USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > Town annual report of Swampscott 1891 > Part 7
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That the flowage of water complained of be car- ried westerly, along Essex street by a gutter on a line with the sidewalk to the Stetson Estate, there by a tile pipe under the sidewalk discharged into the ditch running through said estate, consent to enter the premises and use the ditch is given if the Town will clear it out. We also recommend the construction of a sidewalk in front of Mr. Hanley's land, and the gravelling of the street at the junc- tion of Danvers and Essex streets ; estimated cost of improvements, $200.
Respectfully submitted,
A. R. BUNTING, J. P. M. S. PITMAN, Committee.
MARTIN NIES, -
VOTED. To accept and adopt above report, ap- propriating two hundred dollars ($200) for carry- ing out recommendations.
VOTED. That the Board of Selectmen consti- tute an Appropriation Committee for the next year, they to embody their recommendations in Town Report of this current year.
VOTED. That when we adjourn it be tó Mon-
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day, April 7th, at 3 P. M., for the purpose of filling vacancies in Town offices.
VOTED. To adjourn at 10.25 P. M.
According to adjournment the Moderator, Clerk and three legal voters of the Town, assembled at the Town Hall on Monday, April 7th, 1890, at 3 P. M.
VOTED. To have the Selectmen appoint the necessary Field Drivers and Pound Keepers.
VOTED. To adjourn to 7.30 P. M.
Agreeable to adjournment the legal voters of the Town assembled at the Town Hall on Monday eve- ning, April 7th, 1890.
Moderator Eben N. Wardwell called the meet- ing to order at 7.35 P. M.
The records of the previous meeting were read and approved.
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON THE EXTENSION OF ROCKLAND STREET.
Your Committee have attended to the subject Extension of intrusted to them and herewith present their re- port of the same :-
To secure the result desired, to extend Rock- land street through from Redington street to Elm- wood Road, the Town would have to purchase the entire lot of Mgr. Strain, at an expense of twenty- five hundred dollars ($2,500). E. H. Kitfield de- clines to sell any part of his land, claiming to put a street through would spoil the entire lot for building purposes and our only way would be to condemn the land and leave for a sheriff's jury to make an award for the same, so we are at loss to make an estimate and therefore put it at two thou- sand dollars ($2,000). The Stone heirs are op- posed to a street being put through and we meet the same obstacles of cost as with the Kitfield land,
Rockland street.
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the probability being of five hundred dollars ($ 500) more being added to the sum needed to secure land so the road could be graded, we now have a total for land, Strain lot, $2,500 ; Kitfield lot, $2,000 ; Stone heirs, $500; cost to grade, $800 ; total, $5,800. As the outlay will bring no taxable increase to the Town, but rather reduce the same, your Committee recommend no further action be taken.
A. R. BUNTING,
A. L. HARRIS, A. C. WIDGER, JOHN CHAPMAN, Committee.
P. GARDNER, D. HOLMAN MILLETT,
VOTED. To accept and adopt the above report.
VOTED. To lay the By-Laws' report upon the table.
The report of the Selectmen as to cost of a flight of iron steps to King's Beach from Humphrey street, near the Monument, was heard.
Iron steps to King's Beach.
VOTED. To accept and adopt the report as read, and to appropriate one hundred and forty-five dollars ($145) for that purpose.
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON STONE CRUSHER.
Stone crusher.
Your Committee, to whom the matter of a Stone Crusher was committed, report as follows : The condition of our streets is so well known to all using them that it is unnecessary to refer par- ticularly to them. We expend a liberal amount each year with no permanent improvement in their condition. Your Committee have investigated the matter of road making in other towns and find that they have had the same experience, and finally have resorted to the use of crushed stone, and they are of unanimous opinion that roads made from that material are far better and in the long
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run more economical than roads made from gravel. We have seen the workings of different machines for breaking stone and interviewed those in charge of them. They all do good work. The Farrell and Marsden is the machine used by the cities of Boston, Lynn and Salem, and is highly recom- mended by them. A proposal has been secured from the Boston agents of this machine to furnish one 9 x 15 crusher, with revolving screen attached, complete, one twenty-horse power Atlas Portable Engine, with all fixtures, one boiler, 34 inches by 12 feet, 8 inches, with all fixtures, excavate for and build two retaining walls, one 10 feet and one 30 feet long, both to be 10 feet high, platform over the same with three-inch planking, build an engine house 14 feet wide, 24 feet long, 10 foot posts, with pitch roof all complete, in fact, do all the work to make the plant complete, start and operate the machine to the satisfaction of the Selectmen or Committee, guaranteeing to crush at the rate of one hundred tons in ten hours, for the sum of two thousand three hundred and forty-five dollars ($2,345).
