Not required to have labor done by contract. SECT. 2. In altering, improving, and repairing said house of correction, said commissioners shall not be required to let out by contract the labor on said buildings, nor advertise for proposals therefor, as Pub. Sts. ch.22, provided in section twenty-two of chapter twenty-two of the Public § 22. Statutes. SECT. 3. This Act shall take effect upon its passage. April 13, 1882. Cities and out public CHAPTER 154. AN ACT AUTHORIZING TOWNS AND CITIES TO LAY OUT PUBLIC SECTION 1. Any town in this Commonwealth which accepts the towns may lay provisions of this Act in the manner hereinafter prescribed may, at a parks. legal meeting called for the purpose, elect three competent persons who shall constitute a board of park commissioners for such town, and may prescribe their terms of office; and the mayor of any city which in such manner accepts said provisions may, with the approval of the city council, as soon as may be after such acceptance, appoint Commissioners five competent persons who shall constitute a board of park commisto be appointed. sioners for such city, and who shall hold their offices until the expiration of terms of one, two, three, four, and five years respectively, from the first Monday in May next following such appointment; and the mayor shall, before the first Monday in May in each year thereafter, with like approval appoint one such commissioner to continue in office for five years from the expiration of the term of the commissioner then next outgoing. No person shall be such commissioner who is at the same time a selectman, or other officer of such town, or a member of the city council, clerk, or treasurer of such city; and any such commissioner may be removed by a vote of two-thirds of the legal voters of such town, at a legal town meeting called for the purpose, or by a concurrent vote of two-thirds of the whole of each branch of such city council. Vacancies. SECT. 2. Any vacancy occurring in such board shall be filled for To serve with the residue of the term of the commissioner whose place is to be filled in the manner in which such commissioner was originally appointed. Such commissioners shall serve without compensation. out compensa tion. Powers and duties. SECT. 3. Such boards of park commissioners shall have power to locate within the limits of their respective towns or cities a public park or parks, and for that purpose from time to time to take in fee by purchase, gift, devise, or otherwise, any and all such lands as they may deem desirable therefor, or to take bonds for the conveyance thereof to their respective towns or cities; to lay out and improve any such park or parks; to make rules for the use and government thereof, and for breaches of such rules to affix penalties not exceeding twenty dollars for one offence, to be imposed by any court of competent jurisdiction; to appoint all necessary engineers, surveyors, clerks, and other officers, including a police force to act in such parks; to define the powers and duties of such officers and fix the amount of their compensation; and generally to do all acts needful for the proper execution of the powers and duties granted to or imposed upon such town or city or upon such boards by this Act: provided, however, that no land shall be taken, or any other thing involving an expenditure of until an appro- money be done under this Act until an appropriation sufficient to cover priation is made the estimated expense thereof shall in a town have been made by a by a two-thirds vote of two-thirds of the legal voters present and voting in a legal vote. town meeting called for the purpose, or in a city by a vote of two No expense to be incurred thirds of each branch of the city council; and such expenditures shall in no case exceed the appropriations made therefor, and all contracts made for expenditures beyond the amount of such appropriations shall be void; provided, further, that in a town no taking of land other- Taking land not wise than by purchase shall be valid unless such taking is reported to cepted by town. the town, filed, accepted, and allowed, as provided by section seventy one of chapter forty-nine of the Public Statutes in the case of laying out town ways. valid until ac land taken shall deeds. SECT. 4. Such board shall, within sixty days after the taking of Description of any land under this Act, file and cause to be recorded in the registry be recorded in of deeds for the county or district in which any land so taken is situ- registry of ated a description thereof sufficiently accurate for identifying the same. SECT. 5. Such boards shall respectively estimate and determine all Damages. damages sustained by any person by the taking of land or by other acts of such boards in the execution of the powers vested in them respectively by this Act; but a person aggrieved by any such determination of the board may have his damages assessed by a jury of the Superior Court in the same manner as is provided by law with respect to damages sustained by reason of the laying out of ways. If upon trial damages are increased beyond the award, the party in whose favor the award was made shall recover his costs; otherwise he shall pay costs; and costs shall be taxed as in civil cases. SECT. 6. The fee of any land taken or purchased by such boards Fee of land to be vested in city in any town or city for a park under this Act shall vest in the town or or town. city in which such park is laid out; and such town or city shall be liable to pay all damages assessed or determined, as provided in the preceding section, and all other costs and expenses incurred by its board of park commissioners in the execution of the powers vested in such board by this Act. Any town or city shall also be authorized to take and hold in trust or otherwise any devise, grant, gift, or bequest that may be made for the purpose of laying out, improving, or ornamenting any park or parks therein. SECT. 7. The boards of park commissioners in their