USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > Town annual report of Swampscott 1907 > Part 3
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Report adopted.
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TOWN DOCUMENTS.
[Jan. 31
ART. 29. We recommend that the Town adopt the use of water meters for the measurement of all water used in the Town, and that the Board of Water Commissioners be authorized and instructed to purchase and install meters throughout the Town before the thirty-first day of December, 1908, and as far as practicable one-third of said meters shall be installed before December 31st, 1906, one-third before December 31st, 1907, and . the remainder before December 31st, 1908; that water be sold to the citizens of the Town at a certain rate per thousand gallons, said rate to be determined by the Water Commissioners, and that for the purpose of determining the rate to be charged, said meters shall be read every three months; the title to all such meters to remain in the Town and a reasonable rental to be determined by the Water Commissioners shall be charged for the use thereof.
Voted, To adopt the recommendations of the Committee on this Article.
ART. 30. We recommend that the Town indefinitely post- pone action on this article providing for the special appropria- tion of $10,000 for water meters, as the Water Board now has sufficient money on hand to do that part of the work required to be done this year.
Recommendation adopted.
ART. 32. We recommend that action be indefinitely post- poned on this article asking for a concrete sidewalk on Ellis road adjacent to the play ground.
Recommendations adopted.
ART. 33. We recommend that $300 be appropriated to ยท resurface Grant road and fix sidewalks, as provided in this article.
Voted, To appropriate $300, as recommended.
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RECORDS OF TOWN CLERK.
1907]
ART. 34. We recommend the indefinite postponement of this article providing for fire alarm box on Outlook Road, as the locality is already covered by boxes 21 and 112.
Report adopted.
ART. 35. We recommend that $1,000 be appropriated for the construction of continuous sidewalks during the current year. We recommend that the first work be started at the Soldiers' Monument and extend on the northeasterly side of Burrill and Humphrey streets in both directions, and also northerly on Mon- ument avenue as far as this appropriation will admit. We recommend that in future years such sidewalks shall begin where the old work is already completed, to the end that lines of continuous concrete sidewalks shall lead in all directions from the central portions of the town.
Voted to adopt the committee's report and appropriate $1,000 as recommended.
ART. 38. Voted to appropriate the sum of $300, to put the Pine Street School building in condition, the money to be expended under the direction of a committee to consist of the Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, the Commander of Post 118, G. A. R. and one other citizen, to be appointed by the Moderator, Rev. Geo. A. Jackson was thus appointed. The following was adopted :
RESOLVED, That the citizens of the Town view with com- placency the patriotic spirit of our successive Boards of Select- men for many years, in allowing Post 118 of the Grand Army of the Republic to use unoccupied portions of our school build- ings ; that we have no counter instructions to give to our present Executive Board; and that if the Post shall see fit, with the co-operation of townspeople, to prepare in the Pine Street School building a Memorial Room, decorated with war flags and other patriotic emblems, and open at suitable hours to the
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public, we can foresee no reason why future executive officers should diverge from the practice of their predecessors.
ART. 39. We recommend that action be indefinitely post- poned on this article asking for an appropriation for heating Pine street school building, as the request has been withdrawn.
Report adopted.
ART. 42. The Town is required by statute to appropriate the sum of $5,078.12 for the extermination of gypsy and brown tail moths. The statue being mandatory, we recommend the appropriation of this sum.
Voted to appropriate $5,078. 12 as recommended.
ART. 43. We cannot advise the Town to accept Essex avenue as laid out by the Selectmen, nor any other street or avenue through private property until it shall first have been properly built and graded and sidewalks constructed. We take the position that streets should not be built through private property for the purpose of developing the same at public ex- pense ; but, as is the custom in other municipalities, the streets should first be properly constructed before the Town is requested to take charge of them.
By a rising vote of 144 yes, to 127 no, the report of the Com- mittee on this Article was adopted.
Voted to recommit to the Selectmen the laying out of Essex avenue.
ART. 44. We recommend that Woodland avenue as laid out by the Selectmen be accepted and its name be changed to Mel- vin avenue as recommended, and that no appropriation be made therefor.
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Voted, To accept Melvin avenue as laid out by the Selectmen, when all the wavers have been signed.
