[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Meeting of the Town of Swansea
as Ch. 1, § 1-1 through § 1-12, of the 1988 Revised
General Bylaws. Amendments noted where applicable.]
[The Town of Swansea General Bylaws were recodified, renumbered
and recaptioned 6-1-2020 ATM by Art. 1, which recodification did not
alter the substance of any of the provisions of the General Bylaws.]
The bylaws embraced in this and the following chapters and sections
shall be designated the "Revised General Bylaws, 1988, of the Town
of Swansea, Massachusetts."
In the construction of this Revision of all bylaws and resolutions
passed by the Town, the following rules shall be observed and the
following definitions shall apply, unless such construction would
be inconsistent with the manifest intent of the Town.
The words "board of selectmen" or "selectmen" shall mean
the Board of Selectmen of the Town of Swansea, Massachusetts.
The word "Commonwealth" shall mean the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
In computing any period of time mentioned in the provisions
of this Revision, the day of the act, event or default after which
the designated period of time begins to run is not to be included,
and the last day of the period so computed is to be included, unless
it is a Saturday, Sunday or a legal holiday, in which event the period
runs until the end of the next day which is not a Saturday, Sunday
or a holiday. When the period of time prescribed is less than seven
days, intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays shall not
be included in the computation.
The word "county" shall mean the County of Bristol, Massachusetts.
A word importing the masculine gender only shall extend to
and be applied to females and to firms, partnerships, associations
and corporations, as well as to males.
Words purporting to give authority to three or more officers
or other persons shall be construed as giving such authority to a
majority of such officers or other persons, unless it is otherwise
declared.
The abbreviation "MGL" means the latest edition or supplement
of the Massachusetts General Laws Annotated.
Any word importing the singular number shall include the
plural and any word importing the plural number shall include the
singular.
The word "oath" shall be construed to include an affirmation
in all cases in which, by law, an affirmation may be substituted for
an oath, and in such cases the words "swear" and "sworn" shall be
equivalent to the words "affirm" and "affirmed."
The word "owner," applied to a building or land, shall include
any part owner, joint owner, tenant in common, tenant in partnership,
joint tenant or tenant by the entirety, of the whole or of a part
of such building or land.
The word "person" shall extend and be applied to associations,
corporations, firms, partnerships and bodies politic and corporate
as well as to individuals. Where criminal prosecution may lie, the
officers of any corporation shall jointly and severally be subject
to prosecution as being included within the term "person."
The words "preceding" and "following" mean next before and
next after, respectively.
The word "roadway" shall mean that portion of a street improved,
designed or ordinarily used for vehicular traffic.
The word "sidewalk" shall mean any portion of the street
between the curb, or the lateral line of the roadway and the adjacent
property line, intended for the use of pedestrians.
The word "signature" or "subscription" shall include a mark
when a person cannot write.
The word "state" shall be construed to mean the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts.
The word "street" shall include any highway, alley, avenue
or bridge, viaduct, underpass, overpass, tunnel and causeway in the
Town, dedicated or devoted to public use.
Words used in the past or present tense include the future
as well as the past and present.
The word "Town" shall mean the Town of Swansea, in the County
of Bristol and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Whenever reference is made to a board, committee, commission,
officer or department, the same shall be construed as if followed
by the words "of the Town of Swansea, Massachusetts."
The words "written" or "in writing" shall be construed to
include any representation of words, letters or figures, whether by
printing or otherwise.
The word "year" shall mean a calendar year.
The catchlines of the several sections of this Revision printed
in boldface type are intended as mere catchwords to indicate the contents
of the section and shall not be deemed or taken to be titles of such
sections, nor as any part of the section, nor, unless expressly so
provided, shall they be so deemed when any of such sections, including
the catchlines, are amended or reenacted.
All references to chapters or sections are to the chapters and
sections of this Revision unless otherwise specified.
The references and editor's notes appearing throughout
the Revision are not intended to have any legal effect, but are merely
intended to assist the user of the Revision.
The history notes appearing in parentheses after sections in
this Revision are not intended to have any legal effect but are merely
intended to indicate the source of matter contained in the section.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: With the 2020 republication of the Town Code,
histories appear in brackets at the end of the section or subsection
added or amended.
Nothing in this Revision or the bylaw adopting this Revision
shall be construed to repeal or otherwise affect the validity of any
of the following when not inconsistent with this Revision:
A.
Any
offense or act committed or done or any penalty or forfeiture incurred
or any contract or right established or accruing before the effective
date of such Revision;
B.
