USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Quincy > Town annual report of Quincy 1887 > Part 5
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3,537 50
-$142,859 61
79
WOODWARD FUND - Continued.
Invested as follows : -
8 Bonds Portland Water Co., at appraise-
ment, $1,000 each $8,000 00
3 Bonds Consolidated Railroad of Ver- mont, appraisement, $1,000 each 3,030 00
Loans secured by mortgage 20,375 00
25 Shares Nat'l Mount Wollaston Bank,
3,695 00
4 Bonds City of Boston, 5 per cent, $1,000 each 4,430 00
3 Bonds City of Cambridge, 6 per cent, $1,000 each
3,330 00
3 Bonds City of Lynn, 6 per cent, $1,000 each · 3 Bonds City of Toledo, 5 per cent, $1,000 each
3,067 50
5 Bonds City of Minneapolis, 42 per cent, $1,000 each
5,187 50
5 Bonds City of Cleveland, 4 per cent, $1,000 each
5,262 50
10 Bonds City of Pawtucket, 5 per cent, $500 each.
5,325 00
2 Bonds Ogdensburg & Lake Cham- plain R.R., 6 per cent, $1,000 each . 2 Bonds Old Colony Railroad, 6 per cent, $1,000 each
2,000 00
2,047 50
· 7 Bonds Boston & Lowell Railroad, 5 per cent, $1,000 each
7,295 00
4 Bonds Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad, 5 per cent, $1,000 each · 10 Bonds Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, 5 per cent, $1,000 each . 5 Bonds Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg & New Bedford Railroad, 5 per cent, $1,000 each 5,125 00
4,200 00
10,762 50
5 Bonds Eastern Railroad, 6 per cent, $1,000 each 5,546 25
10 Bonds New York & New England Railroad, 6 per cent, $1,000 each . 10,103 75 4 Bonds Vermont & Massachusetts Rail- road, 5 per cent, $1,000 each . 4,440 00 . Amount carried forward, $116,507 50
3,285 00
80
WOODWARD FUND - Continued.
Amount brought forward, $116,507 50
5 Bonds Union Pacific Railroad, 6 per cent, $1,000 each 5,593 75 4 Bonds Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad, 5 per cent, $1,000 each 4,065 00 .
8 Bonds Southern Kansas Railroad, 5 per cent, $1,000 each 8,120 00
7 Bonds Town of Weymouth, 4 per cent, $1,000 each 7,542 50
Cash on deposit in National Mount Wol- laston Bank 1,030 86
$142,859 61
HORACE B. SPEAR, Treasurer.
MOUNT WOLLASTON CEMETERY.
THE Managers of the Mount Wollaston Cemetery submit their thirteenth annual report.
Sale of Lots.
Twenty lots have been sold the past year, for which the sum of $200 has been received.
Grading New Lots, and Care of Lots.
The sum of $1,438.87 has been charged for work on lots, of which $1,244.62 has been collected, leaving $194.25 due and unpaid.
Repair Fund.
An increase of $750 has been made to this fund, which now amounts to $3,325, the income of which will be applied accord- ing to the terms of the contracts.
Appropriation.
The annual appropriation of $1,000 is respectfully requested. The Board also respectfully submit, that as it seems desirable that the new ground, enclosed by the change of the line of Valley Street, should be graded and suitably laid out with an entrance and driveway, if possible, near the corner of Valley and Coddington streets, and also in connection therewith the more speedy completion of the filling-in the low land just north, and grading down the steep bluff, a special appropriation of $500 could be used to good advantage.
Financial.
Appropriation for 1886
. $1,000 00
Collected for lots sold
200 00
66
single graves sold
5 00
66
" labor on lots, 1886
1,244 62
66
" non-resident assessments
36 00
66
66 hay sold
35 00
66
" income of Repair Fund
128 75
Amount carried forward,
$2,649 37
82
Amount brought forward, Collected for unpaid bills of 1882
$2,649 37
2 00
66 66
66 1883
4 00
66
66
66
66 1884
15 00
66
66
66
1885
142 00
$2,812 37
Expended, as appears by the Selectmen's account
2,927 53
Excess of expenditures over receipts $115 16 which would not have occurred had we been more successful in making collections, as the balance of $194.25 due and un- paid, as shown in this report, demonstrates.
Respectfully submitted,
QUINCY, Feb. 1, 1887.
