USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Wilbraham > Wilbraham annual report 1951-1955 > Part 26
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Tull, Robert H. Victor, Joseph
Whyte, Harry R.
Wiesner, Henry A.
Wilson, Thomas G.
791 Stony Hill Rd., W. 2030 Boston Rd., N. W. 640 Springfield St., W. 501 Monson Rd., W. 276 Stony Hill Rd., W. 680 Ridge Road, W.
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Produce Man
Fellows, Weldon H.
Retired
Town Services - Telephone Directory
Fire Tel. WI 6-3111
Town Office Tel. WI 6-3816
Department
Call
Telephone
Assessors
Assessors
WI 6-3816
Birth, Death, Marriage Certificates
Town Clerk
WI 6-3816
Board of Health
Selectmen
WI 6-3816
Building Permits
Building Inspector
WI 6-4059
Charities and Relief
Welfare Department
WI 6-3816
Dog Licenses
Town Clerk
WI 6-3816
Dog Roaming
Dog Warden
WI 6-4069
Electrical Permits
Building Inspector
WI 6-4059
Fishing & Hunting Licenses . Town Clerk
WI 6-3816
Highways
Superintendent
WI 6-3060
Library
Librarian
WI 6-4461
Police
Constables
WI 6-3701 or WI 6-4069
Peddlers, etc.
Selectmen
WI 6-3816
Rubbish, Garbage Disposal
Selectmen
WI 6-3816
Sanitary Inspectors
Selectmen
WI 6-3816
Schools
Pines
Spfld. LI 3-1029
Schools
Springfield St.
WI 6-3477
Schools
Memorial
WI 6-3465
School Nurse
Memorial
WI 6-3465
Taxes
Tax Collector
WI 6-3816
Town Treasurer
Treasurer
WI 6-3816
Trees
Tree Warden
WI 6-3595
Visiting Nurse
Visiting Nurse Assoc.
Spfld. 7-2-4145
Water Department
Superintendent
WI 6-3816
Sundays and Holidays
WI 6-3413 or WI 6-4070
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PRINTED BY THE POND-EKBERG COMPANY SPRINGFIELD, MASS.
Town of Wilbraham, Massachusetts
ANNUAL REPORT
Famous Wilbraham Peaches
1954
CONDENSED ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1954
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"Your Town at a Quick Glance"
Cover Illustration: The color plates for the cover of this report have been made available through the courtesy of the A. T. De LaMare Printing and Publishing Com- pany of New York and Dorrance Green of Wilbraham.
LUCILLE ANN RICE: One of several varieties of peaches grown on the Rice Fruit Farm in Wilbraham.
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Table of Contents of Condensed Annual Report
Pages 1 through 64. Printed on White Paper
Page
Balance Sheet
26
Committee Report - Regional School District 11
Comparative Annual Expenditures - Four Years 29
General Information About Wilbraham
63
Net Cost Accounts Other Than Appropriations
32
Report of the Financial Committee 21
Report of the Civic Survey Council 15
Report of the School Survey Committee 10
Selectmen's Report 4
Town Meeting - March 13, 1954 33
Town Meeting - June 10, 1954 41
Warrant for March 5, 1955 51
APPENDIX
For appendix containing 1954 reports and expenditures of all departments (publication of which is required by vote of Town Meeting) see Pages 65 to 120 inclusive Printed on peach-colored paper
Table of Contents for Appendix
appears on page 66
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Selectmen's Report
TAX RATE
The members of your Board of Selectmen have not enjoyed their present-era, self-imposed, task of serving as sort of official "prophets of doom", in continually warning of major expenses ahead and urging current economies.
On February 3, 1954 at a joint meeting of the Assessors, the Finance Committee and the Selectmen, it appeared that if the Town Meeting were to appropriate the amounts recommended by the Finance Committee, and if the over-all increase in valuations for new building and correction of inequities did not exceed an average of 10%, a tax rate of $53.00 could be expected. Due to this indicated increase, your Selectmen and Finance Committee abandoned a State approved plan to recommend a Town appropriation of $35,000.00 from current tax rate to go into savings for future building of school rooms.