Any
bylaw promising or guaranteeing the payment of money for the Town,
or authorizing the issuance of any bonds of the Town or any evidence
of the Town's indebtedness;
C.
Any
contract or obligation assumed by the Town;
D.
Any
right or franchise granted by the Town;
E.
Any
bylaw dedicating, naming, establishing, locating, opening, paving,
widening, vacating, etc., any street or public way in the Town;
F.
Any
bylaw relating to municipal street maintenance agreements with the
state;
G.
Any
bylaw establishing or prescribing grades for streets in the Town;
H.
Any
appropriation bylaw providing for the levy of taxes or for adopting
an annual budget;
I.
Any
bylaw relating to local improvements and assessments therefor;
J.
Any
bylaw dedicating or accepting any plat or subdivision in the Town;
K.
Any
bylaw establishing or amending zoning or land use regulations or the
zoning map, or rezoning property;
L.
Any
bylaw prescribing the number, classification, benefits or compensation
of any Town officers or employees, not inconsistent herewith;
and all such bylaws are hereby recognized as continuing in full
force and effect to the same extent as if set out at length in this
Revision. Such bylaws are on file in the Town clerk's office.
A.
The
repeal of a bylaw shall not revive any bylaws in force before or at
the time the bylaw repealed took effect.
B.
The
repeal of a bylaw shall not affect any punishment or penalty incurred
before the repeal took effect, nor any suit, prosecution or proceeding
pending at the time of the repeal, for an offense committed under
the bylaw repealed.
A.
Nothing
in this Revision or the bylaw adopting this Revision shall affect
any offense or act committed or done, or any penalty or forfeiture
incurred, or any contract or right established or accruing before
the effective date of this Revision.
B.
The
adoption of this Revision shall not be interpreted as authorizing
or permitting any use or the continuance of any use of a structure
or premises in violation of any bylaw of the Town in effect on the
date of adoption of this Revision.
Any and all additions and amendments to this Revision, when
passed in such form as to indicate the intention of the Town to make
the same a part hereof, shall be deemed to be incorporated herein,
so that reference to the Revision shall be understood and intended
to include such additions and amendments.
A.
By contract or by Revision personnel, supplements to this Revision
shall be prepared and printed whenever authorized or directed by the
Town. A supplement to the Revision shall include all substantive permanent
and general parts of bylaws adopted during the period covered by the
supplement and all changes made thereby in the Revision. The pages
of a supplement shall be so numbered that they will fit properly into
the Revision and will, where necessary, replace pages which have become
obsolete or partially obsolete, and the new pages shall be so prepared
that, when they have been inserted, the Revision will be current through
the date of the adoption of the latest bylaw included in the supplement.
B.
In preparing a supplement to this Revision, all portions of the Revision
which have been repealed shall be excluded from the Revision by the
omission thereof from reprinted pages.
C.
When preparing a supplement to this Revision, the codifier (meaning
the person, agency or organization authorized to prepare the supplement)
may make formal, nonsubstantive changes in bylaws and parts of bylaws
included in the supplement, insofar as it is necessary to do so to
embody them into a unified revision. For example, the codifier may:
(1)
Organize the bylaw into appropriate subdivisions;
(2)
Provide appropriate catchlines, headings and titles for sections
and other subdivisions of the Revision printed in the supplement,
and make changes in such catchlines, headings and titles;
(3)
Assign appropriate numbers to sections and other subdivisions to
be inserted in the Revision and, where necessary to accommodate new
material, change existing section or other subdivision numbers;
(4)
Change the words "this bylaw" or words of the same meaning to "this
chapter," "this article," "this division," etc., as the case may be,
or to "sections _____ to _____" (inserting section numbers to indicate
the sections of the Revision which embody the substantive sections
of the bylaw incorporated into the Revision); and
(5)
Make other nonsubstantive changes necessary to preserve the original
meaning of the sections inserted into the Revision; but in no case
shall the codifier make any change in the meaning or effect of the
bylaw included in the supplement or already embodied in the Revision.
It is hereby declared to be the intention of the Town that the
sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses and phrases of this Revision
are severable and, if any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section
of this Revision shall be declared invalid or unconstitutional by
the valid judgment or decree of any court of competent jurisdiction,
such invalidity or unconstitutionality shall not affect any of the
remaining phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and sections of
this Revision, since the same would have been enacted by the Town
without the incorporation in this Revision of any such invalid or
unconstitutional phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section.
