What our town does for us (1955)

[Music] this is our town hall many people work here they work together in running the government of our town our town hall is so important that the people who planned it built a tower on it high enough to be seen from almost anywhere in town now this is a story about our town hall and about someone who lives down this way in our town this someone is billy it's saturday morning billy and his father are going to the town hall billy is going to buy a bicycle tag for his new bicycle he's going to spend his own dollar for it too but billy doesn't seem very happy about that why does the town have to charge money for bicycle tax what's the money for anyway billy doesn't think he'll ever understand that on their way to the town hall they see many interesting things here's a truck with special brushes that helps to keep the streets clean who owns the truck billy wants to know it belongs to our town says father it belongs to all of us who live here a little farther along they stop in front of the fire department billy knows that the firemen helped to put out fires and protect the people of our town does our town own the fire truck 2 asks billy that's right says father our town owns all the fire equipment and pays the salaries of the firemen too our town gets the money for this from the taxes that people pay now to get his bicycle tag billy is going to pay a dollar that dollar is a tax taxes pay for the fire department and for many other things in our town look says father the town hall tower it isn't very far away but there are other things to see on the way here are some men digging a trench to put in new water pipes our town is doing this as father billy's dollar and taxes from other people in our town will pay for this work there's a special car that belongs to our health department the driver is a public health nurse our town is sending her somewhere says father the people of our town pay her salary and the salaries of the policemen the policeman protects her says billy i'm glad he's here and when billy buys his bicycle tag he'll be helping to pay the policeman's salary here's the park that is owned by our town but look one of the swings is broken the dollar billy pays will help to fix the swing and it will help to keep the park a good place to play and look see the town hall tower we're almost there on the way billy and his father have seen some of the things that are done to help make our town a good place to live now they've arrived at the town hall many more people work here helping to take care of our town and the people who run our town government work here too and that's why it's such an important building why it has that tower that you can see from the very edge of town inside the town hall they look around billy sees someone he knows who works here it's mrs richards she'll be glad to show them where they can get a bicycle tag they're going to the police department the policeman at the desk will issue the bicycle tag but first there's a form to be filled out mrs richards has an idea if father will fill out the form she'll show billy some of the other offices in our town hall this is the department of public works and buildings the people in this office tell the men who take care of our streets where to work each day they sent the truck that billy saw cleaning a street they see to it that all the streets in town are kept clean in another part of town other men from the public works department are putting a smooth new top on an old street people all over town telephone the department whenever streets need to be fixed billy can see that it takes a great deal of work to keep all our streets clean and in good repair the health department does many things to protect the health of our town they send out workers who know about health and about how to keep us well and strong these workers are called public health nurses billy remembers he saw a health department car in it was a public health nurse on her way to help someone now here's a department that will interest billy the department of parks the people here send out the workers who take care of the parks of course all of us help with this job when we put trash and garbage in the cans for the workers to take away this department takes care of playground equipment too they will fix that broken swing here's a department billy knows something about the department of water and electricity just this morning billy saw some men digging a trench to put in new water pipes they were from the department of water and electricity this department make sure all our houses have pure water and they make sure all our streets have electricity and street lights too these things are important to us every day look there's the office of the mayor of our town inside the mayor he's the man wearing glasses is working with two other town officials the mayor makes sure that all the departments of our town government are doing their jobs the mayor runs our town government he is elected by the people to do that this is the office where mrs richards works here the people of our town pay taxes for certain things we pay for dog licenses and automobile licenses these are taxes we pay taxes for many more things too and these taxes pay for all the things our town does for us taxes pay for the police department and the fire department too and they pay the salaries of people who work in those departments billy knows that the dollar he's going to pay for his bicycle tag is a tax too and he knows how the money will help to do many things for our town so he's proud to pay his dollar the policeman says ride your bike safely thanks i will says billy so now billy has his bicycle tank and he has learned many things about our town hall and the people who work for our town he has learned about taxes and about what our town government does for the people who live in our town maybe you don't need a bicycle tank but wouldn't you like to find out about your town hall and what your town does for you