Your Committee was highly pleased with the working of the Gates, which is a higher cost machine by some four or five hundred dollars. No estimate of the plant entire has been received from the Gates Company. After all considerations we are of the opinion that the Farrell and Marsden will do all that is needed. We recommend its purchase.
Respectfully submitted,
A. R. BUNTING, J. P. M. S. PITMAN, JOHN GANNON, J. H. CROSMAN, D. P. STIMPSON,
Committec.
VOTED. To accept and adopt the report of the Purchase of Stone Crusher Committee and to appropriate a stone crusher.
sum not exceeding twenty-five hundred dollars
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($2,500) for carrying out their recommendations.
VOTED. That the purchase of a Stone Crusher be left to the Board of Selectmen and three citi- zens, to be appointed by the chair. The Moderator appointed Charles E. Durgin, Kendall Pollard, Daniel P. Stimpson.
The report of the committee appointed to inves- tigate as to what repairs are needed at the Town hall was heard.
Town Hall repairs.
VOTED. To accept the report and appropriate as follows :
For slating and repairs on roof. $550 00
Conductors and pipes 40 00
Staging tower and repairs 210 00
Water closets and plumbing 135 00
Outside painting, not exceeding 350 00
Plastering and repairs
25 00
Total .$1,310 00
The part of the report with reference to vesti- bule " doors and windows," "incidentals," it was voted to indefinitely postpone.
VOTED. To take up Art. 5 of the Warrant.
VOTED. Art. 5. That three hundred dollars ($300) be appropriated, to be expended for the support of Soldiers and Sailors or their widows, in accordance with the provisions of Chap. 298, of the Acts of 1889. .
VOTED. To accept and adopt the report of the Board of Engineers on hose reel, hose, fire alarm boxes, etc., and to appropriate eight hundred and fifty dollars ($850) for the purchase of same, as recommended.
Appropriation for widows of soldiers and sailors.
Appropriation for hose, etc.
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VOTED. That the repairs on the Town Hall be made under the direction of the Selectmen.
THE REPORT OF COMMITTEE APPOINTED UNDER ART. 32. [New Engine House. ]
Your Committee appointed to take under con- sideration Art. 32 of the Warrant beg leave to submit the following report :
I. We deem it unadvisable to expend any con- siderable sum in altering or repairing the present buildings of the Fire Department.
2. We do not consider the present location a suitable one for the proposed new building, on account of its being mostly a ledige of rocks, and also from its low position.
3. We therefore recommend the immediate purchase of the lot of land on the Mudge Estate, nearly opposite the Town Hall, as recommended by the Board of Engineers, at a price not to ex- ceed twenty cents per foot, with the purpose of erecting a suitable building for the Fire Depart- ment within the next two years.
FRANK GRIFFIN, FRANK O. ELLIS, AARON R. BUNTING, Committee.
GEORGE A. CROSMAN, WILLIAM G. EARP,
VOTED. To take up each article in the report separately for action.
VOTED. To accept and adopt the first and second articles.
VOTED. To indefinitely postpone the third article.
The committee appointed to see what title the Town had, if any, to the lot of land opposite In- galls court, reported that the Town has no perma- nent title therein which would authorize it at
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present in expending any money on the premises.
VOTED. To accept and adopt the report.
VOTED. To have the Moderator draw upon the Town Treasurer for the usual amount for services rendered at this Town Meeting.
VOTED. That when we adjourn it be to Mon- day evening, April 21st, at 7.30.
VOTED. To adjourn at IO P. M.
Agreeable to the adjournment of April 7th the voters again assembled at the Town Hall on Mon- day evening, April 21st, 1890.
The meeting was called to order at 7.35 by the Moderator. The records of the last meeting were read and approved.
The report of the committee on by-laws was read and it was
VOTED. To accept the report and adopt the following as by-laws of the Town :
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REPORT OF TOWN CLERK.
