USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > Town annual report of Saugus 1931 > Part 22
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A keen and careful study of the Warrant and the report of the Finance Committee is urged upon all members of the Repre_ sentative Town Meeting. We are faced with a situation which must be remedied. The best thought of the community is needed to cope with it.
Neighboring communities are in dire distress. Ex- cessive borrowing, coupled with the unusual expendi- tures brought on by the depression, have brought them to the stoop of bankruptcy. Financial wisdom in the past has preserved Saugus from their fate. The Com- mittee urges upon all citizens of the town the necessity of using keen judgment, economy and clear thinking in the government of the town throughout these perilous days.
Saugus has an admittedly high tax rate. It has, however, one of the lowest funded debts of any community in the State. By dropping our appropriations we can reduce the tax rate. Many communities are not so fortunate.
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SPECIAL TOWN MEETING.
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No eye is so keen that it can pierce the darkness ahead and predict how long present economic con- ditions will continue. Let us carefully budget the needs of Saugus so that however rigid the future we shall weather the gale. Relief must be given where needed. Those in dire distress must be afforded aid to carry them over. But let us not feel that the town should support us rather than we support the town. We cannot relieve those in distress by raising their taxes. We must relieve them by curtailing expendi- tures and resting on the oars until the crisis is past and the sun again breaks through the clouds.
Can we approach this Town Meeting in the spirit of what is best for the town, abolish sectionalism, cut our cloth to fit our coat, and rather than be guided by the wild harangues of dema- gogues listen to the sober thought of those working for the best interests of the town?
ARTICLE II
This is the request of the Board of Selectmen for a bond issue of $27,500 for unemployment work during the remainder of the year.
The Selectmen desire to spend this money on two separate projects. They are as follows :
(1) Elimination of cement-lined pipes and the crea- tion of a direct water line to the standpipe on Lincoln avenue. For this purpose $25,000 would be spent.
(2) Elimination of cement-lined pipes along the route of the new Main street road. The estimated cost of completing this work is $2,500.
The Finance Committee is heartily in favor of the spirit of this work. There is no question but what the town must supply unemployment relief work for the remainder of the year. All indications point to a bitter winter both from the point of view of weather and economic conditions and the town must take all steps possible to afford relief to its needy citizens.
The majority of the Finance Committee, however, cannot agree with the recommendation of the Board of Selectmen that
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the need is urgent for tearing up Lincoln avenue. The town has spent nearly $100,000 in the construction of this road. There are only a few short sections where the surface is bad. To tear up this road in the winter months will mean that the street will be ruined and the town will be forced to come back at a future meeting and make a heavy appropriation to construct a street surface. Despite the claims of the Superintendent of Public Works that he will be able to replace the street in as good condition as formerly, the Finance Committee is forced to the opinion that this has never been done in the past and it seems improbable that it would be accomplished in the future. If this job is to be attacked at all, it should be done during the warmer months of the year.
MORE BENEFITS
Of the estimated $25,000 which it would cost to lay this line of pipe, $14,000 would be all that would accrue to the benefit of the unemployed. The cost of the pipe is estimated at $11,000.
The Finance Committee suggests that the $25,000 be expended either in laying proper drainage systems in various parts of the town or in relaying water mains on side streets where the damage to the surface will not be excessive. The Committee is informed by the Super- intendent of Public Works that drainage pipe can be purchased at 25 per cent of the cost of water mains. This would mean that the cost of pipe were the town to spend $25,000 in drainage would be less than $3,000 and $22,000 would be available for actual unemploy- ment relief instead of $14,000.
The Finance Committee again wishes to stress that it does not oppose unemployment relief. It is a necessary evil which the town must reckon with in this crisis.
The Finance Committee, then, by majority, with Mr. Edward Gibbs, Jr., in the negative, disapproves of this article.
ARTICLE III
Request of the Board of Selectmen for a transfer of $2,000 roin the the sum appropriated to purchase land for the new
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High School on the Town Farm site for the purpose of provid- ing work for the unemployed cutting wood, said work to be done under the direction of the Tree Warden.
