Section 260. Proposition for erection of town house. 261. Issue and sale of bonds. 262. Erection and control of town house. 263. Lock-ups. 264. Electors may choose trustees of burial grounds. 266. Burial grounds, when to belong to town. 267. Town fire companies. 268. Purchase of fire engines and apparatus. 269. Continuance of officers. Section 260. Proposition for erection of town house.-A proposition may be submitted at a regular or special town meeting appropriating money or authorizing the issue of bonds for the purchase of a site and the erection of a town house thereon, or for the purpose of contributing to the erection of a building for the joint use of the town and of an incorporated village wholly or partly within its limits. If the proposition be rejected another proposition for the same purpose shall not be submitted within one year thereafter, except at a regular town meeting. [Town Law, § 190, first sentence rewritten. The last sentence is new.] § 261. Issue and sale of bonds. If a proposition be adopted for the issue of bonds, the town board shall cause such bonds to be issued in an amount specified in such proposition. Section one hundred and fifty of this chapter applies to the issue and sale of such bonds. [Town Law, § 190, as amended by L. 1899, ch. 531. The part of such section which relates to the issue and sale of bonds is contained in section 150, ante.] § 262. Erection and control of town house.-Sites shall be purchased and houses erected by the town board in the name of the town, and shall be controlled by the town board; and the electors may, from time to time, vote such sum of money as may be necessary to keep any town house in repair and insured, except where the building is to be erected within the limits of an incorporated village and the town is to contribute but a part of the expense of erecting the building, in which case the town board and the board of trustees of the village shall agree upon the terms and conditions of the use, management, control and repair of the portions of the town house for town and village purposes respectively. [Town Law, § 191, without change.] § 263. Lock-ups.-A regular town meeting may by adopting a proposition therefor provide for the erection and maintenance of a house of detention or lock-up for the detention of persons committed thereto by magistrates. [Town Law, § 192, first sentence rewritten, without intended change.] § 264. Electors may choose trustees of burial grounds.-The electors of any town may, at a regular town meeting, choose three persons to act as a board of trustees of any burial grounds within the limits of and belonging to the town, as such electors may designate, and direct the supervisors of the town to convey by deed to such board of trustees, and their successors in office, for the purposes hereinafter mentioned, the lands already composing such grounds; and also any other lands that may be hereafter acquired for the purpose of enlarging such grounds. Such trustees shall hold office for a term of two years. Such boards of trustees and all boards of trustees heretofore created, pursuant to chapter fortysix of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-three, are hereby declared to be corporate bodies, under the name of the board of trustees of the cemetery, for which they are chosen respectively capable of suing and being sued as such, and of taking and holding gifts and bequests of personal property for the care and im provement of the cemeteries under their charge, or any lot therein. The terms of office of the trustees of the burial grounds in any town chosen pursuant to this section begins at noon on the Monday next following the regular town meeting and ends at noon on the same Monday in the second calendar year thereafter. [Town Law, § 193, as amended by L. 1898, ch. 502, without change, except that the last sentence relating to the terms of office of trustees is made to conform to other provisions of this chapter relating to the terms of town officers.] § 265. Trustees to lay out ground. Such board of trustees shall lay out into burial lots any grounds so conveyed to them; and within one year after the conveyance to them they shall cause to be recorded in the office of the clerk of the county in which they reside a plot or plots of the ground so laid out by them, which shall clearly indicate the number and location of the several lots, which plots shall be duly certified to, under the hands and seals of the chairman and secretary of the board, and acknowledged before an officer authorized to take proof and acknowledgment of deeds. They shall designate and set aside certain lots which shall be free for the interment of the remains of indigent persons, deceased, and shall sell and convey, by direction of a majority of the board, under the hands and seals of its chairman and secretary, burial lots, at such terms as may be agreed upon between the parties, and expend the moneys realized from such sale in improving and preserving the particular burial ground from the sale of whose lots the moneys were received. All moneys realized from the sale of burial lots shall, upon the receipt thereof, be paid over to the supervisor of the town to be retained by him as a separate fund and paid out only on the order of a majority of such board of trustees. [Town Law, § 194, as amended by L. 1898, ch. 502, without change.] § 266. Burial grounds, when to belong to town.-The title to every lot or piece of land which shall have been used by the inhabitants of any town in this state as a cemetery or burialground for the space of fourteen years shall be deemed to be vested in such town, and shall be subject, in the same manner as other corporate property of towns, to the government and direction of the electors in town meeting. [Town Law, § 195, without change.] § 267. Town fire companies.-The town board of any town may appoint in writing, any number of inhabitants of their town, which they may deem necessary, to be a fire company for the extinguishment of fires in their town; but no such company shall be formed as herein provided in a city or village. Each fire company, thus formed, shall choose a captain and clerk thereof, and may establish such by-laws and regulations as may be necessary to enforce the performance, by such firemen, of their duty, and may impose such penalties, not exceeding five dollars for each offense, as may be necessary for that purpose. Such penalties may be collected by and in the name of the captains, in any court having cognizance thereof, and, when collected, shall be expended by the companies for the repair and preservation of their engines and apparatus. All vacancies which may, at any time, happen in such companies by death, resignation or otherwise, shall, from time to time, be filled by the town board. [Town Law, § 171, as amended by L. 1894, ch. 201, without change.] § 268. Purchase of fire engines and apparatus.-The electors of any highway district, in which any town fire company shall have their headquarters at a special meeting lawfully called by the town clerk, who is hereby authorized to call such special meeting may vote, by ballot, a sum of money, not exceeding four thousand dollars, for the purchase of a fire engine and apparatus, and for the purchase or lease of suitable buildings and grounds for keeping and storing such fire engine and apparatus and other property of said highway district. And whenever said electors shall so vote said money for the purchase of a fire engine and apparatus and for the purchase or lease of suitable buildings and grounds for keeping and storing such fire engine and apparatus and other property of said highway district, the commissioners of highways may, with the written consent and approval of the town board, contract for and purchase for such district a good and sufficient fire engine and apparatus, and may contract for and purchase or lease for such district, suitable buildings and grounds for keeping and storing such fire engine and apparatus and other property of said district, at a price not to exceed the sum so voted, while engine and apparatus and buildings and grounds shall be the property of said highway district, but may be used and cared for by such fire company. The purchase price of said fire engine and apparatus and buildings and grounds shall be assessed and levied upon the property of said district and collected in the same manner as other town charges are assessed, levied and collected, except that the amount thereof shall be put in a separate column upon the tax-roll, and the board of supervisors of the county shall cause the sum, as certified by the town board, to be levied upon the taxable property of such highway district. [Town Law, § 171, last part, as amended by L. 1894, ch. 201, without change." § 269. Continuance of officers.-Town officers in office when this chapter takes effect are continued therein for the terms for which they were respectively chosen. ARTICLE XIII. REPEALING AND OTHER CLAUSES. Section 275. Laws repealed. 276. Saving clause. 277. Construction. 278. When to take effect. |