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TOWN OF LEXINGTON 19 Town's various municipal service departments are hard pressed to keep abreast of the work to be done. · The reports of var ious Departments and Boards (which appear separately in this book) furnish complete details of their work during 1949 and in some cases pertinent comments as to what lies ahead. In brief, we cite major municipal projects during 1949 as follows: 1) Some two miles of 12" water main in Bedford Street from T ewksbury Street to Westview Street, and one-half mile in West- view Street from Bedford Street to the Railroad crossing. This installation for the benefit of the Veterans' Hospital in Bedford, and paid for by the Federal Government, was also urgently needed by Lexington for strengthening our water supply to the Manor and adjacent areas. 2) Completion of the South Branch Vine Brook trunk sewer and start of connecting adjacent street laterals in the Farmcrest area. 3) Work (and delay) on the North Branch Vine Brook trunk sewer. The contractor to whom this work had been awarded was soon in financial difficulties, the cumulative effect of which forced him to cease work in early July. Formal default followed, and legal red tope and negotiations with the Bonding Company con- sumed much of the following six months. Resumption of work under a new contractor began at the year's end. No financial loss to the Town is expected. 4) Large street drain on East Street from Vine Brook crossing to the junction of Adams Street, and smaller drain up Adams Street to the corner of Meriam Street. 5) Widening of Waltham Street from Alvin's store to Vine Brook . This was done under Chapter 90 with State and County aid -50% and 25% respectively of the total cost. Ineffective liason between Town and State, and somewhat unsuitable engineering design by the State may well have increased slightly the net cost of this project to the Town. 6) Sidewalks (particularly needed for school children) on Adams Str.eet and Pleasant Street. 7) Installation of various sewer laterals and extensions of water main. Largest group of sewer laterals was in the Bow Street- Aibermarle Avenue area where 3 ,393 feet of pipe was laid, and -20 ANNUAL REPORTS connected with the first link in the new Munroe low level trunk sewer constructed in 1948. 8) Installation of 262 water services and 90 sewer services to homes. 9) Street drain in School Street about 616 feet in length from the corner of Grandview Avenue to Roosevelt Road. Street drain in Roosevelt Road about 251 feet in length from School Street to Ellison Road. 10) Resurfacing of about 1.23 miles of upper Grove Street to the Be dford Town Line. 11) Surfacing about 1,000 feet of the Grove Street "cut off", also installation of guard rails at the same location-all under Chapter 90 aid. General policing of our streets and sidewalks, cleaning of sewers and catch basins, etc. was not entirely adequate on account of the overall amount of work undertaken on drains, sewers, etc. This unbalance will be corrected in 1950 and our budgets have been ad justed accordingly . The Annual Town Meeting in March, 1949 authorize d the appointing of a Committee to study the probable financial capital outlay needs of the Town over the next five years, and this Com- mittee has held many meetings with the various Town Boards. Its report should be interesting as well as informative. Although schools are complete~y outside the jurisdiction of the Board of Selectmen, we note that apparently the new Fiske School will be close to capacity enrollment in 1950 and that the Town's elementary school facilities must again be increased-and most promptly. Surface drainage is a problem assuming increasing and press- ing importance. Temporary and inexpensive measures of past years for the disposal of street drainage water are becoming im- practical and the disposal of such storm drainage water must now be faced immediately in many instances, on a permanent and far more E:xpensive basis. The cost of this program may well extend over the next five or ten years. Our water system must be strengthened to meet the sharply heavier demands upon it by our 947 postwar new homes. The Board of Selectmen is recommending in its 1950 budget an expend- iture to replace 6" pipe with 1 0" in one of the areas (Fair Oaks) where more water is most urgently needed. Here again, such