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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1934-12-04 210 to c: SELECTMEN'S MEETING DECEMBER a, 1934. A regular meeting of the Selectmen was held in the Selectmen's Room, Town Office Building, at 7:30 P. M. Messrs. Trask, Giicreast, Ferguson, O'Connell and Lyons were present. The Clerk was also present. Mr. John J. Donovan of Theresa Avenue earn before the Board to report that since the Board moved the electric light on Bow Street near the railroad track there is quite a Street space there, necessitating another light. Light Bow Mr. Soamman reported that he looked the situation over Street. today and feels that there should be another electric light in that location and the Board voted to authorize the Supt. of Public Works to have a light installed on Bow Street be- tween the railroad track and Mass. Avenue. Mr. Ross was before the Board to discuss the matter of the Haskell claim. Letter was received from the Town Coun- sel in which he reported that he talked with the counsel for the Haskell's on this case and that originally they asked $1500. but after talking with them they are willing to take 500. plus the abatement of the sewer assessment Haskell of $290. for the loss of the water from the well on account Case . of the construction of the sewer and drainage in Brandon Street. Prior to the digging of the well the Haskell's had an electric pump and a tank in the building which would cost about $42. The lawyer claims *100. for the pump. Mrs. Haskell claims that she paid *10. to have water carried to her and that she will owe the Lexington Inn $25. for water she has borrowed from them. Mr. Ross stated that it would not cost very much to supply Town water to Mrs. Haskell and give it to her free or charge while she occupies the premises, or if she de- sired to have another well dug they eould replace the well. After discussing the matter, the Board decided to in- struct the Town Counsel to offer the Haskells either one of these propositions. Letter was received from the E.R.A. workers Union, with headquarters at 20 Maple Street, Lexington, asking E. R. A. for a meeting place for the E.R.A. employees. Workers The Board did not feel that it was up to them to prov- Union. ide a meeting place for this purpose and decided to so notify Capt. Charles H. Bumps. It was voted to authorize the Town Treasurer to pro- Loan. ceed to secure bids for a temporary loan of $150,000. dat- ed December 12th and payable June 5, 1935. Bids are to 211 be received on Tuesday, December 11th. This loan was nec- essary to pay off a loan which comes due on December 20th of $150,000. It was voted to request bids on the Annual Town Re- port from the following concerns: Mercantile Printing Co. , 25 Foster Street, Worcester Medford Mercury, 12 Forest Street, Medford Gainsboro Press, 295,Hunti±gtbn:Ave., Boston Melrose Free Press, Inc., 40 West Foster St., Melrose Wright & Potter Printing Co. , 23 Derne Street, Boston Town Report. 'reran Press, 24 Beach Street, Boston Somerville Press , Davis Square , Somerville The Devonshire Company, 409 Shawmut Avenue, Bostont Lexington Minute-Man, 1843 Mass. Ave., Lexington Garden City Press, Inc. , 13 Boyd Street, Newton The Memorial Press, Plymouth The Jordan and More Press, 368 Congress Street, Boston Spaylding Moss Co. , 42 Franklin Street, Boston The Board discussed the matter of traffic regulation prepared for adoption and decided to prohibit parking not Traffic only on Pleasant Street for 1000 feet on both sides but Regulation. from Pleasant Street to Watertown Street; also on Follen Road for a distance of 15 feet at its intersection with Mass. Avenue and Pleasant ,Street. Report was received from the Chief of Police in re- gard to the trucking on Hancock Street that on November 30 one truck owned by Greenough Construction Co. traveled Trucking over Hancock Street at 7:05 A. M. and on December 1st at on Hancock 6:50 A. M. a truck owned by Comeau Trucking Co. of Acton Street. travelled over Hancock Street. The Board felt that this was not an excessive amount of travel over the street and decided to notify Mr. Kraetzer of the amount of traffic and the Police found. Signs prohibiting heavy trucking however, were to be placed by the Supt. of Public Works owing to the fact that the regulation was made prohibiting trucking on this street. Letter was received from Albert A. Ross in which he stated that the Lexington Co-op. Bank desired to have an extension of the water main on Grassland Street for a dis- Water tanee of fifty feet. He stated that it would be necessary Extension, to install a hydrant and the total cost of the construction would be about $100. and the funds are available for this construction in his Department. It was therefor voted to authorize this installation. Letter was received from the Town Counsel in which he advised that the claim of Paul J. Kelley for care of his son at the Memorial Hospital was to be paid by Mr. Kelley 212 at the rate of $2. per week and he suggested that the Board write a letter to Kelley advising him that they were Commitments.willing to accept these payments. Commitment of water rates in the amount of $106.94 was signed by the Board. Commitment of miscellaneous water charges in the amount of $99.61 was also signed. Apparently the Board did not get the idea of the Town Counsel in his letter of November 15th in reference to the Mary E. Lowe case in which he desired to have advice in re- Lowe Case. gard to accepting the Jude 's decision in this case so that he could proceed to complete the case. The Board decided to inform Town Counsel that they would accept the findings of the Judge in the case but de- sired to force the removal of the shed built by Mrs. Lowe and located on another persons property which the Judge de- cided was in violation of the Building Law. Briefs of the Shea drainage case which was argued be- Shea Case. fore the full bench of the Supreme Judicial Court was re- ceived from the Town Counsel. Mr. O'Connell took the briefs to read them. The Court has reserved its decision in the matter. Street Mr. Giicreast reported that he would be ready to make Lights. a report in regard to the street lights on Mass. Avenue at the next meeting of the Board. The Board considered the following liquor licenses, and Liquor all being renewqls, voted to send a letter to the Alcoholic Licenses. Beverage Control Commission approving of the following licenses: All liguor.i Joseph Trani, 1757 Mass. Ave. - store - brick faced building front and rear en- trance. John J. Rudd, 1845 Mass. Ave. - store - wooden building front and rear en- trance. Ernest C. Martin, 1793 Mass. -Druggist-brick building, Ave. front and side en- trance. Edgar J. Thivierge, 1752 Mass .