HomeMy WebLinkAboutATM 18 ART 68 HR Water Comm1
Town of Nantucket
ulu
OFFICE OF THE
TOWN & COUNTY
CLERK
16 Broad Street
NANTUCKET, MASSACHUSETTS 02554-3590
Catherine Flanagan Stover, MMC, CMMC
Town & County Clerk
(508) 228-7216
FAX (508) 325-5313
Home: (508) 228-7841
Email: cstover@nantucket-ma.gov
flanaganstover@yahoo.com
townclerk@nantucket-ma.gov
WEBSITE: http://www.nantucket-ma.gov
ulu
April 4, 2018
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
I, Catherine Flanagan Stover, duly elected Clerk of the Town and County of Nantucket, hereby
certify that the April 3, 2018 ANNUAL TOWN MEETING adopted Article 68: “Home Rule
Petition: Merger of Nantucket Water Commission and Siasconset Water Commission ” at
the April 3, 2018 adjourned session when “...the adoption of all articles not heretofore acted
upon as recommended by the Finance Committee, or as recommended by the Planning Board,
was duly motioned, seconded, and voted in accordance with the motions recommended by the
Finance Committee or, in the absence of a Finance Committee motion, then in accordance with
the motions as recommended by the Planning Board, as printed in the Finance Committee
Report, with technical amendments brought forward during the course of the meeting…”
VOTE: The vote on the motion pursuant to Article 68 as moved by the Finance
Committee, was by Unanimous Voice Vote. The motion was adopted.
Catherine Flanagan Stover, MMC, CMMC
Town and County Clerk
ATM 18 Article 68,Page 1 of 9
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ARTICLE 68
(Home Rule Petition: Merger of Nantucket Water Commission and Siasconset Water
Commission)
To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Board of Selectmen to petition the General
Court for special legislation set forth below; provided, however, that the General Court may with
the approval of the Board of Selectmen, make constructive changes in language as may be
necessary or advisable towards perfecting the intent of this legislation in order to secure
passage; or to take any other action related thereto:
AN ACT authorizing the Town of Nantucket to supply itself and its inhabitants with water
SECTION 1. The town of Nantucket may supply itself and the inhabitants thereof with water for
the extinguishment of fires and for domestic and for other purposes, may establish fountains and
hydrants, relocate or discontinue the same, and may regulate the use of such water and fix and
collect rates to be paid for the use of same.
SECTION 2. The said town, for the purposes aforesaid, is hereby authorized to acquire by
purchase or take by eminent domain under chapter 79 of the General Laws the entire water
rights, estates, franchises and privileges of any corporation supplying water to its inhabitants
and thereby become entitled to all its rights and privileges and subject to all its duties and
liabilities; and may lease, or take by eminent domain under said chapter seventy-nine, or acquire
by purchase or otherwise, and hold, the waters, or any portion thereof, of any pond, brook,
spring, stream or any ground water sources within its limits, not already appropriated for
purposes of public water supply, and any water or flowage rights connected therewith; provided,
that the amount of water which may be taken shall from time to time be determined by vote of
the town; and also may take by eminent domain under said chapter 79, or acquire by purchase
or otherwise, and hold, all lands, rights of way and other easements necessary for collecting,
storing, holding, purifying and treating such water and protecting and preserving the purity
thereof and for conveying the same to any part of said town; provided, that no source of water
supply and no lands necessary for protecting and preserving the purity and quality of the water
shall be taken or used without first obtaining the advice and approval of the department of
environmental protection, and that the location and arrangement of all dams, reservoirs, wells or
filter galleries, filtration and pumping plants or other works necessary in carrying out the
provisions of this act shall be subject to the approval of said department. Said town may
construct, erect and maintain on the lands acquired and held under the provisions of this act
proper dams, reservoirs, pumping and filtration plants, buildings, standpipes, tanks, fixtures and
other structures, including also purification and treatment works, the construction and
maintenance of which shall be subject to the approval of the department of environmental
protection, and may make excavations, procure and operate machinery, and provide such other
means and appliances and do such other things as may be necessary for the establishment and
maintenance of complete and effective water works; and for that purpose may construct wells
and reservoirs, establish pumping works and lay down and maintain aqueducts, conduits, pipes
and other works, under or over any lands, water courses, railroads, railways and public or other
ways and along any such way in said town in such manner as not unnecessarily to obstruct the
same; and for the purpose of constructing, laying, maintaining, operating and repairing such
conduits, pipes and other works, and for all other proper purposes of this act, said town may dig
up or raise and embank any such lands, highways or other ways in such manner as to cause the
least hindrance to public travel thereon. Said town shall not enter upon, construct or lay any
conduits, pipes or other works within the location of any railroad corporation except at such time
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and in such manner as it may agree upon with such corporation or in case of failure so to agree
as may be approved by the department of telecommunications and energy. Said 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 this act.