BY-LAWS OF THE TOWN OF SWAMPSCOTT.
ARTICLE I.
OF TOWN MEETINGS, AND RULES FOR THE GOVERNMENT THEREOF.
SECTION I. The annual Town Meeting for the election of town officers shall be held on the third Monday of March in each year. The warrant for said annual meeting shall contain such articles as are required for raising and appropriating moneys, and for general and special town purposes. For the election of a moderator of said meeting, the polls shall be opened at seven o'clock in the forenoon, and after the election of a moderator they shall remain open for the election of town officers until half-past four o'clock in the afternoon, after which time a vote may be passed to close them in not less than ten minutes. After the declaration of the votes for town officers, the meeting shall be adjourned to the Tuesday next thereafter, at such hour as the meeting may determine, when the said remaining articles of the warrant may be acted upon.
SEC. 2. The warrants of all town meetings shall be served by posting an attested copy thereof at the Town Hall, Depots, Post Offices, and three other public and conspicuous places in the Town, seven days at least before the day appointed for said meeting.
SEC. 3. The warrant shall contain a specific statement of all subjects to be acted upon at the meeting. Town officers required by law to be chosen by ballot, and their respective terms of office shall be designated therein, and it shall specify the manner in which the several officers shall be voted for, whether on one, or at the same time on separate ballots.
SEC. 4. At the time appointed the Town Clerk shall call the meeting to order, read the warrant, and preside until a Moderator is chosen.
SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of the Moderator to preserve order in Town Meeting in all its proceedings, and this without question, debate, or delay in all cases which the breach of order or the departure from the rules is manifest ; to permit no smoking, profane or indecent language, and to allow no one to occupy the platform except persons who have the floor and are addressing the meeting and the officers conducting the sanie.
SEC. 6. The presiding officer while occupying the chair shall not partici- pate in any discussion before the meeting.
SEC. 7. Every person when about to make or second a motion or speak shall rise and respectfully address the chair, shall confine himself to the question under debate, avoid personality and shall sit down wlien he has finished.
SEC. 8. No person rising to move a question shall proceed to speak until the motion has been distinctly stated to the meeting by the Moderator, and no person speaking shall be interrupted by another but by rising up to call to order.
SEC. 9. When called to order by the Moderator, the person speaking
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shall sit down. and remain seated until the point of order is decided, and if the point of order be decided not well taken, shall immediately be given the floor.
SEC. 10. Every question of order shall be decided by the Moderator, but an appeal from his decision may be made to the meeting, and such appeal shall be decided without debate.
SEC. II. Upon taking the question, if the decision of the Moderator is doubted, or a division of the house called for, the Moderator shall request the house to be seated and shall appoint tellers. The question shall then be dis- tinctly stated and those in the affirmative and negative, respectively, shall be requested to rise and stand in their places until they are counted by the tellers, who shall carefully count each side and make report thereof to the Moderator. and no person shall be counted who does not occupy a seat, provided that the tellers, under the direction of the Moderator, may count the votes of those who are unable to obtain seats.
SEC. 12. No person shall speak more than twice, nor shall any person speak more than twenty minutes without permission upon the same question, without first obtaining leave of the meeting, except for the correction of an error, or to make an explanation, and not until others who have not spoken upon. the question shall speak if they desire it.
SEC. 13. When a question is under debate, no motion shall be received but to adjourn the meeting, to lie on the table, to commit or amend, to refer or to postpone to a day certain, or to postpone indefinitely, which several motions shall have precedence in the order in which they are herein arranged.
SEC. 14. Articles in the Warrant shall be acted upon in their order, unless otherwise ordered by a vote of the meeting.
SEC. 15. No motion to dissolve a Town Meeting shall be in order until every article in the Warrant therefor has been duly considered and acted upon.
SEC. 16. No vote shall be reconsidered except upon notice for that pur- pose, made by one of the majority acting thereon, on the day on which such vote has been passed, and the question of reconsideration shall be acted on at that meeting or some adjournment thereof.
SEC. 17. All motions submitted for the consideration of the meeting involving the expenditure of money, shall be in writing and all other motions shall be reduced to writing if required by the presiding officer.
SEC. 18. No motion or proposition unless germane to the subject under consideration shall be admitted under color of amendment.