The Finance Committee finds that there is considerable dead wood and many trees in the town's woods which should be re- moved. This seems a proper time to give employment to men cutting the wood and hauling it to the town garage. The Board of Public Welfare declares that they will give out the wood in- stead of coal to those in need of fuel and thereby save the town a considerable amount of money. This is, the Finance Com- mittee finds, a job in which the overhead is slight. Mr. Thomas E. Berrett, Tree Warden, has agreed to donate his services in supervising the work, and estimates that an appropriation of about $75 will be needed for axes and other equipment. The remainder of the appropriation will be devoted to compensation of the men employed.
The Finance Committee unanimously recommends that this article be approved.
ARTICLE IV
Request of the Finance Committee and Town Accountant for rescinding of the vote of the Annual Town Meeting appropriat- ing $330,000 for a new High School building.
It becomes increasingly obvious as time passes that it is a virtual impossibility to construct a High School this year. Ap- parently the only High School acceptable to the town as a whole would be one perched on wheels and moved about the town at will. The town has already spent a considerable sum of money in referenda and it would be questionable whether this step should not be taken at this time aside from the economic angle involved.
The Finance Committee, however, finds that there is a much more serious angle to the case than the question of locating a school. In actuality the town is fortunate to have this credit on its books for it represents virtually the only amount which the town may now spend for the necessities of its government. The tax rate has been declared and no further appropriations are possible. The State House frowns upon bond issues for ordin- ary governmental expenses and but for this available $30,000
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already created in the tax levy, the town would indeed be in a precarious position financially between now and the first of the year.
NEEDED FOR WELFARE
The Board of Public Welfare, faced with the hard- est year in its history, will require $20,000 additional to complete the year. Its funds are virtually exhausted and the Finance Committee has been unable to slash the Board's estimate of $20,000. The law requires that Saugus feed its poor and provide clothing and lodg- ing for the needy. It must be done and the $20,000 must be provided.
The Department of State Aid and Soldiers Relief finds itself in the same position. The director must have $4,000 to complete the year.
The Finance Committee is not retreating in the slightest from its stand that the town needs additional High School facilities. It does believe, however, that it will be impossible to do any- thing this year and recommends that this article be approved by the Limited Town Meeting.
ARTICLE V
Request of the Board of Public Welfare for a transfer of $20,000 for welfare costs for the remainder of the year.
The Finance Committee wishes again to call to the attention of the citizens the rising tide of welfare ex- penses. The Board was provided at the first of the year with an appropriation of $50,000. Another $20,000 will be necessary to complete the year. This is, however, a need which must be met, and the Fi- nance Committee approves the article.
ARTICLE VI
Request of the Department of State Aid and Soldiers' Relief for an appropriation of $4,000 to complete the year.
This is another appropriation which cannot be side- stepped. The Finance Committee again approves the article.
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ARTICLE VII
Request of the Tax Collector for a transfer of $750 from the High School account for the Tax Title account.
This will complete the expenses of the Tax Title account for the year. The expense this year has been abnormal due to the large number of people who have been unable to pay their taxes. This necessitates a taking by the town and the recording of the proper papers.
As an unavoidable expenditure, the Finance Com- mittee recommends this article.
ARTICLE VIII
Request of the Finance Committee for a transfer of $2,000 from the High School account to the reserve fund.
The Finance Committee made this request in an attempt to avoid another Special Town Meeting in December. There is no certainty that the $20,000 provided for the Board of Welfare and the $4,000 for the Soldiers' Relief Department will be ample. At the end of the year there are always many small accounts which need balancing. The Finance Committee has already exhausted its reserve fund in caring for the town's needs to the present time.
The committee finds, however, upon investigation, that funds for the reserve fund can only be provided at the Annual Town Meeting. It would appear that the town will have to chance a Special Town Meeting later to care for many small balances, or else allow them to go over as unpaid bills.
The committee, therefore, recommends that this article be indefinitely postponed.
ARTICLE IX
Request for an investigation of the possibility of providing increased housing at the present High School.