SECTION 3. The land, water rights and other property taken or acquired under this act, and all
works, buildings and other structures erected or constructed under this act, shall be managed,
improved and controlled by the board of water commissioners hereinafter provided for in section
8, in such manner as it shall deem for the best interest of the town.
SECTION 4. Any person or corporation injured in his or its property by any action of said town
or board under this act may recover damages from said town under said chapter 79; provided,
that the right to damages for the taking of any water, water right, or any injury thereto, shall not
vest until the water is actually withdrawn or diverted by said town under authority of this act.
SECTION 5. Said town may, for the purpose of paying the necessary expenses and liabilities
incurred or to be incurred under the provisions of this act, issue from time to time bonds or notes
in accordance with the provisions of section 8 of chapter 44 of the General Laws.
SECTION 6. Said town shall, at the time of authorizing said loan or loans, provide for the
payment thereof in accordance with the provisions of section 5; and when a vote to that effect
has been passed, a sum which, with the income derived from the water rates, will be sufficient to
pay the annual expense of operating the water works, and the interest as it accrues on the
bonds or notes issued as aforesaid, and to make such payments on the principal as may be
required under the provisions of this act, shall without further vote be assessed by the town
annually thereafter in the same manner as other taxes, until the debt incurred by the said loan
or loans is extinguished.
SECTION 7. Whoever willfully or wantonly corrupts, pollutes or diverts any of the waters taken
or held under this act, or injures any structure, work or other property owned, held or used by
said town under the authority and for the purposes of this act, shall forfeit and pay to said town
three times the amount of damages assessed therefore, to be recovered in an action of tort; and
upon conviction of any one of the above willful or wanton acts shall be punished by a fine of not
more than three hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.
SECTION 8. All water operations of said town shall be consolidated in department of the town
to be known as the water department. All the authority granted to the town by this act, except
sections 5 and 6, and not otherwise specially provided for, shall be vested in a five-member
board of water commissioners, hereinafter known as the “board”. The board shall have
exclusive charge and control of the water department and water system of the town, subject
however to all lawful by-laws and to such instructions, rules and regulations as said town may
impose by its vote. A majority of said board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of
business. Any vacancy occurring in said board shall be filled at the next annual town election for
the remainder of the unexpired term and may be filled temporarily by the board of selectmen
until the next annual election, in accordance with the charter of the town of Nantucket as it may
be amended from time to time. Said commissioners shall serve for three-year overlapping
terms, so arranged that the terms of not more than two commissioners shall expire each year.
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SECTION 9. Said board shall fix just and equitable prices and rates for the use of water, and
shall prescribe the time and manner of payment of such prices and rates. The income of the
water works shall be applied to defraying all operating expenses, interest charges and payments
on the principal as they accrue upon any bonds or notes issued under authority of this act.
