USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Arlington > Town of Arlington annual report 1907-1908 > Part 7
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I further certify that the following is a true extract from the by- laws of said Company :
" Article II. The stock, property and business of the Company shall be managed by a board of twelve directors, who shall be elected as provided in Article III.
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" Article IV., Section 7. The board of directors shall designate four of their number äs an executive committee, which committee shall have and exercise the powers of the board in the intervals be- tween the meetings of the board."
FRED G. HAVLIN,
Clerk Executive Committee.
BOSTON, July 25, 1907.
TOWN FIRE INSURANCE. The Selectmen continue in the opinion that it is a good policy for the Town to carry its own fire insurance and establish a fund for that purpose. The action of the Town last March, however, was to the effect that the time had not yet arrived when such a scheme should be carried into effect.
We are now carrying insurance to the amount of $313,000 on buildings, and $81,000 on contents, and are paying the rate of $1.35 on $100 for five years.
Having torn down the old buildings on Town House Site, occupied as stables, bakery, etc. ; discontinued the maintenance of the Alms- house as such; having one of the best and most efficient fire departments in the State ; most of our risks being of brick or stone construction, and all of our buildings scattered, the conditions seem favorable for a reduction of rates.
To this end, therefore, in August, the Board petitioned the New England Insurance Exchange for a substantial reduction in the Town of Arlington average rates. The matter is now under advisement by said Exchange.
Feeling that the property insured has been underestimated in value thus making the Town a co-insurer, which is undesirable, it was deemed advisable to have the property re-appraised, the work to be done by men commanding the confidence of all parties interested. Messrs. Ira G. Hersey and Arthur C. Whitney, eminent experts in such work, were engaged to revalue the buildings. Their report giving in detail the appraisal of twenty buildings has been received and it appears from their estimates the Town buildings alone have been undervalued about $37,862, besides $8,279, the estimate of two buildings on which no insurance was carried. This undervalu- ation ranges from six to fifty per cent. on the different buildings.
The appraisal of Messrs. Hersey and Whitney is made in dupli- cate, one copy to be given to the New England Insurance Exchange and the other filed with the Town Clerk.
As soon as the property denominated as contents has been revalued the fire insurance will be adjusted to the new basis. If the Town is to place its insurance outside of itself there seems to be no ques- tion as to the wsidom of basing it on full valuation of property.
PURIFICATION OF ALEWIFE BROOK AND ADJACENT AREAS. Soon after last year's report of the Selectmen relative to this matter, the
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Metropolitan Park Commission had several conferences with the Mayors and Selectmen of cities and towns interested and it was the consensus of opinion that in order to carry out the purposes of Chapter 529 of the Acts of 1906, a larger appropriation was needed and the Act modified in other important particulars.
To this end amendments were submitted to the Legislature, resulting in the enactment of Chapter 529, Acts of 1907.
The Act as amended is as follows :
CHAPTER 529.
AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE PURIFICATION OF MYSTIC RIVER, ALEWIFE
BROOK AND ADJACENT WATER COURSES, PONDS AND DRAINAGE AREAS.
Be it enacted etc., as follows:
SECTION 1. Section one of chapter five hundred and twenty-nine of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and six is hereby amended by inserting after the word "tributaries," in the fourth line, the words :- and Spy pond, - by striking out the word " and, " at the end of the same line, by inserting after the word "tributaries," in the fifth line, the words : - and pond, - and by adding at the end thereof the words : - and shall, if any changes are made in the shores, bottom or outlet of Spy pond, leave the same in as good sanitary condition as at the present time. Such portions of the bottom of Spy pond as may be made dry land by the work contemplated by this act and not required for park or parkway purposes as herein below provided, shall, so far as owned by the Commonwealth, become the property of the owners of the adjoining upland, - so as to read as follows : - Section 1. The Metropolitan Park Commission shall, in connection with the construction of a dam in Mystic river, make improvements in and about Alewife brook and its tributaries and Spy pond and the drainage areas of said brook, tributaries and pond, substantially in accordance with the report of the State Board of Health under section two of chapter four hundred and forty-five of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and four, and shall, if any changes are made in the shores, bottom or outlet of Spy pond, leave the same in as good sanitary condition as at the present time. Such portions of the bottom of Spy pond as may be made dry land by the work contemplated by this act and not required for park or parkway purposes as herein below provided, shall, so far as owned by the Commonwealth, become the property of the owners of the adjoining upland.
