USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Middleborough > Town annual report of Middleborough, Massachusetts 1925 > Part 5
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Meeting called to order at 7.30 P. M. by Moderator Fletcher Clark, Jr.
Voted-Whereas it is apparent that the general attend- ance of the public at the annual town meeting and its various adjournments for the year 1925, causes an unlawful and dangerous congestion at the place of meeting and whereas such congestion has a tendency to hinder the deliberations of those who are qualified to vote at said meetings and in some instances has caused the exclusion of some who are qualified to vote,-now therefore it is hereby resolved in open town meeting, that all persons be, and hereby are, excluded from the Town Hall during the deliberations of said town meeting and its several adjournments, excepting such persons who are qualified to vote at said meeting.
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Article 3-Voted-An amendment to the budget-that the salary of the Town Treasurer and Collector be $2,500.00 including $1,500.00 as Treasurer and Collector, $350.00 from the Water Department, and the balance from the Gas and Electric Department. Vote was Yes 318, No 75.
Article 3-Voted-As an amendment to Water Depart- ment budget-to exclude $500.00 appropriation for Town Manager.
Article 3-Voted-Special Budget Committee report be accepted and that this committee be discharged.
Article 5-Voted-That a committee of three be ap- pointed by Moderator to see Judge of Probate Court regard- ing the appointing of a third member to the board of trustees of the Peirce Estate. Committee appointed :
1 Alexander Heath
2 Lyman P. Thomas
3 William L. Soule
Article 11-Voted-To appropriate $200.00 for Ply- mouth County Aid to Agriculture.
Article 3-Voted-To include in 1925 tax levy the esti- mated receipt from Peirce Trustees for schools, $5,120.00.
Article 3-Voted-That amount of $4,200.00 received from County as one third of Titicut bridge expense go into Town treasury and be included in 1925 tax levy.
Voted-That when meeting adjourns, that it adjourn to. Monday evening, two weeks from tonight (March 2nd, 1925) at seven thirty o'clock.
Moved to adjourn at 9.05 P. M.
WALDO S. THOMAS,
Town Clerk ..
SPECIAL TOWN MEETING MARCH 2nd, 1925
Meeting called to order at 7.15 P. M., by Moderator Fletcher Clark, Jr. The warrant was read by the Town Clerk. The warrant contained one article which was as fol- lows: Article 1-To see if the town will vote to lease its fish-
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eries for alewives for a period of not more than five years, make any regulations concerning such fisheries, and act any- thing thereon.
Article 1-Moved-That the matter of fisheries (her- rings) be put in the hands of the Town Manager for his dis- posal.
Moved to adjourn at 7.30 P. M.
WALDO S. THOMAS, Town Clerk.
ADJOURNED TOWN MEETING, MARCH 2nd, 1925
Meeting was called to order at 7.30 P. M., by Moderator Fletcher Clark, Jr.
Article 5-Moved-That Selectmen be requested to call special town meeting for Monday evening March 30th, to hear report from special committee on school needs.
Article 12-Moved-That this article concerning resur- facing of Plympton Street be laid over until next annual town meeting.
Article 18-Moved to indefinitely postpone action on this article.
Article 19-Moved to lay on table this article until such time as committee is ready to report.
Article 22-Moved-That the sum of $2,000.00 be appro- priated to carry out purposes of Article 22.
Article 3-Moved-That the sum of $1,877.57 be trans- ferred from the Surplus Overlay account to the Overlay 1921 account.
Article 3-Moved-That the sum of $317,935.91 less esti- mated receipts and balances of $7,582.09 plus $83,176.50 ($90,758.59) less the estimated Corporation and Bank Tax and less the amount to be received from the State income tax and plus the State and County tax, be raised on the estates and polls of the town and that it be assessed, committed and collected in accordance with the Statutes and the By-Laws of the Town.
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Moved to adjourn at 8.20 P. M.
WALDO S. THOMAS,
Town Clerk.
SPECIAL TOWN MEETING MARCH 30th, 1925.
Meeting called to order at 7.30 P. M. by Moderator Fletcher Clark, Jr.
The warrant for this meeting contained the following four articles :
Article 1-To hear the report of the Special Committee on School needs, appropriate money for the same, and act thereon.