Upon the announcement of a $45.00 tax rate for 1954, an apparent increase of no more than $3.00, Townspeople breathed a sigh of relief. They said: "Thank goodness our Selectmen, Assessors, and Finance Committee are given to exaggeration." But this relief was short lived! When the 1954 tax statements arrived, individual tax bills appeared to have averaged an increase of about 20% over and above totals which would have resulted from both a 10% increase in valuations and a $3.00 increase in tax rate. A 20% additional over-all increase in valuation (eg. 30% instead of 10%) would obviously have been the equivalent of ($8.40 increase in 1953 tax rate or the 1954 equivalent) $50.40 instead of $45.00. That figure would have been very close to the original estimate made in advance of last year's Town Meeting and missed the $53.00 estimate by no more than an unexpected windfall increase in the Town's income from the State.
General increases in valuations not only make year to year comparisons rather difficult, but reduce tax rates without any benefits or changes in tax bills rendered.
To help all voters in appraising possible tax bill results from 1955 Town Meeting appropriations, the following formula should prove convenient :- Every appropriation of $1,000.00 which is not reimbursed or borrowed from either ourselves or others is the equivalent of 12c in our tax rate. Thus every such appropriation of $8,500.00 is the equiv- alent of an additional $1.00 in the tax rate.
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TOWN BY-LAWS AND REGULATIONS
Ten years ago, with the alert and informed interest of the late George Murphy, a program to search out all the legally adopted regulations and by-laws of the Town not previously rescinded was undertaken. During the inter- vening years, your Selectmen have concluded a study of musty minutes of olden day Selectmen's meetings and all other original Town records back to those of our first Town Meetings in an effort to find and list up all of the Town's valid laws and regulations. Four years ago we secured your first appropriation for this program which was to provide for the printing of the results. This year the exhausting searches, the legal reviews and the final pub- lishing have all been completed and the resulting booklets are now available at the Town Office.
HIGHWAYS
The goal of your Board's fifteen year campaign for extra state-aid and public safety was realized by the letting of contracts for a new Canal Bridge on Red Bridge Road with only 10% of the cost borne by the Town.
The dangerous hollow at the intersection of Glendale and Monson Roads was eliminated under Chapter 90 construc- tion in one of the most substantial grading operations ever undertaken by the Town's Highway Department.
Current Highway Department needs include a new salt storage building, a sand spreader and a heavy duty sand loader, all of which can doubtless be paid for out of the road machinery reserve account accumulating during 1954 and 1955.
WATER PRESSURES
It is gratifying to note that water pressure losses in the vicinity of Maple Street have now become negligible, even at peak hours, thanks to the new 16" supply line completed during 1954. However, Water Department engineers have completed tests which indicate that peak hour water pres- sures and volume at Wilbraham Center are still danger- ously low.
There are still four sections of seriously under-sized pipes in our chief distribution system, namely :
1. The 30 year old, badly corroded Main Street line, being the system's original 8" pipe to Burt Lane and 6" to the Rice Fruit Farm.
2. The very inadequate 6" line on Springfield Street between Main Street and Stony Hill Road.
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3. A section of 2,800 feet of 6" pipe on Stony Hill Road, lying between lengths of 8" pipe.
4. A section of 8,700 feet of 6" pipe on Boston Road west as far as Kelley's Dip.
In addition to the above, there is the engineer recom- mended proposal to complete an over-all grid by connecting the two southern extremities of Main Street and Stony Hill Road through Tinkham Road.
In mid 1953 we increased water rates by about 60% to finance just such system rehabilitations. Thanks to these increases the receipts from water sales over operating expenses for 1954 totaled approximately $12,500.00, exclu- sive of debt servicing and amortization. All water loans, other than the 1953 issue for the new 16" supply line, will become fully paid up in 1956 and 1957. Since our formula for assessed valuation levies something like an additional 5% for water users, such income from subscribers would appear adequate to service and retire the debt incurred for the 1953 supply main.
Thus, the $12,500.00 return from water rates would appear adequate to finance a substantial portion of the above needed correction or rehabilitation of the present system. If such work is not steadily continued, as receipts from water bills permit, it would appear (as a matter of good faith) that the water rate increases of 1953 should be reviewed.
Certain it is, with the above rehabilitation work ahead of us which in its entirety may total some $300,000.00 or more, no major water main extensions other than to improve the system should be considered at this time with- out assessment of adequate specific betterments to cover a major portion of the cost.
The Water Commissioners have asked for an appropria- tion to build their own modest storage and repair building on the Highway Department lot. Since this appropriation would permit the sale of the Perry building, we recommend its adoption at the Town Meeting.
