USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Somerville > Report of the city of Somerville 1897 > Part 3
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Our great metropolitan parks and reservations will grow in beauty with each passing year, and their value to the people. as rendezvous of pleasure and reservoirs of health, will be more clearly recognized as the suburban population becomes more dense. These magnificent park systems have been acquired at enormous expense, and the present problem is how best to bring their benefits within easy reach of the thousands residing in the metropolitan park district. This can only be done by construct- ing boulevards and drives from the park reservations to the adjacent cities and towns.
Thus far, partly from necessity, the greatest expenditures for metropolitan roads have been within the limits of the towns where the parks are situated. In the Middlesex Fells district, for example, nearly all the outlay for boulevards has been in
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MAYOR'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
Malden, Medford, and Winchester, while the great cities of Cam- bridge and Somerville, which will be compelled to bear such a large proportion of the cost of the improvements, have, as yet, hardly been touched by the boulevard system. We ought, at least, to insist upon the extension of the Mystic valley parkway to Powder-house square, and the Fells boulevard to Broadway.
It forms no part of the duty of the metropolitan park com- missioners to construct boulevards for the benefit of particular cities and towns. These undertakings are designed solely to provide suitable access to the great public reservations and to connect the various park systems one with another.
The boulevards provide easy and beautiful approaches to the park reservations for those who can afford to drive in car- riages, and for the thousands who have the strength and skill to ride the bicycle. But there are many others-laboring men and women of slender means, and little children-who must rely upon the street cars to carry them to the leafy wildernesses and pleasure-grounds set apart by the state authorities, and for them we should make sure that the street railway corporations provide cheap and comfortable passage. It is the wage-earners, shut up daily in dark stores and dingy work-rooms, and the children of the poorer classes, compelled to live in crowded, ill-ventilated tenements, who will derive greatest benefit from the pure air and beautiful scenery of our public reservations, and it is our duty to see to it that their needs are not neglected.
WATER DEPARTMENT.
The customary amount of work was done by the water de- partment last year. In extending the water system, 7,519 feet of iron pipe were laid, while 14,475 feet of old cement-lined pipe were taken up and replaced with iron pipe of various sizes. Five hundred and sixty-one new service connections were made, 241 of the number being on premises heretofore supplied with water by the city of Cambridge.
It is to be hoped that nearly all the old cement-lined pipe now in our streets may be removed this year, as much of it is
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ANNUAL REPORTS.
in an unsafe condition, and breaks are of frequent occurrence. The water board would have done much more last year, in the way of replacing defective pipe, if an adequate appropriation for the purpose had been provided. If such an appropriation had been made, it would have resulted in a larger increase of the funded debt, and such a course was not regarded with ·favor by the City Council.
The year 1898 will be ever memorable in the chronicles of Somerville, as marking the beginning of the city's participation in the new metropolitan water supply. So much has been written upon the subject, and so clearly have the details of the. metro- politan system been set forth in the columns of our local news- papers, that it is not necessary for me to rehearse the interesting story on this occasion. Very briefly I will present a few facts and figures relating to the movement which has culminated in a new water supply for a population which, a few years hence, will number not less than a million people. The bill providing for the appointment of a metropolitan water board, the estab- lishment of a metropolitan water district, and the taking of the south branch of the Nashua river as the chief source of supply, was passed by the Legislature in 1895, being chapter 488 of the acts of that year. The metropolitan district, as defined by the act, embraces the cities of Boston, Somerville, Chelsea, Newton, Malden, Medford, and Everett, and six towns. Section seven of the act declares that the water contracts existing between the city of Boston and the cities of Somerville, Chelsea, and Everett
shall be cancelled on the first day of January, 1898. A water loan, not exceeding $27,000,000, bearing interest at a rate not above four per cent., is authorized by section seventeen. The management of local water works, the use of water, and the col- lection of rates are placed under the control of the water boards of the several cities and towns in the metropolitan district.
