USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Wakefield > Town annual report of the officers of Wakefield Massachusetts : including the vital statistics for the year 1885-1889 > Part 50
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During twenty years from 1865 to 1885 the population nearly doubled, and it is estimated that 25 years hence there will be about 10,000 to be provided for. The daily quantity of sewage to be dis- posed of is estimated as equal to the water supply ; for most of the water which is used is generally discharged into the sewers in one way or another where sewers exist. The present water-supply is about 25,000 cubic feet per day. Estimated at 10 cubic feet per day per head, for the population of 5,000 it would amount to 50,000 cubic feet per day, and for the estimated population of 10,000 in the year 1915, to 100,000 cubic feet per day.
It is not proposed to admit to the sewers the rainfall, other than what falls on the roofs. The area where it is proposed to provide sewerage is about 1,000 acres, upon which if a rainfall of an inch per hour were provided for, the cost would be doubled by the increase in the size of sewers which would be required. Also, in view of the treatment required for the disposal of the sewage, it is desirable to admit as little clean water as possible. The surface water can pass off by surface drainage, as it has done hitherto, without serious diffi- culty. A place where houses stand apart from one another, and conditions are rural, is favorable for the application of a system of small pipe sewers for house drainage only. Such sewers have been built in part of Chelsea, at Nahant and at Medfield in this Common- wealth, and at Memphis, Tenn., Pullman, Ill., Keene, N. H., and other places. .
The street piping proposed is shown approximately on the plan submitted, and on file at the Selectmen's office. A few houses built in unreasonably low positions are not provided for; for instance, the low ground extending both sides of Yale Avenue near Wiley's green-house is too low to be drained. Yale Avenue has been built across this low ground and brought up to a proper grade, and a sewer can be put into it ; if it is desired to sewer buildings on the adjacent low ground, it must like-
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wise be raised up. Also Lake street now crosses the brook near the Foundry at an unreasonably low grade ; the street should be raised, and then a sewer can be carried above the brook. The considerable area near Smith & Anthony's foundry which is at about grade 90 should be included in any comprehensive system of sewerage. The sewer near Wakefield Centre station should be at about grade 80. Supposing the sewage to be collected there, the smallest pipe through which it can be recommended to discharge the quantity ·above estimated is 15 inches in diameter if a gradient of 1.5 per -thousand is available.
The most difficult question presented is what disposal shall be made "of the sewage ?
The natural drainage is by Saugus river, into which flow both the brook which is the outlet of Lake Quannapowitt and the brook which is the outlet of Crystal Lake. To secure any other outlet for the sewage by pumping over the divide is not feasible on account of the height of land by which the principal part of the town is surrounded. A line of levels has been run down to the point in Melrose Highlands at which it has been proposed to start a sewer forming part of the Mystic Valley system reported upon to the Legislature, Feb. 4th, 1889, by the State Board of Health ; to reach that point a depth of about 20 ft., for a distance of about half a mile would be required. Besides the expense of reaching this point, of course, if the Wake- field sewage went through the Mystic Valley sewer, Wakefield would have to pay its share of the great expense of that work. If Wake- field sewage should ever have to be carried to sea, it would be shorter to take it to Lynn harbor than to Boston harbor ; by starting it down the Saugus valley, it will be on the way toward Lynn.
Much filth now goes into the stream near the Wakefield Centre ,station and the Rattan' Works ; but if a systematic discharge of the whole sewage of. the town were to be established there, it would no doubt foul the stream intolerably. Some purification is required ; before such discharge into a small stream could be allowed. There are two kinds of purification applied to sewage, generally separately but sometimes in combination. Ist, by the use of chemical precipi- tants, 2nd, by disposal upon land, which may be either with or with- out the expectation of cultivating the soil.
The chemical treatment of sewage may have sufficient effect to prevent a public nuisance when the partially purified liquid is turned
151
into a stream ; but (generally speaking) it is not sufficient to allow of such effluent going into a stream used for water-supply for domes- tic purposes. This stream a short distance below is liable to be taken as a source of water supply ; the city of Lynn has the right to take water, and has actually constructed an aqueduct from Howlett's Pond, but has not drawn any water. Hence, if chemical treatment were resorted to for Wakefield sewage, it would be discharged below the dam at Howlett's Pond ; and to reach that point would require the sewer to be extended alongside the pond, probably at considerable expense on account of wet ground and perhaps rock.