POLICE
As the result of an epidemic of vandalism and property damage in the Town during the past year, your Selectmen acting as Police Commissioners appointed supplementary uniformed Special Police to set up temporary local patrols in cooperation with the State Police. Through a generous contribution of time and effort on the part of Col. James P. Powers, Rtd. U.S.A., this program was executed with
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minimum expense and earned the commendation of Massachusetts State Police Officials.
In the light of heavy loads upon the personnel of the State Police at the Monson Barracks, and the increasing hazards from potential delays in response to calls for police assistance, your Selectmen are reluctantly recommending the acquisition of a cruising car with radio-telephone on the State Police frequency, and the employment of sufficient uniformed personnel to regularly assist the State Police in patrolling and responding to emergency calls during certain night hours at a budget of between $12,000.00 and $14,000.00 per year, or at an approximate cost of $1.50 in the tax rate.
PLANNING BOARD AND CIVIC SURVEY COUNCIL
With outstanding cooperation from our local builders and developers, your Planning Board during 1954 developed zoning by-law regulations designed to reduce the potential during the next few years for huge, mass building opera- tions in the Town, and will further this program at our 1955 meeting by the submission of a simplified building code for final adoption.
A committee of leading citizens appointed jointly by the Planning Board and the Selectmen have been studying long term planning with respect to all sections of the Town and have produced a number of recommendations for the Town's consideration. We recommend the continuance of this Council as an official advisory committee.
We commend the Planning Board, and especially Chair- man Leo E. Kuehn and Clerk George B. Smith, for their hours of diligent effort to so direct local real estate develop- ments as to ultimately save the Town thousands of dollars.
TELEPHONE SERVICE
Late 1952 marked the end of the toll charge between Wilbraham and Springfield and the beginning of the dial system. This happy result climaxed several years of effort toward that goal by your Selectmen. At the time, when promised free and direct intercommunication with Spring- field and Ludlow, we assumed and reported that we would be able to dial without charge any telephone similarly reached without charge by any Springfield phone.
Subsequent developments indicated that interchange with Springfield and Ludlow under Telephone Company sched- ules meant just that, and nothing more. Officially, we were not supposed to dial East Longmeadow, Hampden, Long- meadow, etc., without going through the operator and pay-
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ing a toll even though our monthly phone bills were identical to those paid by Springfield subscribers. Actually of course, we have been able to dial these towns directly without toll cost.
However, with the new exchange set-up in the Spring- field area, we suddenly found we could no longer dial our free calls to these towns. Ever since our restricted calling range was published, your Selectmen have been negotiat- ing with officials of the Telephone Company to restore free and direct dial communication between Wilbraham and at least the contiguous adjoining communities of :- East Long- meadow, Hampden, and due to mechanical and other limitations, Palmer (instead of Longmeadow) in addition to Springfield and Ludlow.
We have every reason to believe that a satisfactory compromise can be attained, especially since we were advised prior to the printing of this report that top local area officials have submitted recommendations that such service be provided with Hampden and East Longmeadow.
SCHOOLS
It is disappointing to note that the school budget requested for 1955 exceeds that for 1954 by approximately $36,000.00, or the equivalent, without further state-aid, of just about $4.00 in the tax rate, in a year in which there has been no classroom construction. Our current need for new school rooms would appear to equal two to three new class rooms per year. We must currently start construc- tion on no less than six to eight rooms to be ready for September, 1956. These added rooms, economical unit con- struction, with an additional cafeteria-all purpose room, but without land or site improvement cost, would require an expenditure of about $250,000.00. If this sum were to be financed 50% from funds in the Town's treasury and 50% through the issuance of five year notes, (anticipating the State's subsidy of no less than 50%) would save the Town a substantial amount of interest. Under such a plan we would be able to complete payment for eight added rooms and a cafeteria at just about the date when further school classroom financing would be required. The actual five year tax rate cost would appear to figure about $3.60 per year for the above to cover interest and provide full replacement of the sum thus taken from our treasury on prior years' savings.
Our schools are now costing 60% of our tax dollar, with indications pointing toward considerably increased future costs for both building and operating the two to three new classrooms needed every year for some time to come. At
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some point along the way our school tax burden on real estate will require emergency study and action.
SIDEWALKS
Although your Board has never favored the public expense construction of sidewalks in Wilbraham, the safety of school children dictates the urgent need of a simple side- walk, even though laid out in winding fashion to save trees and plantings, on Springfield Street between Ripley and Main Streets and on Main Street between the Memorial School and Delmor Circle.