During any period that the water department is not operated under an enterprise fund system of
accounting pursuant to section 53F1/2 of chapter 44 of the General Laws, if there should be a
net surplus remaining after providing for the aforesaid charges it shall, subject to appropriation
by the town, be used for such new construction as the water commissioners may recommend or
be reserved by the town for future new construction, and in case a surplus should remain after
appropriation or reservation for such new construction, and/or in the event such surplus is not so
appropriated and reserved, the water rates shall be reduced proportionately. All authority vested
in said board by the foregoing provisions of this section shall be subject to the provisions of
section 8 with respect to the town’s authority to adopt appropriate bylaws, rules, instructions
regulations. Said board shall annually, and as often as the town may require, render a report
upon the condition of the works under its charge and an account of its doings, including an
account of receipts and expenditures.
SECTION 10. The town of Nantucket shall be the lawful successor of the Siasconset water
district and the former Wannacomet Water Company, so-called, in every respect. All property,
both real and personal, including funds, records, furnishings and equipment whatsoever in the
custody of said department and company shall be transferred by operation of law to the town,
and no contracts or liabilities of the Siasconset water district or former Wannacomet Water
Company in force on the effective date of this act shall be affected by the dissolution and
abolition of the said district or company, except as provided in section 16, below.
SECTION 11. The incumbent general manager of the Wannacomet Water Company, so-called,
holding office as of the effective date of this act shall serve as the director of the consolidated
water department until the natural expiration of his current appointment, or his sooner
resignation, retirement or removal.
SECTION 12. Upon the effective date of this act, the so-called Siasconset water district, created
pursuant to chapter 404 of the acts of 1903, as amended, is hereby dissolved, the board of
water commissioners created pursuant to said chapter 404 is abolished, and the terms of any
incumbent members of said board of water commissioners terminated.
SECTION 13. The enterprise funds previously established by vote of the town pursuant to
section 53F1/2 of chapter 44 of the General Laws and referred to as the Siasconset Water
Enterprise Fund and the Wannacomet Water Enterprise Fund, to the extent they are in existence
as of the effective date of this act, shall hereby be consolidated into a single enterprise fund to
be known as the Nantucket Water Department Enterprise Fund, which consolidated fund shall
be subject to said section 53F1/2 in every respect.
SECTION 14. Any properly-adopted rules and regulations of the boards of water commissioners
created pursuant to chapter 404 of the acts of 1903 and chapter 476 of the acts of 1987, in effect
upon the effective date of this act, shall remain in full force and effect until such time as they are
amended or abolished by the board created under section 8 this act.
SECTION 15. Upon the effective date of this act, the then-applicable Memorandum of
Agreement between the Nantucket Water Commission and the Siasconset Water shall be
5
rendered void, and the parties are relieved of their obligations under said Memorandum of
Agreement, except to the extent that any payments are outstanding for services rendered prior
to the effective date of this act.
SECTION 16. All personnel of the water department created under the section 8 of this act are
town employees, and shall be appointed by the board created under said section 8, in
accordance with and subject to the requirements of sections 4.5-4.9 of the town charter, chapter
289 of the acts of 1996 as it may be amended from time to time. Such employees shall be
subject to any applicable by-laws, and personnel policies and procedures of the town, unless
and only to the extent that such by-laws and personnel policies and procedures have been
amended by any valid collective bargaining agreement, where applicable. Nothing herein shall
be construed to alter or amend the employment status of any existing water department
employees, employed as of the effective date of this act, except as provided in section 12,
above.
SECTION 17. As of the effective date of this act, the members of the board of water
commissioners created by the provisions of chapter 404 of the acts of 1903 and chapter 476 of
the acts of 1987, previously known as the Nantucket Water Commissioners, shall become the
first members of the five-member board of water commissioners created under section 8 of this
act. Such commissioners shall serve for the remainder of their elected terms or their sooner
vacating of office. Thereafter, such offices shall be filled in accordance with said section 8. Two
additional commissioners shall be elected at the first annual town election occurring no less than
64 days after the passage of this act, one for a 2-year term and one for a 3-year term. If the 2
additional positions would remain vacant for more than 4 months, the board of selectmen may,
in its discretion, make temporary appointments to fill the vacancies until the annual election at
which the offices may legally appear on the ballot. Thereafter, all elections and temporary
appointments to the board shall be made in accordance with said section 8.
