Twenty-Fourth Annual Report of the Receipts
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
-er-r-P^ PUBLIC DOCUMENT ANNUAL REPORTS THE YEA R 1800 M ANC J I ESTER: P R I N T K I ) BY J () ir N B . C L A 15 K E 18 7 0. NEW HAMP, . STATE LIBRARY : TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES CITY OF MANCHESTER FOR THE FISCAL YEAR EXDIXG DECEMBER 31, 18G9, TOGETHER WITH OTHER ANNUAL REPORTS AND PAPERS RELATING TD THE AFFAIRS OF THE CITY. MANCHESTER, N. H. PRINTED BY JOHN 13. CLARKE. 1870. 1669 CITY OF MANCHESTER. Ix Board of Common Council. AX ORDER authorizing the printing of the Twenty-fourth An- nual Report of the Receipts and Expenditures of the City of ' Manchester. Ordered, (if the Board of Mayor and Aldermen concur,) That the Joint Standing Committee on Finance be and they are hereby authorized to cause sixteen hundred copies of the Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Receipts and Expenditures of the City of Manchester, including the Reports of the Chief Engineer of the Eire Department, the Overseers of the Poor, the Committee on City Farm, the Trustees, Librarian and Treasurer of the City Li- brary, the School Committee and the Superintendent of Public In- struction, the City Liquor Agent, the Committee on Cemeteries, the Library Building Committee, and the Building Committee and Committee on School-House Repairs, to be printed for the use of the inhabitants of said city, and that the expense thereof be charged to the appropriation for Printing and Stationery. Jan. 11, 1870. Ix Board of Commox Council. Passed. J. P. CURRIER, President. Jan. 11, 1870. Ix Board ok Mayor and Aldermen. Passed in concurrence. JAMES A. \VESTOX, Mayor. A true record. Attest: JOSEPH E. BEXXETT, City Clekiv. VALEDICTORY ADDRESS HON. ISAAC W. SMITH, MAYOE, CITY COUNCIL OF MANCHESTER DELIVERED BEFORE THE TWO BRANCHES IN CONVENTION, JANUARY 3, 1870. CITY OF MANCHESTER. In Board of Common Council. AX ORDER to print the Mayor's Valedictory Address. Ordered (if the Board of Mayor and Aldermen concur), That three hundred copies of the Valedictory Address of Hon. Isaac W. Smith, delivered hefore a convention of the City Council this day, he printed for the use of the City Government, and that he be requested to furnish a copy to be printed in the annual reports. Jan. 3, 1870. In Common Council. Read and passed. E. D. HADLEV, Clerk. Jan. 3, 1870. In Board or Mayor and Aldermen. Passed in concurrence. JOSEPH E. BEXXETT, City Clerk. : VALEDICTORY MESSAGE. Gentlemen of the City Council : We have now readied the close of another municipal year, and are about to surrender up the trusts imposed upon us by our fellow citizens one year ago. Let me invite your attention, for a few moments, to a brief review of our official acts, that are so soon to become matters of history. This, it is proper we should do, no less that our acts may be placed upon record in justice to ourselves, than for the information of our successors. If our labors shall stand the scrutiny of time, it is no more than our right that the record thereof should be preserved ; or, if the contrary prove to be the fact, we will be no less slow to have them reviewed by our constituents, confident that our intentions have been right, whatever errors of judgment we may have committed. FINANCES. The indebtedness of the city, January 1, 1869, as stated in my inaugural message, was as follows Funded debt . $351,900.00 Temporary loan . 37,301.00 Estimated interest to Jan. 1, 1869 10,000.00 Outstanding bills . 15,156.00 Debt of late School District ]STo. 2 17,200.00 742.70 Total debt and interest $432,299.78 : Cash in treasury $42,794.85 l)ue on Barrett place and for City Farm lots sold . 2,450.49 Estimated interest on same . 47.00 $45,292.34 Net indebtedness Jan. 1, 18G9 . 1387,007.44 (Which is $1,800 more than appears in the statement of city debt on pages 131 and 182 of the City Reports for 1868, where the interest on the city debt to Jan. 1, 1869, is estimated at $9,000 instead of $10,000, as stated above.) The indebtedness of the city January 1, 1870, was as follows Funded debt 8351,900.00 Bonds issued in 18G9 in aid of the Suncook Valley R. R., authorized by the City Council of 1868 50,000.00 Temporary loan 2S,001.00 Note against late School District No. 7 742.70 Balance due Suncook Valley R. R. 25,000.00 Estimated interest to Jan. 1, 1870 9,000.00 Outstanding bills Jan. 1, 1870 27,169.46 Total debt and interest 8491,813.16 Cash in the treasury Jan. 1, 1870 . 