No snow or ice shall be deposited upon any portion of a way
open to public travel for the safe maintenance of which the Town is
responsible, except by Town employees acting in the proper performance
of their duties. This provision shall not prohibit an occupant of
premises abutting upon such a way from clearing snow or ice from a
sidewalk in front of such premises, or from that part of any driveway
or other means of access from such premises to the way, provided that
such clearing does not result in a narrowing of the traveled portion
of the way as defined by prior snow removal procedures performed by
Town employees.
No person shall make any excavation or other substantial change
in a Town way open to public travel without first obtaining a permit
therefor from the Director of Public Works. Such a permit shall be
granted only upon a written application therefor, which shall contain
such information as to the proposed excavation change as the Director
of Public Works may require, and the permit may contain any reasonable
requirements, including the applicant's procurement of an adequate
performance bond assuring his compliance with such requirements, the
amount of such bond to be set by the Director of Public Works. In
the event that such excavation cannot be completed within 12 hours,
the Director of Public Works shall forthwith make all necessary repairs.
The applicant shall be responsible to the Town for the incident expenses.
No driveway or other means of access to privately owned property
from any public way or any way maintained by the Town or shown on
an approved subdivision plan shall be constructed unless a permit
for its entry into said way shall first have been issued by the Director
of Public Works.
In accordance with the provisions of MGL c, 40, § 6N,
the Town may make temporary repairs on private ways under the following
conditions:
A. The type and extent of the repairs authorized by this bylaw shall
be any and all repairs, including drainage work, necessary for safe
and convenient travel by the public, up to and including work that
would be required to make the private way suitable to be accepted
as a public way.
B. The Director of Public Works, with the approval of the Board of Selectmen,
shall authorize such repairs, and shall determine whether the repairs
are required by public necessity.
C. No petition by abutters shall be required for such repairs.
D. No betterment charges shall be assessed, and no cash deposits shall
be required.
E. The Town shall not be liable in any manner or amount on account of
any damages caused by such repairs.
F. Such repairs shall be performed only on ways that have been open
to public use for at least six years, as determined by the Board of
Selectmen.
G. No repairs or improvements shall be done on any private ways where
the owners of the private way or their successors have agreed by covenant,
Planning Board decision, or any other form of agreement that the Town
shall not provide street repair or improvement services.
The Town Meeting may vote under a single article in the warrant
to accept streets as public ways. Such article shall be submitted
by the Board of Selectmen and shall contain a listing of the names,
locations and descriptions of all streets to be laid out by the Board
of Selectmen at a meeting held for that purpose pursuant to statute
prior to the Town Meeting. The Town Meeting may vote to remove or
reject any street or streets from the article by amendment prior to
the vote on the entire article. The representative of the owner of
any street listed in the article shall be present at the Town Meeting
for purposes of addressing the question should the need arise.