WM. A. HODGES, Chairman. GEO. L. GILL, Secretary.
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON THE EXTENSION OF THE MOUNT WOLLASTON CEMETERY ON THE NORTHERLY SIDE.
IT is very evident to any one who has at all investigated the subject, that it is necessary at once, or in the very near future, that the Mount Wollaston Cemetery be extended in some direc- tion, or new burial-grounds be furnished in some other part of the town. The lots are now sold as fast as graded; and it is estimated at the present rate of increase, that, if the whole unfinished part bounding on Valley Street be brought into use, the supply would not equal the demand for lots, for more than three years.
The vacant lot of land on the northerly side of the cemetery, belonging to the Woodward Fund, seems to offer a favorable opportunity for an extension in that direction, and your Com- mittee, under instruction from the town, have arranged with the Board of Managers of the Mount Wollaston Cemetery, and the trustees of the Woodward Fund, for the purchase of a part of said lot of land, to be added to the cemetery, under the fol- lowing terms and conditions; viz., all that lot of land lying between the northerly line of Mount Wollaston Cemetery and Greenleaf Street, and bounding westerly on Valley Street, ex- cepting a strip two hundred feet wide, the entire length of the lot bounding on Greenleaf Street, excepting also lot 33 on the plan of the Woodward estate, which by the provisions of the will is not to be disposed of for some years, and also a strip thirty-three feet wide to be used as a roadway between lot 33 and the before-described land. The price to be four cents per square foot, and with the condition that the town authorize and direct the Board of Managers of the cemetery to cause to be set out a belt of trees on the northerly side of the land sold, and between said belt of trees and any lots that may be laid out, to make a suitable driveway. The whole width of said belt of trees and driveway to be not less than twenty-five feet.
This lot of land is about 800 feet in length on the northerly line, 150 feet on Valley Street, and 86 feet on the proposed street which separates it from lot 33, and contains about 94,400 feet. These measurements are not known to be exact, no sur- vey having been made, but are believed to be substantially cor- rect.
84
Your Committee would recommend the acceptance of the proposition and the taking of the land, believing it to be a necessity as well as an improvement, and the terms and con- ditions very reasonable.
The cost of the land, as estimated, would be $3,776, but to provide for contingencies the Committee would recommend an appropriation of $4,000, and to that end will cause an article to be inserted in the March meeting warrant, asking the town to appropriate that sum, or so much of it as may be needed for this purpose.
- It was at first thought by a part of the Committee, that the whole lot should be taken and the cemetery extended to Green- leaf Street, but this is an expensive plan, the land on Greenleaf Street being valuable, and the trustees of the Woodward Fund preferring not to sell for that purpose. We believe if the future needs of the cemetery require more ground, that it can be much more cheaply extended on the southerly side by tak- ing in a part of the town-farm in a manner similar to that reported on some years ago by a committee appointed for the purpose, and the plan of which is now on file in the Town Clerk's office.
Respectfully submitted,
C. A. SPEAR. JOHN A. GORDON. WM. B. RICE. PETER BUTLER. CHAS. R. SHERMAN.
REPORT OF ROAD COMMISSIONERS.
BEFORE attempting to recount the doings of the year, the Road Commissioners think it would be well to briefly review the circumstances which preceded their taking office. For five years the town had been agitated and divided as to the best method of dealing with its highways. A small but fluctuating balance of opinion seemed at last to incline to place their care in the hands of a permanent commission. This board was, however, of short life, and public sentiment inclined again to the time-honored system of selectmen. Meanwhile, how- ever, the minds of citizens slowly became more and more con- vinced that by whomsoever administered, it was clear that our highways required to be dealt with upon a systematic and com- prehensive plan. This sentiment showed itself in an article which was inserted in the warrant for the annual meeting, in March, 1885.
By the thirty-eighth article of that warrant, the town was asked to borrow money for the purpose of " beginning to con- struct its highways in a permanent manner."
The meeting thereupon assigned the consideration of the whole matter of " the needs of the town highways, and the best method of dealing therewith," to a large and very carefully selected committee of prominent citizens, who were charged to investigate the entire subject in all its bearings, and report their conclusions in print.
This committee gave a good deal of thought and labor to the work, and at last presented the result of their deliberation and examination in an elaborate report, which was understood to convey the clear and unanimous judgment of all its members.