Article 2-To see if the Town will vote to build and furnish a new High School building in the town, appropriate and raise money for the same by loan or otherwise and act thereon.
Article 3-To see if the Town will vote to transfer from the Surplus Revenue account to the Poor Department ac- count an amount equal to that to be paid to the town by the Insurance companies as a result of the fire at the Middle- borough Home, and act thereon.
Article 4-To hear the report of any committee, of offi- cers of the town, to appoint any committee and act thereon.
Warrant was read by the Town Clerk.
Voted that whereas it is apparent that the general attend- ance of the public at this special town meeting and its vari- ous adjournments, for the year 1925, causes an unlawful and dangerous congestion at the place of meeting and whereas such congestion has a tendency to hinder the deliberations of those who are qualified to vote at said meetings and in some instances has caused the exclusion of those who are qualified to vote. Now therefore it is hereby resolved in open town meeting, that all persons be, and hereby are excluded from the town hall during the deliberations of said town meeting and its several adjournments, excepting such persons who are qualified to vote at said meeting.
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Article 1-Mrs. Louis Hathaway, as chairman of the Special Committee on school needs, read the following report :
Middleboro, Mass., March 30, 1925 Mr. Moderator :
I beg leave to present the report of the committee on school accommodations. The members of this committee approached their task with no preconceived ideas, excepting that we realized that while we must not attempt to bond the town to the limit of its indebtedness liability-neither must we adopt such a parsimonious attitude that the efficiency of the schools and the welfare of the scholars would be jeopar- dized. The building of a school building in Middleboro has been postponed, until even now the grade schools are suffer- ing; and unless additional accommodations are offered, con- ditions will have reached a critical state in the High School by Sept., 1926. Even now, the High School is cramped for lack of space; and when in Sept. 1926, the 8th and 9th grades are promoted simultaneously into the High School, the en- rollment will be very close to 500. For the sake of concise- ness, your committee has considered 500 as the unit of en- rollment in the High School for Sept. 1926.
Two fifth grades are now on the platoon system and next fall some grades in the West Side school must adopt the same plan. ยท Two portable buildings are in use-a small one at School street, and a large one at the West Side School, and the first and second grades at Union Street, Forest Street, Purchade and the Rock are on half time. The committee, therefore, realizes that they have immediate congestion in the grades as well as coming congestion in the High School to provide for.
The committee was unfortunate in losing two of its mem- bers, Mr. Nickerson, the chairman and Rev. Percy Barnes by resignation almost as soon as appointed. Mr. Nickerson, how- ever, met twice with us and helped us greatly by outlining in a concise form the estimated increases in the High School for the next six years. Altho, regretting the loss of these mem- bers, we were fortunate in adding Mr. A. Newkirk and Mr.
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Wales Andrews to our numbers. The business experience of the former and the teaching experience of the latter have both been of great value to us.
At the first meeting of the entire committee, a chairman was elected and meetings have been held three times a week since. At the first meeting, the committee decided that we would keep our deliberations out of the political atmosphere, that we would keep our own counsel and that we would deal with the matter as carefully and as conscientiously as was humanly possible, and that as soon as we had anything to present to the town we would make such information the property of every citizen in the town by means of the columns of our local paper and by report in the special town meeting.
Your committee received and considered five plans from four architects. Messrs. Luce and Brown of Boston drew up a plan of the proposed alteration of the present High School. It was rejected for reasons as stated in the Gazette of last Friday. They also presented plans for an eight-room build- ing with an auditorium seating 500 which we had to reject, because it was more expensive than we felt we could afford.
Mr. Wilson Harlow of Middleboro also presented a plan for an addition with 8 or 10 rooms, offices and an auditorium ; and while every member of the committee was personally dis- appointed, because Mr. Harlow did not present a plan within our means; we were obliged to reject his plan; and as he refused to present any other we were forced to consider him as out of the running.
Mr. Ralph Jackson of Brockton presented the best plan for an addition that was brought before us. It was economi- cal and utilitarian.
However, Mr. W. H. McLean of Boston an architect of wide school experience presented us a plan for a separate building that was roomy, artistic, utilitarian, quite within our means; and seemed in many ways to solve our problem.
