USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Weymouth > Town annual report of Weymouth 1927 > Part 9
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Art. 16. To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Selectmen to appoint a town accountant under Section 55 of Chap- ter 41 of the General Laws or take any other action in reference thereto.
Art. 17. To see if the Town will vote to abolish the office of town auditor.
Art.18. To see if the Town will vote to make the term of office of the Town Clerk three years, or take any other action in reference thereto.
Art. 19. To see if the Town will vote to make the term of office of the Board of Selectmen three years and that at the annual town election in March, 1928, two Selectmen shall be elected for the term of three years, two for the term of two years, and one for the term of one year, or take any other action in reference thereto.
Art. 20. To see if the Town will adopt the following amend- ments to the Town By-Laws as adopted at the adjourned annual Town Meeting held on March 10, 1927, and approved by the Attor- ney General on August 20. 1927, or take any other action in ref- erence thereto.
No. 1. Insert after the words "Board of Survey" in Section 305 the following sentence: "They shall make such rules and regu- lations for the government and discipline of the Police Department
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as they may from time to time deem necessary. Subject to the vote of the Town and the statutes of the Commonwealth on the subject they shall fix the several grades of members of the De- partment and make appointments thereto."
No. 2. Insert the following: "Section 403. The treasurer shall deposit the moneys of the Town only in such banking insti- tution or institutions as may be approved by the Town Meeting or by vote of the Selectmen, and shall keep the securities of the Town in some safe deposit vault which has been approved as aforesaid. When the Selectmen approve a depository or rescind an approval previously given, the fact shall be entered in their records."
You are directed to serve this warrant by posting a copy there- of, attested by you in writing, in each of two public places in each voting precinct in said Town, seven days at least before the time for holding said meeting called for in this warrant.
Hereof fail not, make due return of this warrant with your doings thereon to the Town Clerk of said Town, on or before the twenty-eighth day of September, 1927.
Given under our hands at Weymouth this nineteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and twenty- seven.
FRED E. WAITE. WINSLOW M. TIRRELL, H. FRANKLIN PERRY, EDWIN R. SAMPSON, WILLIAM B. CHALKE,Jr. Selectmen of Weymouth.
A true copy, Attest:
EDWARD F. BUTLER,
Constable of Weymouth.
Return of Service Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Weymouth, Mass., September 24, 1927.
NORFOLK, ss.
I have this day served the within warrant by posting a true copy thereof attested by me in writing in each of two public places in each voting precinct in said Town of Weymouth seven days be- fore the time of holding said meeting.
EDWARD F. BUTLER Constable of Weymouth.
I hereby certify that the following notice was mailed to each Town Meeting Member according to the provisions of Section 3 of Chapter 61 of the Acts of 1921.
CLAYTON B. MERCHANT, Town Clerk.
NOTICE SPECIAL TOWN MEETING Commonwealth of Massachusetts
NORFOLK, ss.
To the Town Meeting Members of the Town of Weymouth, in said County, GREETING:
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In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts you are hereby notified to meet at the hall of the Weymouth High School, East Weymouth, on
MONDAY, THE THIRD DAY OF OCTOBER, 1927
at seven o'clock and thirty minutes in the evening, then and there to act upon the articles in the Special warrant (a copy of which is enclosed.)
Given under my hand at Weymouth, this twenty-third day of September in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and twenty- seven.
CLAYTON B. MERCHANT, Town Clerk of Weymouth.
SPECIAL TOWN MEETING
Weymouth, Mass., October 3, 1927.
Pursuant to the within warrant a special meeting of the in- habitants of the Town of Weymouth, represented by the duly elected Town Meeting Members, was held at the hall of the Wey- mouth High School, on Monday, the third day of October, 1927. The meeting was called to order at 7.45 o'clock p. m. by George L. Barnes, Annual Moderator, who requested the Town Clerk to read the warrant for said meeting. After reading the call for the meeting, it was voted: That the reading of the several articles of the warrant be omitted, as each Town Meeting Member had a copy of the same.