-Druggist-brick faced build- Ave. ing, front and side entrance. Beer and Wines. Lexington Fruit Co., 1740 Mass.-store- brick building, Ave. front entrance. 213 Adolph Labes, 17 Woburn Street, -store-wooden building, front entrance; Max Berman, 12 Mays . Avenue, -store-wooden building, front entrance; Minute-Man Golf Club, Corner -Club- Wooden building. Pleasant Street and Concord Avenue. In regard to the application of Philomena F. Pero for a Common Victualler 's License to serve beer and wine at the Home Dining Room, 1781 Mass. Avenue, it was decided to inform Mrs. Pero that her application being a new applica- tion would have to be advertised in the local paper in ac- cordance with the Law and upon payment of the fee for the Pero advertising of the application it would be published; also Liquor to inform her that the liquor license fee to serve beer License. and wine was established by the Board at $1000. and that payment of this entire amount must be made before a license can be issued and a b-nd of $1000. would also have to be filed. Letter was received from the State Dept. of Health commending the Board on restraining dogs on account of the prevalence of rabies but asking whether or not any program Rabies. had been started in Lexington to immunize against rabies. Dr. Anderson was informed that the Board would request the Town to approve a program for this work at the annual Town Meeting. The Chairman reported that John F. O'Connor who was appointed to assist William C. Paxton, Jr. on the Highway Dept. had been placed on a probation period of six months O'Connor. to see Whether or not he would be able to carry out the work satisfactorily. The Chairman reported that his work had been very satisfactory and as the Board agreed pre- viously they would increase his pay to $25. per week, it was voted to make this increase to Mr. O'Connor beginning December 3rd, 1934. Dr. Chester L. Blakely came before the Board to dis- cuss the matter of allowing the dogs that have already been inoculated for rabies to be at large. Dr. Blakely report- ed that this year there have been 85 dog bites and last year there were only 26 dog bites during the whole year and Dogs-- there had never been as many dog bites before in this town. Rabies. Therefor he felt it wise to quarantine the dogs. He stated that he took up the matter of letting the inoculated dogs run at large with the State Dept. of Health and they feel that the dogs should be restrained. It would be a different matter if about 50 per cent of the dogs were inoculated but in this town out of a population of 932 dogs he has only inoculated 46 of them. He felt also that it would be con- siderable work for the Police Dept. to see that the dogs 214 CP Cin CZ n n were restrained if the inoculated ones were allowed to run IIat large as they would have to look at the dog tag to find out whether or not it was inoculated. He stated that he had already bad three cases, one positive rabies this week and two others which he was quite sure would turn out to be rabies. He felt allowing the inoculated dogs to run at large would defeat the whole purpose of quarantine. Dr. Blakely also recommended that the dog tax money be used for the purpose of establishing clinics for the inoculation of dogs and not turned over to the Library. The Board read the restraint order which was adopted at the last meeting of the Board and Dr. Blakely felt that the order was in the proper form. Positive ease of rabies was received df the dog of J. J. Kenney of 149 Spring Street. In this family there were Persons no dog bites but the people were in contact with the dog Exposed to and the State Dept. of Public Health recommend that even Rabies. a person intimately exposed should be given anti-rabic treatment on account of possible scratches or cuts where saliva might get into. The Board felt that they should adopt the policy of recommending treatment and felt that persons who were act- ually bitten should be advised that the Board of Health would provide the treatment provided they could not pay, but persons who were only exposed and had no scratches or I bites, the Board would leave the matter up to the party themselves to decide and in cases of this kind they felt that the party should pay for the treatment themselves if possible. 1 Owing to new laws passed on the manufacturing of ice cream mix and frozen desserts, Ashley W. Partridge made application to do bus ness at 274 Marrett Road with the new form of license and presented a check of $31. covering the Icecream estimate for the amount of ice cream he made from June 29, License 1932 to March 1st, 1933, namely 31284 gallons. According to the new law, the Director of the Div. of Food and Drugs advised that the fee be calcul ted as $1. per 1000 gallons and the new license issued shold expire on April 30, 1934 as the old license issued April30, 1934 was put out of existence by the passage of a new act, Chap 373 of the Acts of 1934. The regulations under that act require an inspec- tion by the Health Inspector and it was decided to request Mr. Stevenson to make an inspection of the plant and report to the Board for the next meeting owing to the fact that the action must be taken on the application within two weeks of the receipt of the application. The Board voted to make the Club fee for Club license Club Li- for the sale of beer and wine only, $100. I cense. 