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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1942-12-22-LCPS-rpt.pdf Report to Executive Committee atG .4 .4c Lexington Committee on Public Safety December 22, 1942 On December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor, the Lexington Committee on Public L,afety, moved into this room with the consent of the Board of Selectmen, and set it up as a Report Center for the Town of Lexington We selected this site ori inally, because it was and is the most convenient to all of the town services, and because it is the only room that is used only occasionally in this town building Ne believed at that time that the use of this room would disturb fewer people and cause less in- convenience than any other, and because it was the best place for it We in Civilian Defense still feel that under the conditions it is the best place but for the last six months our Board of Selectmen have been asking us to get out and to choose another place, preferably out of this building entirely We have sur- veyed and examined proposed places in Lexington other than this building, and everyone on the Committee feels that the proper place for the Civilian Defense Report Center in Lexington is in the center of the town activities ; not in some other building away from police and othar town activities ' offices Furthermore, as you know, Civilian Defense is simply an addition to the .reoular emergency* functions of the town departments and, therefore , should be operated from them in a real emergency This Committee on December 7, 1942, had a telephone bell cut-off installed in the present Report Center so that during the Selectmen' s. Meetings or at any other time when the Report Center needed to be used by the town, the person on duty could sit at the telephone board desk in the outside office and the Newton warning bell would ring only in that office; this to eliminate all disturbance from the present Report Center while the Board. of ,Selectmen, were 2 in session This committee hoped that that would satisfy the Selectmen and be agreeable to them, but we were informed by Mr. Sarano that it is the wish of the Board that the whole Report Center be moved as soon as possible from their room de appreciate the fact that it has been an inconvenience to the Selectmen, and we understand why they want us to move, and we are willing to cooperate We have examined. the Library, the Cary Memorial, and the various schools and office buildings in Lexington Our reasons for not selecting any of these sites are as follows a The State requires two persons on twenty-four-hour duty if the Report Center is away from police; b Lack of police protection at any other site; c Maintenanace 1=evin, these places warm and comfortable for operation, and proper lighting and. safety features ; d Distance from town departments; e . Larire cost of transferring telephones and communications . After weighing all of the factors , this committee at a meeting last Thursday night made the following recommendations 1 Beginning January 1, 1943, the Report Center as a twenty-four-hour duty for the citizens be discontinued, and that this function and duty be given to the Le) ington_ Police Department direct and that the regular Police Force take the Newton Warning Calls and keep a log book reporting twenty-four hours a day. 2 We recommend that a siren button be placed beside the police desk exchange so that in case of a raid the officer in charge can call all services and warn the town with the siren 3 That if it is the desire or the order of the Selectmen that the Report Center as now sit- uated be moved, it be put upstairs in the Engineering- Room and that that room be par- titioned in halves , or not, as the Selectmen wish, so that the portion fronting on Massachusetts Avenue, and the room of the Plumbing and Building 3 Inspectors ' office can be used for our telephone reports , without disturbing the present office arrangement, and these two rooms made into a report center; that all telephones and equipment be transferred into these rooms and blackout curtains be furnished together with other equipment to operate This committee feels that without figures , this move would cost the town 4:300 at least This committee feels that the twenty four hour services offered by the natriotie men and women who have served this report center night and day for over a year--all of them without any monetary compensation, should. be of more weight than the small bother to a very few of out—town employees , Respectfully su iit „� yr 6 � � ;f � Chairman Cummittee to ,eport on idovi. c-7R.eport Center.'