respective Assessments for towns and cities shall have the same authority to determine the value betterments. of, and assess upon real estate the amount of, betterments accruing to said real estate by the locating and laying out of a park or parks under this Act that is conferred by chapter fifty-one of the Public Statutes upon boards of city or town officers authorized to lay out streets or ways; and the provisions of the first eight sections of said chapter relating to ways, shall apply to such assessments by boards of park commissioners in respect to the location and laying out of parks as aforesaid: provided, however, that no assessment shall be laid upon Proviso. any real estate except such as abuts upon the park from the laying out of which the betterment accrues, or upon a street or way bounded by such park. money subject SECT. 8. Any town or city in which a public park is laid out under May raise this Act may raise, appropriate and expend such sums of money as to law limiting may be deemed best for the purchase and improvement of such park municipal or parks, subject to the laws of this Commonwealth limiting municipal indebtedness. indebtedness. Loan." SECT. 9. For the purpose of defraying the expenses incurred under “Public Park the provisions of this Act, the city council of any city shall have authority to issue from time to time, and to an amount not exceeding the sum actually expended for the purchase or taking of lands for a park or parks, bonds or certificates of debt, to be denominated on the face thereof the Public Park Loan," and to bear interest at such rates and to be payable at such times as said city council may determine. For the redemption of such loan such city council shall establish a sinking fund sufficient, with the accumulating interest, to provide -66 Land to be forever maintained as a public park. Military encampment not for the payment of such loan at maturity. All amounts received for betterments shall be paid into such sinking fund until such fund shall amount to a sum sufficient with its accumulations to pay at maturity the bonds for the security of which the fund was established. SECT. 10. All lands taken or held under this Act shall be forever kept open and maintained as a public park or parks. No building covering more than six hundred square feet shall be placed or allowed to remain on any such park; and no street or way and no steam or horse railroad, shall be laid out over any portion of a park located under this Act, except at such places and in such manner as the board of park commissioners shall approve. SECT. 11. No military encampment, parade, drill, review, or other permitted with military evolution or exercise shall be held or performed on any park laid out as aforesaid except with the consent of such board, nor shall any military body without such consent enter or move in military order within such park, except in case of riot, insurrection, rebellion, or war. out consent of board. Annual reports. When to take effect. Second meeting not to be called within twelve months from the first. SECT. 12. All such boards of park commissioners shall make reports of their respective doings, including detailed statements of all receipts, expenditures, and liabilities for the preceding year; such reports to be made in towns at the annual town meetings, and at such other times as the town may direct, and in cities to the city council annually in the month of December. SECT. 13. This Act shall not take full effect in any town or city unless accepted by a majority of the legal voters of such town or city present and voting thereon by ballot and using the check list, at a meeting or meetings notice whereof has been duly given at least seven days beforehand. Such ballots shall be "yes" or "no" in answer to the question, "Shall an Act passed by the Legislature of the Commonwealth in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-two, entitled 'An Act authorizing towns and cities to lay out public parks within their limits,' be accepted?" In a town such meetings shall be called and notified in the manner in which meetings for the election of town officers are called and notified; and in a city meetings to act thereon shall be held at one time in the usual voting places of the city, on such days as shall be designated by the board of aldermen at any regular meeting, and shall be called and notified by the board of aldermen in the manner in which meetings for the election of municipal officers are called and notified. The ballots cast shall be assorted, counted, and public declaration made thereof in open town or ward meeting, and the number of ballots respectively cast shall be registered in the town or ward records as the case may be. The clerk of each ward in a city shall, within forty-eight hours of the close of the polls, make return to the board of aldermen of the number of ballots cast in his ward in favor of the acceptance of this Act and of the number cast against its acceptance. The selectmen and town clerk of a town and the board of aldermen of a city in which such meeting or meetings are held shall certify, as soon as may be thereafter, to the secretary of the Commonwealth, the whole number of ballots cast in favor of the acceptance of this Act, and the whole number cast against its acceptance; and if it shall appear that a majority of the ballots have been cast in favor of acceptance, the said secretary shall immediately issue and publish his certificate declaring this Act to have been duly accepted by such town or city. SECT. 14. No second meeting for the purpose of voting upon the question of accepting this Act shall be called within twelve months from the first, unless the first meeting shall have failed through illegality or irregularity in the proceedings. SECT. 15. This Act shall take effect upon its passage. April 13, CHAPTER 155. AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE THE CITIES OF BOSTON AND CAM- Charles River SECTION 1. The cities of Boston and