Chapter 252

Section 1. If it is necessary or useful (1) to drain or flow a meadow, swamp, marsh, beach or other low land held by two or more proprietors, or (2) to remove obstructions in rivers or streams leading thereto or therefrom, or (3) to eradicate mosquitoes in any area infested there…

Section 10. The district may vote to adopt any of the three methods of financing hereinafter specified. (1) If all the members of the district agree, the district may raise by assessments upon the proprietors or by voluntary contributions and deposit with the state treasurer the …

Section 11. The clerk of the district shall certify to the assessors of the town or towns in which the land of the district lies all sums of money voted to be raised and all sums payable annually on account of the principal and interest due on bonds or notes issued under the prov…

Section 12. If sections one to seven, inclusive, have been complied with, and payment of the expense of the improvements has been arranged under section nine or ten, the commissioners shall carry out said improvements in such manner as the board may approve. The commissioners may…

Section 13. If the commissioners find it necessary or expedient to lower or raise the water to obtain a view of the land or for the more convenient or expeditious removal of obstructions, they may open the flood gates of any mill or make other needful passages through or around t…

Section 14. The commissioners shall at least once a month at such time as the board may require submit to it the accounts and vouchers for expenses incurred in meeting the cost of required improvements under sections one to fourteen B, inclusive. Such accounts and vouchers shall …

Section 14A. A reclamation district organized under this chapter may from time to time at a legal meeting called for the purpose, vote to undertake further improvements within the district, to raise money by assessment to meet the expense thereof and to incur debt therefor in the…

Section 14B. No person obtaining an additional water power or water supply by the doing of any work contemplated by sections one to fourteen B, inclusive, shall gain a prescriptive right to the use thereof, nor be entitled to any compensation for the taking thereof under said sec…

Section 14C. Whoever obstructs or injures any ditch, tide gate, dike or other structure constructed or used for any purpose authorized by any provision of sections one to fourteen B, inclusive, shall be punished by a fine of not less than ten dollars. The state reclamation board …

Section 14D. Mosquito control projects and mosquito control districts shall have sole authority in all personnel decisions including, but not limited to, the following: the hiring and firing of personnel; the establishment of rates of compensation for personnel representative of …

Section 15. A town or person owning low land, ponds, swamps, quarries, mines or mineral deposits, which, on account of adjacent lands belonging to other persons or occupied as a highway, cannot be approached, worked, cultivated, drained or used to advantage in the ordinary manner…

Section 16. A party desiring to make such improvements shall file a petition therefor with the county commissioners for the county where the greater part of the land lies, setting forth the names of the persons interested, if known to the petitioner, and also in detail the nature…

Section 17. The commissioners at their first meeting after the filing of the petition shall order notice of the time and place of meeting, to consider the petition, to be published once in each of three successive weeks in a newspaper, if any, published in the county; otherwise, …

Section 18. If, after examination, inspection and a hearing, they find that the improvements prayed for are required by the public convenience and necessity they shall so lay out and establish the same as to do as little injury as practicable, and if it is necessary to take priva…

Section 19. The commissioners shall assess the amount awarded as damages upon the persons for whose use the improvements are to be made, in proportion to the benefit to be received by each; but no person shall be assessed an amount greater than the benefit to be received by him. …

Section 2. One employee of the department of environmental protection designated by its commissioner, one employee of the department of food and agriculture designated by its commissioner, and one employee of the department of environmental management designated by its commission…

Section 20. If it is necessary to repair an improvement so made, a majority of the persons benefited by it may cause such repairs to be made, and may by bill in equity compel contribution on the basis of the award from the owner of each parcel of land for the use of which the imp…

Section 21. If the land mentioned in section fifteen lies entirely in one town, the petition may be made to the mayor and aldermen or selectmen thereof, who shall proceed thereon in all respects as above provided for county commissioners, except that they need not give notice to …

Section 22. The mayor and aldermen or selectmen shall each receive two dollars for each day's service upon such petition, and the city or town clerk shall receive for recording a petition or order thereon the fee provided by clause (68) of section thirty-four of chapter two hundr…

Section 23. A party aggrieved by the refusal of the mayor and aldermen or selectmen to make such order, may, within one year thereafter, petition the county commissioners, who shall thereupon proceed in all respects as though the petition had been originally filed with them.

Section 24. With the approval of the state reclamation board, hereinafter called the board, any city or town along the seacoast of the commonwealth may, in a city by vote of the city council and in a town by vote of the selectmen, establish a greenhead fly control project within …

Section 3. The board may investigate the question of utilizing wet lands, including meadows, swamps, marshes, beaches and other low lands, and may ascertain what lands, if any, may advantageously be drained for agricultural or industrial uses, the protection of the public health,…

Section 4. In carrying out the provisions of this chapter, the board may employ necessary engineers, assistants, or other agents, who may enter on land which the board desires to survey or examine. The board shall also be allowed other necessary expenses incurred in the performan…

Section 4A. The commonwealth, acting through one or more state departments, and any city, town or district, or any combination thereof, to the extent of their ownership of any area described in section one, may be parties, in their proprietary capacity, to proceedings under secti…

Section 5. The proprietors of any area described in section one or a majority in interest either in value or area may petition the board setting forth their desire to improve such area, the necessity or desirability of such improvements, the objects to be accomplished, a general …

Section 5A. If the board determines that the proposed improvements should be undertaken and that their construction and maintenance may be effected without the formation of a district, and in every such case where the board is petitioned by a body politic in its governmental capa…

Section 5B. The board of health of a city or town not included in an area designated by an identifying name for the purpose of section five A, or the commissioners appointed to make improvements on behalf of a mosquito control district under such a name, as provided in said secti…

Section 6. The district commissioners, in this and the ten following sections called the commissioners, after being sworn, shall call a meeting of the proprietors of the lands to be improved, by giving in such manner as the board may order, a notice to each known proprietor, sign…

Section 6A. Any district established under this chapter may pay a proper charge for effecting insurance providing an indemnity or protection of such district or of any officer or employee of such district, whose services as such is approved by the commissioners thereof, against l…

Section 7. As soon as the district shall have been organized under the provisions of section six the commissioners shall, under the direction of the board, cause the necessary surveys and investigations to be made and shall prepare a plan showing in detail the boundaries of the d…

Section 8. Should the board be of the opinion that a part of the expense of the improvements made under sections one to fourteen B, inclusive, should be paid by the commonwealth for the benefit of the public health of said commonwealth as a whole it shall estimate the amount whic…

Section 9. As soon as possible after the recording of the description, plan and estimate as provided in section seven, the commissioners shall request the clerk to call a meeting of the district for the purpose of deciding upon a method of financing such improvements in accordanc…