Adjourned to to-morrow, Tuesday evening. April 24, at 7.30 o'clock.
Attest : MILTON D. PORTER. Town Clerk.
Adjourned Annual Town Meeting, April 24, 1906.
Meeting called to order at 7.30 P. M., by the Moderator. Records of last meeting read and declared approved.
Report of Committee on Beach Drain.
To the Citizens of Swampscott:
Your committee to whom the matter of the beach drains was referred, respectfully submit the following report :
In the report of the Board of Health reference was made to connecting the beach drains with the sewer basin.
The basin and sewerage system have been designed entirely for the disposal of domestic sewerage and this has been necessa- rily so on account of the great expense both of construction and operation which would otherwise be required. The peat matter in the swamp together with the mud in the streets would create a great expense if it were allowed to enter the basin, and would have to be cleaned out.
An observation of the catch basins along the streets, which are cleaned out from time to time would show how great an accumulation would come from this cause, it would be necessary to construct another large basin with proper overflow before any of this water could be turned into the basin and even then a arge amount would unavoidably get into the basin, this would
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increase the cost of maintenance in addition to that caused by pumping, a smaller expenditure in the regulating of the brooks and creating proper outlets would provide substantially the same result and would not interfere with the present sewerage system.
As the matter complained of is largely occasioned by house drainage in the vicinity, your committee would recommend that all sewerage be taken out of the brooks as can easily be done by. obliging the persons along sewer lines to connect with the sewers and by some slight extension of the sewer system on Orient court, the cost of the extension to be taken from the sewer assessments in the treasury.
We would recommend that the sum of $200 be added to the appropriation for the Selectmen's department to be expended under their direction in repairing the present wooden drains run- ning on the beach.
Respectfully submitted,
A. R. BUNTING, E. H. CURTIS, H. B. SPRAGUE, Sewer Commissioners.
Voted, To accept and adopt the report and to appropriate the sum of $200.
Voted, That the Sewer Commissioners be authorized to expend the money in the treasury accruing from sewer assess- ments for such further sewer construction as in their judgment may be deemed necessary.
Report of the Committee on Art 31.
The Committee which was appointed at the Town meeting which was held at Town Hall, on Wednesday, March 21st, 1906, to investigate the so-called Danvers street nuisance, has attended to its duty and begs leave to submit the following report :
The several members of said committee visited the locality known as the piggery on Danvers street and found existing con- ditions to be of a very filthy nature.
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1907]
Said Committee also held a public hearing at the Town Hall on Thursday evening, March 29th, and listened to the testimony of several residents of that locality as to conditions and the odor arising therefrom :
From personal observation and information gained from reli- able sources, said committee is of the opinion that the piggery, its surroundings, and their existing filthy conditions, are a public nuisance, and a menace to health.
Therefore, said committee would recommend that the pro- prietors of said piggery be given thirty (30) days' notice to remove the same.
Signed : ROBERT LESLIE, W. J. CURTIS, F. W. HOMAN,
Investigating Committee.
With an amendment, that the Selectmen be a Committee to carry out the Committee's recommendations,
The Report was accepted and adopted.
Report of Committee on New System of Bookkeeping and Auditing.
Mr. Call for the Committee submitted an extended report of their doings.
Motion for its adoption lost, 101 yes, 129 no.
B. O. Honors of the Committee submitted a minority report, that Auditors of the past year correct their report, and that the present Board of Auditors adopt a better system.
Accepted and adopted.
The report of the Auditors on the recommitment of their report was called for, but not received.
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[Jan. 31
The Committee on the Revision of the By-Laws reports :
That the By-laws under which the Town is acting, are those which were adopted in 1890, together with such acts of the Legislature, additions and amendments as have since been adopted from time to time, by vote of the Town. Examination of the Town Reports since 1890 shows that these changes and additions are many in number. It will therefore take much time and effort to incorporate these in a form of By-laws to be sub- mitted to the Town for action.
Already many suggestions have been made to members of the Committee by individual citizens as to features that experience has shown it might be well to include in a revision. It is evident therefore that the duty assigned by the Town to this Committee is one which it will require much time to execute, not only from the magnitude of the undertaking, but for the further reason that the Committee wish to obtain the benefit of the experience of those who have held office in the Town, as well as the views of citizens generally. For this purpose it is contemplated to hold public hearings to afford opportunity for suggestion and criticism.