The important and controlling features of this document were substantially these : -
In the first place, and as a condition precedent to any radical change of treatment in the direction of systematic regularity, it was deemed essential that the work should be assigned to a permanent board, either selectmen or commissioners as the town might prefer; but if selectmen, then to be chosen for three years.
This being assumed as a starting-point, it was next urged that the roads should be classified, surveyed, graded, and the work laid out in advance upon a thorough and comprehensive
86
plan, which should include a careful system of constant main- tenance, and the purchase and care of the best machinery.
Before this report had been acted upon by the town, how- ever, the annual meeting of 1886 had determined to try a Board of Commissioners once more, and had chosen the subscribers for one, two and three years respectively, to serve in that ca- pacity.
Subsequently, the town referred to them the report of this committee, for their information and guidance, and appropri- ated the unprecedented sum of $25,000 for the ordinary repair of highways, and for the purchase of machinery.
The Board was at first somewhat doubtful, in view of these facts, exactly what course to pursue. They hesitated whether they ought to regard the action of the town as mandatory, or merely advisory ; whether they were in duty bound to contract forthwith for all the most approved machinery, or whether they might not be justified in taking time to study the situation, and perhaps try some practical experiments for their own in- struction and for the information of their fellow-townsmen.
Several considerations inclined them to postpone, if possible, an irrevocable decision until a later day. In the first place, it seemed only prudent to allow the town a year's trial of their new Board, before assuming in the face of recent history that the next town-meeting would concur in making it perma- nent. Then the Board felt by no means sure that after a prac- tical exposition before their eyes of the character and extent of the enterprise to which the report seemed to commit them, the voters of Quincy would not shrink from the inevitable ex- pense, however desirable all might feel the end to be. Thirdly, it was thought expedient to show the towns-people who had never happened to see the machine in operation, the actual value of the steam-roller at work. And finally, it was found that a twenty-ton roller, which is believed to be the cheapest tool to be had for road-making, with its house and land, water- carts, a rotary screen and accessories, would absorb nearly nine thousand dollars of our appropriation. Thus we should have started with a balance utterly inadequate to supply work for our machinery, to say nothing of current expense for necessary ordinary repair, and ignoring entirely at least one exceptionally heavy demand for rebuilding culverts damaged by the great freshet of 1886.
After weighing these and other pertinent considerations, the Board at last settled upon a resolve to devote the year to study and trial of the safest plan of permanent improvement. In the mean time, they agreed to do nothing which could not be
87
advantageously worked into such a plan when perfected. In furtherance of this resolution, it was determined to combine with the reconstruction of the culvert over Furnace Brook, near Mr. Butler's house, the rebuilding, upon the best attainable grade, and in what we deemed a sufficient manner in every re- spect, a section of the great trunk road from the Town Hall to Neponset Bridge. In comparison with this specimen of a high- class way at the southerly end of the road, it was originally planned to lay half a mile of the roadbed on the northerly end next the river with a middle strip of pavers fifteen feet in width, flanked on each side by macadam. That the cost of either kind of construction would be exceedingly heavy, if it was really well done, no intelligent man ever doubted. But we thought it right that the town should know exactly how heavy it must actually be under as honest and efficient supervision as we could command.
And since it may be ignorantly charged that the Board has furnished a better and higher cost article than the occasion called for, it may be proper here to say, that there is probably no unpaved piece of road in the world which is subject to a more tearing and destructive traffic than this very piece in the town of Quincy. Not so much that the quantity of travel is enor- mous, as that the quality is intolerable. One granite-wagon with ten or fifteen tons of stone, which punches out the roadbed with its sharp, narrow tires, like a gouge, does more to demoral- ize macadam than one hundred loads of moderate weight or broad wheels. No ordinary surface can stand such treatment for an instant: very good foundations shrink and yield like putty ; and it is doubtful if even the best macadam that the most careful hands can lay, or the most ponderous roller pack, can long resist such severe treatment. But while we disclaim all prophetic gifts, we confidently appeal to experience to verify our assertion that the specimen which has been finished as a sample, for the information of the town, on Hancock Street, will be found on trial to be not one whit too good, if, indeed, it be good enough, to stand the usage which it was built to en- dure. If the Board is not entirely mistaken on this point, an important consequence follows. Such road cannot be built without the tool which the town hired to do that job. Any one who was at the pains to scrutinize with intelligent curios- ity the Newton machine at work last summer, appreciated at once the peculiar power and efficacy which a steam-roller brings to bear upon a scientific roadbed, and no such person will ques- tion the statement that it is absolutely indispensable for any thorough road-building.
