Massachusetts Statutes

Section 2. A town may in its corporate capacity sue and be sued by its name, and may appoint necessary agents therefor.

Section 20. Articles furnished or services rendered under the preceding section shall be charged for, so far as practicable, at rates calculated to cover all costs and charges connected with the particular undertaking or service, and shall be paid for in cash at the time of deliv…

Section 21. Towns may, for the purposes hereinafter named, make such ordinances and by-laws, not repugnant to law, as they may judge most conducive to their welfare, which shall be binding upon all inhabitants thereof and all persons within their limits. They may, except as herei…

Section 21A. A town by by-law and a city by ordinance, unless repugnant to the charter of such city, may establish the hours, days and weeks of work and the hours, days and weeks of leave without loss of pay, including, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, holiday le…

Section 21B. Any town by by-law adopted at an annual town meeting, any city having a Plan D or Plan E charter by ordinance adopted in accordance with the provisions of its charter, and any other city by ordinance approved by its mayor may establish a personnel relations review bo…

Section 21C. An employee of a city or town which accepts this section may be granted a leave of absence with pay while attending a convention of an employee union as an officer, delegate or alternate delegate.

Section 21D. Any city or town may by ordinance or by-law not inconsistent with this section provide for non-criminal disposition of violations of any ordinance or by-law or any rule or regulation of any municipal officer, board or department the violation of which is subject to a…

Section 21E. Any city or town may, by ordinance or by-law, and any district by vote of the district meeting, establish due dates for the payment of municipal charges and bills, and may fix a rate at which interest shall accrue if such charges remain unpaid after such due dates; p…

Section 22. Except as otherwise provided in section eighteen of chapter ninety and subject, so far as applicable, to section two of chapter eighty-five and sections eight and nine of chapter eighty-nine, a city or town may make ordinances or bylaws, or the board of aldermen or th…

Section 22A. Any city or town, for the purpose of enforcing its ordinances, by-laws and orders, rules and regulations relating to the parking of vehicles on ways within its control and subject to the provisions of section two of chapter eighty-five, may appropriate money for the …

Section 22B. In a city or town that accepts this section and installs parking meters or coin-operated locking devices for bicycle parking, the city or town may acquire off-street parking areas and facilities by purchase, gift, eminent domain under chapter seventy-nine or chapter …

Section 22C. Any city or town, having installed parking meters or coin-operated locking devices for bicycle parking under section 22A, may install parking meters in municipally owned or leased off-street parking lots and other devices for controlling the off-street parking lots. …

Section 22D. In a city or town which accepts this section, as hereinafter provided, the city council or board of selectmen, or if, in any city or town, some other board or commission is empowered to establish traffic regulations, such other board or commission, may adopt, amend, …

Section 22E. Whenever the board or officer having charge of a structure or facility owned by a city or town, and not within the limits of playgrounds or lands held for park, conservation or similar purposes whether acquired under general or special law and irrespective of the dat…

Section 22F. Any municipal board or officer empowered to issue a license, permit, certificate, or to render a service or perform work for a person or class of persons, may, from time to time, fix reasonable fees for all such licenses, permits, or certificates issued pursuant to s…

Section 22G. Any city or town which has accepted the provisions of section eight J is hereby authorized to allocate all funds received from fines assessed for violations of handicap parking in said city or town to the commission on disabilities. Funds so received shall be deposit…

Section 23. A city council may make rules and regulations for the erection and maintenance of balustrades or other projections upon the roofs or sides of buildings therein, with penalties for the violation thereof of not more than twenty dollars for each offence; but no such rule…

Section 24. A city may make ordinances to secure the inspection of ice sold therein and to prevent the sale of impure ice, and affix penalties of not more than twenty dollars for each violation thereof.

Section 3. A town may hold real estate for the public use of the inhabitants and may convey the same by a deed of its selectmen thereto duly authorized, or by a deed of a committee or agent thereto duly authorized; may by its selectmen let or lease for not more than 30 years, on …

Section 31. If a town by-law imposes a duty and affixes a penalty for the neglect or violation thereof, it may also provide that upon such neglect or violation the duty may be performed by officers therein named, at the expense of the person liable to perform the same; and such e…

Section 32. Except to the extent that a zoning by-law may take effect as provided in section five of chapter forty A, before a by-law takes effect it shall be approved by the attorney general or ninety days shall have elapsed without action by the attorney general after the clerk…

Section 32A. The provisions in the charter of a city which accepts this section by vote of its city council, requiring newspaper advertising of certain ordinances and proposed ordinances shall, in case of any ordinance or proposed ordinance, or codification thereof, exceeding in …

Section 32B. A city or town may from time to time publish, distribute or sell compilations of zoning ordinances or by-laws and amendments thereto, certified by the city or town clerk, and effective as of a specified date. The compilations and supplements thereto may include zonin…

Section 33. A copy of all rules and regulations made by town boards or officers for which a penalty is provided by law shall be filed with town clerk within ten days after they take effect.