SECTION 18. Chapter 307 of the acts of 1925, chapter 436 of the acts of 1963, and chapter 476
of the acts of 1987 are hereby repealed.
SECTION 19. This act shall take effect upon passage.
Or to take any other action related thereto.
(Board of Selectmen for Nantucket Water Commission, Siasconset Water Commission)
NOTE: The above home rule petition was approved as Article 75 of the 2016 Annual Town
Meeting; and Article 87 of the 2017 Annual Town Meeting. Home rule petitions currently
pending before the legislature, which were not acted upon by December 31, 2017, may expire
unless renewed by a confirmatory town meeting vote.
FINANCE COMMITTEE MOTION: Moved that the Town ’s representatives to the General
Court are hereby requested to introduce legislation as set forth below; and, that the General
Court, with the approval of the Board of Selectmen, make constructive changes in the text
hereof as may be necessary or advisable to accomplish the intent of this proposed
legislation in order to secure its passage, as follows:
AN ACT authorizing the Town of Nantucket to supply itself and its inhabitants with water
6
SECTION 1. The town of Nantucket may supply itself and the inhabitants thereof with water
for the extinguishment of fires and for domestic and for other purposes, may establish
fountains and hydrants, relocate or discontinue the same, and may regulate the use of such
water and fix and collect rates to be paid for the use of same.
SECTION 2. The said town, for the purposes aforesaid, is hereby authorized to acquire by
purchase or take by eminent domain under chapter 79 of the General Laws the entire water
rights, estates, franchises and privileges of any corporation supplying water to its inhabitants
and thereby become entitled to all its rights and privileges and subject to all its duties and
liabilities; and may lease, or take by eminent domain under said chapter seventy-nine, or
acquire by purchase or otherwise, and hold, the waters, or any portion thereof, of any pond,
brook, spring, stream or any ground water sources within its limits, not already appropriated
for purposes of public water supply, and any water or flowage rights connected therewith;
provided, that the amount of water which may be taken shall from time to time be determined
by vote of the town; and also may take by eminent domain under said chapter 79, or acquire
by purchase or otherwise, and hold, all lands, rights of way and other easements necessary
for collecting, storing, holding, purifying and treating such water and protecting and
preserving the purity thereof and for conveying the same to any part of said town; provided,
that no source of water supply and no lands necessary for protecting and preserving the
purity and quality of the water shall be taken or used without first obtaining the advice and
approval of the department of environmental protection, and that the location and
arrangement of all dams, reservoirs, wells or filter galleries, filtration and pumping plants or
other works necessary in carrying out the provisions of this act shall be subject to the
approval of said department. Said town may construct, erect and maintain on the lands
acquired and held under the provisions of this act proper dams, reservoirs, pumping and
filtration plants, buildings, standpipes, tanks, fixtures and other structures, including also
purification and treatment works, the construction and maintenance of which shall be subject
to the approval of the department of environmental protection, and may make excavations,
procure and operate machinery, and provide such other means and appliances and do such
other things as may be necessary for the establishment and maintenance of complete and
effective water works; and for that purpose may construct wells and reservoirs, establish
pumping works and lay down and maintain aqueducts, conduits, pipes and other works,
under or over any lands, water courses, railroads, railways and public or other ways and
along any such way in said town in such manner as not unnecessarily to obstruct the same;
and for the purpose of constructing, laying, maintaining, operating and repairing such
conduits, pipes and other works, and for all other proper purposes of this act, said town may
dig up or raise and embank any such lands, highways or other ways in such manner as to
cause the least hindrance to public travel thereon. Said town shall not enter upon, construct
or lay any conduits, pipes or other works within the location of any railroad corporation
except at such time and in such manner as it may agree upon with such corporation or in
case of failure so to agree as may be approved by the department of telecommunications
and energy. Said 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 this act.
