USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Andover > Town annual report of Andover 1955-1959 > Part 39
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The library building shrinks perceptibly in its ade- quacy with increased use and with every passing year. It becomes increasingly difficult to continue to provide the kind of service, friendly and intelligent, which is the hall-mark of this library, although there is no diminution in our effort to do so. Masses of children throng a woe- fully inadequate Children's Room daily. Our Reference Aloove, never really large enough, has it books, business services and periodicals spilling, over onto book ledges, 1ts small table often crowded with readers. The main reading room occasionally presents the appearance of Grand Central Station - (the description is a library user's, not ours). The behind-the-scene activities take place under increasingly difficult conditions.
With each year, the library's case for an expanded and altered library building grows more compelling. De- spite an excellent presentation at the 1957 Town Meeting which put our case cogently and, we felt, convincingly, our article was defeated, although by a margin slighter than before. We hope this year to secure the approval of both the Finance Committee and the Taxpayers' Associ- ation since we feel that we need this backing to assure the success of our article.
It remained for the formation of the Citizens' Com- mittee For The Library to show us how naive we had been in thinking to secure our building project through our own unaided efforts. We can hardly express how thrilling it has been to have this expression of lay support and to have this group co-sponsor the library article with us.
Since late spring this committee has been hard at work, informing itself about library needs, gathering in- formation and developing a program of community education. Whatever the outcome, the library will be the gainer
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since it will have a core of able interpreters who will in. turn have informed an ever larger number of citizens about the library and its role in the community.
Much time of necessity has had to be spent on the personnel study and on preparation for promotion of the building article. We should like at this point to turn somewhat abruptly from these considerations to report what went on in your library in 1957, since the proof of the library's value rests in its performance.
The children's program has been carried forward with- out too much sacrifice of effectiveness and concern for individual needs. This past year more children have used the room for reference and had it not been for a cor- ner of the boiler room with its extra seats, it might have been less possible to keep standards as high as they have been. One mortality of overcrowding has been the necessity of taking part of the book collection to the auxiliary shelving in the basement room. Some collections such as poetry, for example, do not thrive under these conditions for poetry needs proximity and impetus of indi- vidual introduction by enthusiastic librarians.
Some children have stayed away from the library be- cause of the confusion, for crowding can not help but lead to confusion. One mother who described the room as a "mad house" referred only to what must happen when too many want to get into a space adequate for the few.
Our service to the elementary schools undoubtedly has increased the use of our main Children's Room, for en- thusiastic children in school libraries have stimulated parents to give boys and girls who live at a distance from the library the experience of browsing in a larger collection and thus of developing their powers of inde- pendent choice.
This year two of the elementary school libraries went into larger quarters. West Elementary School now has a full-sized library with six tables and a seating capacity of fifty; Shawsheen, while not in brand new quarters, has moved its library to a good sized classroom with more adequate seating and shelf space. Central Elementary School, with the largest enrollment of all, has the least adequate library -- by all standards "pint- sized".
With the completion of the new South Elementary
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school in the autumn, Ballard Vale will be able to have elementary school service comparable to that of the other schools. This is not possible in the present Bradlee School where space available for the library measures some eight feet square.
An additional school librarian in the fall of 1958 will make it possible for us to provide full-time service at the Central Elementary School and a minimum of one and one-half to two days at each of the other three schools. Of course this will be possible only if this item in our current budget is approved and if we can find a well- qualified person at the salary which we can offer.
Movie programs, story hours and puppet activities continued as in other years. This year the children made shadow puppets, simpler to make and manipulate and yet very effective. Thirty-nine boys and girls took part in puppet making and in presenting some nine plays to en- thusiastic groups of boys and girls.
The story. hours for the smallest children continue in popularity, with two groups at the main library and one at the Ballard Vale branch library .
No satisfactory means has yet been worked out to keep track of the many reader and reference questions which come to the library each year. A reader who wants to know more about India's five year plan will call into play more staff book knowledge and more of the library's book stock than someone who asks a reference question, seemingly complicated, which proves to be easily answered by means of one of the many useful reference handbooks. To go from the request "Can you help me? My life has come to an end in many ways, and I have to begin a new one", to a tele- phone inquiry for the total amount of commercial bank deposits in the Greater Lawrence area from 1951 to 1956, may seem a rather sudden transition. Yet staff members, giving reader service, handle a variety of questions each day which call upon imagination, background and knowledge of the different types of library materials and resources appropriate to the successful answering of each question.
