[Adopted 8-5-1996 by the Board of Selectmen, effective 8-25-1996]
The compilation of the ordinances of the Town of Somers, codified and consolidated into parts, chapters and sections in the form attached hereto and made a part hereof, is hereby approved, adopted, ordained and enacted as the "Code of the Town of Somers, Connecticut," hereinafter called the "Code." All provisions contained in the compilation provided for herein and known as the "Code of the Town of Somers" shall be in force and effect on and after the effective date of this article.
The provisions of the Code, insofar as they are substantively the same as those ordinances in force immediately prior to the enactment of the Code by this article, are intended as a continuation of such ordinances and not as new enactments, and the effectiveness of such provisions shall date from the date of adoption of the prior ordinance. All such provisions are hereby continued in full force and effect and are hereby reaffirmed as to their adoption by the Town Meeting or Board of Selectmen.
All ordinances or parts thereof of the Town of Somers of a general and permanent nature in force on the date of the adoption of this article which are inconsistent with any provisions of the Code are hereby repealed from and after the effective date of this article; provided, however, that nothing herein shall be construed as repealing or altering the zoning, subdivision of land or inland wetlands and watercourses regulations or the sewer use charge system of the town.
Nothing contained herein shall abridge the legal authority of any board, commission or agency of the Town of Somers to make, publish, adopt, repeal, change or amend its rules, regulations or bylaws in accordance with law.
If any clause, sentence, paragraph, section, article or part of this article or of any ordinance or regulation appearing in the Code or included in this Code through supplementation shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remainder thereof but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, section, Article or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which judgment shall have been rendered.
A copy of the Code, in loose-leaf form, has been filed in the office of the Town Clerk of the Town of Somers and shall remain there for use and examination by the public until final action is taken on this article; and, if this article shall be adopted, such copy shall be certified to by the Town Clerk of the Town of Somers by impressing thereon the Seal of the Town of Somers, and such certified copy shall remain on file in the office of said Town Clerk to be made available to persons desiring to examine the same during all times while said Code is in effect. The enactment and publication of this article, coupled with the availability of a copy of the Code for inspection by the public, shall be deemed, held and considered to be due and legal publication of all provisions of the Code for all purposes.
Any and all additions, deletions, amendments or supplements to any of the ordinances known collectively as the "Code of the Town of Somers" or any new ordinances, when enacted or adopted in such form as to indicate the intention of the Town Meeting or Board of Selectmen to be a part thereof, shall be deemed to be incorporated into such Code so that reference to the Code shall be understood and intended to include such additions, deletions, amendments or supplements. Whenever such additions, deletions, amendments or supplements to the Code shall be enacted or adopted, they shall thereafter be printed and, as provided hereunder, inserted in the loose-leaf book containing said Code, as amendments and supplements thereto. Nothing contained in this article shall affect the status of any ordinance contained herein, and such ordinances may be amended, deleted or changed from time to time as the Town Meeting or Board of Selectmen deems desirable.
It shall be the duty of the Town Clerk to keep up-to-date the certified copy of the book containing the Code of the Town of Somers required to be filed in the office of the Town Clerk for use by the public. All changes in said Code and all ordinances adopted by the Town Meeting or Board of Selectmen subsequent to the enactment of this article in such form as to indicate the intention of said Meeting or Board to be a part of said Code shall, when finally enacted or adopted, be included therein by temporary attachment of copies of such changes until such changes are printed as supplements to said Code book, at which time such supplements shall be inserted therein.
Copies of the Code may be purchased from the Town Clerk of the Town of Somers upon the payment of a fee to be set by resolution of the Board of Selectmen, which Board may also arrange by resolution for procedures for the periodic supplementation thereof.
In compiling and preparing the ordinances for publication as the Code of the Town of Somers, no changes in the meaning or intent of such ordinances have been made, except as have been made by formal amendment thereto. Certain grammatical changes and other minor nonsubstantive changes were made in one or more of said ordinances, as authorized by the town. It is the intention of the town that all such changes be adopted as part of the Code as if the ordinances had been previously formally amended to read as such.