SEC. 2. Section two of said chapter five hundred and twenty-nine is hereby amended by striking out the words " situated within five hundred feet", in the fifth and sixth lines, and inserting in place thereof the words : - necessary for the carrying out of the purposes
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of this act, - and by adding at the end thereof the words : - Said commission shall do the work of construction under this act unless the detailed plans of construction have been disapproved by either of the Mayors of the Cities or by the Selectmen of either of the Towns interested, provided such disapproval is received by said commission within thirty days after the presentation of said plans by said commission to the mayors of said cities and to the Select- men of said Towns. In the event of any such disapproval this act shall be void and of no effect, - so as to read as follows : - Section 2. For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act said commission may from time to time take in fee or otherwise, by pur- chase or otherwise, for the Commonwealth, lands, flats and lands covered with water, easements, rights and other property necessary for the carrying out of the purposes of this act on either side of the centre of the channel of said brook and tributaries, by filing in the registry of deeds for Middlesex county a description thereof sufficiently accurate for identification, signed by a majority of the commission. Said commission may construct and maintain under any public way or railroad location any drain or other structure in such manner as not unnecessarily to obstruct travel thereon and may change the location of said brook and any of said tributaries where the same crosses a public way or railroad location and elsewhere and shall have all other powers necessary to carry out the purpose of this act. Said commission shall do the work of construction under this act unless the detailed plans of construction have been disapproved by either of the mayors of the cities or by the selectmen of either of the towns interested, provided such disapproval is received by said commission within thirty days after the presentation of said plans by said commission to the mayors of said cities and to the selectmen of said towns. In the event of any such disapproval this act shall be void and of no effect.
SEC. 3. Section three of said chapter five hundred and twenty- nine is hereby amended by inserting after the word "hundred," in the fifth line, the words :- and twenty-five,-so as to read as follows : -Section 3. To meet the expenses incurred under this act the Treasurer and Receiver General is hereby authorized, with the ap- proval of the Governor and Council, to issue scrip or certificates of indebtedness to an amount not exceeding one hundred and twenty- five thousand dollars, as an addition to the amounts already author- ized under the provisions of chapter four hundred and seven of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety-three and acts in addition thereto and in amendment thereof and as a part of the Metropolitan Parks Loan, and subject to the provisions thereof. Such scrip or certificates of indebtedness shall be issued as regis- tered bonds, payable in not exceeding twenty years from date of issue, and shall bear interest at a rate not exceeding four per cent per annum, payable semi-annually on the first days of January and July of each year.
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SEC. 4. Section four of said chapter five hundred and twenty- nine is hereby amended by inserting after the word " hundred'" in the second line, the words :- and twenty five,-and by striking out all after the word "manner," in the fourth and fifth lines, and in- serting in place thereof the words :- forty-seven per cent thereof by the City of Cambridge, twelve per cent thereof by the City of Somerville, twenty-four per cent thereof by the Town of Arlington, and seventeen per cent thereof by the Town of Belmont,-so as to read as follows :- Section 4. The cost of such improvements shall not exceed the sum of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, and shall be paid by the Cities of Cambridge and Somerville and the Towns of Arlington and Belmont, in the following manner :--- forty-seven per cent thereof by the City of Cambridge, twelve per cent thereof by the City of Somerville, twenty-four per cent thereof by the Town of Arlington, and seventeen per cent thereof by the Town of Belmont.