SEC. 19. Any person may call for a division of a question when the sense will admit of it; a motion to strike out and insert shall be deemed inadvisable ; but a motion to strike out being lost shall neither preclude amendment nor a motion to strike out and insert.
SEC. 20. No action shall be had at any Town Meeting on the report of any committee previously chosen unless the same shall be specially notified in the warrant for calling said meeting.
SEC. 21. No vote fixing the time for closing a ballot shall be reconsidered after such ballot shall have commenced, but the time for closing such ballot may be extended with such reconsideration.
SEC. 22. When any legal voter shall move that any question shall be
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taken by yeas and nays, the Moderator shall take the sense of the meeting in that manner, provided twenty legal voters shall so direct.
SEC. 23. The motions to adjourn, to lay on the table, to take from the table, for the previous question, and for the yeas and nays, shall be decided without debate.
SEC. 24. The duties of the Moderator, not prescribed by the statutes nor the foregoing rules shall be determined by the rules of practice contained in Cushing's Manual of Parliamentary Law so far as they are adapted to the conditions and powers of the Town.
ARTICLE II.
OF THE DUTIES OF TOWN OFFICERS.
SECTION I. The Selectmen shall have full authority as agents of the Town to institute and prosecute suits in the name of the town and to appear and defend suits brought against it, and to appear in its behalf in proceedings before any committee or tribunal, unless it is otherwise specially ordered by a vote of the Town.
SEC. 2. There shall be chosen at the annual meeting, by ballot, a board of Auditors, consisting of three persons, whose duty it shall be to audit the accounts of the Treasurer, Selectmen and other Town officers, committees and agents at the close of the fiscal year, which shall be on the last day of February annually, and for this purpose they shall have access to all the books and vouchers belonging to the Town and report at the next Town Meeting in detail under their respective heads, all the receipts and expenditures by the Town for the previous year.
SEC. 3. The Selectmen shall annually, not less than seven days before the Annual Meeting, cause to be printed and distributed among the taxpayers of the town, at their dwellings in the town, a detailed Report of all moneys paid out of the Town Treasury during the preceding financial year with such information and recommendations as they deem proper, and with detailed esti- mates of the amounts of money which will be required for the current financial year. The Reports of the Auditors and of the School Committee, also the record of the Town Meetings held during the preceding year and an abstract of the Births, Marriages and Deaths to be furnished by the Town Clerk shall be printed annually with the Selectmen's Report. Each decennial valuation of estates made by the assessors or an abstract thereof together with a list of poll tax payers shall be printed with the Selectmen's Report for the next year after the same shall be made.
SEC. 4. Whenever a townway is laid out or altered, a plan thereof shall be made and filed in the Town Clerk's office with the location thereof, and it shall be the duty of the Town Clerk to keep a book of records for the sole purpose of recording the location of all highways and townways within the town with an index thereto.
SEC. 5. The Selectmen may appoint annually, two or more Police Officers, whose duty, in addition to those duties required by the Statutes of the Commonwealth, it shall be to see that these By-Laws excepting those relating
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to truancy are duly enforced and who shall remain in office until others are appointed in their places, subject to removal by the Selectmen, and they shall receive from the Town such compensation for their services as the Selectmen may deem reasonable.
SEC. 6. All accounts and other claims against the Town for labor done, services performed, or materials of any kind furnished for the use of the Town, under the charge, direction or superintendence of any board or officers in the Town, shall, when presented to the Selectmen bear an attestation of the approval of such board or officer; otherwise the same shall not be received nor acted upon by said Selectmen, and the Selectmen shall not authorize the payment of any account or claim whatsoever against the Town unless such account or claim be separately made out, when belonging to different depart- ments and accompanied by a full and exact statement of the labor or service performed, or the materials furnished ; and the Selectmen shall also receive satisfactory vouchers from each of the persons to whom payment was due.
SEC. 7. Whenever the appropriation placed in the hands of any board or department for a specified purpose shall be exhausted, such board or depart- ment shall not proceed to further expenditure without authority from the Town, provided that this shall not forbid any expenditure that may be abso- lutely needful to the public safety, or that may be imperatively required by the laws of the Commonwealth.
SEC. 8. It shall be the duty of the Town Clerk to notify immediately, in writing, all committees that may be elected or appointed at any Town Meet- ing, and the nature of the business upon which they are expected to act.