The first move of this committee was to consult Mr. Bates, Superintendent of Schools and Mr. Nickerson, Principal of the High School. Having discovered what they must have
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and what they would like to have, we compromised by giving them all the necessities and forgetting the luxuries. There are many things that we would like to see included in this build- ing, which we feel we must forego; until we have procured and paid for, at least, adequate housing, proper heating, good ventilation, and comfortable quarters for our school popula- tion. Given these with capable, interested teachers, we feel that the next generation can be well educated, if they so de- sire.
Having found, what we considered a solution of the prob- lem, your chairman next invited Messrs. Bates and Sampson and Messrs. Nickerson and Tillson to conferences with the architect. Mr. Sampson could not come, because of a severe cold; but the others met; and several changes were made in the plans according to their suggestions. The next move was to have the architect meet with the members of the school board and then with the selectmen and town manager. The next step is to present them to you tonight in the form of this committee report.
We have received many letters and recommendations from committees that Mr. McLean has served and all unite in his praise. They all say that he figures very closely, but that he keeps within his estimates.
We offer you a colonial building with twelve classrooms, various offices, an auditorium seating 500 and a fire-proof cov- ered bridge connecting it with the present building at a cost of $125,000 furnished. This figure includes the architect's fee. In connection with this building, we will use the second floor of the present building, thus giving home seats for 525 pupils exclusive of the laboratories and the type-writing and business rooms. One entire wing of the building has been given over to the business department with accommodations for 96 business pupils and to the sciences. The laboratories are upstairs and the business department is downstairs. The four rooms downstairs in the present building will be given over to the use of the upper grammar grades which added to the two rooms made vacant by the elminating of the ninth
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grade will give six extra school rooms for the relief of the grades in the school system. By using Mr. Bates' sug- gestion with regard to partitions in the two large rooms in the Union Street school, the half-time sessions in that building can be eliminated this fall and all the scholars in that build- ing put upon full time.
The building is of hollow tile construction with Harvard brick facing with a variegated slate roof. All state require- ments have been met throughout. The heating plant will be in the basement in an absolutely fire-proof boiler room. The plaster will be applied to metal lathing. The building is well- lighted, well-ventilated, and well-heated. It is so arranged that it can be added to in units of two or four classrooms or any multiple thereof at any time, if the need for more room arises.
It has five exits and will face Nickerson Avenue if the town decides to place it on this lot.
The committee takes pleasure in thus publicly thanking the architects who aided us by submitting plans for our approval, the teachers who consulted with us, Judge Wash- burn for legal aid; and Editor Wood for the use of his columns last Friday.
In order to finance it, we would like to use $20,000 out of the $23,000 surplus of the town and levy a special school tax of $3.00 per M., to be added to the current tax levy thus bringing in $25,000 this year and giving us $45,000 with which to start the school. By then taking up notes of $25,000; $25,000; and $30,000 for the next three years the school will be paid for and interest charges eliminated inside of three years. We trust that the opportunity will be given to local people both to build it and to furnish the capital for it.
As it is physically impossible to get even one-third of the registered voters inside the Town Hall, we respectfully suggest that this question shall be decided by means of the Australian ballot at an adjourned town meeting to be held next Saturday, April 4th from 11 a. m., to 8 p. m.
Respectfully submitted,
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LELAH M. HATHAWAY
Chairman of Committee on School Accommodations. DANIEL H. HOLMES
WALES H. ANDREWS
ABRAHAM G. NEWKIRK ALEXANDER HEATH
Voted that the report of the committee be accepted and that the committee be discharged.
Article 2-Voted-Yes 363, No. 64, that the plans pre- sented by committee of which Mrs. Hathaway was chairman and by Mr. Walker be thrown upon the screen.