Book displays and other exhibits were a fairly accu- rate mirror of what was going on in a year of amazing hap- penings. A few of the more significant were arranged around the local March election and Town Meeting; the IGY; United Nations Week; Dr. Schweitzer's Declaration of
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Conscience; the National Education Association centennial; the American Library Association's "Liberty and Justice Awards".
This year for the first time, this library served as preview center for libraries in the cooperative film pool, in preparation for the purchase of films for this col- lection in the spring. The number of participating libra- ries in this area is small but a regional film preview center may prove to be more convenient than the central one held in Boston in previous years.
In 1957 we offered 85 films to individuals and organ- izations in the community, or used them in our own program, with a total of 229 showings and a viewing audience of 13,851, almost the equivalent of the Andover population.
Our framed print collection proved more popular than ever this past year with some 45 prints in practically continuous circulation.
Open House in November was one of the most success- ful of the anual occasions, in terms of the number of people attending, the calibre of the book displays and in the unusual quality of the speaker, Isaac Asimov, Pro- fessor of Bio-Chemistry and practitioner extraordinary of the art of science fiction writing. The small knot of enthusiastic young people who crowded around him to ply him with questions demonstrated how keen their interest 1s in the science age in which they live.
A complete inventory of the books in the adult col- lection at the main library was carried through in 1957 with results which are by no means shocking considering that ten years have elapsed since the last full inventory, that thousands of books have circulated in this period and that thousands of people have used the library for browsing and reference in this time. The number of books missing is never a final one for there are always some books which escaped the inventory either because they were in transit between circulation and shelf, or for some other reason.
We are always grateful to the many people who through gifts of books or of themselves have contributed to the library's program. We should like to single out partiou- larly the members of the Garden Club who arranged so many attractive flower displays for occasions during the library
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year. Never are flowers more appreciated than during the winter months when their brightness brings a touch of the spring to come. The generosity of the press in opening 1ts columns so liberally to library material is much valued for it makes it possible for us to reach so many people with news of books and library activities. Appreci- ation, too, must go to the Board members who have given increasing amounts of time so ungrudgingly and to the staff who have worked cheerfully under conditions of handi- cap.
For five days in May we had a delightful visitor, Miss May Hanania of our USIS Library in Amman, Jordan, sent here by this agency in cooperation with the State Department. A Christmas letter brought news of her marriage and of her hope to return to Andover on a visit with her husband. Like many another foreign librarian, she enjoyed the opportunity of seeing a small community library in action.
The hope with which we should like to end the report is that books and ideas on the printed page have gained a new stature this past year and that more and more people will seek out the library to satisfy their more purposive needs for inspiration, information and education.
Some one has written that a picture can not take the place of an idea, writing, "Imagine a picture which could say as effectively 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?' ." The writer goes on to suggest that while one Would go from a television program to books to satisfy one's curiosity about a subject, no one has gone to a television program to find out more about a subject. This may be somewhat of an overstatement although basic- ally we believe it to be true. We submit that the public library stands as the one community resource for the whole of life which enables us to go from any other media, to a book or a variety of books; from a half-truth, a specious argument, a one-sided presentation, to material, both old and new, which can correct, amplify and enrich, and which may be consulted and read at our speed and at the time of our desiring.
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1957 STATISTICS OF LIBRARY USE BOOK STOCK
Adult
Juvenile
Total
Volumes at beginning of year
41,885
12,860
54,745
Volumes added by purchase
1,558
991
2,549
Volumes added by gift
96
56
1 52
Volumes lost or withdrawn
793
363
1,156
Lost volumes found
12
5
17
42,758
13,549
56,307
Newspapers & periodicals currently received Periodicals received by gift
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2
USE
Volumes
% of total Circulation
Volumes of adult fiction
ยท 37,350
25.7
Volumes of adult non-fiction
37,923
26.1
Pamphlets & Periodicals
6,902
04.7
Children's Books & Magazines
54, 454
37.4
Children's room use
45,654
Elementary school library use 8,800
Number of adult records
6.531
Number of children's records
1,118
06.1
Pictures, prints, filmstrips
1.296
145,574
The library wishes to call attention to the fact that in addition to books loaned through the school libraries to individual boys and girls, 14,897 books belonging to school libraries and the Memorial Hall Library were deposited in classrooms, with each book used from two to twenty times, for an estimated borrowing of 148,970.