The Committee therefore recommends that there be a special adjournment of this meeting to Monday, September 10, at 7.45 P. M., at which time the Committee will make a report of a draft of By-laws for the consideration of the the Town.
JOHN ALBREE, FRANK L. SIMPSON, DANIEL F. KNOWLTON.
Swampscott, April 23, 1906.
Voted, To accept and adopt the report with recommendations.
Report of Committee to Investigate the Doings of the Board of Health.
Your committee begs leave to submit the following report :
Your committee, immediately following its appointment by . the Town met and organized with Mr. W. A. Stubbs, chairman,
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1907]
and W. H. Bates, secretary. For the purpose of conducting a thorough and orderly investigation the committee voted to pro- cure the services of counsel, and F. L. Simpson, Esq., was therefore employed.
At the first meeting held on Wednesday evening, March 21, it was decided that the committee should as its first business, inspect the books, and other public records of the Board of Health, and accordingly a request was made upon that Board to allow your committee such inspection ; this request was refused, as were also three subsequent requests. Your committee, having been thus absolutely refused an inspection of the records of the Board, thereupon determined that legal proceedings were neces- sary in order that the instructions of the Town might be followed and the duty imposed by it performed. Accordingly, a petition for a writ of mandamus was filed by its counsel, in the Supreme Judicial Court on Friday, March 30, asking that the members of the Board of Health be compelled to allow such inspection. To this petition the respondents answered, denying the legal existence of your committee, denying further its right to have an inspection of the said records, and also the power of the Town to appoint a committee to investigate their doings; the case came on to be tried on Friday, April 6, at which time the respondents agreed to permit the inspection by your committee and the proceedings were continued one week, on condition that a full inspection might be had.
While these proceedings were pending, your Committee had held several meetings, at which the annual reports of the Board of Health and of the Auditors', of the accounts of the Board for the past three years were reviewed, as well as the bills approved by the Board, which bills were in the custody of the Board of Selectmen. In these investigations, every assistance and courtesy was afforded your Committee by the Selectmen.
In pursuance of the agreement mentioned above, the books of the Board of Health were inspected on Saturday, April 7 and on Monday and Tuesday, April 9 and 10, with the assistance of counsel and a stenographer, and on April 13, the legal proceed- ings instituted by your Committee were dismissed.
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Having inspected thoroughly the records then in the possession of the Board of Health, your Committee determined to hold hearings to take testimony concerning the doings of the Board ; and accordingly a hearing was assigned for Monday, April 16, and the members of the Board, Messrs. Stratton, Haley and Stone, together with Mr. Martin E. Nies, were notified and requested to appear before your Committee at that time.
The Committee met on the evening of the 16th, but the mem- bers of the Board and said Martin E. Nies, refused to appear before your Committee and testify or explain any of their doings. No other witnesses having been summoned for that hearing the Committee adjourned. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings and Saturday afternoon of the week April 16-21, hearings were given, at which several witnesses appeared and testified under oath as to their knowledge and dealings with the Board of Health.
Several witnesses, summoned to appear before your Committee failed to appear, and one who did appear and testify, alone refused to give testimony under oath.
Your Committee have seriously considered the evidence which has been adduced before it and is unanimously of the conviction that a situation exists which demands the serious thought and efforts of the citizens of the Town, and further that the situation as it appears at present at least, is one to be dealt with by the Town itself.
In making the recommendations which your Committee feel it is their duty to make, the Committee have considered the advisability of the Town's continuing the investigation as provided by law, by petition to the Superior Court, which proceeding involves an injury by the Courts. In rejecting this manner of proceeding your Committee have been influenced not only by the considerations to be mentioned, but also by the necessary delay incident to such proceedings and the further fact that considerable expense would thereby be incurred since the statutes provide that the costs of such investigation should be borne by the Town.
The Committee have not been unmindful of your instructions
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as to the method of procedure ; but in view of the fact that the members of your Board of Health have not as yet made any explanations which may be made by them, the Committee have not deemed it an advisable proceeding to go before the District Attorney with any accusations.