Even if the river at Howlett's Pond should not be wanted for water- supply, its legal appropriation for that purpose may be expected to forbid any deliberate contamination of the stream above the Pond.
To save distance to which the sewage must be carried and to save expense of chemical treatment, it seems preferable to resort to puri- fication upon land. To do this by irrigation with a view to cultivating a sewage farm would require a larger area than is available, and the results of experiments that have been made in that direction have not generally been favorable pecuniarily. It appears clearly to be the preferable method in this case to dispose of the sewage upon a comparatively small tract of land such as is sufficient to purify it without any expectation of cultivating the land. This method of sewage disposal is discussed in the report of the Massachusetts Drain- age Commission, presented three years ago, and has been tried suc- cessfully at Medfield and other places.
An essential point in this method of treatment is that the filtration through the ground be intermittent., For instance, the field may be divided into four parts upon which the sewage shall be successively discharged, two days upon each ; then each will have an intermission of six days while the sewage is going on to the other three subdivis- ions, during which six days the surface will become dry and practi- Ically free from offensive matter as well as from water, and will become ready for the purification of the next two days' flow of sewage. The expense of continuing this work regularly, without interruption and without nuisance, is scarcely anything more than the pay of a reliable. man to go every two days and change the direction of the flow upon the subdivisions successively.
For this purpose about ten acres of land is required for present use with about 10 more acres available for future extensions. This
152
should be as nearly level as possible in order to save expense in grading ; the material should be sand or gravel in which sewage may be well aerated, and the less soil there is on the surface the better. The tract has to be drained either by its natural position or by artifi- cial means, so that some six or eight feet of material can be relied upon for the aeration of the sewage. If such an area can be found high enough above the level of water in the soil to be thus dry, but low enough to be reached from the low parts of the town with a proper grade, it is an economical solution of the problem. Several tracts of land around the thickly settled parts of Wakefield have been examined with a view to this use, and the best one seems to be the plain along Farm street from near the school house to Nahant street. This is of dry and porous material, as was ascertained by careful examination and by inquiry of persons familiar with the land. The brook runs along side this tract about 18 feet below it, insuring abundant opportunity for the purified water to pass off without the laying of under-drains. The position of this land with its surroundings and proposed subdivision and the route of the sewer are indicated approximately on the plan.
The gradient which it is possible to obtain in coming from the railroad crossing near Wakefield Centre station to this place of dis- charge is between 1 and 2 per 1,000, and is not so great as would be desirable ; as it will render flushing necessary to ensure freedom from the formation of deposits in the sewer ; but as such a sewerage system requires arrangements for flushing at any rate, this difficulty is unim- portant ; at Memphis and at Keene very flat gradients have been used without serious difficulty.
This project is recommended as the simplest and least expensive that can properly be proposed ; it would probably be out of the ques- tion to undertake any such work, for instance, as lifting the sewage, merely in order to include very low territory along the streams, by pumping, at an expense, say of $10,000, at the beginning, and at an annual expense of about $1,000 for maintaining constant pumping.
Again, that portion of the population which lives in isolated farm- houses, of course, does not need to be connected with sewers for the disposal of refuse. If it should be thought best to relieve them from expense in introducing sewers, a large portion of the original cost, or the whole of it, might be assessed on those who enter the sewers, leaving the expense of maintenance to be assumed by the Town.
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The following is believed to be a fair estimate of the expense of putting in such a system as has been described :
65,000 ft. of 8 inch Akron vitrified pipe laid, at .75, $48,750 00 35° 66 10 66 " 1.00, 350 00
650 66 I2
66 " 1.25, 812 50
6,300 "
" 2.00, 12,600 00 320 manholes, " $25, 8,000 00
Grading Filtering-bed, 13,500 cu. yds.,
" .25;
3,375 00
Appurtenances at Filtering-bed,
100 00
Land damages say,
2,000 OG
Engineering, Superintendence and Contingencies about Io per cent., 7,512 50
$83,500 00
Respectfully submitted,
FRED. BROOKS, Civil Engineer,
31 Milk Street, Boston. March, 1889.
15 66 66 66
154
ANNUAL APPROPRIATIONS.