This is not a financial article and requires no recommendation by the Finance Committee.
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TOWN DOCUMENTS.
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ARTICLE X
Request for legislation on the school question by the General Court.
The same situation exists as in Article 9 and the Finance Committee makes no recommendation.
ARTICLE XI
Request of the Finance Committee that the compensation of unskilled men working for the town in connection with unem- ployment relief projects be set at $3 per day.
Although the Finance Committee has voted to place this article in the Warrant for the consideration of the Limited Town Meeting, the committee is deadlocked on the question of recommending its adoption. Chairman Alexander S. Addison, Edward Gibbs, Jr., Charles E. Stillings, and Secretary Paul A. Haley are recorded in favor. In the negative are recorded Frederick R. Sharp, Frank F. Humphries, Bertrand D. Westen- darp and Charles T. Anderson.
REPORT OF THOSE IN FAVOR
During the past year Saugus has done more to aid its unem- ployed than any surrounding community. If the appropriation requested in the present Warrant are made available, the town will have expended $115,000 in this worthy cause. Concededly the results from a material point of view have been negligible. The town has aided many citizens of the community but the return on the expended dollar has been so slight that if the cost of repairing the streets ruined by this work were to be taken into consideration, there would be practically nothing to place on the profit side of the ledger.
Yet the citizens of the town have willingly shouldered this burden and will doubtless do so again for the relief of those in want. The feeling of the under- signed, however, is that the time has come to demand that the unemployed of the town return a reasonable amount of work for the money invested.
At the present time they are receiving $4.80 a day-the com- pensation of the regular employes of the town, who have been
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on the job for years in many cases, are experienced and hardened to the work. To place green, unskilled men, many of them physically incapable of doing the work, into a water ditch and pay them the wages of competent men, is, we believe, toying with the taxpayers' dollars.
We ask in all fairness how many members of the Limited Town Meeting are averaging $4.80 a day. We ask how long a corporation would allow a situation to continue whereby green hands received the compensation of men skilled to the task. With nothing but the kindliest of feeling toward the unemployed of the town, we feel that it is our duty, as sworn officers of the community, to attempt in all ways possible to conserve the money paid by citizens of the town in taxes. How can we assist those in need by raising their taxes? How can we bring about a lower tax rate when such conditions are allowed to continue ?
NOT A WAGE CUT
We deny emphatically statements that the proposal to pay the men $3.00 a day constitutes a wage cut. Last year the men worked three days in three weeks for a total stipend of $14.40. During the other two weeks when other crews were at work, they received aid from the Board of Public Welfare without doing work of any nature for it. We propose this year to work them five days a week in every two weeks. They will receive $15 for their five days' work. It will then be necessary for them, as was true last year, to go to the Board of Public Welfare for the second week's allotment. This averages $9 a week per family. In some cases it is more. In other cases it is less. Assuming, however, that the worker receives $9 for the second week, he will receive $24 for five days' work. In some cases, where the family is large, he will receive $15 the second week, so that his total receipts will be $6 a day for every day in the water ditch. Is this a wage reduction ?
Last year, we are informed. men worked for the town in preference to taking other work. They were receiving $4.So a day from the town and preferred this to employment at less
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money elsewhere. One man even got a leave of absence from his regular work to take employment from the town.
We seriously question the amount of work which these men accomplished. Many citizens have reported the state of affairs as they have seen them during the past year. They are known to all and need no explanation here.
OTHER COMMUNITIES
In the state of New York unemployed men are receiving 30 cents an hour for their services. On the state mosquito job carried on during the past summer the rate was 50 cents for digging in the muck and mire of the marshes. In Springfield a committee has been formed which attempts to find enmployment for men at a standard rate of 40 cents an hour.
The director of the New York project declares, "The pay should be just large enough to keep the men from want and not large enough to make them want to continue to work for the state when other opportunities present themselves." We believe that there is meat in this statement.
Let us not call this a wage cut ! The town of Saugus is not hiring men. We shall continue to pay our regular men the same rate as before. We, as citizens of the town, are creating a job for the relief of those in need. Hundreds of citizens of the town are not receiving $4.80 in their pay envel- opes today. If these men are in need of work, they should be willing to give the town five days a week in return for enough to tide them over. It is time that the tax payers of the town received a return on their investment.