THE FUTURE
Our municipal fiscal problems are the most acute in the Town's history, but are no more difficult than those facing the 1955 Massachusetts Legislature with its requirement to find $15,000,000.00 in new revenue to meet rising costs in State institutions, pay installments on Veterans' Bonus and defray increases in pension costs. Such State budg- etary problems, added to the record breaking 3,084 bills filed for attention in the forthcoming legislative session, indicates that we as citizens must give extra careful atten- tion and thought to our State as well as to our municipal government during the next few years if we are to avoid taxation which will approach the point of smothering our progress.
ROGER T. HINTZE J. LORING BROOKS, JR. CARL NELSON
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Report of School Survey Committee
In accordance with the recommendation made in our report to the March 13, 1954 Annual Town Meeting, we have continued our study of the future need for additional classrooms in the Wilbraham School System. As many of us anticipated, the rapid growth in our school population has maintained its previous pace without abatement.
The 1954 pre-school census, which the State Department of Education requires towns shall take each October, reveals that by September, 1956, we may expect 263 more pupils in Grades 1 through 9 than we had when we opened our 10-room addition in 1953. This increase, of course, does not include any children who may move into town and attend Wilbraham schools, between now and September, 1956. Based on past experience, this figure could be increased by as much as ten per cent.
To provide for the additional classrooms which we shall need by September, 1956, we recommend :
1. That we immediately plan and construct 8 more elementary classrooms and a general purpose room to be used for cafeteria, auditorium, etc.
2. That we use as a site land presently owned by the Town east of the Memorial School, subject to approval of the Massachusetts School Building Assistance Commission.
3. That we take advantage of the provisions of Sec- tion 9 of Chapter 645, Acts of 1948, and finance this construction by transferring at least 50 per cent of the cost from available surplus funds. Section 9 provides that if this is done the State will reimburse the Town for the State's share of the cost (approxi- mately 50 per cent in our case) in five equal annual installments beginning in the year in which the con- struction is started. Paying for this project in five years will save a substantial amount of interest.
4. That the Selectmen appoint a Building Committee empowered with the necessary authority to plan and construct the project as proposed for occupancy in September, 1956.
IRVING J. CORDNER DORRANCE T. GREEN ALBERT H. HOWES HARRY R. JEFFREY HELEN A. REID
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Report of the Regional School District Planning Committee
Introductory Notes by Selectmen:
Our town's rapid growth has made it advisable to study our future school needs, especially what we should do about a high school. After conferences with the School Com- mittee an item was placed in the warrant for the March 13, 1954 Annual Town Meeting instructing the moderator to appoint a special unpaid committee of three to be known as a Regional School District Planning Committee, as pro- vided in the General Laws, Chapter 71, Section 14.
The moderator, as instructed by the townspeople's approval of this article appointed a three man committee who studied, with similar committees from East Long- meadow and Hampden, the advisability of forming a Regional High School. The combined committees (known as the Regional School District Planning Board) reported their findings to the Selectmen of East Longmeadow, Hampden, and ourselves on December 1 summarizing as follows :
"After careful study of the above facts in relation to the feasibility of expanding the existing local facilities and in consideration of other problems peculiar to each town, the Regional Committee of East Longmeadow and Wilbraham decided to recommend a solution other than that of a Regional High School District. In view of the special problems of a smaller town, the Hampden Committee feels that the regional high school district would be a preferable solution to their problem."
The Wilbraham Regional School District Planning Com- mittee's report follows:
TO THE SELECTMEN OF THE TOWN OF WILBRAHAM :
After preliminary study of projected enrollments, pos- sible courses of study, and construction and operating costs of the proposed three-town Regional High School, the Planning Board decided that the representatives from each town should survey the various possibilities open to their own town so as to compare the benefits each town would receive from their joint association in a Regional High School with other alternatives open to them. In Wilbra- ham, we have three possibilities :
1. We can for a few years at least continue to send our pupils to the Springfield High Schools.
2. We can enter a Regional School District with
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NINTH GRADE, JUNE, 1954
Front row, left to right: Edward Anderson, Jack Morse, Gary Babi- neau, Victor Brown, David Yamer, Robert Egan, Joseph Gosende, John Davis.