In addition to the regular appropriations of the annual meeting the town will be called upon to raise the following sums which must be placed in the tax levy of 1889 :
Hamilton School House, . $1,500 00
Common and Park Improvement,
· 1,000 00
One-third cost Pleasant street extension, · · 2,323 00
One-half cost Railroad street land damages, 1,337 50
One-half cost stone crusher, 1,250 00
Appropriations made Nov. 6, after tax levy of '88, 2,722 00
Payment of Town Debt, 4,000 00
Interest on Town Debt,
3,300 00
$17,432 50
DEPARTMENT APPROPRIATIONS.
Support of Schools, . .
. $18,000 00
Contingent Fund, Schools,
·
1,500 00
Text Books and Supplies,
1,400 00
Poor Department, all receipts and
5,000 00
Fire Department,
2.000 00
Street Lamps, .
2,100 00
Town House Expenses,
1,850 00
Highways and Bridges,
6,000 00
Salaries of Town Officers,
2,550 00
Salaries of Police,
500 00
Night Watch, .
1,500 00
Miscellaneous Expenses, .
3,000 00
Beebe Town Library, the dog tax and
400 00
Reading Room,
175 00
Hydrant service, (as per contract), .
3,920 00
.
.
·
.
.
.
.
.
$67.327 50
In making up the above list the Auditors have included the principal appropriations and inserted the amounts asked by the departments, or the amounts voted last year.
155
AUDITORS' FINAL STATEMENT.
During the year ending February 28, 1889, the Selectmen drew 1070 orders on the Treasurer, amounting to $64,389. We have examined the bills for which these payments were made, to see if they were in proper form and correctly fig- ured, and where errors have been found have called the attention of the town officers in charge, to the same. We have also examined the accounts of the Fish Committee, (page 97), and the books of the Collector of Taxes (see statement, page 99), and find them correct. The receipts of all departments paying over money to the Treasurer have been verified. The figures of all expenditures in the differ- ent departments will be found on pages 49 to 99. We have carefully examined the accounts of the Treasurer, (pages 100 and 101), and find them correct, with proper vouchers for all receipts and payments, and that he has a cash balance of $3,029.62. We also certify that he holds the $10,000 in town bonds, mentioned on page 104, (C. Sweetser Lecture Fund), and has $1500 deposited in Wakefield Savings Bank, (C. Sweetser Burial Lot Fund, $1000, and C. Wakefield Library Bequest $500.) By reference to our final balance sheet, on page 112, it will be seen we show a total expendi- ture of $71,408.71, being $7,019.71, more than the total of town orders drawn. This difference is made up of $6,957.98 paid out by the Treasurer for town debt and interest, and $44 paid out of receipts by the Fish Committee, together with $12.23 and $5.50 paid out of receipts by the Library Dept., and Common and Park Commissioners respectively. We think it would be an improvement for these last named three departments to turn over all their receipts to the Treas- urer of the Town, and have town orders drawn for all their expenditures.
Respectfully submitted,
WALDO E. COWDREY, WILLIS S. MASON, EVERETT W. EATON,
Auditors.
WAKEFIELD, March 21, 1889.
156
CONTENTS AND INDEX.
PAGES.
List of Town Officers,
3 to 5
List of Jurors, .
6
Record of Town Meetings,
7 to 29
Town Clerk's Statistics, .
31 to 48
Auditors' Report. Financial reports and exhib- its of Departments, 49 to 97
Assessors' Report and Collector's Statement,
97 to 99
Treasurer's Report, .
. 100 to 111
Auditors' Balance Sheet, . · .
112
Reports of
Selectmen,
. . 113 to 122
Superintendent of Streets,
. 123 to 127
Engineers,
. 128 and 129 .