215 Request for a permit to clean out a cesspool at 91 Hancock Street was received from Edwin Van Sickle of Bed- ford. It was felt that inasmuch as Peter Canessa is ap- Cesspools. pointed to do this work in Lexington and there is not suf- ficient to keep him going, that no permits to outsiders should be issued. Letter was received from the Town Counsel in which he stated that he was not yet ready to give an opinion in reference to whether or not the Board could insert an art- Wyman icle in the Warrant for a Town Meeting to repay Mr. Wyman Case. of Locust Avenue the sewer assessment tax of $301. which he protested. The Board discussed the matter of repairs on the Stone Building. Mr. Ferguson reported that in order to operate this hall as a public hall, approval of the Dept. of Public Safety would have to be had and a great deal of work would have to be done like reinforcing the timbers on the first floor and repairing the wood posts in the base- Stone ment and put on fire escapes, and the question as to whe- Building. they or not the expenditure of $4000. which would have to be expended to put the building in shape, would be justified in order that this building could be rented as a public hall was discussed. He stated that it would cost approx- imately $1000. to put in a new heater which would have to II be done as long as the Library was located there and various other repairs on the building anyway, and the Board gave the opinion that theyudid not feel an additional $3000. should be expended. e stated that the Inspector would come out and condemn the hall for public use if these things were not done. The Board felt that for community affairs, the hall of the Adams School Building could be used and recommended that $3000. be not spent. Mr. Gilcreast reported in regard to Old Age Assistance of Sarah Makechnie that he recommended an increase to $10. per week owing to the fact that Mrs. Cole would not agree Makechnie to keep her there and desired to have . per week for her Case. board because her board world have to aid at that rate at the Somerville Infirmary. The Board voted to approve granting $10. per week in this case. Mr. Mitchell reported that Henry Walker who is an Old Age Assistance, had been sent to the Somerville Infirmary and now will be charged to Welfare rather than Old Age As- Walker sistance. Owing to the fact that Mr. Walker had to be Case. moved, he granted aid in the amount of $3.00 per week to Ora Nicherson, housekeeper for Mr. Walker, who has been ill with the grippe and who remained at 37 Hibbert Street. The Board approved the action of granting this aid. 216 CO McHarg In regard to Grace McHaarg, Mr. Mitchell reported that Case. she had been sent to the State Infirmary at Tewksbury on Saturday last. In reference to Mrs. Alice Williams of Tarbell Avenue, Mr. Mitchell reported that he had sent her to the Mass. Williams General Hospital on the recommendation of the Town Physician Case. and she has been placed on the danger list. The last re- port stated that she was slightly improved. He stated that Roger Williams has been employed on E.R.A. and stated that he would like to reimburse the Town for hismother's hospi- tal bill if he is able to do so. Daniel McInnis is now living in the Glenn House on McInnis Forest Street receiving $12. per week on E.R.A. He has Case. four children at home and haa no other income . The Board approved paying of the rent in this ease. Harry Fisher who is on E.R.A. asked for additional hisher aid. The Board felt that he still owned and operated a ( Cast. ear and therefor they would not furnish any further aid. Mr. Mitchell reported that Maurice Sears, who lives in Sears Belmont, was examined by the Surgeon-General of the State, Case. and they authorized X20. per month for the next two months. Mr. Sears accident case has not as yet been settled. In regard to Mrs. William A. Slate of Forest Street, Mr. Mitchell stated that she reported to him that the Mass. General Hospital informed her that she was in need of an Slate operation. He sent the woman to Dr. Hardcastle and her .hus- Case. band refused to have him examine her. Mr. Mitchell felt that he should be authorized to act in this case if there was an emergency, but he did feel that as long as the Town em- ploys a Town Physician, persons desiring aid for medical at- tention should submit to an examination by the Town Physi- cian. Mr. Mitchell reported that he had taken up with the City of Boston the bills that were due them and the bills that were due from Boston to Lexington. There were some Welfare bills where persons were taken to the hospital without any Bills. authorization on the part of the Town and he felt this should not be approved. However, there is 04000. due the Town and the bills which were under consideration amount to some- thing like two or three hundred dollars outside of the ones that have been agreed upon. The Board considered the betterments derived by the installation of a sewer in Richard Road from Plymouth Road westerly a distance of approximately 300 feet, and have de- termined that the benefit or advantage to the abutting land 217 within the area to be in the amount of $.03886 per square foot and that it shall be assessed proportionately as fol- lows: Richard Road. No. Name. Lot. No. Sewer Assessment. 1111 James R. Smith 24 $55.52 1112 " " f 36 85.72 1113 " M " 38 69.80 1114 " it of 39 83.38 1115 " ff ff 40 65.43 Total $359.85 The meeting adjourned at 9: 50 P. M. A true record, Attest: Clerk. I