REGISTRATION
Adult
Juvenile Total
New borrowers registered during year
1,022
550
1,572
Total number of registered borrowers
4,018
2,735
6,753
Circulation per capita (based on
population figures - 14, 535 (1955)
10
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and film slides
1
Board of Public Works
Andover, Mass. January 1, 1958
The Board of Public Works voted to adopt the following report of the Superintendents as its report for 1957.
ALLEN M. FLYE, Chairman
ALEXANDER H. HENDERSON, Secretary FRANCIS P. REILLY DAVID M. THOMPSON HARRY AXELROD
203
Report of Superintendents
To the Board of Public Works:
Gentlemen:
During the year 1957 many changes occured in the or- ganization of the Board of Public works. Mr. Edward Law- son, Assistant Superintendent and Superintendent of the en- tire department for twenty-nine years and later Superinten- dent of all but the water and sewer departments retired. We wish to express our appreciation for Mr. Lawson's help and cooperation in establishing the new set up in the De- partment, also to wish that his health may steadily improve. After a little over two years, Mr. Preble, who was Town En- gineer and Superintendent of the Water and Sewer Departments left the employ of the Town to work for a consulting Engi- neering firm in Boston.
The Board feeling the need of men to replace Mr. Preble and Mr. Lawson appointed at the end of July, Stanley Chlebowski as Superintendent of the Highway, Tree, Park & Garage Departments, and Donald C. Bassett as Superintendent of the Water and Sewer Departments. The following report, as in the past few years, is conducted as a joint report of the over-all operation of the Board of Public Works. Both Superintendents would like to thank all of the Town Departments for their cooperation in aiding them in meet- ing the added demands so imposed upon all the departments at this time.
On October 25, May Shorten, General Clerk, in the office terminated her duties which culminated a period of over twenty years of continuous employment with the Board of Public Works. Shortly thereafter, Delight Wilson also terminated her employment. In order to continue the ef- ficiency of the Board of Public Works it was decided to engage an Office Manager and Assistant to coordinate the various departments.
ENGINEERING
The Engineering Department came to an end with Mr. Prebles' resignation and the bulk of this type of work has been handled by the present Superintendent of the
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Water and Sewer Department, Mr. Donald C. Bassett. The work of this department has been mainly in connection with the new major projects in water and sewer. The betterment act requires a large amount of investigation and research in most water and sewer installations. The land taking around the well sites took a large amount of time. The garage was designed as an engineering project. The Andov- er Street Sewer designed and construction supervised by this department. At the close of the year, due to pressure, it was necessary to have a resident Engineer from Camp, Dresser & McKee, to supervise water system improvements.
WATER SYSTEM
The water supply of the Town of Andover reached a very dangerous low during the past year. The Board of Public Works, aware of the approaching condition, already had the firm of Camp, Dresser & McKee, working on the pro- blem of additional water supply and were able to partially aleviate the seriousness of the situation by asking for a special appropriation to begin the well supply program and to connect one of the two approved wells to the system and thereby add 350,000 gallons per day to the available water supply. Drastic controls were put in effect. Not with- standing these attempts at provision and control, the el- evation of the Pond reached an all-time low, or nearly seven feet below full level.
Progress for the year in the current expansion pro- gram has been excellent. The reservoir on Prospect Hill has been completed and is ready to be put in service. The reservoir on wood Hill has been constructed and par- tially painted and will be ready for service in the Spring. These new reservoirs will more than double the storage ca- pacity. The initial stage of modernization of the Haggett's Pond Pumping Station has been completed. The chlorination, floridation and lime feeding have been improved to enable the feeding of additional requirements and to be more ef- ficient and better for the operation of the Station. The line on Greenwood has been laid as has part of the ty-in at the Station grounds. This, when finished, in the early part of the coming year will establish the new West Andover High System.
One other pipe line in the West system laid this year is the 16" feed line from Haggett's Pond Road to the res- ervoir on Wood Hill.
