has met and overcome in the three years he has served us.
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We have adjusted a number of the salaries of supervisory personnel, with the intention of setting standards adequate to attract and keep first class leaders. Very likely we shall have to make more adjustments.
In accordance with a nation-wide trend, we have substantially increased the general schedule of teachers' salaries. In spite of this increase, our salaries are still not high when judged by salaries in comparable cities and in other professions, and it may be necessary to raise them still further in order to attract and keep the kind of persons we want to teach our children.
Buildings, curriculum, teachers, all cost money, an ever-increas- ing sum, which sometimes seems excessive to the taxpayer. Your committee is thoroughly aware of this. It believes, however, that the citizens look to it to provide their children with an education adequate to present day needs, and that no taxpayer begrudges the money necessary to meet those needs honestly and well. In that faith we go on into the coming year.
The foregoing report was prepared by Mr. Carter Lee and Mr. William A. Anderson and was adopted as the report of the School Committee for the year 1947.
QUINCY HIGH SCHOOL
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3
QUINCY STADIUM (PARTIAL VIEW) QUINCY HIGH vs NORTH QUINCY HIGH, THANKSGIVING, 1947
REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS
To the School Committee of Quincy:
The annual report of the Superintendent of Schools can well be a stock-taking of the measure of success with which the schools are meeting the problems encountered, and of the plans for carrying on the enterprise of educating the young people of the community in the days ahead. All of this, unfortunately, must be in extremely ab- breviated form in the printed report.
From the standpoint of the education that can be measured by standardized tests, Quincy schools did well in 1947, -even better than in the preceding year when it was stated in the annual report that for every grade tested the median score was well above the national norms. Our high school graduates who took the College Entrance Board examinations and who applied for college entrance
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are a credit to our schools, and more than the usual number of scholarships this year went to Quincy students. These facts, however, are not a complete measure of the success of a school system. We know that equally important in determining how well the job has been done are the answers to such questions as to how much the school experiences benefited those for whom school work is difficult. Whose strength lied in fields other than in book work, how well the superior students were challenged to use their talents beyond what was needed for passing grades, and to what extent the school experiences made the students honest, loyal citizens. We hope that these results, which are not easily measured, approach those at- tained in reading, spelling, and arithmetic, but all of us realize that here is a field to challenge the best efforts of those of us who are in any way connected with the schools.
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