But more particularly have your Committee been influenced to this conclusion by the fact that they believe that the Town desires rather that its public service should be honest, capable, and diligent, than that prosecutions be had, at least until the public service is placed upon such a basis; and further that the citizens of this Town wish their public servants to realize their accountability to the Town at all times; and that the wilful refusal of your agents, the Board of Health, to render such account to your duly constituted and authorized Committee is an affront to the Town which calls for action by our own towns- people.
Wherefore your Committee recommends that charges be pre- ferred against the members of the Board of Health, Frank B. Stratton, Michael Haley, and Jasper H. Stone, for maladminis- tration in office, the specifications whereof are set forth herein ; and if these charges be proved to be true, that the said members of the Board of Health, Stratton, Haley and Stone be removed from their offices by a vote of the Town ; in order that such proceedings may be lawfully conducted that a copy of the charges be served upon the said Stratton, Haley and Stone and that a Committee to consist of the Board of Selectmen and Mr. Edwin F. Wiley and Mr. Elgar H. Townsend be appointed to hear the evidence upon these charges, said Committee to report their findings of fact and recommendations to an adjourned Town meeting to be held on May 10, 1906, at 7.45 P. M. to determine whether said Stratton, Haley and Stone be removed from office. That the Committee be authorized to employ counsel and a stenographer and be em- powered to summon witnesses and call for an inspection of public records and private documents and papers.
Your Committee being convinced from the evidence in their possession that the charges to be suggested are warranted, fur- ther recommend that the following charges be and hereby are made against the said Stratton, Haley and Stone.
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I. That the said Stratton, Haley and Stone, have destroyed, altered and failed to keep records which they are required by law to preserve or have permitted such records to be destroyed and altered.
2. That the said Stratton, Haley and Stone, have wilfully and without just cause refused to award contracts to the lowest responsible bidders in violation of the By-laws of the Town.
3. That the said Stratton, Haley and Stone, acting as a Board of Health, have approved bills against the Town for work which has not been performed.
4. That the said members of the Board of Health have approved bills for services rendered by themselves and have received money in excess of their respective salaries, in violation of a vote of the Town.
5. That the said members of the Board of Health have fraud- ulently and unlawfully awarded contracts to irresponsible per- sons, without adequate security for faithful performance of the said contracts.
6. That the said members of the Board of Health have wil- fully violated the plumbing law by refusing and failing to appoint an inspector of plumbing in accordance with the provisions of Rev. Laws Ch. 103, the provisions of which statute have been adopted by the Town.
7. That the said members of the Board of Health have been guilty of wilful extravagance in the expenditure of the public money in excess of the appropriation voted by the Town to the said Board contrary to the By-laws of the Town.
8. That they have wilfully violated the provisions of the Health Regulations of the Town.
W. A. STUBBS, MARTIN L. QUINN, THOMAS B. P. CURTIS, ERNEST B. THING, WILLIAM H. BATES.
Voted, Unanimously, to accept and adopt the report of the Committee.
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RECORDS OF TOWN CLERK.
1907]
On motion of John Albree it was unanimously voted that a committee to consist of the Board of Selectmen and Edwin F. Wiley and Elgar H. Townsend be appointed to hear evidence upon the charges against the Board of Health, said committee to report their findings of fact and their recommendations to an adjourned Town Meeting to be held on the 10th day of May, 1906, at 7.45 P. M., that this committee be authorized to employ counsel and engage a stenographer and be empowered to sum- mon witnesses and call for an inspection of public records.
Adjourned to Thursday, May 10, 1906, at 7.45 P. M.
Attest : MILTON D. PORTER,
Town Clerk.
Special Town Meeting, April 28, 1906. TOWN WARRANT.
ESSEX, SS.
To either of the Constables of the Town of Swampscott in said County, GREETING :
In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you are directed to notify the inhabitants of the town of Swampscott, qualified to vote in elections and in Town affairs, to meet at the Town Hall, in said Swampscott, on Saturday, the twenty-eighth day of April, current, at twelve o'clock noon, then and there to act on the following Articles, viz. :
ARTICLE I. To choose a Moderator.
'ART. 2. To choose one Selectman for the balance of the current year.