Cambridge are authorized to Bridge and construct a bridge and avenue across Charles River, from a point on Bea- avenue across con Street in Boston, to a point in Cambridge west of the westerly line of between Boston and Cambridge. the Boston and Albany Railroad. The location of said bridge and avenue shall be determined by the city councils of said cities acting separately, subject to the approval of the board of harbor and land commissioners so far as it affects the harbor. and subject moreover to the limitation that the line thereof shall not be north-east of a line drawn from the junction of Beacon Street and West Chester Park in Boston, to the junction of the harbor line with Front Street, extended, in Cambridge, nor south-west of a line drawn from the junction of Beacon Street, Brookline Avenue, and Brighton Avenue in Boston, to the junction of the Boston and Albany Railroad with Putnam Avenue, extended, in Cambridge. Said bridge shall have a draw with a clear Draw to be opening of at least thirty-eight feet in width for the passage of thirty-eight vessels. feet wide. structure. SECT. 2. Said bridge shall be constructed of such materials as the Materials of said cities may agree upon, but on iron or stone piers and abutments, to be of such size, shape, and construction, and be at such distance from one another, as the said board of harbor and land commissioners upon application made by said cities upon such notice as said board may deem proper, and after a hearing thereon shall determine and certify to each of said cities; and no pier or abutment shall be built except in accordance with such certificate. The avenue, with the exception of the portion between the harbor lines, may be constructed of solid filling, with the approval of the said board of harbor and land commissioners. Neither city separately shall enter upon the construc- Bridge to be tion of said bridge, but they shall jointly proceed to construct the jointly. same in accordance with plans to be submitted to and approved by the councils of said cities concurrently, and by the said board of harbor and land commissioners. built by cities take lands SECT. 3. Each city may within its own limits purchase or otherwise Each city may take lands, not exceeding one hundred and twenty-five feet in width, within its own for said bridge and avenue; and all the proceedings relating to such limits. taking shall be the same as in the case of land taken for highways within said cities respectively, with like remedies to all parties interested; and betterments may be assessed for the construction of said bridge and avenue in each city in like manner as for the laying out of highways under the betterment Acts in force in each city respectively, with like remedies to all parties interested. building. SECT. 4. Each of said cities shall bear the expense, including land Distribution of damages, of constructing such part of said bridge and avenue as lies expense of upon its own side of the Charles River; but the expense of constructing so much thereof, including the draw, as shall lie between the harbor lines, shall be borne by both cities in such proportion as may be agreed upon by the two cities. The care and management of said bridge and draw shall be vested in a board of commissioners consist- Commissioners ing of one person from each city, chosen in accordance with such to be appointed. ordinances as said cities shall respectively establish, and until such commissioners are chosen the mayors of said cities shall ex officiis constitute such commissioners. Expense of keeping in repair. Avenue may cross railroad at grade. Bonds may be issued by each city. SECT. 5. Said avenue and bridge when completed shall be a public highway, and the expense of maintaining in repair that part thereof which lies between the harbor lines, and of keeping the draw in repair, and of tending the draw day and night for the passage of vessels, shall be borne equally by the two cities, and all damages recovered by reason of any defect or want of repair in that part of the bridge between the harbor lines, or in the draw, shall be paid equally by said cities. SECT. 6. Said avenue may cross at grade any railroad operated by steam, and the board of railroad commissioners shall, upon the application of either city or any railroad corporation, prescribe the details of the crossing, and certify to the parties its decision, which decision may be enforced by proper process in equity. SECT. 7. Each of said cities may issue bonds in payment in whole or in part of the expense incurred by it under this Act. Such bonds may bear interest, payable semi-annually, at a rate not exceeding six per cent per annum, and shall be payable at such time not less than ten nor more than thirty years from their respective dates, as shall be determined by said cities respectively, and expressed upon the face of Pub. Sts. ch. 29, the bonds. Nothing, however, contained herein shall warrant an § 4. increase of municipal indebtedness beyond the limitations prescribed by section four of chapter twenty-nine of the Public Statutes. Bridge to be constructed within ten years. SECT. 8. This Act shall be void unless that portion of the bridge between the harbor lines shall be constructed within ten years from the passage hereof. April 14, 1882. Salary. CHAPTER 156. AN ACT TO ESTABLISH THE SALARY OF THE DISTRICT-AT- SECTION 1. The salary of the district-attorney for the eastern district shall hereafter be twenty-four hundred dollars a year. SECT. 2. This Act shall take effect upon its passage. April 14, 1882. May appoint an assistant. CHAPTER 157. AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF AN ASSISTANT THE district-attorney for the eastern district may appoint an assistant district-attorney, removable at his pleasure, to assist him in the performance of his official duties, who shall receive out of the treasury of the county of Essex a salary of one thousand dollars a year, and at that rate for any part of a year. April 14, 1882. |