88
If this be true, and if the town is determined to reconstruct the Neponset turnpike in a manner answering to its importance, and treat about six miles more of way substantially if not pre- cisely like it in somewhat similar style, then we come face to face with a computation something like this: For first cost of machinery and its incidents we must allow in round numbers $8,000. But this first cost entails a second much larger con- sequential outlay. For, having such expensive tools, it is eco- nomical to work them steadily during the favorable season. To supply suitable material, however, and sufficient auxiliary manual labor to prepare and arrange broken stone upon the roadbed for the roller, requires a very large outlay for hire of men and horses. To finish in every respect completely one mile of first-class way, we think will require not less than $15,000. And by " first-class " in this connection we must not be understood to claim that it will be as good as can be built ; only that it is as good as we think Quincy need try to build at present. To pick up, remetal, re-surface, and roll down worn- out second-class way will require about $5,000 per mile ; while mere picking, reshaping, and partially refurnishing and rolling down third-class way, may probably be fairly done for something like $1,000 per mile. To work our machines to advantage, we should expect to deal with at least one mile of the first-class, one of the second-class, and about three or four miles of the third-class of way in each year. This estimate makes no ac- count of any possible demand for our roller by neighboring towns, which might keep it in use at a fair rental when we did not need it, and thus enable us to reduce our outlay for aux- iliary force and operating expense, for the reason that we prefer to avoid meddling here with contingencies as much as may be. If it can be arranged, so much the better, but we should not count upon it. And in this connection it is needful to insist upon another element of cost which is as indispensable to such a plan as either machinery or continuous direction, and that is a permanent provision of material. Good roads require enormous supplies of crushed stone and good gravel. And these supplies must not be casual and precarious, but certain and unfailing. It.is desirable, but not essential, that they should be near to the great lines of consumption. But whether near or far, they must be ample, and they should be owned by the town. It is not necessary for the Board to fix in this report the precise locality and extent of the quarries and gravel-banks which they might deem it expedient to select for this purpose. It is suffi- cient to point out the urgent need of such supplies, and to indi- cate the probable immediate outlay which they would call for.
89
We should not feel safe in fixing our estimates for such land purchases as ought to be made immediately at less than $2,000. We have thus attempted to approximate the first cost of ma- chinery with its incidents, the expense of auxiliary labor and service, calculated upon a scale of full activity for our costly- engines and the probable investment for deposits of material .. There still remains the very considerable item of what may be. called miscellaneous repair and incidental expense, which can- not at present be rated below $8,000 or $9,000 a year. This comprises a multitude of isolated and exceptional calls which are too numerous to specify and impossible to foresee, besides ordinary superficial care and maintenance. It is obvious that the town will be called upon for a very considerable effort. But in case it decides to commit itself by so large an appropria- tion to a thorough and permanent scheme of reconstruction, then we feel bound to declare our opinion that it must supplement that action by a further step if it expects to secure satisfactory results. We are of opinion that the money will be largely wasted unless it be laid out under a trained and salaried expert, who shall supervise the work under the general direction of this Board. It is not possible for us to give that minute and incessant scrutiny and continuous care for every detail which the successful conduct of an undertaking involving such sus- tained and concerted exertion demands. The stake is too great to trifle with. It requires very judicious and skilful management, - the soundest judgment to plan, and the most anxious vigi- lance to execute. Besides this, we are convinced that it is no longer possible to put up with the absence of system and method which at present characterizes the surroundings of the Board. It has no suitable office to arrange or preserve its papers, no clerk to keep its accounts or record its proceedings, and no method of registering, systematizing, or ordering its business, which might render it easy for the Board and convenient for the public. In a word, it is necessary, to enable us to organize a department which shall be adequate to the work in hand, to have, in addition to the various items already specified, a further sum of not less than $2,000 yearly for the salary of a superin- tendent, office-rent, and clerk hire. Summing up, we find our- selves confronted with a total which cannot but be regarded as a very serious amount. But, however it may be looked at by the town, we cannot see any deduction which can be made from $44,000 which would not gravely impair the efficacy of a thorough and comprehensive system of highway reform. Of course, we must not be understood to argue that the town must needs spend so much each year in case it buys first-rate
90
machinery, or tries to improve its roads. We only wish to record our opinion as public officers that it would not be possible to make the most profitable use of the former, or secure the most satisfactory results with the latter, without something near that expenditure for this year. To be sure, we shall not require new machinery each year; and after a few years of such activity, we should have placed all our more important ways in a condi- tion to dispense with much heavy construction, and a less sum would suffice for the work of re-surfacing and general mainte- nance, which would then be all that would be required. At the same time, it is well to bear in mind that Quincy is rapidly growing and demanding new streets, and almost as rapidly out- growing its old ones. Hardly a month passes without a peti- tion to relocate, widen, and straighten some antiquated, crooked lane, which modern notions must needs transform into a stately avenue. On the whole, it is not wise to flatter ourselves that we can ever reduce in large measure the amount of our current expenditure graduated upon an adequate scale of systematic and thorough highway management. The examples of almost all the cities of the State may serve to point and emphasize this warning.