SECTION 3. The land, water rights and other property taken or acquired under this act, and
all works, buildings and other structures erected or constructed under this act, shall be
managed, improved and controlled by the board of water commissioners hereinafter
provided for in section 8, in such manner as it shall deem for the best interest of the town.
7
SECTION 4. Any person or corporation injured in his or its property by any action of said
town or board under this act may recover damages from said town under said chapter 79;
provided, that the right to damages for the taking of any water, water right, or any injury
thereto, shall not vest until the water is actually withdrawn or diverted by said town under
authority of this act.
SECTION 5. Said town may, for the purpose of paying the necessary expenses and
liabilities incurred or to be incurred under the provisions of this act, issue from time to time
bonds or notes in accordance with the provisions of section 8 of chapter 44 of the General
Laws.
SECTION 6. Said town shall, at the time of authorizing said loan or loans, provide for the
payment thereof in accordance with the provisions of section 5; and when a vote to that
effect has been passed, a sum which, with the income derived from the water rates, will be
sufficient to pay the annual expense of operating the water works, and the interest as it
accrues on the bonds or notes issued as aforesaid, and to make such payments on the
principal as may be required under the provisions of this act, shall without further vote be
assessed by the town annually thereafter in the same manner as other taxes, until the debt
incurred by the said loan or loans is extinguished.
SECTION 7. Whoever willfully or wantonly corrupts, pollutes or diverts any of the waters
taken or held under this act, or injures any structure, work or other property owned, held or
used by said town under the authority and for the purposes of this act, shall forfeit and pay to
said town three times the amount of damages assessed therefore, to be recovered in an
action of tort; and upon conviction of any one of the above willful or wanton acts shall be
punished by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars or by imprisonment for not more
than one year, or both.
SECTION 8. All water operations of said town shall be consolidated in department of the
town to be known as the water department. All the authority granted to the town by this act,
except sections 5 and 6, and not otherwise specially provided for, shall be vested in a five-
member board of water commissioners, hereinafter known as the “board”. The board shall
have exclusive charge and control of the water department and water system of the town,
subject however to all lawful by-laws and to such instructions, rules and regulations as said
town may impose by its vote. A majority of said board shall constitute a quorum for the
transaction of business. Any vacancy occurring in said board shall be filled at the next
annual town election for the remainder of the unexpired term and may be filled temporarily by
the board of selectmen until the next annual election, in accordance with the charter of the
town of Nantucket as it may be amended from time to time. Said commissioners shall serve
for three-year overlapping terms, so arranged that the terms of not more than two
commissioners shall expire each year.
SECTION 9. Said board shall fix just and equitable prices and rates for the use of water, and
shall prescribe the time and manner of payment of such prices and rates. The income of the
water works shall be applied to defraying all operating expenses, interest charges and
payments on the principal as they accrue upon any bonds or notes issued under authority of
this act. During any period that the water department is not operated under an enterprise
fund system of accounting pursuant to section 53F1/2 of chapter 44 of the General Laws, if
8
there should be a net surplus remaining after providing for the aforesaid charges it shall,
subject to appropriation by the town, be used for such new construction as the water
commissioners may recommend or be reserved by the town for future new construction, and
in case a surplus should remain after appropriation or reservation for such new construction,
and/or in the event such surplus is not so appropriated and reserved, the water rates shall be
reduced proportionately. All authority vested in said board by the foregoing provisions of this
section shall be subject to the provisions of section 8 with respect to the town ’s authority to
adopt appropriate bylaws, rules, instructions regulations. Said board shall annually, and as
often as the town may require, render a report upon the condition of the works under its
charge and an account of its doings, including an account of receipts and expenditures.
