Chap. 0412 An Act to incorporate the town of North Attleborough.
Be it enacted, etc., as follows :
Section 1
All that part of the town of Attleborough comprised within the following limits: that is to say, beginning at a stone monument situated in the boundary line between the town of Attleborough, and the town of Cumberland in the state of Rhode Island, and on the northerly side of the road leading westerly from the Polly Chace place, so called; thence running easterly in a straight line to a point on the east side of the road one hundred feet southerly of the house of Howard E. Rhodes ; thence deflecting to the north and following a straight line passing midway between Leprilete P. Fisher’s house and the house of the late Tisdole E. Fisher; thence in the same course to a monument in the boundary line between the towns of Attleborough and Mansfield five thousand four hundred and fifty feet northerly of a monument at the corner of the towns of Mansfield and Norton ; thence northwesterly on the boundary line as it now exists between the towns of Attleborough and Mansfield till it comes to a corner marking the boundary of the towns of Attleborough, Mansfield and TVrentham ; thence southwesterly by the boundary line as it now exists between the towns of Attleborough and TVrentham to a corner marking the boundary of the said towns of Attleborough and TVrentham, and the town of Cumberland in the state of Rhode Island ; thence about southerly along the boundary line between the said towns of Attleborough and Cumberland to the point of beginning, is hereby set off from Attleborough and incorporated as a town under the name of North Attleborough ; and said town of North Attleborough is hereby invested with all the powers, privileges, rights and immunities and is made subject to •all the duties, liabilities and requisitions to which other towns are entitled and subjected by the constitution and laws of this Commonwealth.
Section 2.
The inhabitants and estates within the territory hereby set ofl” and the owners of said estates shall be holden to pay all taxes assessed and in arrears to the same persons, and such taxes may be collected in the same manner as if this act had not been passed ; and until the next state valuation the town of North Attleborough, annually, in the month of November shall pay to the town of Attleborough the proportion of any state or county tax which the said town of Attleborough may be required to pay upon the inhabitants or estates herein’ set off, said proportion to be ascertained by the last valuation next preceding the passage of this act; and the assessors of Attleborough shall make returns of said valuation, and the proportion thereof in the towns of Attleborough and North Attleborough, respectively, to the secretary of the Commonwealth and to the county commissioners of the county of Bristol.
Section 3.
The towns of North Attleborough and Attleborough shall be liable, respectively, for the relief and support of all persons who now do or shall hereafter stand in need of aid as paupers who have derived or acquired or who may derive or acquire a settlement, within their respective limits. And the town of North Attleborough shall pay annually to the town of Attleborough such proportion of all costs for the relief and support of those persons who now do or shall hereafter stand in need of aid as paupers and whose settlement by original acquisition or derivation was gained lry~ reason of military service as a part of the quota of the town of Attleborough, or who cannot be located on the site, whence their settlement is derived or whereon it was acquired, as the valuation of the town of North Attleborough shall bear to that of Attleborough as it is now bounded, according to the last state valuation prior to said relief and support.
Section 4.
Existing rights of action in favor of or against the town of Attleborough may be instituted and prosecuted or defended by said town in the same manner and with like effect as before the passage of this act, and the amount recovered therein shall be paid or received as the case may be by the town of Attleborough, and reckoning costs and expenses, including counsel fees, shall be divided between the said towns in the ratio of one-half to the town of North Attleborough and one-half to the town of Attleborough.
Section 5.
The corporate property of the town of Attleborough, both real and personal, in being at the time of the passage of this act, and the town debts then existing, shall be divided between the towns of Attleborough and North Attleborough according to the valuation of the property within their respective limits, as assessed May first in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-six. The towns shall severally retain and hold all the real and personal property now within their respective limits, upon a valuation to be agreed upon by the boards of selectmen of both towns in concurrence, and differences in valuation shall be equalized and balances adjusted by apportionment of the town debt. In case of a failure to agree upon a valuation or division of the assets and liabilities, the same shall be determined by a board of three commissioners, neither of whom shall be residents of either of said towns, to be appointed by the superior court for the county of Bristol in term time or vacation, upon petition of either town after notice to the other. The commission so appointed shall sit, and, after hearing both parties, determine the matters of disagreement aforesaid, and Teturn their award into said court, and the award of the ¦majority, when accepted by the court, shall be final; and said court may issue any writ, or make any order thereon necessary to carry the said award into etfeet. The award may be set aside for fraud or manifest error, but for no other cause, and thereupon may be recommitted to the same or other commissioners to be appointed for the same purpose, with like powers and duties, as aforesaid.
Section 6.
The town of North Attleborough shall, ¦until otherwise provided by law, continue to be a part of the second congressional district, of the second councillor district, of the first Bristol senatorial district and the first Bristol representative district; and at all elections the inhabitants of the town of North Attleborough shall vote at polling places to be furnished within the said town. The selectmen and clerk of the town of North Attleborough shall make returns of elections as if the town had •existed at the time of the formation of said districts.
Section 7.
Any justice of the peace within and for Bristol county, residing in the town of North Attleborough, may issue his warrant, directed to any inhabitant of said town, requiring him to notify and warn the inhabit-•ants thereof, qualified to vote in town affairs, to meet at the time and place therein appointed, for the purpose of -choosing all such officers as towns are by law authorized and required to choose at their annual meetings ; and said warrant shall be served by posting copies thereof, attested by the person to whom the same is directed, in three or more public places in the town of North Attleborough, seven days at least before the time of such meeting. Such justice, or in his absence, such inhabitant required to notify the meeting, shall preside until the choice of a moderator in said town meeting. The selectmen of the town of Attleborough shall, before said meeting, prepare a list of voters in the town of North Attleborough, qualified to vote at said meeting, and shall deliver the same to the person presiding at such meeting before the choice of – moderator thereof.
Section 8.
The towns of Attleborough and North I Attleborough shall bear in equal shares the expense of making the necessary surveys and establishing the lines •between the said towns of Attleborough and North Attleborough.
Section 9.
The town of Attleborough shall pay to the-town of North Attleborough a half part of whatever-amount may hereafter be refunded to said town of Attleborough, from the Commonwealth or United States, to reimburse it for bounties to soldiers or state aid heretofore paid to the families of soldiers after deducting all reasonable expenses. Section 10. All rights heretofore secured to existing-corporations upon the territory hereby incorporated shall continue as though this act had not been passed. Section 11. The foregoing provisions of this act shall be void unless accepted by a majority of the registered voters of the present town of Attleborough voting thereon by ballot at meetings legally called for that purpose and held in the respective voting precincts in that town before the first day of November in the present year. Such meetings shall be held in all the said precincts at the same time and shall be called and notified in the same manner as town meetings, and shall not be called or held more than twice for that purpose. The provisions of” chapter two hundred and sixty-four of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-six shall apply to such meetings and to all proceedings at, or in respect of the same, in the like manner as if the voting at such meetings were-for the election of officers other than town officers.
Approved June 14, 1887.