There is still another side to the question. It is estimated that less than $14,000 of the $25,000 to be appropriated will be expended for labor. Will not $14,000 go further at the rate of $3 a day and benefit more men than it will at the rate of $4.80. The decision lies in the hands of the voters of Saugus. Let us consider from all angles and decide the question aside from the point of view of petty politics.
ALEXANDER S. ADDISON, Chairman. PAUL A. HALEY, Secretary. EDWARD GIBBS, JR. CHARLES E. STILLINGS.
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SPECIAL TOWN MEETING.
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REPORT OF THOSE OPPOSED
We the undersigned members of the Finance Committee, although entirely in accord with our colleagues in a realization of the need for a policy of strict business like economy in all departments of town government, for a paring down of nearly all budgets, a curtailing of expenditures, and the recommenda- tion of appropriations to the Town Meeting Members of only those things, which are equitable, fair and necessary, to the welfare of the community as a whole.
And it is with this thought in mind that we cannot and do not subscribe to the policy of a proposed differential in the payment of wages for similar work on the part of employees, thereby producing a condition whereby the permanent and semi-permanent men will receive $4.So per day and the so-classified unemployed $3 per day, a differential of $1.80 per day for the same grade of work.
We believe this to be a non-constructive and demoralizing policy, one of discrimination, un-American, and unfair to the tax - payers and employees alike, and in its discrimination simply in- tensifying expenses and problems of the Board of Public Welfare.
Discrimination breeds discontent, dissatisfaction, and is cer- tainly not conductive to the best efforts or efficiency of either class of employees.
It is our opinion that the proposed differential in the rate of payment will merely add to the problems of the taxpayers in providing for the unemployed. Likewise to the unemployed preference committee and certainly to the supervisory force con- nected with the Public Works Department or any other depart- ment where their services are required.
We submit that in fairnees to those who make unem- ployment relief work possible - the taxpayers-that there exists a joint responsibility between supervision and employees to those who pay the bills. A fair day's work for fair day's pay.
FREDERICK R. SHARP, FRANK F. HUMPHRIES, CHARLES T. ANDERSON, BERTRAND D. WESTENDARP.
.
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ARTICLE NII
Request of Miss Annie G. Raddin and others for an appro- priation for sidewalk repairs on Jackson street.
Recognizing the need of sidewalk repairs on Jackson street, the Finance Committee is unable to recommend this article. There is no appropriation available and the town cannot appro- priate money after the tax rate has been declared.
The Finance Committee recommends indefinite post- ponement of this article.
ARTICLE XIII
Request that the Town Meeting vote relative to the High School be rescinded.
The Finance Committee has already reported on this matter in a previous article.
ARTICLE XIV
Request for recission of the article calling for the purchase of land for the Town Farm High School site.
The Finance Committee has already reported on this matter in a previous article.
ARTICLE XV
This is a request for recission of another of the school articles. The Finance Committee has already acted.
ARTICLE XVI
This, too, has reference to the recission of votes pertaining to the construction of the High School.
The Finance Committee has already covered this subject in previous articles.
ARTICLE XVII
Request of Frank F. Humphries and others for a bond issue of $180,000 for the construction of an addition to the present High School.
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SPECIAL TOWN MEETING.
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The Finance Committee is of the opinion that this article is not legally drawn and that it would not meet with the approval of the bonding company. The majority of the committee feels that this entire proposition can well be postponed until Spring.
The majority of the committee, with Mr. Frank F. Humphries dissenting, recommends that this article be indefinitely postponed.
ARTICLE XVIII
Request for the appointment of a committee to act under the preceding article.
Being a non-financial article, there is no necessity for a ruling by the Finance Committee.
ARTICLES XIX and XX
Request of Rev. Charles B. McDuffee and others for a trans- fer of $3,437.50 for the purpose of taking land commonly kown as the Unity Camp site for the purpose of erecting a High School building.