SEC. 5. Section five of said chapter five hundred and twenty- nine is hereby amended by striking out the words " Upon the ac- ceptance of said award," in the first line, and by striking out the words " said award," in the third and fourth lines, and inserting in place thereof the words :-- the provisions of section four of this act,-so as to read as follows :- Section 5. The Treasurer and Receiver General of the Commonwealth shall determine the amount to be paid in accordance with the provisions of section four of this act by each of said Cities and Towns as their proportion of the cost of said improvements and shall collect the same, with interest at the current rates, in the sum charged to each of said Cities and Towns in the apportionment and assessments of its State tax for the succeeding twenty years until the final sum to be paid by each city and town has been fully paid. The assessments thus paid shall be credited and added to the Metropolitan Parks Loan Sinking Fund.
SEC. 6. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [Approved June 19, 1907.
It will be seen from the Act as amended :
1. That Spy Pond is specifically mentioned as sharing in the proposed improvements and that it must be left in at least as good sanitary condition as at present.
The Selectmen have contended for this from the first and it appears now to be well assured.
2. That the cost of improvements shall not exceed $125,000, to be apportioned as follows :-
47 per cent to Cambridge. 12 per cent to Somerville. 24 per cent to Arlington. 17 per cent to Belmont.
3. That the detailed plans of construction must be submitted by the Metropolitan Park Commissioners to the Mayor of cities and
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Selectmen of towns interested and that if said plans are disapproved by either Mayor or Selectmen of said cities and towns within thirty days after receiving the same, the Act shall be void and of no effect.
Since the passage of the above Act the Metropolitan Park Com- mission have been perfecting and completing plans and securing options on lands all for the purpose of submitting detailed plans to Mayors of cities and Selectmen of towns for their approval or disapproval. It is expected that said plans will be so submitted in the near future.
ORDER RELATIVE TO HOSPITALS. At a special meeting of the Selectmen held July 23, 1907, it was voted that the following order be adopted :-
Ordered, that no hospital for the treatment of diseases which are dangerous to public health shall be established within the limits of the Town of Arlington except in areas described as follows :-
Beginning at the southwest corner of the boundary line of Belmont and Arlington and Lexington ; thence by the boundary line between Arlington and Lexington 2,400 feet; thence by a straight line in a southerly direction to the boundary line of Belmont and Arlington at a point distant 2,400 feet from the point of beginning; thence by the boundary line between Arlington and Belmont in a westerly direction to the point of beginning.
And the occupation or use of any building for that purpose located in any part of the Town except as aforesaid, is hereby prohibited.
It did not seem advisable to your Board that a considerable por- tion of good residential territory at the Heights should be used for the location of a hospital for the treatment of diseases which are dangerous to public health ; especially did the Board feel this when a strong and reasonable protest from resident citizens in that section of the Town was made. A hospital of such a nature would seriously depreciate the value of nearby property and hinder future develop- ment and growth of the Town. For these reasons the Board unani- mously passed the above order.
ACCEPTANCE OF ACT RELATIVE TO TOWN MEETINGS. Chapter 168, Acts of 1906, being an Act relative to Town meetings in Arling- ton was accepted by the Town at a special Town meeting called for that purpose and held on September 13, 1907.
The act went into effect on its acceptance by the Town, therefore all Town meetings held thereafter must be managed in accordance with the requirements of said act.
The act itself is as follows :
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SELECTMEN'S REPORT.
CHAPTER 168, ACTS OF 1906.
AN ACT RELATIVE TO TOWN MEETINGS IN TOWN OF ARLINGTON. Be it enacted, etc., as follows :
SECTION 1. At all Town meetings held in the Town of Arlington the Town shall use a system of registering turnstiles for determin- ing the number of persons admitted to each meeting. The Select- men shall appoint officers to have charge of the turnstiles, and shall determine from them the number of persons admitted to each meet- ing, and at the adjournment thereof shall make a return to the Town Clerk under oath, which may be administered by him, of the num- ber of persons who have been admitted to such meeting, as regis- tered by such turnstiles. The Town Clerk shall immediately make a record of such return in the records of the meeting, which record shall have the same legal force and effect as the records'of the pro- ceedings of the meeting. All such returns shall be preserved by the Town Clerk until at least twenty days after the final adjourn- ment or dissolution of the meeting to which they relate, and shall be open to public inspection.
