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Sec. 1-1. - Designation and citation of Code.#
This book shall be known and may be cited as the "Revised General Ordinances, Town of Burrillville, Rhode Island, 2004," and is herein referred to as the revision.
(Code 1972, § 1-1)
Sec. 1-2. - Definitions and rules of construction.#
In the construction of this Code and of all ordinances, the following rules shall be observed, unless such construction would be inconsistent with the manifest intent of the town council:
Charter. Whenever the words "Charter" or "the Charter" are used they mean the Charter of the Town of Burrillville, Rhode Island, as printed in Part I of this volume.
Code. The word "Code" means the Revised General Ordinances,Town of Burrillville, Rhode Island, 2004, as designated in section 1-1.
Computation of time. Unless otherwise specifically provided, the time within which an act is required by law to be done shall be computed by excluding the first day and including the last day; except that the last day shall be excluded if it is a Sunday, a legal holiday or a day on which the offices of the town are closed. State Law reference— Similar provisions, G.L. 1956, § 43-3-3.
Council. Wherever the word "council" is used, the word means the town council of Burrillville, Rhode Island including the council president and the councilmembers of the town.
County. The words "the county" or "this county" means Providence County, Rhode Island.
Department. The word "department" shall mean an organizational unit of the town government established or designated by the Charter or ordinance as a department, together with any agency or instrumentality of the town government assigned to such organizational unit by the town council.
Gender. A word importing the masculine gender only shall extend and be applied to females and to firms, partnerships and corporations, as well as to males. State Law reference— Similar provisions, G.L. 1956, § 43-3-3.
In the town. The words "in the town" or "within the town" mean and include all territory over which the town has or shall acquire jurisdiction for the exercise of its police powers or other regulatory powers.
Joint authority. All words giving a joint authority to three or more persons or officers shall be construed as giving such authority to a majority of such persons or officers.
Keeper; proprietor. The words "keeper" and "proprietor" mean and include persons, firms, associations, corporations, clubs and copartnerships, whether acting by themselves or as servants, agents or employees.
Land; estate. The words "land" and "real estate" include rights and easements of incorporeal nature.
Licensed. The word "licensed" shall mean licensed in accordance with the appropriate section or chapter of this Code.
Month. The word "month" means a calendar month. State Law reference— Similar provisions, G.L. 1956, § 43-3-12.
Number. A word importing the singular number only may extend and be applied to several persons and things as well as to one person or thing. State Law reference— Similar provisions, G.L. 1956, § 43-3-4.
Oath. When an oath is required or authorized by law, an affirmation in lieu thereof may be taken by a person having conscientious scruples against taking an oath. An affirmation has the same effect as an oath. State Law reference— Similar provisions, G.L. 1956, § 43-3-11.
Ordinance. The word "ordinance" shall mean any act of local legislation heretofore or hereafter adopted, and including this Code, so long as it is adopted by the procedure required for the adoption of an ordinance and so long as it remains in force and effect pursuant to law.
Owner. The word "owner," applied to a building or land, includes any part owner, joint owner, tenant in common, tenant in partnership or joint tenant of the whole or of a part of such building or land.
Person. The word "person" shall mean any individual, natural persons, partnerships, joint ventures, societies, associations, clubs, trustees, trusts, corporations, LLC or unincorporated groups; or any officers, agents, employees, servants, factors or any kind of personal representatives of any thereof in any capacity, acting either for himself or for any other person, under either personal appointment or pursuant to law. State Law reference— Similar provisions, G.L. 1956, § 43-3-6.
Personal property. The term "personal property" includes every species of property, except real property, as defined in this section.
Preceding, following. The words "preceding" and "following" mean next before and next after, respectively.
Property. The word "property" includes real, personal and mixed estates and interests.
Public place. The term "public place" includes any park, cemetery, schoolyard or open space adjacent thereto and any lake or stream.
Real property. The term "real property" includes lands, tenements and hereditaments.
Shall, may. The word "shall" is mandatory; the word "may" is permissive.
Sidewalk. The word "sidewalk" means that part of the street exclusively reserved for pedestrians and constructed for such purpose.
Signature or subscription. The word "signature" or "subscription" includes a mark when the person cannot write.
State. The words "the state" or "this state" means the State of Rhode Island.
State law references. Whenever reference is made to the "General Laws" or "G.L.," this means the General Laws of Rhode Island, 1956. Whenever reference is made to "Public Laws" or "P.L.," this means the Public Laws of Rhode Island. Any citation of a statute, law or ordinance contained in this Code shall be deemed to refer to such statute, law or ordinance as amended, whether or not such designation is included in the citation.