Section 34. Each town containing more than five thousand inhabitants shall, and any town may, maintain a secure and convenient lockup to which persons arrested without a warrant may be committed; and a magistrate may commit, for further examination, a prisoner charged with a bail…

Section 35. The mayor of each city, except Boston, and in Boston the police commissioner, and the selectmen of each town required to maintain a lockup shall annually, by a writing recorded with the town clerk, appoint a keeper of the lockup, who shall have the care and custody th…

Section 36. Such keeper shall have the power of a police officer and shall receive the compensation to be fixed by the selectmen upon his appointment. For the expenses of detention and support of each person committed, shown by the officer's return to have been actually detained …

Section 36A. Whenever a person is in police custody and commits suicide or dies at a lockup facility established pursuant to the provisions of section thirty-four of chapter forty, or under the jurisdiction of the metropolitan police, or whenever a person in police custody inflic…

Section 36B. Each cell utilized for the detention of persons within a city, town, or state lockup facility which is under the jurisdiction of a local police department or the state police shall have a protective covering of high-impact, transparent wall facing. Such protective co…

Section 36C. All law enforcement officers, as defined in section 1 of chapter 6E, shall be trained in the detection, intervention and prevention of suicide. Said training shall include training in the nature and symptomatology of suicide, training in communicating with suicidal d…

Section 37. Such lockups shall at all reasonable hours be accessible to the state police, sheriffs, constables and police officers for any legal and proper use; and a keeper thereof neglecting to keep it so accessible, or refusing to said officers the use of the same, shall be pu…

Section 37A. The mayor of any city other than a city having a Plan D or Plan E form of charter, the city manager of a city having a Plan D or Plan E charter, and the selectmen of a town, hereinafter called the city or town official, may, if satisfied that a riot or other form of …

Section 38. A city, by a two thirds vote of its city council, ratified by a majority of the voters thereof at an election called for the purpose, or a town, by action of its selectmen, ratified by a majority of its voters present and voting thereon at a town meeting at which the …

Section 39. If the water is conveyed through another town, pipes may be laid through any public ways therein which the board of aldermen or selectmen thereof may designate; and the town laying such pipes shall be liable for damages caused thereby.

Section 39A. A town, by a majority of its voters present and voting thereon at a town meeting at which the voting list shall be used, may establish a water supply or water distributing system and maintain and operate the same, in accordance with sections thirty-nine B to thirty-n…

Section 39B. For the purpose of establishing a water supply or water distributing system as authorized by section thirty-nine A, any town, by its board of water commissioners or selectmen authorized to act as such, may take by eminent domain under chapter seventy-nine, or acquire…

Section 39C. A town may construct and maintain on the lands acquired and held by it under section thirty-nine B proper dams, wells, reservoirs, pumping and filtration plants, buildings, standpipes, tanks, fixtures and other structures, including also purification and treatment wo…

Section 39D. Such a town may enter upon any lands for the purpose of making surveys, test pits and borings, and may take or otherwise acquire the right to occupy temporarily any lands necessary for the construction of any work or for any other purpose authorized by said sections …

Section 39E. The land, water rights and other property taken or acquired under section thirty-nine B, and all works, buildings and other structures erected or constructed under sections thirty-nine C and thirty-nine D, shall be managed, improved and controlled by a board of water…

Section 39F. Any person or corporation injured in his or its property by any action of a town under said sections thirty-nine A to thirty-nine E, inclusive, may recover damages from said town under chapter seventy-nine.

Section 39G. Whoever wilfully or wantonly corrupts, pollutes or diverts any of the waters taken or held under said sections thirty-nine A to thirty-nine E, inclusive, or injures any structure, work or other property owned, held or used by a town under the authority and for the pu…

Section 39H. A city, town, commission or district through its water department, if any, if thereunto authorized by ordinance, or by-law or by vote of its governing body if a commission or district or a water company, as defined in section one of chapter one hundred and sixty-five…

Section 39I. Any person using water supplied by a city, town or district, measured by a meter, shall be entitled to an examination and test of such meter to determine the accuracy of the same in any quarter or period, upon written application therefor, which shall be made before …