SECTION 10. The town of Nantucket shall be the lawful successor of the Siasconset water
district and the former Wannacomet Water Company, so-called, in every respect. All
property, both real and personal, including funds, records, furnishings and equipment
whatsoever in the custody of said department and company shall be transferred by operation
of law to the town, and no contracts or liabilities of the Siasconset water district or former
Wannacomet Water Company in force on the effective date of this act shall be affected by
the dissolution and abolition of the said district or company, except as provided in section 16,
below.
SECTION 11. The incumbent general manager of the Wannacomet Water Company, so-
called, holding office as of the effective date of this act shall serve as the director of the
consolidated water department until the natural expiration of his current appointment, or his
sooner resignation, retirement or removal.
SECTION 12. Upon the effective date of this act, the so-called Siasconset water district,
created pursuant to chapter 404 of the acts of 1903, as amended, is hereby dissolved, the
board of water commissioners created pursuant to said chapter 404 is abolished, and the
terms of any incumbent members of said board of water commissioners terminated.
SECTION 13. The enterprise funds previously established by vote of the town pursuant to
section 53F1/2 of chapter 44 of the General Laws and referred to as the Siasconset Water
Enterprise Fund and the Wannacomet Water Enterprise Fund, to the extent they are in
existence as of the effective date of this act, shall hereby be consolidated into a single
enterprise fund to be known as the Nantucket Water Department Enterprise Fund, which
consolidated fund shall be subject to said section 53F1/2 in every respect.
SECTION 14. Any properly-adopted rules and regulations of the boards of water
commissioners created pursuant to chapter 404 of the acts of 1903 and chapter 476 of the
acts of 1987, in effect upon the effective date of this act, shall remain in full force and effect
until such time as they are amended or abolished by the board created under section 8 this
act.
SECTION 15. Upon the effective date of this act, the then-applicable Memorandum of
Agreement between the Nantucket Water Commission and the Siasconset Water shall be
rendered void, and the parties are relieved of their obligations under said Memorandum of
Agreement, except to the extent that any payments are outstanding for services rendered
prior to the effective date of this act.
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SECTION 16. All personnel of the water department created under the section 8 of this act
are town employees, and shall be appointed by the board created under said section 8, in
accordance with and subject to the requirements of sections 4.5-4.9 of the town charter,
chapter 289 of the acts of 1996 as it may be amended from time to time. Such employees
shall be subject to any applicable by-laws, and personnel policies and procedures of the
town, unless and only to the extent that such by-laws and personnel policies and procedures
have been amended by any valid collective bargaining agreement, where applicable.
Nothing herein shall be construed to alter or amend the employment status of any existing
water department employees, employed as of the effective date of this act, except as
provided in section 12, above.
SECTION 17. As of the effective date of this act, the members of the board of water
commissioners created by the provisions of chapter 404 of the acts of 1903 and chapter 476
of the acts of 1987, previously known as the Nantucket Water Commissioners, shall become
the first members of the five-member board of water commissioners created under section 8
of this act. Such commissioners shall serve for the remainder of their elected terms or their
sooner vacating of office. Thereafter, such offices shall be filled in accordance with said
section 8. Two additional commissioners shall be elected at the first annual town election
occurring no less than 64 days after the passage of this act, one for a 2-year term and one
for a 3-year term. If the 2 additional positions would remain vacant for more than 4 months,
the board of selectmen may, in its discretion, make temporary appointments to fill the
vacancies until the annual election at which the offices may legally appear on the ballot.
Thereafter, all elections and temporary appointments to the board shall be made in
accordance with said section 8.
SECTION 18. Chapter 307 of the acts of 1925, chapter 436 of the acts of 1963, and chapter
476 of the acts of 1987 are hereby repealed.
SECTION 19. This act shall take effect upon passage.