Street. The word "street" shall include a street, avenue, road, alley, land, highway, boulevard, concourse, driveway, culvert, sidewalk and crosswalk, and every class of road, square, place or municipal parking field used by the general public.
Tenant or occupant. The word "tenant" or "occupant," applied to a building or land, includes any person holding a written or oral lease of or who occupies the whole or a part of such building or land, either alone or with others.
Tense. Words used in the past or present tense include the future, as well as the past and present.
Town. The words "the town" or "this town" are construed as if the words "of Burrillville" followed them.
Written, in writing. The words "written" or "in writing" include any representation of words, letters or figures, whether by printing or otherwise.
Year. The word "year" means a calendar year. State Law reference— Similar provisions, G.L. 1956, § 4-3-12.
(Code 1972, §§ 1-2, 1-3)
Sec. 1-3. - Catchlines, history notes and references.#
(a)
The catchlines of the several sections of this Code printed in boldface type are intended as mere catchwords to indicate the contents of the sections and shall not be deemed or taken to be titles of such sections nor as any part of the sections, nor, unless expressly so provided, shall they be so deemed when any of such sections, including the catchlines, are amended or reenacted.
(b)
The history notes following sections and the references scattered throughout the Code are for the benefit of the user only and are not part of this Code.
Sec. 1-4. - Severability.#
It is declared to be the intent of the town council that the sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses and phrases of this Code are severable, and if any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section of this Code shall be declared unconstitutional by the valid judgment or decree of any court of competent jurisdiction, such unconstitutionality shall not affect any of the remaining phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and sections of this Code, since the phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section would have been enacted by the town council without incorporation in this Code of any such unconstitutional phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section.
(Code 1972, § 1-4)
Sec. 1-5. - Provisions considered as continuations of existing ordinances.#
The provisions appearing in this Code, so far as they are the same as those ordinances existing at the time of the effective date of this Code, shall be considered as continuations thereof and not as new enactments.
Sec. 1-6. - General penalty; continuing violations.#
(a)
Except where otherwise provided in this Code or other ordinances of the town, whenever in this Code any act is prohibited or is made or declared to be unlawful or an offense or whenever the doing of any act is required or the failure to do any act is declared to be unlawful, the violation of any such provision shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $500.00 and cost of prosecution or by imprisonment not exceeding 30 days or by both such fine and imprisonment and/or by restitution in cases involving property damage or personal injury in an amount up to $2,500.00 and/or by voluntary community service for not more than ten days for any one offense, unless other penalties therefor or penalties within other limits, are specially prescribed by state statute.
(b)
Each day any violation of any provision of this Code or other ordinance of the town shall continue shall constitute a separate offense.
State Law reference— Limitation of penalty for ordinance violations, G.L. 1956, § 45-6-2.
(Code 1972, § 3-13)
Sec. 1-7. - Prosecuting ordinances.#
(a)
Manner of proceeding. All violations of the provisions of this Code or any ordinance that may hereafter be enacted by the town council shall be prosecuted by complaint and warrant directed to the appropriate officer of the town. Whenever a complaint is made by any person other than the officer appointed as aforesaid, such complainant shall give surety for costs; and in all cases of complaint the fines, forfeitures or penalties shall belong to the town.
(b)
Costs. In all prosecutions under the ordinances of this town the costs shall be the same as in criminal proceedings before the district courts of the state; and on conviction the payment of such costs shall be a part of the sentence of the respondent who shall be sentenced to imprisonment and in all cases where such complaint is dismissed, the costs shall be taxed against the complainant and his surety, and collected in the same manner as is prescribed in the general laws; provided, that where such complaint is made by an officer appointed by the town council to execute the ordinances of the town, or an officer elected by the town for the same purpose, the costs shall be paid by the town.
(c)
Penalties. In all violations of the ordinances of the town, wherein the respondent is sentenced to imprisonment as a punishment for the offense or such respondent may be imprisoned in the state prison at the discretion of the court.
(Code 1972, §§ 3-10.1, 3-10.3, 3-10.5)
Sec. 1-8. - Amendments to Code.#
(a)
All ordinances passed subsequent to this Code which amend, repeal or in any way affect this Code may be numbered in accordance with the numbering system of this Code and printed for inclusion in this Code or, in the case of repealed chapters, sections and subsections or any part thereof by subsequent ordinances, such repealed portions may be excluded from the Code by omission thereof from reprinted pages affected thereby, and the subsequent ordinances, as numbered and printed or omitted in the case of repeal, shall be prima facie evidence of such subsequent ordinances until such time that this Code and subsequent ordinances numbered or omitted are readopted as a new Code by the town council.