Second row : Daniel Peterson, Charles Bowman, Carolyn Canney, Dorothy Bednarz, Julie Orton, Deb . orah Martin, Carol Graves, Carol Ammirato, Leone Casey, James Normoyle.
Third row: Mr. Lennon, class advisor, Paul Babineau, David Chapman, Betty Herter, Joan Lu- cier, Sheila McCombe, Frances Har- vey, Melinda Safford, Betty Good- rich, Peggy Woods, Frederick Her- ter, Malcolm Melanson.
Fourth row: David Cobb, Donald Castaldini, Johanna Groll, Lea Von Flatern, Rose Brackinisky, Carol Dodge, Carol Nixon, Wendy Clark, Wanda Schuttert, Edmund Sidur, Donald Croteau.
Missing when picture was taken: Anthony Bernardes, Gordon Bliss.
Hampden and East Longmeadow, or with either of them singly.
3. We can convert Memorial School to a high school.
From as many angles as we could, we have studied these three possibilities in frequent meetings among ourselves and with the committees from Hampden and East Long- meadow. A cost comparison for these three possibilities, estimating annual per pupil costs, averaged over twenty year period shows :
Continuing as at present Grade 9 at Wilbraham, Grades 10, 11, and 12 at Springfield $381.23
Four-Year Regional High School (Wilbraham, East Long- meadow and Hampden) $369.50 Converting Memorial School to a Four-Year High School and replacing the classrooms of that building by class- rooms for lower grades which are less expensive to construct $372.06
These figures are computed as average yearly cost per pupil, grades 9 through 12, for the 20 year period 1959 through 1978. (1959 was selected as being the earliest practical date for either a Regional High School or the conversion of Memorial to a High School).
These estimates include cost of operation, transportation where applicable, and amortization of principal and interest charges for facilities.
Even though our figures indicate that the Regional High School may be slightly less expensive to build and operate, we recommend the conversion of Memorial School, when the need arises, to a four-year high school - perhaps by 1959-1960 - for the following reasons :
1. As soon as the number of our high school pupils reaches 450-500 we can administer an efficient high school and offer to our pupils as good a fundamental education as they would elsewhere receive. This opinion is confirmed by the office of our State Depart- ment of Education.
2. Under our own administration, we have a better opportunity to reduce costs below those shown in our projected comparison. (The State average for 4- year high schools in Mass., $315.00 per pupil per year, was used in estimating costs for both "Region- al" and "Memorial" high schools). For example, our cost per pupil is much less than the State average in both elementary and junior high school - 20 per cent less in elementary, 28 per cent in junior high. This suggests that our high school cost per pupil might well also be smaller.
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3. Matters of control and administration would rest solely with our own School Committee.
4. A local high school would be much more convenient for our pupils to take part in extra-curricular activ- ities. A Regional High School would probably be placed in the center of population, and so would not be situated in Wilbraham.
5. In a few years, a Regional High School would be too large for efficient administration.
6. Even though we may be permitted to continue to send our pupils to Springfield for a few more years, we shall then be faced with the necessity for provid- ing another school for them, and in the meantime, the tuition that we are paying to Springfield will have helped build no school for us. We shall be no better off then than now.
Because our town's population is changing so fast that it is impossible to foresee our needs with any degree of exactness, we further recommend that another committee be appointed late in 1956 to continue this study of our high school situation. By that time, we feel sure that what we should do and when we should undertake it will be more apparent.
Before closing we want to thank Mr. Irving H. Agard our Superintendent of Schools who gave us so much of his time and the benefit of his experience in completing this study. We also want to express our appreciation for the whole-hearted co-operation of the members of East Long- meadow's and Hampden's committees during our meetings with them as members of the Regional School District Planning Boad.
ALBERT H. HOWES, Chairman HARRY R. JEFFREY MARSHALL E. ROPER
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Report of the Wilbraham Civic Survey Council to the Planning Board and to the Town of Wilbraham
In October, 1954, at the request of the Planning Board and the Board of Selectmen, those whose names appear below accepted membership on a Committee to be called the Wilbraham Civic Survey Council. Our assignment was to conduct studies and submit recommendations from time to time to the Planning Board, the Selectmen, or the Town Meeting, with respect to any or all types of current planning for Wilbraham's long term future. This was a tall order! However, when we realized how well our fore- bears had planned for us, we could not fail to interest ourselves in current activity which might benefit the public welfare of those of our descendents who might decide to live in Wilbraham.
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