SEC. 9. The Town Treasurer shall on the first secular day of March annually render to the Auditors in writing, a full account of all his receipts and disbursements for the financial year last past, with his vouchers therefor.
SEC. 10. The Treasurer and Collector shall before entering on their duties give bonds for the faithful discharge of their several duties, in such sums as the Town may order, and with sureties satisfactory to the Selectmen.
SEC. II. All bonds of Treasurers, Collectors, Constables, or other per- sons, shall be safely kept and retained by the authorities of the Town, and shall not be surrendered or cancelled until his account is closed with the town.
ARTICLE III.
OF THE FINANCIAL CONCERNS OF THE TOWN.
SEC. I. The financial year shall begin on the first day of March and end on the last day or February.
SEC. 2. No money (except State taxes and Principal and interest of legally authorized Town Notes) shall be paid by the Town Treasurer without a written or printed warrant for the same, signed by a majority of the Select- men.
SEC. 3. The Town Treasurer shall issue no note in the name of the Town unless it is approved by a majority of the Selectmen, and no note shall
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be valid against the Town unless so signed and countersigned, and the Treas- nrer and Selectmen shall keep a record of all notes so given.
SEC. 4. All money received by any Town officers, or Committee, or any person acting for or on behalf of the Town, shall, upon receipt of the same, be paid into the Town Treasury, except such sums as may be received for dog licenses, which shall be paid into the County Treasury.
SEC. 5. The taxes shall be assessed, and the tax list and Warrant shall be committed to the Collector on or before the first day of August in each year, and the Collector shall deliver all the tax bills within fourteen days after such commitment.
SEC. 6. All taxes assessed in each year shall be paid on or before the first day of November in the same year, and on all such taxes as shall not be paid on or before said day interest shall be charged at a rate to be fixed annually by the Town pursuant to Chapter 11, Section 67 of the Public Statutes. In all cases where the tax bills are not paid at the time specified above, it shall be the duty of the Collector forthwith to issue a summons to each delinquent, and if such delinquent does not pay the amount of his tax within fourteen days after the issuing of the summons, with twenty cents for the summons, the Collector shall forthwith proceed to collect the amount dne in manner provided by law, and the Collector shall be authorized to use all means of collecting taxes which the Town Treasurer, when appointed Collector, may use.
SEC. 7. A delivery of a bill to a resident tax-payer or his agent, or left at his last and usual place of abode or business in this Town, or deposited in the post office addressed to him and postage thereon prepaid, or left with the tenant or agent of any non-resident tax payer, if such tenant or agent be known to the Collector, shall in all cases be deemed a demand for the payment of the tax.
SEC. 8. Every Collector shall pay over to the Town Treasurer all taxes by him collected, except county tax, at least once in each week, until the col- lection is completed.
SEC. 9. Every Collector shall file with the Board of Selectmen, at their first meeting in each month, a statement of the taxes collected for the preceding month, and annually, within ten days after the close of the financial year, shall submit to the Selectmen for settlement his account of the collection of taxes committed to him.
SEC. 10. No orders shall be drawn upon the Treasurer for any purpose not authorized by a vote of the Town, or the laws of the Commonwealth, nor shall the amount of orders drawn against any special appropriation exceed the same.
SEC. II. No officer of the Town shall have any pecuniary interest in any contract or bargain which he has been directly or indirectly instrumental in making in behalf of the Town.
ARTICLE IV.
OF PUBLIC PROPERTY.
SECTION I. The Selectmen shall have the care and custody of the prop-
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erty of the Town not by law placed in the hands of special town officers, including herein the Soldiers' Monument and lot, and the Town Hall and the land and appurtenances thereto belonging.
SEC. 2. The Hall shall not be used for any of the purposes mentioned in Chapter 102, Section 115 of the Public Statutes unless the same shall have been first duly licensed by the Selectmen, according to law.
SEC. 3. It shall be the duty of the Selectmen to cause at least one Con- stable or Police Officer to be present in said Hall when it shall be used for any of the purposes named in said section, at the expense of persons hiring the same, for the purpose of enforcing order and obedience to the laws of the Commonwealth.
SEC. 4. Neither the Hall nor any room in the building shall be used at any time for any use forbidden by the Statutes of the Commonwealth, and it shall be the duty of the Selectmen forthwith to prosecute any violation of the Statutes which may occur therein.
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