HomeMy WebLinkAbout2038.7 Report of committee on water supply and Fire Department, 18932
At a meeting of the Town, held April 3, 1893, the joint
committee, composed of the Committee appointed by the town to
consider the needs of the Fire Department, and of the Committee
on Water Supply, was "continued, to investigate and report at the
next annual meeting of the town."
In accordance with this vote, the Joint Committee
report as follows:-
We beg to state that since our last report was made the
Water Company has provided an additional pump of 1,000,000 gals.
capacity per day, and has taken steps to construct a large stor-
age basin in the meadow above its works. It has made no provi-
sion, however, for an additional tank, and we reiterate, therefore,
our recommendation of last year "that the town insist that the
Water Complany erect an additional tank or stand pipe on a suf-
ficiently high elevation, which it shall keep filled at all times
with water, and to be used only in case of fire" and "that no
further contract should be made with the Water Company which
does not provide for such additional tank or for better pro-
tection in some other reasonable method."
We call attention, furthermore, to the unusual number of
fires, many of them at a distance from the centre, that have
occurred in the town since our last report, and to the disad-
vantage under which the Fire Department has labored in not being
able to locate these fires promptly and to bring the chemical
engines, -which are of use only in the early stage of a fire,-
into service quickly.
In view of these facts , we endorse Articles 23 and 27 of the
warrant for the present Town Meeting relating, respectively,
to a Fire Alarm System and to additional appropriations for
the Fire Department. We are convinced that the present
method of notifying the Department of the existence and location
of fires is wholly inadequate and that an alarm of great-
er or less extent should be introduced at once. We are of
the opinion, also, that the request of the Fire Dept. for addition-
al hose, for a swing harness for the hook and ladder, and for the
remodeling of the chemical engines in such manner that they
may be more easily handled and may be drawn by horses, is a
reasonable one and for the advantage of the town.
Finally we call atention to the fact that when, by a stor-
age basin and a special stand pipe, the supply of water for fire
purposes shall be made more nearly adequate, and when, by a com-
plete alarm system, it shall be possible to give prompt and
accurate notice of fires, then it will be desirable for the
town to consider the expediency of equipping the Depatment
with steam fire engines.
We respectfully ask that we be discharged form further duty.
James S Munroe
George W. Sampson
Wm. B Foster
F. F. Raymond
A. S. Parsons
A. Eliott
E.A. Shaw
James P. Munroe
I agree to the above except the recommendation in regard to
remodeling the chemical engines - Albert B Smith
Art [Article] 4
1893
201
2038.7