AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR A CHANGE OF THE LOCATION AND TRACKS OF Be it enacted, etc.: tracks of rail Boston. SECTION 1. The Eastern Railroad Company, the Boston and Albany Location and Railroad Company, and the Boston, Revere Beach, and Lynn Railroad roads may be Company, are hereby authorized, on the request in writing of the mayor, changed in East duly authorized by the board of aldermen of the city of Boston, to discontinue and remove, in whole or in part, such portion of the location and tracks of said corporations as are situated in that part of Boston known as East Boston, and to relocate the same upon a new line, to the east of the present one, in such manner as may be agreed upon between said corporations and the said mayor and aldermen ; and for this purpose they may purchase or take land and other property in the method provided for in chapter three hundred and seventytwo of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and seventy-four; and P.S. 112. the said relocated road may be constructed over and across tidewaters lying to the eastward of said East Boston, in such manner as may be approved by the board of harbor commissioners. location to be and city of SECT. 2. Should the Eastern Railroad Company, the Boston and Expense of 10 Albany Railroad Company, and the Boston, Revere Beach, and Lynn apportioned Railroad Company, discontinue and relocate their tracks on the among railroads request and in the manner specified in the preceding section, the Boston. cost of so doing shall be apportioned among the said Eastern Railroad Company, the Boston and Albany Railroad Company, the Boston, Revere Beach, and Lynn Railroad Company, and the city of Boston, by a commission which, upon the petition of said corporations, or either of them, shall be appointed, and shall proceed in the manner and with the powers set forth in sections ninety-eight and ninety-nine P.S. 112, §§ 131– of chapter three hundred and seventy-two of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and seventy-four. 134. betterments. SECT. 3. The amount, or any part thereof, assessed, under this act, Assessment for against the city of Boston by said commissioners, may be levied upon the estates benefited by said relocation, in the manner provided by law with respect to betterments upon the laying out and discontinuance of highways in said city of Boston: provided, that Proviso. no estate shall be assessed with a betterment exceeding one-half its increased value by reason of the change of location of said railroad companies; and provided, that the board of aldermen of the city of Proviso. Boston shall determine that it is expedient that said amount, or any part thereof, assessed by said commissioners against said city, shall be raised by levying said betterments. SECT. 4. This act shall take effect upon its passage. AN ACT TO PRESERVE THE PURITY OF THE WATER OF LAKE COCHITUATE. Be it enacted, etc.: SECTION 1. It shall be lawful for the supreme judicial court, upon The supreme the application of the city of Boston, to grant an injunction against judicial court the discharge of any drainage or sewage matter, or pollution of any discharge of kind, into Lake Cochituate or Pegan brook, or any waters flowing into waters of into said lake or brook: provided, that this shall not be held to Lake Cochituate may restrain drainage, etc., and Pegan Proviso. destroy the prescriptive right of any person or persons to discharge such matter into said lake or brook. SECT. 2. The town of Natick shall have the right to divert the waters of any brook, rivulet, or stream, now running into Lake Cochituate, into which the sewerage or drainage of Natick now empties provided, that nothing in this act shall be construed so as to give any right to said town to divert such brook, rivulet, or stream, into Charles river. SECT. 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage. School committee to consist of mayor 602. AN ACT TO REORGANIZE Be it enacted, etc.: THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE OF THE CITY OF SECTION 1. The qualified voters of the city of Boston, at the annual municipal election occurring in the year eighteen hundred and and twenty-four seventy-five, shall elect twenty-four persons, inhabitants of the city, persons elected by the voters. to constitute, with the mayor of said city, who shall be ex officio chair115 Mass. 383, man thereof, the school committee of said city, the members of which shall serve without compensation; the eight persons who shall have received the largest number of votes, shall hold their office for three years; the eight persons who shall have received the next largest number of votes, shall hold their office for two years; and the eight persons who shall have received the next largest number of votes, shall hold their office for one year. In case two or more persons elected shall have received an equal number of votes, those who are the seniors by age shall, for the division into classes hereby required, be classified as if they had received the largest number of votes in Eight members the order of ages. And thereafter the qualified voters shall annually elect eight persons, inhabitants of the city, to serve as members of the school committee for the term of three years. to be elected every year. Clerk of wards to make returns clerk. SECT. 2. It shall be the duty of the clerks of the several wards of votes to city of said city to make returns to the city clerk after each municipal election, of the votes cast in their several wards for members of the school committee, and after the entry by the city clerk of said returns, or of an abstract thereof, in the official book kept for such purpose, it shall be the duty of the board of aldermen to examine and compare said returns and thereupon to cause certificates of election to be issued to such and so many of the members of said school committee as appear to have been chosen at such election; but said