CHAP. 316 This act shall take effect when accepted by legal voters of water district. --first meeting, by whom called. Section 12. This act shall take effect when accepted by a majority vote of the legal voters within said water district, voting at a meeting to be specially called and held for the purpose on or before the first day of May, nineteen hundred and five, and Peter C. Keegan, A. J. Dubay, and Allan E. Hammond, or either of them, are hereby authorized to call said meeting. The board of registration shall make and provide a separate check list for such of the voters within said water district as are then legal voters of said town, and all warrants issued to said -proceedings town shall be varied accordingly to show that only such voters by board of registration. therein are entitled to vote thereon. Such special meeting shall be called, advertised, and conducted according to the law relating to municipal election, provided, however, that the board of registration shall not be required to prepare or the town clerk to post a new list of voters, and for this purpose said board shali be in session the three secular days next preceding such election, the first two days thereof to be devoted to registration of voters and the last day to enable the board to verify the corrections of said lists and to complete and close up its records of said sessions. The town clerk shall reduce the subject matter -form of vote of this act to the following question: "Shall the act to incorporate the Van Buren Water District be accepted?" and the voters shall indicate by a cross placed against the words yes and no their opinion of the same. The result shall be declared by the selectmen of Van Buren, and due certificate thereof filed by the town clerk with the secretary of state. This act shall take effect when approved by the governor, so far as necessary to empower the calling and holding of such meeting. to be submitted. --method of voting. This act shall be void unless property of Van Buren Water Co. be acquired. Costs and expenses, by whom paid and borne. Section 13. Sections two, three and four of this act shall be inoperative, null and void, unless the said water district shall first acquire by purchase, or by the exercise of the right of eminent domain as this act provides, the plant, property and franchises, rights, and privileges now held by the Van Buren Water Company within said district and the remaining portion of the town of Van Buren and Hamlin plantation. Section 14. All costs and expenses arising under the provisions of this act shall be paid and borne as directed by the court in the final decree provided by section seven. Section 15. This act shall take effect when approved. Approved March 21, 1905. CHAP. 317 Chapter 317. An Act to incorporate the City of Brunswick. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Legislature assembled, as follows: name. -rights, Section I. The inhabitants of the town of Brunswick, in Corporate the county of Cumberland, shall, in case of the acceptance of this act by the voters of said town, as hereinafter provided, continue to be a body politic and corporate under the name of Brunswick, and as such shall have, exercise and enjoy all the rights, immunities, powers, privileges and franchises, and shall powers, etc. be subject to all the duties and obligations now appertaining to, or incumbent upon said town as a municipal corporation, or appertaining to or incumbent upon, the inhabitants or selectmen thereof; and may ordain and publish such by-laws, ordinances and regulations, not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of this state, as shall be needful to the good order of said body politic; and impose fines and penalties for the breach thereof, not exceeding twenty dollars for any offense, which may be recovered to the use of the city by action of debt, or on complaint before the municipal court of said city. aldermen, Mayor and powers of. Section 2. The administration of all fiscal, prudential and municipal affairs of said city with the government thereof shall be vested in an officer to be called the mayor, and one council of not less than five nor more than seven members, as hereinafter provided, to be denominated a board of aldermen; all of whom shall be inhabitants of said city and legal voters therein. --city council. Said mayor and aldermen shall constitute the city council, and shall be sworn, or affirmed for the faithful discharge of their duties. Section 3. The mayor of said city shall be the chief executive magistrate thereof. It shall be his duty to cause the laws and regulations of the city to be executed and enforced, to exer. cise a general supervision over the conduct of all subordinate officers, and to cause their violations or neglect of duty to be punished. He may call special meetings of the city council, when, in his opinion, the interests of the city require it, by causing a notification to be given in hand, or sent by mail or telephone to each member thereof. He shall from time to time, communicate to the city council, such information, and recommend such measures as the business and interests of the city may, in his opinion, require. He shall preside at the meetings of the city council, but shall have only a casting vote. The salary and compensation of the mayor shall be two hundred Duties of the mayor. CHAP. 317 Ward limits of the city and number of wards. Election of city officers. When and how meetings purposes @hall be called, notified and held. dollars per year for the first five years, under this charter. It may then be diminished or increased by the council. Section 4. For the purpose of holding elections, the territory of said city shall, as soon as may be after the first election under this act, be divided by ordinance by the city council into not less than five nor more than seven wards, to contain as nearly as practicable, consistently within well defined limits, an equa! number of legal voters; and the city council may, not oftener than once in five years, review and alter such wards in such manner as to preserve, as nearly as practicable, an equal number of legal voters in each ward. Section 5. The mayor shall be elected from the citizens at large, by the legal voters of the city voting in their respective wards. One alderman, a warden, a ward clerk and one constable shall be elected by each ward, being residents in the ward where elected. All of said officers shall be elected by ballot as hereinafter provided. Section 6. The municipal elections, after the first, shall take for municipal place annually, on the first Monday in March. All meetings of the citizens for municipal purposes shall be notified and called in their respective wards, by the mayor and aldermen, in the manner provided by the laws of this state for notifying and calling town meetings by the selectmen of the several towns. The wardens shall preside at all ward meetings, with the powers of moderators at town meetings; and if at any ward meeting the warden shall not be present, the clerk shall preside till a warden pro tempore shall be chosen. If neither the warden nor clerk is present, any legal voter in the ward shall preside until a clerk, pro tempore, shall be chosen