827,398.51 Bonds unsold (aid of S. V. R. R.) Jan. 1, 1870 36,800.00 Notes due on Barrett place and on City Farm lots sold 1,961.81 Estimated interest on same to Jan. 1, 1870 . 142.14 $66,302.46 Net indebtedness Jan. 1, 1870 425,510.70 " " " Jan. 1, 1869 386,007.44 Increase 839,503.26 The loan in aid of the Suncook Valley Railroad is an ex- traordinary expenditure, and is not fairly chargeable to the expenditures of this year. The unpaid school hills of 1868, as furnished me by the Super- intendent of Public Instruction, amounted to . §0,243.06 The unexpended school appropriation of 1868 was §11.98 The unexpended evening school appropriation of 1808 was 99.81 The unexpended school-house repair appropri- ation of 1868 was $280.21, less §200 abated and paid back to School District Xo. 8, previous to Jan. 5, 1809 .... 80.21 §192.03 Total deficiency of school hills for 1808 . §6,051.03 There is due upon the tax-list for 1869 §35,860.61 There was due one year ago upon the list for 1868 27,789.51 Difference §8,071.07 The aggregate of these three items, viz., S. V. R. R. loan §50,000.00 Unpaid school bills of 1868 paid this year . 6,051.03 Difference in uncollected tax-lists .... 8,701.07 Is $64,122.10 From which deduct the apparent increase of L869, ;i^ found above 39,503.26 .Leaves $24,618.84 As the real decrease in the indebtedness of the city, the comparison being made upon the same basis for the two years. None of the appropriations arc overdrawn, while many of them have large balances unexpended. There are no outstanding bills due against the city to any considerable amount. Efforts have been made to have every claim against the city presented. Notices to that effect have been advertised in the daily papers. The claims have been presented as fully as it ever will be practicable to be done at any given date. For the first time in many years, the accounts in the School department have been adjusted and paid to the end of the year. It will be noticed that there is due the Suncook Railroad a balance of 825,000 of the sum appropriated in aid of that road in 1868, to meet which, bonds of the city have been issued and are in the hands of the City Treasurer. Of the sum paid the Road, $13,200 was from sale of bonds, and $11,800 in cash advanced from the treasury in anticipation of the sale of bonds. If this had not been done, the cash in the treasury Jan. 1,. 1870, would have been $10,598.51, instead of $27,398.51, as before stated. There will be due a balance of $1,200, or thereabouts, for the iron fence upon Merrimack square, when it is completed, and the unex- pended balance of the appropriation is more than sufficient to meet it. When the contract for finishing the exterior of the Library building is completed there will be due about $1,000. The unexpended balance of that appropriation will be nearly or quite sufficient to meet this amount. These balances for the fence and the Library building could not be adjusted for the reason that the contracts had not been completed, but the contractors were paid for the work so far as finished up to the time the accounts were closed. CITY LIBRARY BUILDING. The erection of a Public Library building was com- menced in the spring, and the exterior of the building- has been nearly or quite completed. It is in the " Ameri- canized Gothic" style of architecture, one story and a basement in height. Its extreme dimensions are ninety by forty-nine feet, with a wing on either side twelve feet square, for the librarian's room and side entrance, and a tower fourteen feet square and fifty-eight feet high, for the principal entrance at the southwest corner. It is located upon a lot on Franklin street, generously donated to the city by the Amoskcag Manufacturing Company. The entire building is spacious, well lighted and ventilated, 9 and has all the appointments necessary for a well regu- lated modern library, and will contain one hundred thou- sand volumes. An appropriation was made in 1868 of . 85,000 There was raised this year by tax . 7,500 And transferred from reserved fund . 4,500 Total appropriation ..... $17,000 The unexpended balance of the appropriation is $975.06, which, as before stated, will be sufficient, or nearly so, to complete the exterior of the building. If the necessary funds are supplied, the building can easily be finished another year, when the city will have a library room sub- stantially fire-proof, easy of access, and an ornament to the city.