school committee shall be the final judge of the qualifications and elections of its own members. Organization of committee. A majority shall constitute a quorum. SECT. 3. The persons so chosen as members of the school committee shall meet and organize on the second Monday in January, in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-six, and annually thereafter, at such time and place as the mayor may appoint. The unexpired term of office of all members and officers of the school committee as hitherto organized and established, shall terminate immediately upon the organization of the school committee elected under this act. SECT. 4. A majority of all the members of the school committee shall be necessary to constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. They shall choose a secretary, not of their own number, who shall also serve as secretary to the board of supervisors, an auditing clerk, and such other subordinate officers as they may deem expedient, and shall define their duties, fix their compensation, and may remove them at pleasure. duties of com 8 Cush. 160. 105 Mass. 475. 133 Mass. 103. SECT. 5. The school committee shall have the supervision and Powers and direction of the public schools, and shall exercise the powers and per- mittee. form the duties in relation to the care and management of schools & Cush. 198. which are now exercised and performed by the school committee of 12 Gray, 339. said city, except so far as they may be changed or modified by this 116 Mass. 365. act, and shall have the powers and discharge the duties which may 123 Mass. 545. hereafter be imposed by law upon the school committees of cities and towns. They may elect teachers, and may discharge those now in office, as well as those hereafter elected. They shall appoint janitors 127 Mass. 290. for the school-houses, fix their compensation, designate their duties, and may discharge them at pleasure. They may fix the compensation of the teachers, but the salaries established at the commencement of each school year shall not be increased during such year. houses. SECT. 6. Whenever, in the judgment of the school committee, a Building or alnew building, or any addition to, or alteration of, a building, is needed tering schoolfor school purposes, of an estimated cost of over one thousand dollars, they shall make a statement in writing to the city council, of the necessity of the proposed building, addition, or alteration; and no contract for the purchase or lease of land, or for the erection, purchase, or lease, of any building, or for any addition to, or alteration of, any building for school purposes, shall be authorized by the city council until such statement has been made, nor until the locality and plans for the same have been approved by the school committee, or by a sub-committee thereof, duly authorized to approve the same. and supervisors SECT. 7. The school committee shall elect a superintendent of Superintendent schools and a board of supervisors, consisting of not more than six to be elected by members, and shall define their duties and fix their compensation. committee. The superintendent and the members of the board of supervisors shall hold office for the term of two years, unless sooner removed; and they may be removed for cause at any time by the school committee. No member of either branch of the city council, or of the school committee, shall hold the office of superintendent or supervisor, and no member of either branch of the city council shall be a member of the school committee. The superintendent shall be a member of the board of supervisors, and shall, when present, preside at their meetings. SECT. 8. The votes of a majority of the whole number of members Majority of of the school committee shall be necessary to elect the superintend- whole com mittee required ent of schools, the supervisors, the head masters of the Latin, normal to clect superin and high schools, the masters of the grammar schools, or the director of a special study or exercise. tendent, mas ters, etc. AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE THE DIVISION OF THE CITY OF BOSTON INTO TWENTY-FOUR WARDS, AND TO FIX THE NUMBER OF MEMBERS OF THE COMMON COUNCIL. Be it enacted, etc.: divided into wards. SECTION 1. It shall be the duty of the city council of the city of City to be Boston, and it is hereby empowered, during the year eighteen hundred twenty-four and seventy-five, and each tenth year thereafter in which a census shall be taken by authority of the commonwealth, to cause a new division of the city to be made into twenty-four wards, in such manner as to include an equal number of voters in each ward, as nearly as conveniently may be, consistently with well defined limits to each Election of members of common council. 1876, 225, § 8. 1876, 242. Ward officers. Repeal of 1854, 448, § 20. ward, and until such division is made, the boundary lines of the wards shall remain as established. The city council may, also, from time to time, prescribe a place in each ward at which elections shall be held. SECT. 2. At the municipal election in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-five, and every year thereafter, the qualified voters of each ward shall bring in their votes for three able and discreet men, qualified voters in said ward, to be members of the common council for the ensuing year; and all the ballots so given in each ward, being sorted, counted, and declared, a public declaration of the result shall be made by the warden in open ward meeting; and a record of such proceedings shall be kept by the clerk in his journal, stating the number of ballots given for each person, written in words at length. SECT. 3. The terms of office of all ward officers heretofore chosen shall expire on the day before the next annual municipal election; and the mayor and aldermen shall appoint from the legal voters of each ward, as established under the first section of this act, a warden, clerk, and