SEC. 2. Any vote passed at an original or adjourned Town meeting to which four hundred or more persons shall have been ad- mitted shall, upon petition, be submitted to the voters at large for ratification at a subsequent Town meeting, as hereinafter provided, except that votes for Moderator, or for any Town, County, State or National officer, or any proposition on which by any special or general law of the Commonwealth a yea or nay vote is required to be taken by ballot, shall be final. No vote subject to ratification under the provisions of this act shall take effect until the expiration of the time herein limited for filing a petition for ratification ; nor, if such petition be filed, until after such vote shall be ratified in the manner hereinafter provided.
SEC. 3. If within five days after the final adjournment or dis- solution of such Town meeting a petition addressed to the Select- men shall be filed with the Town Clerk, signed by at least fifty legal voters of the Town, requesting that any vote or votes passed at such meeting, except the final votes before mentioned, be sub- mitted to the voters of the Town for ratification, then the Select- men shall, after the expiration of said five days, forthwith call a Town meeting for the sole purpose of so submitting such vote or votes. In case two or more votes passed at a Town meeting relate to one subject-matter, and a petition is filed as aforesaid for the ratification of one or more such votes, the Selectmen may in their discretion submit, in addition to those for which petitions are filed, any or all of the votes relating to the same subject-matter ; and for this purpose a vote to borrow money shall be held to relate to the same subject-matter as the vote or votes to appropriate the money to be borrowed. The polls shall be opened at two o'clock in the
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afternoon and shall be closed not earlier than nine o'clock in the evening, and a vote shall be taken by ballot upon the question, " Shall the following vote (or votes) passed at the Town meeting (or at the adjourned Town meeting) held on the day of
19 , be ratified ? Vote : " Any vote or votes submitted for ratification, as aforesaid, receiving a majority of the votes cast thereon, shall be considered to be ratified, otherwise such vote or votes shall have no force or effect : provided, that if any vote required for its original passage more than a majority of the votes cast, then a like proportion shall be required for ratification.
SEC. 4. Every petition filed as aforesaid shall forthwith be ex- amined by the Town Clerk, who shall ascertain therefrom the num- ber of legal voters whose signatures are attached thereto, and shall make a record thereof, and such record, together with a copy of the petition, exclusive of the names affixed thereto, shall be inserted in the records of the meeting for ratification of the vote or votes named in the petition, which record shall have the same legal force and effect as the record of the proceedings of such meeting. All such petitions shall be preserved by the Town Clerk until at least twenty days after the final adjournment or dissolution of said meet- ing, and during that period shall be open to public inspection.
SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of the Selectmen of the Town to prepare the ballots to be used at such Town meetings, and the con- duct of such meetings shall be under their charge, subject to the laws relating to elections, so far as the same may be applicable.
SEC. 6. A meeting shall be held for the purpose of submitting. the question of the acceptance of this act to the legal voters of the Town at some time within two years after the passage hereof. At. such meeting the polls shall be open not less than eight hours, and the vote shall be taken by ballot as in the case of the annual Town election, in answer to the question, "Shall an act passed by the general court in the year nineteen hundred and six, entitled 'An Act relative to Town meetings in the Town of Arlington,' and pro- viding for the ratification of certain votes passed. at such meetings, be accepted by the Town ? " and the affirmative votes of. a majority of the voters present and voting thereon shall be required for its acceptance. If at any meeting so held this act shall fail to be ac- cepted, it may, at the expiration of three months after any such previous meeting, be submitted again for acceptance, but not after the period of two years from the passage of this act.
SEC. 7. So much of this act as authorizes the submission of the. question of its acceptance to the legal voters of the Town shall take effect upon its passage, but it shall not take further effect unless. accepted by the legal voters of the Town as herein prescribed. [Approved March 16, 1906.
BOARD CEMETERY COMMISSIONERS. Sections 21 to 25 inclusive, of Chapter 78 of the Revised Laws, relative to a Board of Cemetery Commissioners were accepted by the Town November 17, 1907.
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SELECTMEN'S REPORT.