The Town Clerk then read the last three paragraphs of the warrant and the attestation of the Constable who served the war- rant.
The following were then sworn as Town Meeting Members: Harry A. Bailey, William B. Dasha. Charles C. Hearn, DeForest Jones, Lewis D. Loring, Herbert Rosetter, Joseph J. Rudolph, James D. Bosworth, T. Ambrose Boyle, Stuart H. Briggs, Howard M. Dowd, Peter F. Hughes, George E. Lincoln, Harry A. Mattson, Benjamin B. Sylvesetr, C. Lincoln Abbott, Daniel H. Clancy, Thomas Fitzgerald, Frederick H. Hall, Victor H. Hall, Edward W. Hunt, John P. Hunt. Joseph Kelley, John J. McDonald, John J. Norton, Frank A. Pray, Thomas Sweeney, Chesley Cormack, Richard Halloran, Alfred S. Tirrell, Albert E. Barnes, Charles S. Bicknell, Walter R. Field, Charles T. Heald, Stanley Heald, Wil- liam J. Holbrook, John E. Horace, Frank E. Loud, Daniel L. O'Don- nell, Arthur R. Taylor, George E. Cuniff, William H. Doyle, Wil- liam J. Fitzsimmons, M. Frank McCarthy, Thomas J. Kelly, John H. Moran, William H. Murphy, Eva L. Rea, Willie T. Tirrell, Clarence L. Pratt, Benjamin F. Smith.
Before proceeding to the business of the meeting, Col. Frederic G. Bauer presented to the Town a gavel made of historic wood, the head being a piece of wood taken from the U. S. Frigate "Con- stitution" and the handle from a piece of wood taken from the Old South Meeting House of Boston.
George L. Barnes, moderator, accepted the gavel in behalf of the Town, and thanked Col. Bauer for the gift.
Art. 1. The committee's report of needs of Fire Department was read by Winslow M. Tirrell, Clerk of the Selectmen, as fol- lows:
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In pursuant of the vote passed at the Annual Town Meeting in March, 1927, the Selectmen and the Chief of the Fire Depart- ment were appointed a committee to investigate the needs of the Fire Department.
Our first meeting was held at the office of the New England Insurance Exchange, where Mr. Charnock of the Exchange gave us the views of his organization regarding fire protection in Wey- mouth.
According to his ideas Weymouth needs a fire protection pro- gram as follows:
Twelve additional permanent men in the Fire Department.
Three new pumping machines to replace the present Knox pumps.
A Hook and Ladder Truck for Ward 1.
Up-to-Date Fire Stations.
A separate building for the fire alarm system.
He expressed himself as opposed to a central fire station and stated that while he should not expect all the above improvements and changes to be made at once, a start should be made immed- iately so that the program would be completed in a few years. Weymouth is now in Class B under the ratings of the Exchange, yet he would not guarantee that we would stay there even if we made all the changes in question. The insurance interests are of course interested only in their side of the question, namely. to dim- inish fire losses, whereas your committee representing the Town must consider the ultimate cost to the taxpayer with and without the changes advocated. We have made a careful study of the mat- ter from every angle, and consider that the following is an ade- quate fire protection program for the Town, and even this need not all be done at once,but can well be spread over several years:
Six additional men for the Fire Department.
Three new pumping machines to replace gradually the pres- ent Knox pumps.
A new fire station in East Weymouth.
A separate building for the fire alarm system.
FRED E. WAITE WINSLOW M. TIRRELL H. FRANKLIN PERRY EDWIN R. SAMPSON WILLIAM B. CHALKE Jr. JOHN Q. HUNT
Committee.
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Voted: That the report of the Committee be accepted.
The report of the Committee appointed at the Annual Town Meeting of March 1927 to further consider facilities for offices for the Town Departments reported in print and a copy of which was mailed to each Town Meeting Member previous to the meet- ing.
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON TOWN OFFICES
To the Voters of the Town of Weymouth:
The committee appointed to consider the question of a new Town office building has held thirteen meetings with an average attendance of eight out of the eleven members. Many of the members of the committee have attended every meeting held.