four inspectors of elections, who shall officiate in their several capacities, on the day of said municipal election, upon being duly qualified, and who shall hold their several offices until the first Monday of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-six. At the municipal election of the year eighteen hundred and seventyfive, and every year thereafter, ward officers shall be elected according to law. SECT. 4. Section twenty of chapter four hundred and forty-eight of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and fifty-four, and all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act, are hereby repealed; but nothing contained in this act, or in the proceedings which may be had by virtue of the authority conferred by it upon the city council, shall be held to alter the method of election, or qualifications of the ward officers, or to alter the boundaries of the jurisdiction of the several municipal courts of the city of Boston, as they are now established by law. SECT. 5. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [1854, 448; 1876, 242.] May 19, 1875. Government to be in seven directors. Proceedings confirmed. AN ACT TO CHANGE THE TIME OF ELECTION OF THE DIRECTORS OF Be it enacted, etc.: SECTION 1. Section six of chapter one hundred and seventy-three of the acts of eighteen hundred and fifty-nine is hereby amended so as to read as follows: The government of the company shall be in seven directors, five of whom shall be chosen annually, at such time as the stockholders may from time to time determine, together with one to be appointed by the governor of the commonwealth, and one to be appointed by the mayor of the city of Boston; and the board thus created shall elect one of their number president, and such other officers as may be deemed necessary. SECT. 2. The elections of directors, and other proceedings which have taken place at the annual meetings of said corporation which have been held in November, are hereby confirmed and made valid to the same extent as if said meetings had been held in October. SECT. 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage. February 21, 1876. [1859, 173.] 1876. CHAPTER 65. AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC URINALS IN THE CITY OF BOSTON. Be it enacted, etc.: may be main council. SECTION 1. The city of Boston, by vote of its city council, shall Public urinals have power to erect and maintain urinals for public use in any street, tained in Boston way, court, public square, common, or common lands, in said city, by vote of city and likewise in the public garden, so called, lying to the eastward of 130 Mass. 170. Arlington street therein. And any owner of land who suffers any injury in his property by reason of the construction of any urinal as aforesaid, may, at any time within one year after the construction is commenced, apply to the superior court for Suffolk county for assessment of his damages by a jury, and have his damages ascertained in the manner provided where land is taken in laying out highways. SECT. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage. AN ACT FOR THE BETTER PROTECTION OF LIFE IN BUILDINGS OCCUPIED Be it enacted, etc.: school-houses, be deficient in be examined by pant to make spector. SECTION 1. Whenever it shall be reported to the inspector of Churches, buildings of the city of Boston, that any church, theatre, hall, or other etc., reported to building or structure, used or intended to be used temporarily or per- modes of egress manently for any public purpose, or any school-house or school-room in case of fire, to public or private, within the city of Boston, is deficient in proper inspector of facilities of egress in case of fire or accident, either in the number, buildings. width, construction, or arrangement of the entrances, aisles, passageways, or stair-ways, or by reason of inner doors opening inward, or from any other cause whatever, arising from the manner of construction or repair of the premises, it shall be the duty of the said inspector of buildings to inspect the same, and if, in his judgment, they are so Owner or occudeficient, he shall notify the owner or owners, occupant, lessee, or alterations when other person, having charge thereof, and require of him or them such notified by inincreased facilities of egress, as, in the judgment of the inspector, the security of the public in life and limb, in case of fire or accident, may require. The person or persons so notified shall be allowed fortyeight hours from the time of the service of the notice to begin the alterations required by the notice; and he or they shall employ sufficient labor to accomplish the same as expeditiously as may be. If he or they shall refuse or neglect to comply with the requirements of said notice as aforesaid, then a survey of the premises shall be made in the manner set forth in the thirteenth section of chapter two hundred and ninety-eight of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and seventy-three. Upon the report of the board of survey, if the same Supreme judishall declare that said premises are deficient in proper facilities of cial court may egress in case of fire or accident, and upon the continued neglect or etc., from using premises, upon refusal of the owner or owners, occupant, lessee, or other person, a report of a having charge thereof, to provide the requisite increased facilities of board of survey. egress, then it shall be lawful for the supreme judicial court to issue an injunction forbidding or limiting the use of the premises in such manner as the safety of the public or of persons using the same may require. Such owner or owners, occupant, lessee, or other person, Penalty for neg. having charge of the premises, shall likewise be liable to a penalty of necessary altera not less than ten dollars nor more than fifty dollars, for every day's continuance of neglect or refusal to comply with the original notice enjoin owners, lecting to make tions. |