This will necessitate the election of said Board at the regular March Town meeting of 1908. The Board is to consist of three members and must be elected in accordance with Section 21 of Chapter 78, which reads as follows :
CHAPTER 78, REVISED LAWS.
BOARD OF CEMETERY COMMISSIONERS.
SECTION 21. A Town which accepts the provisions of this and the four following sections or has accepted the corresponding pro- visions of earlier laws may, at any Town meeting, elect by ballot a Board of Cemetery Commissioners consisting of three persons, a majority of whom shall for at least one year previous to their election, have been owners of a lot in a cemetery or other public burial ground in said Town. If such Board is first chosen at a meeting other than an annual Town meeting one member shall be elected for one year from the day following that fixed by law for the last preceding annual Town meeting, one member for two years, and one member for three years from said day; and annually thereafter one member so qualified shall, at the annual Town meet- ing, be elected by ballot for a term of three years. Such Boards shall choose a Chairman and a Clerk who may be a member of the Board.
SEC. 22. Said Board shall have the sole care, superintendence- and management of all public burial grounds in its town, may lay out any existing public burial grounds in its town or any land pur- chased and set apart by said town for cemeteries and other public burial grounds in lots or other suitable subdivisions with proper paths and avenues, may plant, embellish ornament and fence the same and erect therein such suitable edifices and conveniences and make such improvements as it considers convenient; and, subject to. the approval of the town, may make such regulations, not incon- sistent with law, as it considers expedient.
SEC. 23. Said Board may, by deed made and executed in such manner and form as it may prescribe, convey to any person the sole and exclusive right of burial in any lot in said cemetery and of erecting tombs, centaphs and other monuments or structures thereon upon such terms and conditions as its regulations prescribe. Such deeds and all subsequent deeds of such lots made by the owners thereof shall be recorded by said Board by suitable books of record, which shall be open to the public at all reasonable times.
SEC. 24. A town in which Cemetery Commissioners are chosen may receive gifts or bequests for maintaining cemeteries or ceme- tery lots, which shall be paid into the town treasury of said town and, with the accounts thereof, shall be kept separate from the other money and accounts of said town. The Town Treasurer shall invest.
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all such funds in accordance with the stipulations, if any, accom- panying them ; otherwise he shall invest them as ordered by the Selectmen and said Commissioners and pay the income therefrom upon their order or with their approval. The proceeds of sales of lots or rights of burial in said cemetery, shall be paid into the town treasury and shall be subject to said orders.
SEC. 25. Said Board shall not incur debts or liabilities for pur- poses other than aforesaid nor to an amount exceeding the amount of the funds subject to their order; and it shall annually make a report in writing to said town of its official acts, of the condition of said cemetery and burial grounds, and render an account of its receipts and expenditures for the same and of the funds subject to its order.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS. The Robbins House and the Medford Street Estate have received special repairs, the former painted externally with minor repairs internally, including new range, and the latter repapering and repainting several rooms. A new fence has been built on the line of the Russell School Playground. These expenses have drawn largely on the income from these premises, but the property must be kept in good condition.
The Almshouse property has been repaired and redressed suitably for renting purposes. As an Almshouse it was discontinued and from July 1 has been rented as a dwelling.
Needed repairs have been made in the Town House in addittion to those called for by the special appropriation referred to elsewhere.
In the basement the steam pipes were readjusted to afford more heat and the boiler was retubed as required by the boiler inspector.
The roof has also been repaired to some extent, but the work is of a temporary character, as the entire roof will need to be reslated in the near future.
TOWN HOUSE' REPAIRS. Eight hundred dollars were appro- priated for interior repairs and improvements of the Town House, to be expended under the direction of this Board. The walls and ceiling of the audience hall have been redecorated and the lights rearranged ; the walls and ceiling of the corridors and stairways retinted ; The Selectmen's room refloored and refurnished and the ladies' dressing-room refloored and retinted. The work was done under the special supervision of Mr. William Proctor, and probably the interior of the hall was never so satisfactory and artistic in appearance as at present.
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