Under the provisions of the act to which reference has just been made, Somerville now shares with all the other cities and towns in the district the advantages of the great metropolitan water supply. This supply embraces the Cochituate, Sudbury, and Nashua sources. The waters coming from these various
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MAYOR'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
sources are connected by a series of conduits and reservoirs, and the daily flow available for public use, in driest years, is estimated at 173,000,000 gallons. By adding other sources, which can be made tributary to the present system, the daily capacity will be raised to 990,000,000 gallons. The quality of the supply will, it is believed, be of almost unexampled purity.
The magnitude of the metropolitan water project stands almost unparalleled in ancient or modern times. The watershed of the combined sources has an area of 212.3 square miles. The Nashua river reservoir will have a water surface of 4,195 acres, will contain when filled 63,068,000,000 gallons, will be 8.41 miles in length, have a shore line of 35.40 miles, an average depth of 46 feet, and will be the largest lake in Massachusetts. It will submerge 6.56 miles of railroad, 19.21 miles of highways, destroy 224 dwellings, 6 mills, 6 schoolhouses, 4 churches, and drive 1,711 people from their homes. All this is done in order that the people of Somerville and of sister cities and towns may have pure water to drink, and an abundant supply for other domestic and commerical uses.
At a later period, a new aqueduct, thirteen and one-fourth miles in length and of an estimated cost of three and one- fourth million dollars, will be built to conduct water from reser- voir No. 5, in Southborough, to the metropolitan district. By means of this aqueduct a gravity pressure will be obtained, and much of the expense of pumping avoided. Meanwhile, water for the metropolitan district will be distributed from Chestnut hill reservoir. Pipes have already been laid to connect this reser- voir with Spot pond. As the pond is twenty feet higher than the reservoir, the water will be pumped through the pipes. Spot pond will serve as the main distributing reservoir for the low service system, and from this source the supply of Somerville will come until the completion of the high service reservoir, which is to be constructed in one of the most elevated portions of the Middlesex Fells. When the high service of the metro- politan system is in operation, we shall no longer be obliged to maintain a pumping station in Somerville.
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ANNUAL REPORTS.
It would be almost presumptuous to attempt to form a close- estimate of the final cost of the metropolitan water system. If the total expense falls below $50,000,000, I shall be agreeably surprised. Somerville will be required to pay its share of the debt created for this stupendous undertaking, but it can be easily done from the revenue collected from the water-takers.
Our city will derive many advantages from the new water system, in addition to the improved quality and almost unlim- ited quantity of the supply. Henceforth, we shall have full con- trol of the distribution within the limits of the city, we shall as- sess and collect our own rates, our citizens will not be compelled to go to Boston to pay their water bills, and, best of all, we shall not be required, as in the past, to pay one-half of the water in- come to a neighboring city. It is estimated that the net gain in: revenue this year, over the preceding twelve months, will amount to nearly $100,000.
The gross revenue from water rates the present year will not fall far short of $210,000. I would suggest that it be applied as follows, the amounts stated being merely approximate estimates. of the several sums required :-
Reduction of water debt $22,000 00
Water loan interest 11,925 00
Metropolitan assessment
14,400 00
Maintenance of works, including relaying of pipe, 60,000 00
Extension of works 10,000 00
Improving circulation of high service system 3,000 00
Meters and setting same
5,000 00.
Construction of storm-water drains
83,675 00
$210,000 00
The adoption of a new water supply system will necessitate- several important changes in the city charter and ordinances. Even the name of the water board is to-day a misnomer, the use of the Mystic water having been abandoned. I would recom- mend that the City Solicitor be requested to confer with the water board, and frame such amendments to existing ordinances. as shall bring them into harmony with present conditions. It.
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MAYOR'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
will be necessary to invoke the aid of the Legislature in bringing about the desired changes in the city charter.
PUBLIC SEWERS.