Turning now from forecast to history, we present the record of the year's doings. And here, apart from the usual scattered jobs of ordinary repair or partial reconstruction or improvement, we wish to direct more particular attention to the tentative ef- forts of the Board to throw some light upon what seems to be the point of real importance awaiting the decision of the town. We have taken about half a mile of Hancock Street, and turned it into what we think should be taken as a standard first-class road for this town. We have rebuilt and enlarged in the pro- cess an old culvert, and a long and lofty stretch of retaining wall. We have widened the roadway over the brook, reduced and improved its grades, replaced its curbing, and rebuilt its sidewalks and fences where disturbed by the improvements. We have supplied adequate drainage, and regraded and re-sur- faced connecting ways. In short, we have completed it essen- tially as we think that kind of way ought to be constructed and maintained if we mean to attempt a thorough, regular, and business-like management of our highways. We accordingly offer that as a sample for inspection.
The total cost of this job, including heavy repair of the part of Adams Street parallel to Hancock Street, which was torn to pieces by the heavy travel diverted over it by the closing of the latter way, was almost $13,000, or about half of the entire ap- propriation for the year. Of this amount somewhat less than
91
$5,000 was spent upon the viaduct over the brook. The actual cost of such a way, then, when finished forty feet wide from curb to curb, we cannot place at less than from $15,000 to $20,000 per mile according to circumstances of grade, convenience of mate- rial, and so forth. The comparative specimen of a middle paved band with broken-stone sides, which was designed for the north- ern extremity of the same great thoroughfare, we felt obliged to postpone for the present, for prudential reasons. It seemed probable before mid-year that our resources would be unequal to. both undertakings. This foreboding was amply justified later on, as will be noticed in the Auditors' report. Several of the special appropriations which were assigned to our charge by the annual meeting, were unavoidably cut off by the pressure of other matters, and the sudden close of the working season. We must again refer to the Selectmen's report for the details of the financial operations of the Board.
In general, it will be observed that we have endeavored to get along with as little desultory and disconnected construction as possible, and, except where it could be readily dove-tailed into permanent and systematic operation, we have confined ourselves to necessary repair. Take the Neponset bridge, for instance. We have spent only about $300 upon it, when ten times that sum would not put it in fair condition. And we justify the par- simony exhibited in this case, by a principle of action which applies with equal force to the entire thoroughfare of which it forms a part, as well as to some other highways in this . town. It is all worn out, bridge and road alike. It must be rebuilt from top to bottom very soon indeed. Conse- quently extensive repair is a pure waste of money. Until we are ready to tear out the whole structure, and replace it with a new and better one, it is foolish to do more than patch and brace and temporize. All half-measures in such cases are im- provident. We have a recent example of this well-meant but extravagant frugality in the restoration, two years ago, of Wash- ington Street from Edwards Hill to the Point. It was costly, and it was as good, no doubt, as the tools at our disposal could make it; but it was not good enough nor costly enough to be truly economical. It is already much worn and distorted, and must presently be replaced with a more solid surface upon a heavier foundation. And so it is with the decrepit old bridge; and yet, scrimp as we may, there is no way of avoiding replank- ing it in 1887, except pulling it down and rebuilding, which the town has not as yet manifested a willingness to undertake. We must, therefore, ask for this purpose at least $2,000 for the coming year.
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