Massachusetts Statutes

Section 3A. Any recordable instrument purporting to affect an interest in real estate, title to which is held by a city, town, district or regional school district, executed in the name of a town by its selectmen, in the name of a city by its mayor or by its city manager in the c…

Section 4. A city or town may make contracts for the exercise of its corporate powers, on such terms and conditions as are authorized by the town meeting in a town, the town council in a town without a town meeting, the city council in a city with the approval of the mayor or the…

Section 41. Towns and water supply and fire districts duly established by law may, with the consent and approval of the department of environmental protection, given after due notice and a hearing, take by eminent domain under chapter seventy-nine, or acquire by purchase or other…

Section 41A. A board of water commissioners or a board of public works with the duties of water commissioners of a municipality, water supply, fire and water district or water company having control of water supplies may, on behalf of their respective bodies politic or corporate,…

Section 42. The board of aldermen or the selectmen may, upon terms and conditions prescribed by them, authorize the laying of pipes and conduits for the conveyance of water under any public way in their town; provided, that this section shall not authorize any person to supply wa…

Section 42A. If the rates and charges due to a city, town or water district, which accepts this section and sections forty-two B to forty-two F, inclusive, by vote of its city council or of the voters in town or district meeting and, by its clerk, files a certificate of such acce…

Section 42B. Such lien shall take effect by operation of law on the day immediately following the due date of such rate or charge, and, unless dissolved by payment or abatement, shall continue until such rate or charge has been added to or committed as a tax under section forty-t…

Section 42C. If a rate or charge for which a lien is in effect under section forty-two B has not been added to or committed as a tax and remains unpaid when the assessors are preparing a real estate tax list and warrant to be committed by them under section fifty-three of chapter…

Section 42D. Except as otherwise provided, the provisions of chapters fifty-nine and sixty shall apply, so far as pertinent, to all rates and charges certified to the assessors under section forty-two C. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, upon commitment as a tax o…

Section 42E. An owner of real estate aggrieved by a charge imposed thereon under sections forty-two A to forty-two F, inclusive, in addition to such remedy as he may have under section ten of chapter one hundred and sixty-five, may apply for an abatement thereof by filing a petit…

Section 42F. An owner of real estate who, in order to prevent the imposition of a lien thereon or to discharge the same, has paid charges for water furnished to a tenant or other person who was bound to pay the same, may recover from such tenant or other person in an action of co…

Section 42G. Any city, town or district having a water supply or water distributing system which, in the case of a city or town, accepts this section and the two following sections in cities other than Plan E cities by vote of the city council subject to the city charter, or Plan…

Section 42H. A city, town or district having a water supply or water distributing system may provide that assessment for the cost of providing and laying water pipes thereafter in public and private ways shall be made upon the several parcels of land receiving benefit from the la…

Section 42I. Whenever the water commissioners or other officers in charge of the supply and distribution of water in a city, town or district which has accepted sections forty-two G to forty-two I, inclusive, determine to lay water pipes in public and private ways and assessments…

Section 42J. In a city, town or district which accepts the provisions of this section, the board responsible for assessing charges for the use of water under section sixty-nine B of chapter forty-one or any other provision of law, shall, upon the application of the owner of the r…

Section 42K. In a city, town or district which accepts the provisions of this section, the water commissioners may assess betterments in accordance with the provisions of chapter eighty for the construction and connection of water mains and services by a uniform unit method which…

Section 43. The board of aldermen or the selectmen may, upon terms and conditions prescribed by them, authorize the laying of pipes and conduits for the transmission of steam or hot water for heating, cooking and mechanical power, for private use, under any public way in their to…

Section 43A. The board of alderman or the selectmen may, subject to such terms and conditions as they may deem advisable and subject also to such rules and regulations as may be promulgated by the state department of fire services, grant to any person the right to lay, construct,…

Section 44. A town may, at a town meeting, authorize a village or district therein, if it contains not less than one thousand inhabitants, to organize under a name approved by the town for the purpose of erecting and maintaining street lamps, establishing and maintaining librarie…

Section 44A. A city or town, by vote of the council in a city and by vote of the board of selectmen in a town, may create a special unpaid committee to be known as a regional refuse disposal planning committee consisting of 3 persons to be appointed by the board of selectmen in a…

Section 44B. Regional refuse disposal planning committees from any two or more cities or towns may join together to form a regional refuse disposal planning board. Such regional refuse disposal planning board shall study the advisability of establishing a regional refuse disposal…