and qualified. Duties of city council. -shall have Section 7. The city council shall secure a prompt and just accountability by requring bonds with sufficient penalty and surety or sureties, from all persons trusted with the receipt, custody or disbursement of money; the city council shall also have the care and superintendence of the city buildings, and the custody and management of all city property and trust funds for the benefit of schools, public library, parks, cemeteries and for any other beneficial purpose, whether acquired by purchase or legacy; with power to let or sell what may be legally let or sold, and to purchase and take, in the name of the city, real and personal property for municipal purposes to an amount not exceedng one hundred thousand dollars in addition to that now held by the town, and shall as often as once a year, cause to be published for the information of the inhabitants, a particular expenditures. account of the receipts and expenditures and a schedule of the city property and the city debt. The city shall have the power --may take property for municipal purposes. --shall annually publish account of receipts and CHAP. 317 city council appropria. shall make tions. --shall have authority over streets. proceedings for laying out, widening or discontinuing streets. to establish by ordinance such officers as may be necessary for municipal government not provided for by this act, and to elect such subordinate officers as may be elected by towns under general laws of the state for whose election or appointment other provision is not made; to define their duties and fix their compensation; to act upon all matters in which authority is now given to said town of Brunswick, and to determine what streets, if any, shall be lighted and upon what terms. The city council shall appropriate annually the amount necessary to meet the expenditures of the city for the current municipal year. The city council shall have exclusive authority to lay out, widen or otherwise alter or discontinue any and all streets or public ways in said city, and as far as extreme low water mark, and to esti mate all damages sustained by owners of land taken for such purpose. A committee of the council shall be appointed whose duty shall be to lay out, alter, widen or discontinue any street or way, first giving notice of the time and place of their pro ceedings to all parties interested, by an advertisement in any newspaper published in Brunswick, or if there is no such newspaper, in any newspaper published in the county of Cumberland, for three weeks at least, next previous to the time appointed. The committee shall first hear all parties interested, and then determine and adjudge whether the public convenience requires such street or way to be laid out, altered or discontinued, and shall make a written return of their proceedings, signed by a majority of them, containing the bounds and descriptions of the street or way, if laid out or altered, and the names of the owners of the land taken, when known, and the damages allowed therefor; the return shall be filed in the city clerk's office at least seven days previous to its acceptance by the city council. The street or way shall not be altered or established until the report is accepted by the city council. And the report so filed shall not be altered or amended before it comes up before the city council for action. A street or way shall not be discontinued by the city council, except upon the report of said committee. The committee shall estimate and report the damages sustained by the owners of the lands adjoining that portion of how the street or way which is so discontinued; their report shall be filed with the city clerk seven days at least before its acceptance. Any party aggrieved by their decision may appeal therefrom as provided by law in the case of town ways. If a street--appeal or way is discontinued before the damages are paid or recovered on damages. for the land taken, the land owners shall not be entitled to recover such damages, but the committee in their report discontinuing the same shall estimate and include all the damages -damages, estimated. from decision CHAP. 317 --city council may regulate sidewalds, etc. sustained by the land owner, including those caused by the original location of the street; and in such cases, if any appeal has been regularly taken, the appellant shall recover his costs. The city shall not be compelled to construct or open any street or way thus hereafter established, until in the opinion of the city council, the public good requires it to be done; nor shall the city interfere with possession of the land so taken by removing therefrom materials or otherwise, until they decide to open said street. The city council may regulate the height and width of the sidewalks in any public square, places, streets, lanes or alleys in said city; and may authorize hydrants, drinking fountains, posts and trees to be placed along the edge of the sidewalks, and may locate and construct culverts and reservoirs within the limits of any street or way in said city whenever they deem it needful. Every law, act, ordinance, resolve or order of the city council excepting rules and orders of a parliamentary character, shall be presented to the mayor. If not approved by him he shall return it with his objections in writing at the next stated session of the city council, which shall enter the objections at large on its journal and proceed to reconsider the same. If, upon reconsideration, it shall be passed by vote of two-thirds. --how orders, of all the members of the board, it shall have the same force as if approved by the mayor. In case of vacancy in the mayor's office, this section shall not apply to any act of the council. In case the mayor fails to either sign or return the bill at the next session, then it becomes a law as though he had signed it. --laws, acts, ordinances, etc., to be approved by mayor. etc., may be passed without approval by mayor. City clerk shall be Sworn. --duties of city clerk. Section 8. The city clerk shall, before entering upon the duties of his office, be sworn to the faithful discharge thereof. He shall have care of all journals, records, papers and documents, of the city; and shall deliver all journals, records, papers and documents, and other things entrusted to him as city clerk, to his successor in office. He shall be clerk of the city council, and do such acts in said capacity as the city council may lawfully and reasonably require of him. He shall perform all the duties, and exercise all the powers by law incumbent upon or vested in the town clerk of the town of Brunswick. He shall attend all meetings of the city council, and keep a journal of its acts, votes and proceeding. He shall engross all of the ordinances passed by the city council in a book provided for the purpose, and shall add proper indexes, which book shall be deemed a public record of such ordinances; he shall issue to every person who is appointed to any office by the mayor, or elected to any office by the city council, a certificate of such appointment or election. He shall give notice of time and place of regular ward meetings. In case of the temporary absence |