The Town Clerk maintains the Town Code. Please contact the
Town Clerk if you would like to purchase a paper copy of the Town
Code.
The various chapters of the Code contain all currently effective
legislation of a general and permanent nature enacted by the Town
Meeting, the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Health of the Town
of Southborough, as well as certain rules, regulations and/or bylaws,
adopted by various boards, commissions, departments and/or agencies,
which were deemed to be general and permanent in nature and appropriate
for inclusion in the volume.
The Town Code is divided into four major parts, known as "Divisions."
A.
Division 1 contains the bylaws adopted by the Town Meeting.
(1)
Part I Administrative Legislation
Contains all bylaws of an administrative nature, dealing with
the administration of government, those establishing or regulating
municipal departments and those affecting officers and employees of
the municipal government and its departments.
(2)
Part II General Legislation
Contains all bylaws of a regulatory nature. Bylaws in this part
generally impose penalties for violation of their provisions, whereas
those in Part I do not.
B.
Division 2 contains the regulations adopted by the Board of
Selectmen.
C.
Division 3 contains the regulations promulgated by the Board
of Health.
D.
Division 4 contains other miscellaneous regulations, such
as those adopted by the Planning Board.
The Table of Contents details the arrangement of material alphabetically
by chapter as a means of identifying specific areas of legislation.
Wherever two or more items of legislation have been combined by the
editor into a single chapter, the use of article designations has
preserved the identity of the individual enactments, and the titles
of the articles are listed beneath the chapter title in order to facilitate
location of the individual enactments.
Unassigned chapter numbers do not appear in the Table of Contents
but are available for assignment to new enactments. In this manner,
new subject matter can be included alphabetically.
A unique page-numbering system has been used in which each chapter forms an autonomous unit. The first page of each chapter is the number of that chapter followed by a colon and the numeral "1." Thus, Chapter 6 would begin on page 6:1. By use of this system, it is possible to add or to change pages in any chapter, or add new chapters, without affecting the sequence of subsequent pages.
A chapter-related section-numbering system is employed in which
the section number indicates the number of the chapter and the location
of the section within that chapter. Thus, the first section of Chapter
30 would be § 30-1, while the sixth section of Chapter 57
would be § 57-6.
The scheme is the list of section titles that precedes the text
of each chapter. These titles are carefully written so that, taken
together, they may be considered as a summary of the content of the
chapter. Taken separately, each describes the content of a particular
section. For ease and precision of reference, the scheme titles are
repeated as section headings in the text.
At the end of the Scheme (list of section titles) in each chapter
is located the legislative history for that chapter. This History
indicates the specific legislative source from which the chapter was
derived, including the enactment number, if pertinent, and the date
of adoption. In the case of chapters containing parts or articles
derived from more than one item of legislation, the source of each
part or article is indicated in the text, under its title. Amendments
to individual sections or subsections are indicated by histories where
appropriate in the text.
In each chapter containing material related to other chapters
in the Code, a table of General References is included to direct the
reader's attention to such related chapters. Editor's Notes
are used in the text to provide supplementary information and cross-references
to related provisions in other chapters.
Certain forms of local legislation are not of a nature suitable
for inclusion in the main body of the Code but are of such significance
that their application is community-wide or their provisions are germane
to the conduct of municipal government. The Appendix of this publication
is reserved for such legislation and for any other material that the
community may wish to include.
The Disposition List is a chronological listing of legislation,
indicating its inclusion in the publication or the reason for its
exclusion. The Disposition List will be updated with each supplement
to the Code to include the legislation reviewed with said supplement.
The Index is a guide to information. Since it is likely that
this publication will be used by persons without formal legal training,
the Index has been formulated to enable such persons to locate a particular
section quickly. Each section of each chapter has been indexed. The
Index will be supplemented and revised from time to time as new legislation
is added.