Article 2-Voted that when this meeting be adjourned, that it adjourn to Saturday April 4th, that the polls be open from 11 a. m., to 8 p. m. to vote by Australian Ballot on the question, "Shall the Town build, furnish and equip upon the High school lot on the Union Street side, a High school building at an expense not to exceed $125,000.00, in substan- tial accordance with plans submitted by architect W. H. Mc- Lean, reported at this meeting by the committee and that the town raise and appropriate therefor the sum of $125,000.00 and that for the purpose of building and equipping the High school building as provided in this motion, the sum of $5,000.00 is to be raised and included in the current tax levy for the year 1925, and the further sum of $20,000.00 is to be appropriated and taken from the reserve fund or funds on hand in the Town Treasury, and the Treasurer with the approval of the Selectmen, be and hereby is authorized and empowered to borrow the sum of $100,000.00 and to issue bonds or notes of the town therefor, this amount to be paid by ten notes of $10,000 each, said bonds or notes to be payable in accordance with the provisions of section 19, chapter 44 of the General Laws of the Commonwealth, that the whole loan shall be paid in not more than ten years from date of issue of the first bond or note, or at such earlier date as the Treas- urer or Selectmen shall determine. The first of said pay- ments shall be made not later than one year from the date of the first note or bond issued therefor. This motion as re-
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corded includes the amendment relative to method of paying. Moved to adjourn at 10.30 P. M.
Attest. WALDO S. THOMAS,
Town Clerk.
ADJOURNED TOWN MEETING APRIL 4th, 1925
Meeting called to order at 11 A. M., by Moderator Fletch- er Clark, Jr.
Motion made and carried that when polls close at 8 o'clock, the remainder of warrant be taken up for considera- tion.
The following election officers were sworn in:
Henry W. Sears
Sylvanus L. Brett
Richard Cobb
Francis Callan
Kenneth Keedwell
William Haskins
The polls were closed at 8 o'clock P. M., and the result of the voting was Yes 664, No 501, Total 1165. This not being a two-thirds vote the motion was lost.
Article 4-Voted that a committee of six be appointed from floor to consider and report on school needs at a meet- ing not later than the last Monday of this month. The school committee was nominated and elected as this committee of six :
George W. Stetson
Kendrick H. Washburn
Forest E. Thomas
Adelia C. Richards
Allan R. Thatcher
Lorenzo Wood
Article 4-Voted that Charles H. Bates be a committee of one to bring in a plan for a building on the present site of the High school which would satisfy the requirement of a 6-3-3 and 6-2-4 plan of grading the schools.
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Article 4-Moved that these committees incur no expense to the Town.
Article 3-Voted that transfer be made from the Sur- plus Revenue account to the Poor Department account of an amount equal to that to be paid to the town by the Insurance Companies for damage resulting from the fire at the Middle- boro Home.
Voted to adjourn to April 27th at 7.30 P. M.
Voted to adjourn at 8.35 P. M.
WALDO S. THOMAS,
Town Clerk.
ADJOURNED TOWN MEETING, APRIL 27th, 1925
Meeting called to order at 7.30 P. M. by Moderator Fletcher Clark, Jr.
Article 4-On the request of Allan R. Thatcher, Charles H. Bates presented his report on school needs. Mr. Thatcher then presented the report of school-committee on the school needs.
It was moved that the reports be accepted, the commit- tees thanked and that they then be discharged.
Article 2-A vote was taken by the use of check list on a motion made by Fred B. Alger to appoint committee of five who would have full authority to erect a new high school building at a cost of $185,000.00. The result of vote was 217 Yes, 148 No, Total 365, therefore the motion was lost.
Moved to adjourn at 9.20 P. M.
WALDO S. THOMAS,
Town Clerk.
SPECIAL TOWN MEETING, MAY 18th, 1925
Meeting called to order at 7.30 P. M., by Moderator Fletcher Clark, Jr.
The one article in this warrant was as follows: Article
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1-To hear the report of the Special Committee appointed under article 5. of the warrant for the annual town meeting 1925, to investigate the last four years of the old form of Town Government and the past four years of the present form of Town Government.
Warrant was read by the Town Clerk.
Article 1-The following report of the special commit- tee for investigation of Town Government for the past eight years was read by Lewis F. Harding, chairman of the com- mittee :
Middleborough, Mass., May 11, 1925. To the Voters of the Town of Middleborough :
Your committee elected at a town meeting held on Febru- ary 9, 1925 to investigate and report upon the merits of the present and former forms of town government, begs leave to submit the following report :
Your committee began its investigations without preju- dice, and has endeaevored to act throughout with an unbiased mind. We held several meetings, at each of which the method of procedure was discussed, without arriving at any definite conclusion. It, however, became apparent that the problem was so vast, the details so numerous, and the records so diffi- cult to analyze, that the task seemed almost impossible. Be- lieving, nevertheless, that it was the desire of the voters that their wishes be carried to a conclusion, we secured the services. of Mr. Clarence A. Howes, an expert account from the office of Morgan & Morgan of Boston, and instructed him to obtain for us a statistical comparison drawn from the records of the Town for the past eight years, including the two periods un- der present investigation. His report follows :
MORGAN & MORGAN Accountants-Auditors-Engineers 73 Tremont Street Boston
Mr. Lewis F. Harding, Chairman, Special Committee,
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Town of Middleborough, Massachusetts.