The polls to close at 6.30 o'clock, P. M.
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And you are directed to serve this Warrant by posting attested copies thereof at the Town Hall, Depot, Post Offices, and three other public and conspicuous places in the Town, seven days at least before the time of holding said meeting.
HEREOF FAIL NOT, and make due return of this Warrant, with your doings thereon, to the Town Clerk at the time and place of meeting as aforesaid.
Given under our hands this Sixteenth day of April, in the year one thousand nine hundred and six.
ALLEN H. COLE, ARTHUR C. WIDGER, Selectmen of Swampscott.
A true copy. Attest :
RICHARD G. GILLEY,
Constable.
Return on the Warrant.
Pursuant to the within Warrant to me directed, I have notified the legal voters of Swampscott by posting attested copies of said Warrant at the Town Hall, Depots, Post Offices, and twenty other public and conspicuous places in said Swampscott on Tuesday the seventeenth day of April, 1906, the posting of said notices being at least seven days before the time of said meeting.
RICHARD G. GILLEY, Constable.
In accordance with the Warrant the meeting convened at 12 o'clock noon. Daniel F. Knowlton was chosen Moderator. Special Election Officer, James H. Moulton ; Ballot Clerks, David W. Nisbett and Freeman A. Baker; Tellers, Frank V.
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1907]
Porter, Sidney T. Doane, Reps. Frank D. Thurston and Charles W. Carroll, Dems. The polls closed at 6.30 P. M., 564 ballots having been cast, with the following result :
For Selectman, James F. Caton, 239; John R. Merritt, 320, Elected ; Blanks 5. Meeting dissolved at 6.45, P. M.
Attest : MILTON D. PORTER, Town Clerk.
Adjourned Annual Town Meeting May 10, 1906.
Called to order at 7.50 P. M., by the Moderator.
Records of last meeting read and declared, approved.
George R. Hussey of the 1905 Board of Auditors, reported that they had corrected the different reports at a meeting, held for the purpose, and would refer same to the different Depart- ments for approval.
Elgar H. Townsend of the Committee appointed at last meet- ing to investigate the doings of the Board of Health, submitted the Committee's report, which was read.
Report of the Committee Appointed to Hear Charges Against The Members of The Board of Health.
SWAMPSCOTT, May 10, 1906.
Your Committee respectfully submits the following report :
Following the appointment of your Committee, on charges preferred against the members of the Board of Health, Frank P. Stratton, Michael Haley and Jasper H. Stone, a copy of which charges was served upon the said Stratton, Haley and Stone, and notice was given them that hearings were to be held and they were summoned to appear and make answer to the charges and to testify thereon ; the first hearing to be held on Tuesday,
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May Ist. The time of this hearing was assented to by the mem- bers of the Board of Health. The hearing was held as agreed, but the members of the Board of Health failed to appear and to file any answer to these charges. Hearings were held thereafter and the testimony of such witnesses as were willing to come before your committee was heard, such testimony being given under oath.
Your Committee has also inspected the books and records in the possession of the Board of Health so far as such inspection was within the scope of the committee's duties in respect to the charges preferred against the said members of the Board of Health. To obtain this inspection it was necessary for your Committee to take proceedings at law.
In the matter of the first specfication of the charges that "the said Stratton, Haley and Stone have destroyed, altered and failed to keep records which they are required by law to preserve or permitted such records to be destroyed and altered."
The Committee finds that the said Stratton, Haley and Stone have failed to keep records required by law, but that the evidence produced was insufficient to sustain a finding that such records were altered and destroyed.
Bearing upon this first specification the Committee finds the following facts that (a) a contract was made with one William H. Carroll by the Board of Health for fumigating the schools of the Town in September, 1905, but there is no record upon the record book of their proceedings on such contract : that there are no records of permits issued for plumbing work to be done, upon the records of their proceedings as required by law to be kept and that the only record in the possession of the Board of these permits is contained in the certificates of inspections per- formed by the plumbing Inspector and that the number of these approved certificates is less than the number indicated by the bills of the plumbing Inspector, which have been paid by the Town on approval of the members of the Board of Health ; and that further, many of these certificates have been made up subsequent to their approval and subsequent to payment for such inspections by the Town.
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