Police and Night Watch,
. 130
Fish Committee,
181
Board of Health,
. 132 to 134
Trustees of Library and Reading Room,
. 135 to 140
Librarian, ..
141 and 142 ·
Overseers, .
. 143 to 146 .
Forest Firewards,
.
·
147
Committee on Sewerage,
. 148 to 153 ·
Annual Appropriations, .
.
154
Auditors' Final Statement, ·
155
The Report of the School Committee is bound sepa- rately this year.
ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
SCHOOL COMMITTEE
OF THE
TOWN OF WAKEFIELD,
FOR THE
YEAR ENDING FEBRUARY 28, 1889.
WAKEFIELD : PRINTED AT THE CITIZEN AND BANNER OFFICE. 1889.
SCHOOL REPORT.
Conforming to law and custom, the School Committee submit to the inhabitants of Wakefield, the annual report of the Public Schools in town, for the year ending February 28th 1889. Public attention has been more than ordinarily directed during the year to the efficiency of our public schools to properly and correctly educate the children of all classes of citizens for the duties of American citizenship, and though the discussion has been anima- ted in some localities and at times personal, it has failed to disturb the unanimity of opinions existing among our townsmen, of the importance and necessity of preserving and maintaining the American system of free and universal education. It is not our purpose or duty to criticise other methods of instruction, or com- pare their relative qualities with the system of common schools. but only to emphasize the fact, that the public school system has been established and maintained by law in every state in the Union. They have been the principal source from which the great ma- jority of men receive their education, who, by their moral and Christian intelligence and intellectual acquirements, have placed the Republic in a position, which overshadows all other nations in the magnificence and grandeur of its achievements in the mechanical and liberal arts, and in nearly all of the industrial and business employments of life. There is no better standard of measurement in fixing the future value and worth of any system of education or philosophy, than to estimate it by what it has contributed to promote national prosperity and individual happi- ness. The common schools, judged by this standard of measure- ment, having the same care and protection from the people, will be in the future, equally as useful and beneficial in their influence to educate the advancing generations in the principles and virtues essential to perpetuate American liberty and her institutions, as they were to educate and form the character of those men who
-
4
founded the Republic and have directed its political, moral and religious affairs through its early existence and until it has reached a position unsurpassed in grandeur and power by any other nation.
The common schools have been one of the chief and important factors in educating, developing and strengthening the American citizen to assume and properly discharge the duties, and enjoy the high privileges connected with American citizenship, for they receive on an equality the youth of every nationality living among us in different conditions and circumstances of life, and give them, besides the opportunity to acquire the necessary mental and moral training preparatory for the rights and duties of a citizen, that which is best in education, the stern, severe, bracing competition which is found to exist among all men in business and political life.
Aristotle, the eminent Grecian philosopher, who lived before the Christian era, affirmed in his philosophical writings, that the young should be educated by and through a public system of instruction maintained by legislative authority as a necessity for the safety and prosperity of the state, for the character of its edu- cational system must be relative to its constitution, for instance, a democratic character a democracy, a monarchial for a monarchy, an oligarchial for an oligarchy, and the more elevated this charac- ter of the citizen, the higher form of government it produces. The successful history of this nation clearly proves, that the edu- cation of the young can safely and well be placed under the superintendence of the state, therefore every citizen should cauti- ously consider and decide for himself the wisdom and expediency of substituting for the present system of public education, any system which is not controlled by the legal authority of the state .. and supported from the public treasury.
The Employment of Minors in Certain Business Establish- ments, and their Schooling.
As many parents and other persons often allow and frequently require the children under their legal management to labor in mercantile and other business establishments to the entire neglect of their intelligence, education and physical health, sometimes from necessity, but more often for the purpose of increasing their
5
worldly treasures by the income derived from their labors. The state government as early as the year 1836, enacted a law prohib- iting the employment of any child under the age of fifteen years in any manufacturing establishment, unless the child has attended some private or public school, taught by a legal qualified teacher, at least three months during the year preceding such employment. Since that date new laws relating to the same object have been enacted from time to time containing more stringent measures and severer penalties for those who permit the child to be so em- ployed, or receive the child in their employ contrary to the provisions of the law.