Sir :-
In accordance with your instructions we have made an examination of certain statistical records of the Town of Middleborough for the purpose of comparing, from a finan- cial standpoint, the results obtained for the last four years under the present form of government with the results ob- tained for the previous four years, under the old form of government.
We wish it to be clearly understood that we have not audited any of the financial records of the Town or of the former Middleborough Fire District. The figures used in this report were taken from various records of the town without verification by us.
Since the Water Department and the Gas and Electric Department are the departments which should be self-sup- porting, we have compared the results of the operations of these departments in order to determine the comparative effi- ciency of the two forms of management.
Water Department
During the eight year period under review this depart- ment was operated under three different forms of manage- ment. During the years 1917, 1918 and 1919, it was oper- ated by the Middleborough Fire District, 1920 it was operated by the Town, and 1921, 1922, 1923 and 1924 it was operated by the Town Manager.
Due, probably, to these changes in management, the available statistics for the different years are not uniform, so that true comparisons are impossible.
The statistics for the four year period from 1917 to 1920 disclose a loss of approximately $9,400.00. Included in this loss are payments made for a new pump amounting to $2,973.00, which should not have been charged against the in- come of the department, but which should have been set up
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as one of the assets of the department. After deducting the payments for this pump the loss for this period is about $6,400.00. No doubt there are other items of a similar na- ture that have been improperly charged against the opera- tions of this department, thus disclosing an apparent loss in excess of the actual loss.
For the four year period from 1921 to 1924 the statistics disclose a profit of approximately $7,300.00. As in the pre- vious period a new pump was purchased, and its cost amount- ing to $8,300.00 charged against the revenue of the depart- ment. After deducting the cost of this pump from the charges against the revenue the profit of this period is about $15,600.00 which shows an increase in the earnings of this department of approximately $22,000.00 in the last four year period over the previous four year period.
This increase is partly accounted for as follows :-
(1) By the increase in services in use during the last period, there being an increase of 102 services in the last period as compared with an increase of 11 services in the former period.
(2) By an increase in the rate charged for water used, and
(3) By placing water meters on practically all services.
Depreciation on equipment and plant assets has not been considered in determining the profits or losses of this depart- ment.
Gas and Electric Department
The statistics of this department are practically uniform throughout the two four-year periods which has enabled us to make satisfactory comparisons of its financial condition and progress.
The profit of this department for the first four year period is approximately $51,500.00 as compared with a profit of approximately $91,700.00 for the last four year period.
The disposition of the $51,500.00 profit made in the first four year period is accounted for as follows :-
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$16,600.00 was used for additions and improvements to plant and equipment, $20,600.00 is reflected in the increase in current assets and $14,300.00 was used to decrease the lia- bilities of the department.
The disposition of the $91,700.00 profit made in the last four year period is accounted for as follows :-
$75,400.00 was used for additions and improvements to plant and equipment, $1,600.00 is reflected in the decrease in current assets and $17,900.00 was used to decrease the lia- bilities of the department.
In the last period the total assets were increased 15% more than in the previous period and the total liabilities were decreased 23% more than in the previous period.
The appropriations made by the town for construction increased approximately $9,900.00 during the first four year period. During the last four year period no appropriations were made by the town for construction.
The rates charged for the use of gas were increased about 13 per cent in 1918 and again increased about 53 per cent in 1920. This latter increase being due in great part to the high cost of materials. In 1922 these rates were reduced about 6% and in 1924 again reduced about 13% making the present rates about 40 per cent above the rates for the pre- vious period. The rates charged for the use of electric light remained unchanged during the first four year period, but were reduced about 16% in 1921. The rates charged for elec- tric power have remained unchanged since 1900.
The total number of consumers of gas and electricity in- creased 48.5% in the first four year period and 72% in the last four year period.
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