MUNICIPAL INVESTMENTS. 141 by the voters September 10, 1861,1 permitting the city to procure a water supply from Mystic Lake. Work was begun in September, 1862; in 1863 additional legislation was procured; and the works were substantially completed in 1864, the water having been turned on November 29 in that year. The first cost of the works was about $750,000, including $12,000 for interest; and was defrayed by money borrowed principally on short-time notes and afterwards funded in five and six per cent. bonds. Construction still kept on, and by 1870 the water debt amounted to over $1,000,000. A sinking-fund was established in that year, to consist of surplus earnings above maintenance and interest. The receipts seem to have equalled the payments for maintenance and interest for the first time in 1869, but the accounts were kept in such a manner as to make it very difficult to ascertain the facts; and in 1871 Mayor Kent, "feeling that the time had arrived when the exact state of the accounts should be ascertained," 3 had the accounts made up from the beginning to February 28, 1871. The results thus obtained are assumed to be correct, and are made the basis of the tables prepared for the appendix to this message. It appears that the works had cost. to that date $1,247,633.19 for construction, $150,287.42 for maintenance, and $304,602.12 for interest, a total of $1,702,522.73; and that the receipts from sales of water had been $518,626.34; making the net cost to March 1, 1871, $1,183,896.39. 4 The water bonds then outstanding amounted to $1,172,000, approximately the net cost of the works. In 1872 arrangements were made to supply the town of Everett " 1 An act passed in 1860 had been vetoed by Governor Banks, on the ground that the proposed dam might injure the harbor. St. 1863, ch. 9. Inaugural address, 1872. The figures are those given by Mayor Kent, but are differently used. He struck interest on the items on both sides of the account. a process that does not seem to serve any useful purpose. 5 Chelsea and Somerville are also supplied with water from the Mystic works. The distributing system outside Charlestown was built and is owned by the several municipalities. Boston collects the rates and pays one-half to the several towns by virtue of contracts entered into in 1886 under St. 1874, ch. 400. 142 VALEDICTORY ADDRESS. with water. The receipts from the sale of water had equalled or exceeded the payments for maintenance and interest since 1868 or 1869, but were still inadequate to meet the expense of the necessary annual extensions, which was continued as a charge against construction and defrayed by the issue of bonds until the fiscal year 1873-4, when for the first time the receipts showed a clear surplus above expenditures of all kinds. Mayor Stone very properly considered that it was time to close the construction account and to use the surplus revenue above maintenance and interest for all necessary extensions or improvements. At the date of the annexation of Charlestown to Boston (January 5, 1874) the accounts stood as follows: Bouds to the aggregate amount of $1,460,000 had been issued, of which $57,000 had been paid, leaving a gross debt of Amount of sinking-funds. Net Mystic debt on annexation $1,403,000 00 97,597 95 $1,305,402 05 These figures show that about $140,000 had been borrowed in excess of the actual cost of the works. This was in part represented by the money in the sinkingfunds. The undertaking was then, however, earning a profit above annual interest and expenses; that is, was already on a selfsupporting basis, and, if rates were properly maintained, would eventually clear itself from debt. } MUNICIPAL INVESTMENTS. 143 Since annexation, $220,000 of bonds have been issued by the city of Boston for improvements; but these, as well as the water bonds issued by the city of Charlestown, have since been paid out of water rates. The last bond was paid April 1, 1894; and there is now no Mystic water debt, but an apparent surplus in the sinking-funds of $163,210.26,1 which is used under St. 1892, chap. 213, for extension of mains or other purposes connected with the Cochituate Water-Works. The net cost of the works, meaning the difference between total expenditures to a given date for construction, maintenance, and interest, and total receipts from sales of water, surplus land, etc., was, at the date of annexation, about $1,250,000, and has gradually been reduced, until this year for the first time a net profit is shown on the whole undertaking. On December 31. 