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The committee organized with Colonel Frederic Gilbert Bauer as chairman and Howard M. Dowd, Esq., as secretary.
That the Town needs larger and better accommodations for its offices needs no argument to anyone who has tried to do busi- ness in the present Town office. Our law library is piled into a wooden bookcase, two books deep, where it is not accessible for consultation. In a room which was originally intended for the assessors only, we now have in addition, the tax collector and Town accountant with their clerks. The records are piled two deep in the vault, the Town clerk has no facilities whatever for allowing people to consult his records, and there is no privacy for any one. When the Selectmen meet, they must sit in the same room with people who are waiting to see them. They can not go into executive session because there is no place which it is possible to shut off. There is no place where the assessors can meet to do their work, and when two or more Town committees or boards meet the same evening confusion reigns supreme, as one of the committees must perch on desks or other inadequate accommodations in the assessors' room or water office. All this hampers the efficiency of Town business, to say nothing of the in- convenience it causes.
Before the committee met, a questionnaire was sent to each member asking his opinion on various phases of the problem. From the answers to these questionnaires and from a full discus- sion at committee meetings, the following facts appear:
The committee are unanimously in favor of building a new office building and opposed to any proposition involving the making over or enlargment of the present Town offices. To attempt to improve the present Town office building would involve us in an expense nearly as large as to build a new building, and the present office building can never be made satisfactory. The re- sult would always be more or less of a makeshift, and it would, therefore, be only a question of a few years before the question of new offices would again arise, whereas if a new office building designed for the purpose, is erected, we believe we can at slight expense over what makeshift alterations would cost, build some- thing which will be a source of pride and satisfaction to the Town for a hundred years to come. As between these two alternatives, therefore. there is no question which is the more economical and business-like in the long run.
STYLE OF BUILDING
Both law and good sense require that the building that is to house the records be a fireproof building. This means hollow tile construction with a stone, stucco or brick exterior. Stucco, the committee believe, would not be satisfactory from an archi- tectural point view. Although the committee would like very much to erect a building with an exterior of our native seam- faced granite, such a building to be proper and consistent from an architectural point of view would have to be of the Gothic type, or some modification thereof. The fenestration of such a building could not be made to satisfy both architectural fitness and the requirements of a working office where people must be at their tasks all day and need the best possible light and air. We are, therefore, reduced to a brick exterior, and after considering the matter carefully, the commmittee are of an opinion that the
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only style worthy of consideration in a town as old and as historic as Weymouth is the type of architecture characteristic of the Colonial period of our own country's history.
It costs no more to build a thing of beauty than an eyesore and we have an opportunity to erect something here which will be a distinct addition to the architecture of the Town. Believing that, if possible, it would be well to copy the exterior of some actual historic building rather than to erect a modern imitation of the general architectural style of the period, the committee cast about for a suitable model and found it in the Old State House in Boston, built in 1713. This is one of the few public buildings, other than churches, erected during that period and is almost ideal for our purpose. Its size just fits our needs. It has no expensive ornamentation, its exterior trim being almost entirely plain brick, and it is in the best architectural style. In- deed, some architects have pronounced it an ideal building. If We were to copy one of the buildings of the period which has a great deal of wooden trim, we should be obliged either to substitute some other material for the wood or sacrifice the fireproof quali- ties of the building. With the Old State House, neither course is necessary, for the only considerable amount of wood is in the « cupola, and here fireproof construction can easily be used without the substitution being apparent. In this building, therefore, we have both beauty, utility, and historical associations combined at no extra cost.
The interior will, of course, have to be rearranged, but it would be possible to keep without change the historic council chamber where James Otis delivered his celebrated argument against Writs of Assistance in 1761 and Samuel Adams, on the morning of March 6, 1770, made his memorable demand for the removal of the British troops from Boston. There is an inspiration in copy- ing an actual historic building, which would not exist if we simply developed a modern building along the general style of an old one. Furthermore, all the sites which the committee has seriously considered are similar to that on which the Old State House stands and the building would therefore lend itself admirably to our pur- poses.
