[HISTORY: Adopted by the Annual Town Meeting
of the Town of Middleton 3-15-1949 by Art. 23. Amendments noted where applicable.]
[Amended 6-5-2021 ATM by Art. 28]
No person shall be or remain or play any game
or amusement, upon any street, sidewalk, public way, passage to the
same, doorstep, or other projection from any dwelling house or other
building, within the Town, so as to annoy, disturb, or obstruct the
passage of any person. Any person so being, remaining or playing as
aforesaid shall, when ordered by any constable or police officer or
watchman or owner or occupant of such dwelling house or other building,
immediately and peacefully depart and stay away therefrom under a
penalty of not more than $5 for each such offense. This section shall
not apply to any person coasting on any street or way designated for
that purpose by the Select Board according to law.
No person shall ride any horse, or drive any
horse attached to a carriage or wagon of any description, or cause
the same to be ridden or driven, through any street, sidewalk, public
way or square or intersection in the Town, at a rate exceeding 10
miles per hour, under a penalty of not more than $10 for each offense.
No person shall ride any bicycle or horse or
drive any team, carriage, horses, goat, cow, swine, other grazing
animal, or motor vehicle upon any sidewalk within the Town, or allow
any such animal, carriage or vehicle to stand upon any sidewalk, under
a penalty of not more than $5 for each offense.
No person who owns or has charge of any horse,
cow, goat, swine or other grazing animal shall allow said animal to
pasture in any street, way, sidewalk, square or intersection within
the Town under a penalty of not more than $5 for each offense.
[Amended 6-5-2021 ATM by Art. 28]
No person shall light, or cause to be lighted,
any bonfire in any street, way, sidewalk, square or intersection,
except in such places as the Select Board may designate, under a penalty
of not more than $20 for each offense.
No person shall place or cause to be placed
in any street, sidewalk, way, square or intersection within the Town,
without the written permission of the Board of Health, any filth,
manure, offal, ashes, rubbish, broken glass, nails, decayed fish,
decayed animal or vegetable matter, shavings, paper, sawdust, other
combustible material, stones, clearings, sweepings or clam, lobster
or oyster shells, or any other obstruction whatsoever, under a penalty
of not more than $20 for each offense.
[Amended 5-11-1982 ATM by Art. 38]
No person, corporation or Town department shall
make any temporary or permanent excavation under the surface of any
street, way, sidewalk, square or intersection or break up or dig up
any part of such street, way, sidewalk, square or intersection or
assist in any such act, for any purposes whatever, without the written
permission of the Superintendent of the Division of Public Works,
and on the condition that such person, corporation, or Town department
shall post with the Town Treasurer-Collector a bond in the amount
to be set by the Superintendent of the Division of Public Works for
liability and performance and put the surface of such street in such
good repair as it was at the time of the granting of the permit. Any
person who makes any such excavation, breaking or digging, without
obtaining such permission, shall be liable to a penalty of not more
than $20. Each day that any such violation continues shall constitute
and be considered a separate offense.
[Added 5-14-1985 ATM by Art. 37; amended 5-10-1988 ATM by Art.
55; 6-5-2021 ATM by Art. 28]
The Select Board shall have the discretion to
cause temporary repairs to be made to private ways within the Town,
said discretion to be exercised in conformity to the following standards:
A.
Public convenience and necessity. The Select Board
shall not authorize the Superintendent of Public Works to make such
repairs unless the Superintendent has first made a determination that
both the public convenience and public necessity require the same.
In making such determination, the Superintendent shall consider all
pertinent factors including, without limiting the generality of the
foregoing, the cost of the repairs and the benefit to the general
public resulting therefrom.
B.
Abutters' petition. Repairs shall not be made without
the written request of no fewer than 2/3 of the landowners, as certified
by the Board of Assessors, whose property abuts the private way.
C.
Type and extent of repairs. Temporary repairs may
include the filling and grading of holes and repairs to the surface.
Materials used, when practical, shall be the same as, or similar to,
those used for the existing and surrounding surface, but may also
include bituminous concrete or other materials.
D.
Drainage. Installation and repair of existing drainage
may be made if practical and necessary. The Town shall not be liable
for any drainage condition resulting from temporary repairs.
E.
Betterment assessment. There shall be one-hundred-percent
betterment assessment of the cost of temporary repairs. However, as
an alternative method the Select Board may require abutters to the
private way to pay 50% of the estimated cost of the temporary repairs
instead of 100%. Said fifty-percent payment shall be deposited with
the Town Treasurer-Collector prior to the repairs being made; any
excess of such funds paid by the abutters shall be returned to the
abutters upon completion of the repairs. The cost of the temporary
repairs shall include labor, material, equipment and inspection.
F.
Funding of temporary repairs. The Town's share of
the cost of temporary repairs to private ways in any fiscal year shall
not exceed 10% of the Department of Public Works budget for roadway
resurfacing work on Town roads for that fiscal year. Funds in excess
of this limit may be appropriated at the Annual Town Meeting.
G.
Public use. No private way shall be repaired hereunder
unless and until it has been open to the use of the public and plowed
and sanded by the Town for no less than six years.
H.
Liability. The Town of Middleton shall not be liable
for any damages caused by said temporary repairs.