1894, the receipts for the entire period, 1865–1895, exceeded the expenditures by $24.603.45;2 and from this time on the works should yield an annual profit, after paying for all necessary improvements along the Abbajona River and its tributary streams. One of the principal arguments used to induce the people of Boston to vote for the annexation of Charlestown was the prospective profit to be made on the Mystic Water-Works after the debt was extinguished It has taken twenty years to realize this expectation; but from this time forth, unless rates are reduced, the Mystic Works should be a source of revenue, to be applied under the Act of 1892 to extension of mains in other parts of the city, or to the reduction of the debt incurred for the Cochituate and Sudbury Works. SECT. 4. The Cochituate and Sudbury Water-Works. After a discussion lasting twenty years, in which innumerable sources of supply were considered, it was determined to take the waters of Long Pond or Lake Cochituate for that purpose. An act of the Legislature was obtained in 1845, but was rejected by the people because the power to 1As of January 31, 1894. See Appendix, Table 34. 2 The net cost January 31, 1894, was $78.868.07 (Appendix. Table 32); and the surplus revenue from February 1 to December 31, 1894, amounted to $193,471.52. 144 VALEDICTORY ADDRESS. authorize the water loans was vested by the terms of the act in the commission to be appointed to execute its provisions.1 The next year a new act was obtained, which left the power to vote appropriations for the water-works with the City Council, and this act was accepted by the people The commission was appointed in May, 1846, possession taken of the lake on August 10, and ground broken August 20. The mains leading from the lake to the city, the various reservoirs in Brookline, Boston, South Boston, and East Boston, and the distributing system for the entire city, was completed in about three years and a half, at a cost of about $5,000,000, all defrayed by loan. The extensions found necessary from time to time after the close of the construction account in 1851 were provided for partly by loans and partly by taxes; and in 1859 a new main was laid from the Brookline reservoir to the city, for which a special loan was authorized. In 1865 the construction of the large reservoirs at Chestnut Hill was begun under the authority of St. 1865, ch. 131, and completed in five years, at a cost of about $2,500,000. 3 The annexations of Roxbury, Dorchester, Brighton, and West Roxbury involved an expenditure of over $2,000,000 for extensions of the distributing system to the annexed territory, and also made it necessary to establish a high-ser 1 St. 1845, ch. 220, rejected by 3,999 nays to 3.670 yeas. * St. 1846, ch. 167, accepted by 4,637 to 348, April 13, 1846. The original estimate was $2,651,643, and the Act of 1846 authorized a loan of $3,000,000. Water was turned on for the city proper October 25, 1848, and for South Boston on November 25, 1849. In the meantime, however, it had been determined to extend the system to East Boston, at an estimated cost of $500,000; and an act was procured (St. 1849, ch. 187) authorizing a loan of $1,500,000 to cover the East Boston extension and the cost of the works in the city proper in excess of the original loan. The Water Acts also permitted the city to issue loans in addition to the $4,500,000 specifically authorized to cover the payments for interest during construction and for two years after the completion of the works. The construction account of the water-works was declared closed on April 30, 1851, and interest between that date and April 30, 1853, as well as the interest previously paid, was met by the issue of bonds. * The distributing system for Roxbury was completed and water turned on October 26, 1868. - Water turned on July 19, 1870. 2 1 MUNICIPAL INVESTMENTS. 145 vice system, which has cost to date about $1,125,000. The increase of population due to the annexations and other causes, as well as the unexpected per capita increase in consumption, rendered an additional source of supply imperative, and authority was procured in 18723 to take the waters of the Sudbury River. Under this act and subsequent amendments the greater part of the upper courses of the Sudbury River have been taken for the purposes of "additional supply; "4 five large impounding basins 5 have been constructed, besides Whitehall Pond, reacquired in 1890 ; and a sixth basin (called No. 5) is now in process of construction. There had been spent under these acts for additional supply over seven and a quarter millions to the first of February, 1894, and the new basin now in process of construction is estimated to cost $2,500,000 more. 6 The total cost of the Cochituate and Sudbury system, 1 The high-service works were begun in 1839. The reservoir at Parker Hill was begun in 1873 and completed in 1874, under St. 1873, ch. 257. 2 At the inception of the works, it was estimated that 281 gallons per day per capita would be sufficient, but the actual amount used in 1851 was 49 gallons, and it has steadily increased to 10742 gallons in 1893. * St. 1872, ch. 177. 'The original taking was made January 21, 1975. * The following tables give area, cost, and other statistics relating to the artificial basins already constructed on the Sudbury water-shed. *This basin will cover 1,200 acres of land; its storage capacity will be 7,458,000,000 U.S. gallous. |