I shall only be able to refer to a few matters of special im- portance in connection with the sewer department.
The storm-water drain in the Tannery-brook district was completed in January, 1897, and has since been in successful operation. For the partial relief of adjacent lands, a pipe drain, two feet in diameter, was laid last year from the junction of Mor- rison and Elm streets to connect with the Tannery-brook system in Davis square. Still further provision must be made in the near future for conducting away the storm water of this district.
For several years past, frequent complaints have been made of the discomfort and damage occasioned by over-charged sewers in different parts of the city. It is well known that many of our citizens have suffered long from obstructed house drains and flooded cellars in times of excessive rainfall. The grievance has been endured with commendable patience, for it was well un- derstood that relief could not be obtained except by the expendi- ture of large sums of money. Of late the annoyance has reached a point which calls for prompt and decisive action. In last year's inaugural address the subject was referred to, and its importance pointed out. The City Council, acting upon the recommenda- tion then made, appropriated the sum of $25,000 for the com- mencement of a system of storm-water drains. The first section of the system, extending the entire length of Winthrop avenue, from Mystic avenue to Broadway, will be completed within a few days. This sewer is constructed of brick and cement, in what is known as the "basket handle" form, is seven feet six inches high by seven feet one inch wide, and will discharge tem- porarily through an open drain into the Mystic river. At a later date its extension to tide water must be provided for. It will be the duty of this year's City Council to find the means for extend- ing this great sewer through Broadway to Cross street, thence along Cross street to Pearl street. Another branch must be built northwestwardly in Broadway, thence through Sargent avenue,
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ANNUAL REPORTS.
Sherman court, Marshall street, Gilman square, and Medford street to School street. Upon the completion of these two branches, permanent relief will be afforded a large and populous. district on Winter hill and in East Somerville. The entire tract to be thus drained has an area of more than five hundred acres,. and the cost of the undertaking has been estimated at $64,000. I would urge that the work be undertaken at the earliest possible day, and prosecuted with the utmost diligence. No other public improvement should take precedence of this enterprise, for it is. one that bears the closest relation to the health and material pros- perity of hundreds of our citizens.
Two other lines of storm-water drains have been projected, starting at different points on or near Cedar street and extending southeastwardly, the one along the location of the main line of the Boston & Lowell railroad to Gilman square, the other along the Lexington branch of said road to join and discharge into the first mentioned drain. The estimated cost of these two drains is $57,000. It is expected that the railroad corporation will con- tribute liberally to the expense of the undertaking, in return for the privilege of discharging its own water into the drains. A very large territory will be relieved and benefited by the laying of these drains.
A sewer, fifty-two inches in diameter, has been constructed along the northeasterly line of Mystic avenue, between Chauncey and Winthrop avenues. This sewer replaces an open box drain which interfered with the construction of the Fells boulevard. Under an agreement entered into with the metropolitan park commissioners, the city collects from the state $2,000 of the cost of the sewer.
A still more costly, and equally important, undertaking which confronts us is the building of a large storm-water drain to take the surface flowage from the southerly watershed of the city. The outlet of this drain will naturally be at nearest tide water in Miiler's river. From the point of discharge, it will ex- tend across private lands to Somerville avenue, thence along the avenue to Union square. Many branches will of necessity be- laid to relieve the Springfield and Newton streets district and
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MAYOR'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
a large territory west and north of Union square. It is thought that not less than $225,000 will be required to complete this system as far north as Summer street.
Another section of the city, lying along the northiwesterly slope of Clarendon hill, is wholly without facilities for house drainage. A part of the territory, extending from Curtis street to Alewife brook, has been laid out in house lots, and many dwellings have already been erected thereon. Several petitions for sewers in this district were presented last year, and have been referred to the present City Council. They are deserving of prompt action on your part. Two sewers will be required for complete and permanent relief, one for house drainage and the other for storm water, with outlets into the metropolitan sewer and Alewife brook respectively.