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As part of the improvements to the High Level System a new line was laid on Woodland Road to a point about 240' from Highland Road. The winter weather stopped this pro- ject. Contracts for the installation of a new pump and motor at the Bancroft Road Station have been awarded and as soon as materials are available, the installation will be made. This with the new reservoir on Prospect Hill is the start of improving the distribution in the High Level System with the various pipe construction which eventually will reach Johnson Acres and the upper section of Elm St. as well as upper Summer and Chestnut Streets.
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The other major project in the Water Department is the installation of the wells, the new pipe lines and the chem- ical feed buildings and the pumping equipment. This work will not be halted by winter weather. By the end of the year the pipe lines had been laid and the building con- struction started. This work should be completed by late February and the wells permanently tied into the system. It is planned to construct a new well at Ballardvale site during the coming year.
The various lines constructed and added to the system are tabulated below.
Added to the system by accepting streets :
3042 L.F. 8" C.L. C.I. 5 hydrants Oriole Drive
Strawberry Hill Road and
Rennie Drive
3585 L.F. 8" C.L.C.I. 7 hydrants
Lucerne Drive 700 L.F. 8" C.L.C. I. 3 hydrants
Princeton Avenue
345 L.F. 8" C.L.C.I.
Suncrest Road
650 L.F. 8" C.L.C.I. 1 hydrant
Improvements to the system:
Wood Hill
(for new reservoir) 1400 L.F. 16" C.L.C.I. 2 hydrants
Greenwood Road 4350 L. F. 12" C. L. C. I. 6 hydrants Woodland Road
2750 L.F. 12" C.L. C. I.
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Lowell Street (Addition from pumping station)
750 L.F. 12" C.L.C. I.
Wildwood Road 2006 L.F. 8" C.L.C. I. 4 hydrants
Improvements to system by contract:
5800 L.F. 16" pipe on Porter Road and Hidden Way 3 hyds.
1200 L.F. 12" pipe thru easement to Ballardvale Well 1 hyd. 800 L.F. 8" pipe to Abbot Well with a jacking operation 1 hyd.
Water Mains lowered for road construction:
Canterbury Street 175 feet
Shawsheen Road 240 feet
It was also necessary to raise the structures and reset the gate boxes on Shawsheen Road.
SEWERAGE SYSTEM
The Castle Heights Road, Joyce Terrace and Juliette Street sewerage program was awarded and construction has been started in the Castle Heights and Joyce Terrace area and will be completed with the return of suitable weather.
An overall sewerage report has been completed by Camp, Dresser and McKee, consulting engineers for the Board, suggesting many needed additions to the system. It is hoped that some of these may be carried out during the coming year.
The Andover Street sewer was completed this year with an added 950' of 8" sewer and 1200' of 10" sewer at a cost of $20,000.00.
The Clark Road addition, installed by a private con- tractor, added 1000' of 8" to the system.
Also added by the acceptance of streets were:
Lucerne Drive 700 L.F. 8 inch
Princeton Avenue
345 L.F. 8 inch
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Forty-two (42) sewer services were installed during the year by authorized contractors.
Some of the needed repairs at the Shawsheen Village plant were completed this past year.
HIGHWAY
The following road surfaces were treated with either tar or asphalt and honed:
Precinct 1 :-- Carmel Road, Foster Circle, Florence St., Pasho Street, Punchard Avenue, Wolcott Avenue and part of High Street. Precinct 2 :-- Cassimere Street, Flint Circle. Precinct 3 :-- Argyle Street, Arundel Street, Binney Street, Carisbrooke Street, Dartmouth Road, Enmore Street, Fletcher Street, George Street, Marwood Drive, Shepley Street, Wil- liam Street, Yale Road, York Street. Precinct 4: Bailey Road, Beacon Street, Bellevue Road, Chandler Circle, Chand- ler Road, Chandler Road from Beacon Street to North Street, Greenwood Road, Haggetts Pond Road, High Plain Road, Juni- per Road, Love joy Road, North Street. Precinct 5 :-- Andover Street, Tewksbury Street. Precinct 6 :-- Abbot St., Gould Road, Holt Road, Orchard Street, Salem Street, School Street, Sunset Rock Road, Torr Street, Wildwood Road, Wood- land Road, Woods Road. A total of 123,480 gallons of MC-3 asphalt were used.