We give a brief synopsis of the law connected with this subject established by the legislation of 1888. It positively prohibits the employment of any child under thirteen years of age in any labor- ing or mercantile establishment, and such child cannot be employed in any manner for compensation during the public school hours of the city or town wherein the child resides, unless the child has attended school twenty weeks in the year preceding such employ- ment. No child under fourteen years of age shall be employed in such establishment except during the vacations of the public schools located in the place of the child's residence, or employed in any kind of labor for compensation during public school hours, prescribed by the town or city authorities where the child resides, except upon the following conditions : The employer must sign a written statement containing a description of the child and his intention to employ him, and obtain a certificate signed by a parent or a guardian, stating when and where the child was born, his age, and that he can read readily and write legibly, and has attended school at least twenty weeks in the year preceding its date, signed and approved by the Superintendent of public schools, or his agent, and if there is no such officer, then by some authorized member of the School Committee, and keep the state- ment and certificate on file. The same conditions apply to a child under sixteen years of age who is employed in any of said estab- lishments, except the education clause is omitted in the certificate. Truant officers are authorized to prosecute persons violating the law, and those convicted are punished either by fine or imprison- ment. The law was made to prevent illiteracy among all children and more especially among those whose parents and guardians are
6
unmindful of their education, or wilfully neglect it, for the income derived from their @bors. The Committee's attention has not been called to any violations of the law during the year and only a few applications have been made for the required certificate.
Laws Relating to the Preservation of Children's Health in the School Room.
The Legislature of 1888, whatever may have been its errors of omissions or commissions, acting in its line of duty for the public welfare, cannot be accused of neglecting to take proper and suit- able action to secure and preserve the health of children while in the school room. School houses are required to be kept clean and provided with proper appliances for the escape of all obnox- ious and unhealthy effluvia arising from defective drains or other offensive sources, and supplied with pure air by means of proper ventilators. The state police are authorized to enforce the law, and any board of School Committee, after four weeks' notice that any school house under their control is not properly supplied with the necessary conveniences for the removal of injurious gases or properly ventilated for the supply of wholesome air, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars. The school houses of Wakefield are inadequately provided with appli- ances for ventilation, and which are not adjusted upon any of the improved modern systems best adapted to supply the school rooms with pure air. It is sometimes found necessary in changing the air in many of the school rooms to throw open the windows to obtain a sufficient supply of fresh air, which arrangement is objectionable, for it exposes a portion of the scholars to sudden and uncomfortable drafts of air which often proves injurious to their health. School buildings should be furnished with a system of ventilation that will sufficiently remove from the school rooms the foul air and supply them with pure air without the aid of open windows or doors. There is no subject connected with education in our common schools which requires greater consideration or more attention from all persons connected or associated with children while in the school room, than the subject of ventilation, for the breathing of impure air produces a feeling of inactivity, stupor and drowsiness and often, it is believed by the best medical authorities, to be the immediate cause of consumption and kindred diseases. It is the statement of a celebrated physician, that " all
7
the deaths resulting from fevers are but as a drop in the ocean, when compared with the number who perish from breathing im- pure air." 'Another reliable authority, speaking from experience, proves that the introduction of efficient ventilation reduces death rates in children's hospitals from 50 to 5 per cent. ; in the surgical department connected with the general hospital, from 23 to 6 per cent. ; in prisons from 80 to 8 per cent.
It requires nearly 3,000 cubic feet of fresh air hourly for each pupil to supply schools with an atmosphere free from unpleasant odors or unhealthy gases, allowing each pupil to occupy a space of 250 cubic feet in a school room containing fifty scholars. Many of our school rooms are so much overcrowded that the area occupied by each pupil is limited to such a narrow measurement, that the scholars in those rooms, under the present system of ven- tilation, cannot conveniently and safely be supplied with the amount of pure air requisite for their health and mental activity. The teachers and janitors have called the attention of the Com- mittee, during the year, to the imperfect ventilation in some of the school rooms, resulting both from a defective system and the large number of scholars in attendance, but not having any means or authority they could not make any desirable improvement- therefore the cause of complaint still remains.
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