I have mentioned only a few of the sewer projects which must receive early and favorable attention. It is a problem which will sorely vex your honorable boards and those who shall come after you, especially when the financial condition of the city is considered. It was knowledge of extraordinary expenditures required for sewers, schoolhouses, and other imperative objects that led me to discountenance the erection of a new city hall, and causes me to look with disfavor upon extravagant plans for an armory building. The homes of our people should be made safe, comfortable, and healthful, and our children should be given the best educational advantages, before we expend large sums for mere architectural adornment.
STREET LIGHTING.
On the first day of last October, the city's contract with the Somerville Electric Light Company, for lighting the public streets, expired by its own limitation. This contract covered a period of five years, the city paying $120 a year for 1200-candle power arc lights, and $25 for incandescents. In the month of February, 1897, the City Council passed an order directing the committee on fuel and street lights to consider the question of a more comprehensive plan of street lighting. The investiga-
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ANNUAL REPORTS.
tions of the committee covered much ground, and in the month of August they submitted a voluminous report of their doings and of the conclusions which they had reached. The principal points in the report were an opinion adverse to municipal owner- ship of a lighting plant, and a recommendation that the terms of a new contract, submitted by the Somerville Electric Light Company, be accepted. These terms were, for arc lights of 1200- candle power, burning all night and every night, as follows: For a one-year contract $112.50 per light, for a two-year contract $111.50, for a three-year contract $110. The price of incan- descents was to remain the same as under the old contract, namely, $25 per year, with a limitation upon the number of in- candescent lights which the city would be permitted to use. The prices named were not satisfactory to the City Council, and the same committee were directed by another order to obtain, if possible, more favorable terms. This they were unable to do, and a still further order was adopted, providing for the appoint- ment of a joint special committee to consider the question of the establishment of a municipal lighting plant. A report favorable to such a proceeding has lately been submitted by the committee and accepted by the City Council, but a resolution in favor of municipal lighting, which followed the committee's report, was rejected, having failed in both branches to receive a two-thirds vote.
While the last-named committee were deliberating upon the question of municipal ownership, the City Council directed the Mayor to petition the state board of gas and electric light com- missioners for an adjudication as to the price and quality of the lights furnished to the city. A hearing was given upon this petition, and the commissioners' findings will doubtless be pre- sented at an early date. It is confidently expected that the com- missioners, without doing injustice to the corporation, will be able to make a substantial reduction in the prices named by the Somerville Electric Light Company. No one would desire that the corporation should be deprived of a reasonable profit, but lower prices would lead to an increase of business, and thus the company might ultimately be benefited by the cheapening of its
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MAYOR'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
product to the consumer. While I believe public lighting can be done more cheaply and satisfactorily by the city than by any private corporation, and deeply regret the recent action of the City Council, still it must be admitted that the question of mu- nicipal ownership is one upon which there may be honest differ- ences of opinion, and the subject is beyond the scope of an inaugural address.
Several of our streets are insufficiently lighted, and many additional lamps should be placed the present year. Doubtless this will be done if a favorable contract is made with the lighting company. It would seem that a great saving could be made by relocating the arc lamps now in our streets. In some parts of the city these lamps are too close one to another, while in other sections they are too widely separated. In my opinion, it would also be advantageous to increase the number of incandescent lights, and I would respectfully protest in advance against a pro- vision in any future contract which shall establish an arbitrary ratio between the number of arc and incandescent lights to be paid for by the city.
I trust the members of the present City Council will not be deterred, by the unfavorable action of their predecessors in office, from taking up the question of municipal ownership of a lighting plant.
ARMORY BUILDING.
It is highly important that something should be done the present year in the way of providing suitable accommodations for our local militia company. The present quarters in the Police station building are not of sufficient size for the company's evolu- tions when engaged in drill, and in other respects do not meet the approval of the state authorities. We all know that Company M is one of the most earnest and faithful militia organizations in the state, and deserving of the best accommodations the city can provide. I would recommend that a special committee be appointed to confer with the captain of the company and the adjutant-general in relation to a new armory building.