Mr. McDuffee has failed to appear before the Finance Com- mittee to explain this matter and has sent none of the various proponents. The Finance Committee, therefore, has been un- able to listen to the arguments of those who favor the proposi- tion.
The committee has, however, on previous occasions gone into the merits of the case. The committee believes that it will be impossible to erect a school this year. If the Town Meeting follows the recommendation and request of the Finance Com- mittee under Article 4, there will be no funds available for the construction of a building.
SHOULD POSTPONE
The Finance Committee is of the opinion that it is getting too late in the year to start such a building. The stirring political battle which has been waged for the past six months has prevented the town from start- ing the construction of a new High School and has brought upon the School Department the necessity of
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prolonging for another year the two-platoon system. Winter is now on the way and the entire project should, the committee feels, be postponed until Spring. But the unfortunate part of the entire matter is that the town has no alternative but to postpone the construction of the school. The needs of the Board of Public Welfare and Soldiers' Relief Division are pre-eminent. Acute as our school situation may be, we must care for the town's needy, and there is no other means available than to absorb the $30,000 appropriated for the new High School building. To take any other action would be to fly into the face of fate.
The Finance Committee, therefore, recommends that this article be indefinitely postponed.
ARTICLE XXI
Request of Rev. Charles B. McDuffee and others for an ap- propriation of $330,000 to build the High School on the Unity Camp site.
The Finance Committee has discussed this matter sufficiently under the preceding article. This is an article which would make the money appropriated for the Town Farm site available for the Unity Camp plot. As stated before, the money is ur- gently needed for the welfare needs of the town.
The Finance Committee unanimously recommends that this article be indefinitely postponed.
ARTICLES XXII and XXIII
Request of Rev. Charles B. McDuffee for the purchase of land for the new High School.
This is similar to Articles 19 and 20.
The Finance Committee does not recommend the adoption of either of these articles for reasons previ- ously stated.
ARTICLE XXIV
Request of Giles S. Bryer and others for the appointment of a committee to build the new High School.
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SPECIAL TOWN MEETING.
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Being a non-financial article, the Finance Committee has no jurisdiction.
ARTICLE XXV
Request for the acceptance of Pearson street.
This is a non-financial article, and the Finance Com- mittee has no jurisdiction.
ARTICLE XXVI
Request of the Board of Public Welfare for an appropriation of $6,364 to rebuild the Town Infirmary barn.
This request follows the recent serious fire which destroyed the new barn at the Town Infirmary.
Were the town to continue in the milk business, the erection of a new barn would be necessary. There seems to be no reason, however, why this should be done. The Limited Town Meeting last year expressed itself pointedly on this question and refused an appropriation to purchase additional cows when the majority of those at the farm were condemned by the State. The Finance Committee pointed out at that time that the town was losing money year after year by maintaining a milk busi- ness at the farm and that the system should be abolished.
The Committee calls to the attention of the members of the Limited Town Meeting that no better time to discontinue an unprofitable business exists than the present. It wishes also to call to the attention of the townspeople that the town is putting itself in compe- tition with many local taxpayers who are entitled to consideration. It is ridiculous for the town to expend additional funds to rebuild a barn when municipal funds are lost year after year in the business of produc- ing milk at the farm.
The Finance Committee is of the opinion that the present cellar should be housed over as a temporary expedient-the esti- mated cost of which is only $200-and the town should get out of the milk business at once.
The Finance Committee, therefore disapproves of this article.
20
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TOWN DOCUMENTS.
[Dec. 31
ARTICLE XXVII
Request of the Board of Selectmen for a transfer of $2,500 from the Town Infirmary Barn Fire Insurance receipts for the purpose of laying water main on Main street.
The Board of Selectmen find that they must lay considerable additional water mains on Main street in the path of the new road as a result of the action of the Commonwealth in changing the grade of the road. As the town has already embarked on this policy and has spent considerable money on the job, it would appear wise to complete the project. In view of the difficulty in getting the State to continue the road beyond the circumfer- ential highway, no opposition should be laid in their path.
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