Brook Street was resurfaced with two course Type I Bituminous Concrete, using 358 tons of hot top at a cost of $3,114.60, installed 1329 feet of curbing at a cost of $2,126.40, four corners at a cost of $8.00 each.
An area of Chestnut from Bartlet to Morton Street was resurfaced with asphalt and peastone mixed in place. Shaw- sheen Road was resurfaced with two course Type I Bituminous concrete from Lowell Street to Essex Street under Chapter 90 State Supervision. The road will not be completed until June 1, 1958.
The snowfall for the year 1957 was as follows :--
January
20.0
Inches
February
1.5 Inches
March
10.5
Inches
April
4.2 Inches
November
2.0 Inches
December
24.7 Inches
Total 62.9 Inches
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The snowfall for the season November 1956 to April 1957 inclusive totaled 63.0 inches.
Sidewalks were constructed of bituminous material on the following streets: Stevens Street, Lewis Street, Suth- erland Street, South Main Street, Salem Street, School St., George Street, Florence Street, Chestnut Street, Railroad Avenue, Walnut Avenue, Central Street, Phillips Street and Shepley Street. The cost of resurfacing sidewalks aver- aged $1.30 per square yard while new sidewalk construction averaged $1.73 per square yard.
The reconstruction and widening of Ballardvale Road was done to eliminate a very bad corner on the property that Irving E. Rogers gave to the Town for this work.
Many smaller culverts failed or otherwise became troublesome during the year of 1957 and the following re- placements were made, Dascomb Road-stone box with 36 L.F. 24" R.C.C.P. Built one catch basin on River Road, one catch basin on River Street, two catch basins on Hidden Road and 336 L.F. of 12" R.C.C.P.
Sufficient steel cable and concrete posts were pur- chased to erect 1400' of guard rail fencing on the wester- ly side of Haggetts Pond. Concrete posts were erected on River Street, Dascomb Road, Abbot Street and Andover St.
BRIDGES
The bridges under the control of the Board were in- spected at various times during the year. The Ballardvale Bridge was repaired and new plank put in place. In the year of 1958 the Board hopes to complete a new Bridge.
PARKS
There is one regular diamond at the Central Playstead, three Little League Fields, one at Central, one at Woburn Street Playground, and one in the rear of the West Center School.
Fertilizer was applied in the Spring on both the Park and Playstead areas.
Improvements were made in front of the football bleachers - 40 tons of Bituminous material was used at a Cost of $396.00
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TREE DEPARTMENT
This year 106 shade trees and 9 evergreen shrubs were planted on public streets and triangles. Varietes planted included Pin Oaks, Little Leaf Lindens, Sugar and Norway Maples, Yellow Woods and Pfitzer Junipers.
A $500.00 gift from the Andover Village Improvement Society was matched by Town funds to purchase these trees.
Due to severe drought conditions all newly planted trees were watered several times and mulched during the summer.
Cuttings from 116 Dutch Elm suspects were sent to the Shade Tree Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts in 1957. Of these 73 were diseased and by December 31, 53 had been felled and burned. The remaining trees will be removed by March 1, 1958. A 65 foot crane was used in removing some of the more dangerous Elms.
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One dormant and two foliage sprays were applied to the Town Elms in an effort to control the Elm Bark Beetles, known carriers of Dutch Elm Disease, and Elm Leaf Beetles which feed on foliage.
The regular department work of pruning, spraying, bark tracing, removing low limbs, dead and dangerous trees and branches was carried on.
Poison Ivy eradication by chemical spraying was done along public roadsides, playgrounds, and school yard areas. Brush cutting was continued on country roads and blind cor- ners. Many weak trees were cabled to prevent splitting and breaking.
NEW EQUIPMENT
Under Article 33 the following new equipment was pur- chased. One Ford Tractor with a Wagner Loader and a North East Cab complete for a total purchase price of $3,540.00. The trade-in price of a 1955 Ford Tractor was $1,500.00 for a net purchase price of $2,040.00.
One Flink Spreader, total price of $1,255.00.
One 1957 Ford Dump Truck, total price of $6,641.80 trading a 1948 Diamond T for $2,048.63, making a net cost of $4,593.17.
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One 1957 Ford for the Tree Department, purchase price $4,072.20, using in trade a 1949 Chevrolet in the amount of $968.43, making a net cost of $3,103.77.
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