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ANNUAL REPORTS.
For seven years prior to 1894, the city received from the state an annual rental of $400 for the rooms in the Police station building occupied by the militia company. Beginning with 1894, and down to last year, the rent was fixed at $300. For 1897, an allowance of only $100 was made by the adjutant-general. This great reduction was based upon the alleged unfitness of the quar- ters provided for the company. With the exception of the use of the upper hall on election days, the militia company has ex- clusive occupancy of the second and third floors of the Police station. This building is a substantial brick structure, erected at a cost of nearly $50,000. The dimensions of the upper drill hall are fifty-five and one-half feet by fifty-four and one-half feet, while the lower hall is thirty-seven and one-half feet square. It is hardly necessary that I should comment upon the injustice done the city by the arbitrary exercise of power on the part of the state authorities in fixing the rental of these rooms at less than one-tenth the amount they would probably yield if let for other purposes.
A radical change should be made in the laws relating to the establishment and maintenance of armories and drill rooms. Not a single sound argument can be adduced in support of the present practice of requiring cities and towns to erect and main- tain costly buildings for the use of the state militia. , The militia is established for the protection of the entire Commonwealth, and not for the comparatively few cities and towns which have mili- tary organizations within their borders. Hence, it would seem that the cost of equipping and housing the various companies should be borne by the state. Under existing laws, if it happens that a militia company is formed in any city or town, the munici- pality is required to provide for it a suitable armory and drill- root, and this irrespective of the financial condition of the city or town, or the probable permanency of the organization. Un- der such an unjust rule, a heavy burden is imposed on a city like our own, while many of the rich towns are relieved from their fair share of expense incurred for the general good. An effort should be made at once to purge the present law of the inequitable pro- visions to which I have referred.
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MAYOR'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
SUBWAYS UNDER FITCHBURG RAILROAD.
For many years there has been a crying necessity for safe and suitable crossings over the Fitchburg railroad, between Park street and the northerly terminus of Beacon street. Ever since the railroad was built, people have crossed the tracks at Sacra- mento and Kent streets under a claim of right, vigorously re- sisting all attempts of the corporation to deprive them of a valu- able and long-enjoyed privilege. It is generally believed by those who have made most careful study of the question that the railroad company was under legal obligation to maintain these crossings perpetually, for the benefit of the owners of abutting lands. Be this as it may, the city had no power to compel the corporation to perform its duty to individual members of the community, and the land owners were unwilling to incur the expense of litigation.
In view of the peculiar circumstances of the case, your im- mediate predecessors in office felt justified in joining with the Fitchburg railroad in providing subways at Kent and Sacra- mento streets. They are just approaching completion, and will be of great advantage to the people living south of the railroad. The subways are designed for foot travel only, and have been constructed with great care under the direction of the City Engineer.
My own judgment would have led me to favor the building of only one subway, leaving the other street for an overhead bridge to accommodate all kinds of travel. The cost of both structures has been so slight, however, that the expenditure need not stand in the way of an overhead crossing at a later date. The City Engineer belives that it would be entirely feasible to build a second subway at Sacramento street for the passage of vehicles of all kinds. The total cost of the two subways will be about $11,500, the railroad corporation's share of the expense being $5,500.
I would recommend that the approaches to the subways be made safe and convenient for travel.
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ANNUAL REPORTS.
ELECTRIC WIRES IN STREETS.
I believe all electric wires should be placed underground. They are an unsightly object in the streets, a hindrance to our firemen in the performance of their duties, and a menace to hu- man life. The Chief Engineer of the fire department is strongly opposed to the maintenance of overhead wires, as they interfere with the proper placing of fire ladders. He states that the delay caused by such an obstacle is likely at any time to lead to de- struction of property and loss of life.
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