Section 44C. The regional refuse disposal planning board, consisting only of the regional refuse disposal planning committees which vote in favor of the establishment of a regional refuse disposal district, shall draw up a proposed agreement. The said agreement shall contain prov…

Section 44D. The regional refuse disposal planning board shall report its findings and recommendations to the board of selectmen and the mayor, as the case may be, of each city or town comprising the board. If the board recommends that a regional refuse disposal district be estab…

Section 44E. The selectmen of each of the several towns, upon receipt of a recommendation that a regional refuse disposal district be established, shall vote on the question of accepting the plan. The mayors of the several cities, upon receipt of a recommendation that a regional …

Section 44F. A regional refuse disposal district, established under the provisions of section forty-four E, shall be a body politic and corporate with the following powers and duties:— (a) To adopt a name and a corporate seal, and the engraved or printed facsimile of such seal ap…

Section 44G. The powers, duties and liabilities of a regional refuse disposal district shall be vested in and exercised by a regional refuse disposal district committee organized in accordance with the agreement. The committee shall choose a chairman by ballot from its membership…

Section 44H. The regional refuse disposal district committee shall annually determine the amounts necessary to be raised to maintain and operate the district during the ensuing fiscal year, and the amounts required for payment of debt and interest incurred by the district which w…

Section 44I. The director of accounts in the department of corporations and taxation shall annually cause an audit to be made of the accounts of the regional refuse disposal district committee, and for this purpose he, and his duly accredited agents, shall have access to all nece…

Section 44J. The agreement made under section forty-four C, or any amendment to such an agreement, may contain provisions authorizing any member city or town to sell, lease or license to the regional refuse disposal district any refuse disposal facility and any land appurtenant t…

Section 44K. The provisions of sections sixteen to twenty-eight, inclusive, of chapter forty-four shall, so far as apt, apply to regional refuse disposal districts, but the provisions of section sixteen relating to the countersigning of bonds and notes and the provisions of secti…

Section 44L. The rights and powers granted to cities and towns by the provisions of section twenty-eight C of chapter forty-four shall apply to regional refuse disposal districts and for the purpose of said section twenty-eight C the chief executive officer of a regional refuse d…

Section 45. The selectmen of a town required to enter into a recognizance may by an order or vote authorize any person to enter into the recognizance in its name and behalf. No surety shall be required thereon.

Section 46. Any person authorized to approve a claim against a town for labor, materials or service may, before approval thereof, require the claimant to certify under oath that all the articles for which claim is made have been furnished, or that all the labor or service has bee…

Section 47. Each town shall have a seal, established at a town meeting, to be kept by the town clerk. Papers or documents issued from any office or board of the town may be attested therewith. Cities which had an authorized seal in use on May tenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-ni…

Section 48. Every town shall provide suitable places, to be approved by the supervisor of public records, for the preservation and convenient use of all books, reports and laws received from the commonwealth; and for every month's neglect so to do shall forfeit ten dollars. Said …

Section 49. The selectmen, before the annual town meeting, shall at the expense of the town make available the annual town report for the use of the inhabitants containing the report of the selectmen for the calendar or fiscal year preceding said meeting, the report of the school…

Section 4A. The chief executive officer of a city or town, or a board, committee or officer authorized by law to execute a contract in the name of a governmental unit may, on behalf of the unit, enter into an agreement with another governmental unit to perform jointly or for that…

Section 4D. Any governmental unit, as defined in section four A, may enter into an agreement with the commonwealth or with any public authority, whereby the commonwealth acting through a duly authorized agency, or such public authority, will perform for such governmental unit, an…

Section 4E. (a) As used in this section the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:— ''Charter school'', commonwealth charter schools and Horace Mann charter schools unless specifically stated otherwise. ''Charter school …

Section 4F. In any city or town which accepts the provisions of this section, any contracts or orders for items of clothing or apparel shall be given to such establishments only as submit to the city or town the name and address of the manufacturer of such items, and the names an…

Section 4I. As used in this section, the following words shall have the following meanings:— ''Balanced growth and development issues'', the current and future residential, commercial and industrial development demands of municipalities; identification of needed or desirable long…

Section 4J. (a) As used in this section, the following words shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise: ''Agency'', the Massachusetts emergency management agency. ''Agreement'', the statewide public safety mutual aid agreement established in …

Section 4K. (a) As used in this section, the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:— ''Advisory committee'', the statewide public works municipal mutual aid advisory committee established in subsection (d). ''Agreement''…