CHAPTER XX

OF THE GENERAL LAWS.

[CHAP. 569 OF 1890.]

THE TOWN LAW.

ARTICLE I. Towns as corporations (§§ 1-5).

II. Town meetings and the election and tenure of town officers (§§

10-43).

III. Qualifications of town officers (§§ 50-67).

IV. General duties of town officers (§§ 80-86).

V. Division fences (§§ 100-109).

VI. Strays and chattels doing damage, floating timbers and wrecks

(§§ 120-150).

VII. The town board (§§ 160-189).

VIII. Town-houses, lock-ups and burial grounds (§§ 190-195).

IX. The municipal debt law (§§ 210–214).

X. Town business in counties containing more than six hundred thousand inhabitants (§§ 220-236).

XI. Repealing and other clauses (§§ 240-243).

SECTION 1. Short title.

ARTICLE I.

TOWNS AS CORPORATIONS.

2. Town, a municipal corporation.

3. Disposition of town property, upon alteration of town boundaries. 4. Apportionment of debts.

5. Meetings of town boards, in two or more towns.

SECTION 1. Short title.--This chapter shall be known as the town law.

§ 2. Town, a municipal corporation.-A town is a municipal corporation comprising the inhabitants within its boundaries, and formed for the purpose of exercising such powers and discharging such duties of local government and administration of public affairs as have been, or may be conferred or imposed upon it by law.

§ 3. Disposition of town property, upon alteration of town boundaries. When the boundaries of a town owning real or per. sonal property shall be altered, either by a division of a town

into two or more towns or by the annexation of a part of its territory to another town or towns, the town boards of the several towns affected by such alterations shall meet as soon as may be after the first town meetings subsequently held in such towns, and shall make such agreement concerning the disposition to be made of such real and personal property, and the apportionment of the proceeds, as they shall deem equitable, and take all measures, and execute all conveyances necessary to carry such agreement into effect. If no such agreement shall be made within six months after such town meetings, the town board of each town. in which any portion of such real property, or in whose possession any of such personal property shall be, shall, as soon as may be, sell and convey such part of the real property as shall be included within the limits of the town as fixed by such alteration, and such of the personal property as may be in its possession; and the proceeds arising from the sale shall be apportioned between the several towns interested therein, by the town boards of all the towns, according to the amount of the taxable property of the town divided or altered, as the same existed immediately before such division or alteration, to be ascertained by the last assessment-roll of such town. But no town cemetery or burialground shall be sold or divided, but the same shall belong to the town within which it may be situated after a division of the town shall have been made, and no lots heretofore granted by the people of this state to any town for the support of the gospel and of schools, commonly called the gospel and school lots, shall be so sold or apportioned.

§ 4. Apportionment of debts.-Debts owed by a town, so divided or altered shall be apportioned in the same manner as the personal property of a town, and each town shall be charged with its share of the debts, according to the apportionment and the amount of the unpaid taxes levied and assessed upon the taxable property of the town, divided or altered, before the division or alteration thereof, shall be apportioned between the several towns interested therein, according to the amount of taxable property in each town as the same existed before such division or alteration, to be ascertained by the last assessment-roll of the town. In making such division, there shall be set off to each town interested the unpaid taxes assessed and levied upon the real property within its borders and such as were assessed and levied upon personal property against persons or corporations, as resided

within its borders at the time of the assessment; and each town, to which the same are apportioned, shall have the same power, right and methods of collecting the same by warrant, action, sale or otherwise, as the town so divided or altered had, or would have had if such town had not been so divided or altered. Any such town having apportioned to it more than its proportion of unpaid taxes, according to the aforesaid taxable property, to be ascertained by the last assessment-roll of such town, shall pay to the other town or towns interested, such sum or sums as shall be necessary to make such apportionment correspond with the said taxable property, as ascertained by the said last assessment-roll of said town, before the said division or alteration. (As amended by chap. 459 of 1896, § 1.)

§ 5. Meetings of town boards, in two or more towns.—Whenever a meeting of the town boards of two or more towns shall be required, in order to carry into effect the provisions of this article, such meeting may be called by either of the supervisors of such towns, by giving at least three days' written notice to all the other members of such town boards of the time and place of such meeting. Whenever such town boards shall fail to carry into effect the provisions of this article and agree upon the amount of assets to which each town is entitled, and the amount of indebtedness for which each town is liable and complete the full settlement thereof, within eighteen months after the division or alteration mentioned in section three of this article, any of such towns may begin and maintain an action against the other town or towns to make and enforce such settlement. The provisions of this article shall apply to towns heretofore and hereafter divided or altered. (As amended by chap. 459 of 1896, § 2.)

ARTICLE II.

TOWN MEETINGS AND THE ELECTION AND TENURE of Town OFFICERS,

SECTION 10. Time and place of biennial town meeting.

11. Changing place of biennial town meeting.

12. Election of officers.

13. Term of office.

14, Justices of the peace.

15. Commissioners of highways.

16. Overseers of the poor.

17. Inspectors for towns.