[Note: Article 7 of the 6/17/2002 Special Town Meeting added this chapter.]
In accordance with M.G.L. c. 40, § 6N, the Select Board may authorize temporary repairs to be made to private ways. In accordance with this bylaw the Select Board may authorize temporary or necessary repairs to be made to private ways.
[1]
Article 2 of the 2005 Annual Town Meeting added the second sentence on 4/25/2005.
The repairs may include, but are not limited to: filling, grading, patching and surface coating, and may include repairs to drainage swales, conduits, systems and structures as are necessary to preserve the roadway. All repairs must be determined by the Town Engineer and Director of Public Works to be required for public health, safety, or welfare.
The Select Board may make a determination on the need for said repairs with or without a petition of abutter(s) to the private way.
Betterment charges may be assessed by the Select Board on the abutter(s) of such way up to an amount equal to the cost of such repairs. If betterments are to be assessed, they shall be assessed upon each parcel of land benefiting from such repair in proportion to linear frontage on the portion of the way to be improved or other proportional method as may be approved by the Select Board.
Betterments shall be apportioned over such a period as the Select Board deem appropriate, after considering such matters as the estimated useful life of the proposed repairs and the source of funds to be used for the same.
The Town Manager may require a cash deposit up to the amount of the estimated cost of such repairs, as determined by the Town Engineer and Director of Public Works, to be paid to the Town prior to the commencement of such repairs. The Town Manager may use any appropriate collection process deemed necessary in collecting such deposit from the abutter(s). The Town Manager, with the approval of the Select Board, may enter into contracts on behalf of the Town with abutters or associations of abutters providing for other methods of payment for such repairs by abutters which the Town Manager deems reasonable.
This bylaw does not confer any obligation or duty on the Town or its agents to either initially place or to thereafter maintain and repair said private ways so that they are reasonably safe and convenient for travel by being free from defects or want of repair. The making of such temporary or necessary repairs to private ways, no matter how often or to what extent, does not constitute an acceptance by the Town of such private ways as public ways, nor does it constitute a way being “maintained and used as a public way” under the Massachusetts Subdivision Control Law.
[1]
Article 2 of the 2005 Spring Town Meeting inserted the words “or necessary” after the word temporary on 4/25/2005.
It is intended that the Town shall have no liability as a result of any such repairs, and no repairs to a private way shall be undertaken until the Select Board has determined that satisfactory arrangements have been made to appropriately reduce or eliminate any liability to the Town arising from the same. Such arrangements may include, but are not necessarily limited to, the provision of insurance by repair contractors and/or by abutters or associations of abutters insuring the Town’s interests or the provision of suitable indemnity agreements by abutters or by associations of abutters.
The indemnity agreement contemplated by Section 16-7 shall indemnify and hold the Town harmless from additional damage and claims arising from repairs undertaken hereunder, shall provide that the making of such repairs does not constitute a commitment by the Town, express or implied, to provide any maintenance or repair to the way in the future, and shall provide that the making of such repairs shall not constitute “maintenance” of such way so as to give the way the status of a way “maintained and used as a public way” under the Massachusetts Subdivision Control Law.