Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1938-10-07 556 SFTF CTMEN t S MEETING OCT. 7, 1938. , A special meeting of the Board of Selectmen was held in the Selectmen's Room, Town Office Building, at 5 :15 P.M. Chairman Giroux and Mr. Potter were present. The Clerk was also present. Mr. Raymond and Mr. Paxton appeared before the Board. Mr. Raymond said that the question was whether or not the Board wanted to proceed to spend several thousand dollars on cleaning streets on the emergency work. He said that to his mind there was an emergency. He said that there were a great many leaves on the streets which were there un- doubtedly because of the hurricane . Cleaning of the streets will not materially lessen in November and December because the streets are cleaned now. Drainage, branches, twigs, leaves, will be worse than if there were merely leaves. He said that only a moderate rain would stop up all the grates, and only I inch of water would be bad. Mr. Raymond did not expect that there would be a great amount of flooding of cellars, as the water would be on the streets a long time. Rain will fill the catch basins, and a great deal of material will get into the drainage system. The drainage pipes have not been cleaned to amount to anything this year. There was some drainage maintenance on brooks this year. Drainage maintenance might be materially more expensive if the streets were not cleaned now. Mr. Raymond said he had been over the streets he considered in the emergency class. The line is not a definite thing. Taking into consideration what may happen if the streets are not cleaned, you might Get a condition of wind-row of debris in the streets from rain. This would collect in spots and cause water to go into private property where we have never had it before. It will wash out shoulders that have never been washed out before. The Chairman asked if the streets weren't cleaned as Mr. Raymond suggested, it would be far more costly to the town than if the streets were cleaned, and he replied in the affirmative. The Chairman asked how comprehensive a program he was suggesting. He said about thirty-three miles of streets as a minimum would be laid down. Some have drainage and some have not. The Chairman asked how much it would cost to do this amount of mileage and Mr. Raymond said it would cost about $5,000. - 4;3150. a mile to do a good job, that is take out the brush and twigs but not taking out stumps. There is a little fence work and a little street sign or traffic sign repair work. Walls are not included as they are not as important as the drainage feature. The Chairman asked Mr. Raymond what his reason was for feeling that some decision should be given on this at this time. Mr. Raymond said that if we delayed, it meant that we would get caught with many more streets un- done when the storms did come. This is a two or three 557 weeks! ' job . They plan to take all the men off W.P. A. that are any good and that will be about 55 and also a few men that have applied for work during the year, making a total of 65 or 68 men. This figure will include equipment, tools and wages of men. Mr. Potter asked if this was going to be all hand work and Mr. Raymond said that it was very largely. The sweeper would be used on the pavement. There are a lot of hanging limbs to come down yet. Mr. Raymond said he was fearful of town streets where there was drainage. He said that on many of the streets on the list that needed to be cleaned, there were no limbs. The Chairman asked if 50 odd men were taken from W.P.A. they would have trouble getting back on W.P.A. Mr. Raymond said that they would not, that it would be just the same as if they went to private employment . The Chairman asked if there was any likelihood that the vacancies of the fifty men would be filled so that there would not be openings Street for them when they were ready to go back, and Mr. Raymond cleaning said that he did not believe so. after Mr. Raymond said that he had received an estimate from storm. Mr. Garrity of the cost of finishing the storm clearance work. For the removal of 75 stumps, brush, filling in holes, leveling and moving limbs, trees to be cut down, etc. , the estimated cost is 02371.00. This does not in- clude sidewalk repairs, street drainage or cleaning up streets. There are about 012, 000. worth of bills up to now. The sidewalks will cost about $B00. ; street pavement patching, 000 .00; rails , fences and walls $500.00; school damage, 4500.00 ; loaming and seeding stump holes, 0600.00; street and traffic signs, 4200.00; cleaning debris from brooks, 61500.00; cemeteries, 6705.00 . This is everything but W.P.A. projects . They have written up a W.P.A. project for the removal of stumps and trimming damaged trees. The town' s cost, exclusive of the regular overhead expense, will be 6500.00. A tree repair project for precinct one has been prepared for which the town' s cost will be 6400.00 ; a tree repair project for the other three precincts is being prepared and the town' s cost may be 61500.00. The total figured just under ;p22,000.00 not including street cleaning. Mr. Raymond said that they had several hundred dollars damage to public buildings such as the Cary Memorial Build- ing, the Barnes property and the Public Works Building, but they were not going to ask for funds for these as they would try to repair them out of the regular appropriations. The Chairman asked if Mr. Raymond thought that something should be allowed for unforseen expenses vhzen this is presented to the Town Meeting. Mr. Raymond said he thought the Town Meeting discussion might very likely show that the town wanted more service than the Board of Selectmen had shown its willingness to give. He would not be surprised if the sense of the meeting were asked, that the townwould vote to go further on this work. The voters might want the town to go in 20 to 40 feet on private property because it is being done in surrounding cities and towns at the expense of l — - 558 rm se the communites. The Chairman said that the wayto get around this was for the Board not to declare te emrgency at an end. He suggested that Mr. Raymond have information available so that the Board would have alternate figures if the town wanted to go in on private property and do work. Mr. Raymond said that they were making a survey and these figures would be available. Mr. Raymond said he would like to know tonight whether or not the Board would authorize him to go ahead with this street cleaning as the men would start in right away. He said that Mr. Paxton's figures did not agree with his . Mr. Paxton said that their figures were practically the same but that Mr. Raymond had gone at it differently, but on the figures as presented by Mr. Raymond he felt that they could do all the work necessary at the present time. He said that he believed that if they did not complete this emergency work now, there would be increased demands next year to do this work and the department would be hampered in its regular departmental work. He skid that where there are stump holes in gravel sidewalks , the material may wash out or kick out. He said his figure was 4;10,000. as com- pared with Mr. Raymond' s x;9100. for this phase of the work. This includes taking care of every public street and Mr. Raymond left out about 20 miles of stteets. Mr. Raymond said that last Tuesday night, the Selectmen told him to put the regular department men back to work in their own departments and stop the emergency work until the Board could see how much money it was going to cost. He said that Tuesday he did not appreciate how badly the streets were littered up and the matter of flooding did not occur to him then. He thought the town was in very bad shape now and would be worse if we had a rain storm. The Chairman asked if they would be held up badly if no d.eeision was given until Tuesday night. Mr. Raymond said they would not, but it would mean two days' work gone. Mr. Giroux and Mr. Potter approved starting the work on Monday and the program for the future to be determined then. Barnes Mr. Raymond asked the members if they would approve of property using the sheds in back of the annex to the Barnes property for the storage of surplus commodities and they said that they would. The meeting adjourned at 6:00 P.M. A true record, Attest : Clerk. 1