SITE
The site was, of course, one of the first things to be considered by the committe. Weymouth is rapidly outgrowing the sectional jealousies of former days and every member of the committee has looked at the thing solely from the standpoint of the best site, taking into consideration the Town as a whole. We should all like to have the Town office building near our own homes, but this is obviously impossible and there is no reason why the Town office building should be in any section rather than in another except as that section of the Town furnishes a suitable site and a convenient location. The committee made a list of all sites which anyone had suggested and spent one Sunday afternoon in visiting them all carefully.
The sites considered were as follows:
(1) The northeast corner of the high school lot including the property of Mrs. Knowles at the corner of Academy Avenue and Middle Street;
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(2) The land east of the present Masonic Temple up to and including the site of the Franklin School;
(3) The land between the Town Farm and Broad Street;
(4) The land west of the Masonic Temple up to Cain Avenue;
(5) The so-called "Bicknell Store property" on Pleasant Street off Jackson Square opposite the Wemouth Light & Power Comp- any, including the swamp in back;
(6) The southwest corner of Middle and Broad Streets;
(7, The hill south of Clapp Memorial Field;
(8) The high land west of Clapp Memorial Field;
(9) The hill opposite Clapp Memorial Field and west of the present carbarn;
(10) The Old Town House Lot;
(11) The triangle formed by Broad. Essex and Spring Streets;
(12) The property of Mr. Cark opposite the Masonic Temple;
(13) The land at the southeast corner of Lake and Middle Streets;
(14) The Bates land near Lovell's corner;
(15) The Greeley Land near Lovell's corner;
Each of these sites was carefully examined on the ground and on the Town plan. The assessed value of the land which would need to be taken was considered, owners were approached with reference to the price at which they would sell, and the expense of grading and filling where necessary was carefully gone into. With the Town plan before us, the committee made a careful study of each site with reference to:
(a) Geographical location;
(b) Location with reference to the center of population;
(c) Location with reference to present and probable future transportation facilities;
(d) Available parking space for automobiles;
(e) Probable future development of the neighborhood;
(f) Architectural and landscape possibilities of the site;
On this phase of the question, the opinions of leading architects and, engineers were secured regarding the possibilities which the various sites offer for development along the lines the committee had in mind.
As a result of this study, all sites except the first three men- tioned were immediately eliminated. For a long time, the choice wavered between sites 2 and 3, the committee made further studies in the subject, they, one by one, became impressed with the fact that the high school site, so called, offered the best solution of the problem, and even those architects who were inclined to favor one of the other sites have come around to the opinion that the development of this site offers a wonderful opportunity which none of the other sites possess and that, when completed, it will give Weymouth a civic center unequalled by that of any town in Massachusetts.
The main advantages of this site are as folows:
(1) Central location. The site is in the center of the Town from east to west and although about three-quarters of a mile north of the geographical center of the Town, researches by the school department show that it is the actual center so far as population is concerned.
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(2) Ease of access. The site is on the car line, and morning and afternoon buses from the south part of the Town go directly to and from the high school. If the Town office were located there, the street railway would undoubtedly make such arrange- ments in the transportation system as would make this location as accessible as is Jackson Square. Furthermore, we must bear in mind that the development of society will probably cause a modifi- cation of our transportation system within comparatively few years. What will replace the present public conveyances cannot be fore- seen, but with the municipal center at the high school. it may safely be assumed that this fact will be recognized in the de- velopment of any future transportation system. So far as auto- mobile traffic is concerned, the site is directly accessible by two independent direct main roads from every part of the Town ex- cept North Weymouth,, where the railroad crossing at Weymouth Heights of necessity forms a bottleneck for all through traffic.
