GENERAL PROVISIONS

CONCERNING THE

Erection and Alterations of Counties, Cities, Villages and Towns.

[ Title 6, Chap. 2, Part 1st, Revised Statutes. }

1. All persons intending to apply to the Legislature for the erection of a new county, or for the incorporation of a city or village, or for any alteration of the bounds of any county, city or village, shall cause notice to be published of such intended application, as required by law,' and shall also procure an accurate survey and map of the territory described in such application.

§ 2. Such survey and map shall be duly verified by the oath of the surveyor making the same. and shall be laid before the Legislature before any such application shall be acted on.

§ 3. In case any law shall be passed by the Legislature pursu ant to such application, the aforesaid survey and map shall be filed in the office of the [state engineer and surveyor] of this state.

[From Chap. 194, Laws of 1849.]

§ 1. The boards of supervisors of the several counties in this state, the county of New York excepted, at their annual meeting, shall have power, within their respective counties, by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected, to divide or alter in its bounds any town or erect a new town, but they shall not make any alterations that shall place parts of the same town in more than one assembly district - upon application to the board, as hereinafter provided, of at least twelve freeholders of each of the towns to be affected by the division, and upon being furnished with a map and survey of all the towns to be affected, showing the proposed alterations; and if the application be granted, a copy of said map, with a certified statement of the action of said board thereunto annexed, shall be filed in the office of the secretary of state,

1 See chap. 7, first part R. S., title 3, sec, 1.

and it shall be the duty of the secretary to cause the same to be printed with the laws of the next Legislature after such division takes place, and cause the same to be published in the same manner as other laws are published.

§ 2. Notice in writing of such intended application, subscribed by not less than twelve freeholders of the town or towns to be affected, shall be posted in five of the most public places in each of the towns to be affected thereby for four weeks next previous to such application to the board of supervisors, and a copy of such notice shall also be published, for at least six weeks successively immediately before the meeting of the board of supervisors at which the application is to be made, in all the newspapers printed in the county, not exceeding three in number.

§ 3. Whenever the board of supervisors shall erect a new town in any county, they shall designate the name thereof, the time and place of holding the first annual town meeting therein, and three electors of such town, whose duty it shall be to preside at such meeting, appoint a clerk, open and keep the polls, and exercise the same powers as justices of the peace when presiding at town meetings, and in case any of the said electors shall refuse or neglect to serve, the electors of said town, present at such meeting, shall have power to substitute some elector of said town for each one so refusing or neglecting to serve. Notice of the time and place of such town meeting, signed by the chairman or clerk of the board of supervisors, shall be posted in four of the most public places in said town, by the persons so designated to preside [at] such town meeting, at least fourteen days before holding the same. They shall also fix the place for holding the first town meeting in the town or towns from which such new town shall be taken. But nothing in this act shall affect the rights or abridge the term of office of any justice of the peace or other town officer in any such town, whose term of office has not expired.

Of Application to the Legislature.

[Title 3, Chap. 7, Part 1st, Revised Statutes.]

§1. All persons applying to divide or alter the bounds of any county, city or village, or to erect any new county, or to incorporate a new city or village, and all persons applying for the removal of any court-house, or the imposing of a tax for making or improving a road, or for any other local purpose in any county where all or any of the inhabitants of such county are proposed to be taxed, shall give notice of such intended application by advertisement, to be published for at least six weeks successively immediately before such application, or before the first day of the session at which the same is to be made, in a newspaper printed in the county, or in each of the counties where the objects of such application are intended to be carried into effect, and also in case of intended application for the imposition of any tax as aforesaid, in the state paper.

§ 2. Every association intending to apply to the Legislature for an act of incorporation, and every corporation intending to apply for an alteration, amendment or extension of its charter, shall cause the like notice of such application to be published in the state paper, and also in a newspaper printed in the county in which such corporation is intended to be or shall have been established.

§3. Every person hereafter applying to the Legislature for a release of lands escheated to the state shall give the like notice of such application in the county where such lands may be situate, and in the state paper, as is required by the third title of the seventh chapter of the first part of the Revised Statutes.

§ 4. In all cases of applications to the Legislature for the passage of laws authorizing the construction of dams in or across the streams and waters of this state which are by law public highways, like notices shall be given and published as are required to be given and published by the third title of the seventh chapter of the first part of the Revised Statutes in cases of applications for acts of incorporation and in other cases therein specified.

$5. If no newspaper be printed in a county in which any notice is required to be published, such notice shall be published in like manner in the place nearest thereto in which a newspaper shall be printed.

$6. If the application be for an act of incorporation, the notice shall specify the amount of capital stock requisite to carry the objects of such incorporation into effect; and if the application be for an alteration in any charter already granted, the notice shall state specifically the alteration intended to be applied for.