(b)
Amendments to any of the provisions of this Code should be made by amending such provisions by specific reference to the section of the Code in substantially the following language: "That section _____ of the Revised General Ordinances, Town of Burrillville, Rhode Island, 2004, is hereby amended to read as follows:… (set out new provisions in full)."
(c)
If a new section not existing in the Code is to be added, the following language may be used: "That the Revised General Ordinances, Town of Burrillville, Rhode Island, 2004, is hereby amended by adding a section (or article, chapter or other designation, as the case may be), to be numbered _____, which reads as follows:… (set out new provisions in full)."
(d)
All sections, articles, chapters or other provisions of this Code desired to be repealed should be specifically repealed by section number, article number, chapter number or other number, as the case may be.
Sec. 1-9. - Supplementation of Code.#
(a)
By contract or by town personnel, supplements to this Code shall be prepared and printed whenever authorized or directed by the town council. A supplement to the Code shall include all substantive permanent and general parts of ordinances passed by the town council or adopted by initiative and referendum during the period covered by the supplement and all changes made thereby in the Code. The pages of a supplement shall be so numbered that they will fit properly into the Code and will, where necessary, replace pages that have become obsolete or partially obsolete, and the new pages shall be so prepared that, when they have been inserted, the Code will be current through the date of the adoption of the latest ordinance included in the supplement.
(b)
In the preparation of a supplement to this Code, all portions of the Code that have been repealed shall be excluded from the Code by the omission thereof from reprinted pages.
(c)
When preparing a supplement to this Code, the codifier (meaning the person, agency or organization authorized to prepare the supplement) may make formal, nonsubstantive changes in ordinances and parts of ordinances included in the supplement, insofar as it is necessary to do so to embody them into a unified Code. For example, the codifier may:
(1)
Organize the ordinance material into appropriate subdivisions.
(2)
Provide appropriate catchlines, headings and titles for sections and other subdivisions of the Code printed in the supplement and make changes in such catchlines, headings and titles.
(3)
Assign appropriate numbers to sections and other subdivisions to be inserted in the Code and, where necessary to accommodate new material, change existing section or other subdivision numbers.
(4)
Change the words "this ordinance" or words of the same meaning to "this chapter," "this article," "this division," etc., as the case may be, or to "sections _____ to _____" (inserting section numbers to indicate the sections of the Code which embody the substantive sections of the ordinance incorporated into the Code).
(5)
Make other nonsubstantive changes necessary to preserve the original meaning of ordinance sections inserted into the Code, but in no case shall the codifier make any change in the meaning or effect of ordinance material included in the supplement or already embodied in the Code.
Sec. 1-10. - Certain ordinances not affected by Code.#
Nothing in this Code or the ordinance adopting this Code shall be construed to repeal or otherwise affect the validity of any of the following when not inconsistent with this Code: (1)
Any ordinance promising or guaranteeing the payment of money by the town, or authorizing the issuance of any bonds of the town, or any evidence of the town's indebtedness, or any contract, agreement, lease, deed or other instrument or obligation assumed by the town or creating interest and sinking funds.
(2)
Any right or franchise, permit or other right granted by any ordinance.
(3)
Any personnel regulations; any ordinance establishing salaries of town officers and employees or civil service rules.
(4)
Any ordinance dedicating, naming, establishing, locating, relocating, opening, paving, widening, repairing or vacating any street, alley or other public way in the town.
(5)
Any ordinance establishing and prescribing the street grades in the town.
(6)
Any appropriation ordinance or any ordinance levying or imposing taxes.
(7)
Any ordinance providing for local improvements and assessing taxes therefor.
(8)
Any ordinance dedicating or accepting any plat or subdivision in the town.
(9)
Any ordinance establishing the official plat of the town.
(10)
Any zoning map amendment or load use, rezoning or zoning ordinance.
(11)
Any ordinance annexing territory or excluding territory from the town.
(12)
Any ordinance prescribing traffic regulations for specific locations and prescribing through streets, parking limitations, parking prohibitions, one-way traffic, limitations on loads of vehicles or loading zones not inconsistent with such Code.
(13)
Any subdivision ordinance or regulation.
(14)
Any ordinance creating special districts or assessing taxes therefor.
(15)
Any ordinance granting specific tax exemptions.
(16)
Any temporary or special ordinance.
(17)
Any administrative ordinance.
All such ordinances are recognized as continuing in full force and effect to the same extent as if set out at length in this section.