(3) Convenience to the High School. The grouping of muni- cipal buildings is always an advantage to a town. Several muni- cipal buildings which might not excite public notice if separated, immediately attract attention when grouped. The placing of this building with the high school offers a nucleus as will be shown hereafter for a municipal center that should be the envy of every town in Massachusetts. After a conference with the school com- mittee, who have been consulted on this plan, we are of the opinion that the proposed building can be heated from a central heating plant in the high school, thus removing the danger of fire from the building where our records are housed and economi- zing the labor of running a heating plant. With the agricultural class at the high school, the grounds can be put and kept in a most attractive condition. Both economy and efficiency in janitor service will be prompted by this grouping, and it will be a distinct advantage to the townspeople to have the Town office so located that their children can do their errands at the Town office, such as paying taxes and water rates, while going to and from school. Our children are being brought up to live in a place governed by the New England system of Town government which originated here in Weymuth and the advantage of having the Town office where the high school students can see the government of their Town in practical operation and become familiar with it is an advantage not lightly to be overlocked.
(4) Architectural and landscaping possibilities. As "men do not light a candle and put it under a bushel" so a public building be placed where it will add to the attractiveness of the Town and not be hidden in an obscure corner where it does not show off. Setting on a knoll fifteen to twenty feet above the street, where its cupola can be seen from every high point of land in the Town, on one of the main roads leading through the Town overlooking Legion Memorial Field, and on a site which as hereinafter set forth offers wonderful opportunities of landscaping, the high school location exceeds all others in its possibilities of making the Town office a thing of beauty in the Town. The School Committee and the architect of the new addition to the High School are so im- pressed with this plan that they have planned to make the end of the new wing of the High School which will be next to the Town office an adaption of the facade of Fanuiel Hall, so that the two buildings will harmonize.
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(5) Cost of acquisition. The committee has carefully gone into the cost of acquiring the various sites in question. In the case of some of them very expensive filling or grading would be necessary. In the case of some others, digging a cellar would be difficult on account of ledges.
. . In the case of others. the present development of the property is such that it would cost at least twenty-five thousand dollars to acquire the site. In the case of the high school site, most of the land already belongs to the town and as the school committee has decided that the future growth of the high school will be in the rear rather than in the front, they have no objection, and indeed favor the office building extending over a part of the present high school lot. This makes it neces- sary to acquire only one piece of property- the house and lot on the corner of Academy Avenue and Middle Street owned by Mrs. S. Etta Knowles. The committee has taken the matter up with Mrs. Knowles and she has made us a legal offer, which we now hold, to sell her property to the Town at a price which will effect a saving to the Town of at least twenty thousand dollars over the cost of acquiring either of the other sites that the committee has seriously considered. This of itself is an important factor. In- deed, the opinion is generally expressed that regardless of the erection of the Town office building, a great mistake was made in not acquiring the Knowles lot because it is undesirable to have a private residence cutting a jog out of the high school property als it now does. If we adopt the view that the Town should acquire this anyway, then we may say that the site for the Town office building costs the Town nothing because the land should be ac- quired regardless of the Town office building.
(6) Maintenance Expense. Furthermore, there will be a very material saving in maintenance cost, to say nothing of the advantage of having the grounds so that the agricultural class* of the High School can supervise their maintenance. A competent heating engineer who is familiar with the present heating plant in the high school estimates that in heating the Town office build- ing from the high school plant, there will be an initial saving of $1200 and an annual saving of at least $1000.
(7) Parking Space. With the present methods of trans- portation and those likely to exist in the future, parking space is an absolute necessity. The high school site, as it is planned to arrange it, will easily accommodate 400 cars without making any use whatever of the public streets and this, we feel, will be ade- quate for all practical purposes.
(8) Sentimental Advantages. The committee plans to place in the Town Hall mementoes of Weymouth's history in the form of historic pictures, the banner brought from Weymouth, England, and other memorials connected with the Town's past. The site also offers, as will be shown hereafter, admirable possibilities for constructing the long-deferred war memorial. In these days when so many subversive forces are attacking the principles for which America stands, belittling the history which has made our country great, and attempting to undermine those forces which make for patriotism and good citizenship, the advantage of having such historic memorials where they will be readily seen by the younger generation where, in their studies in the high school, they can be taught the significance of these things is of itself, the committee feels, a sufficient ground for adopting the high school site, even did not all other considerations favor it.
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