Chapter 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS
§ 1-1. Designation, citation of Revision.
§ 1-2. Rules of construction and definitions.
§ 1-3. Catchlines of sections.
§ 1-4. Arrangement and numbering.
§ 1-5. History notes.
§ 1-6. References.
§ 1-7. Provisions considered as continuation, repeal or amendment of existing ordinances.
§ 1-8. Revision does not affect prior offenses, rights, etc.
§ 1-9. Additions and amendments deemed incorporated in Revision.
§ 1-10. Effect of repeal of ordinance.
§ 1-11. Certain ordinances not affected by Revision.
§ 1-12. Amendments to Revision.
§ 1-13. Supplementation of Revision.
§ 1-14. Severability of parts of Revision.
§ 1-15. General penalty.
§ 1-16. Recovery of fines and penalties.
The ordinances embraced in this and the following chapters shall be designated and cited as the "Revised Ordinances of the Town of New Shoreham, Rhode Island."
State law reference — Ordinances to be printed and published in manner directed by town council, G.L. 1956, § 45-6-7.
In the construction of this Revision and of all ordinances hereafter enacted, the following interpretations shall be placed on the words and phrases mentioned in this section, unless such construction or interpretation would be manifestly inconsistent with the evident intent of the town council or repugnant to the context or to the evident purport of any ordinance:
CHARTER — The Home Rule Charter of the Town of New Shoreham, Rhode Island, as printed in part I of this volume.
COMPUTATION OF TIME — The time in which an act is to be done shall be computed by excluding the first and including the last day, except that, when the last day falls on a Sunday or a legal holiday, the act may be done on the next succeeding day which is not a Sunday or a legal holiday. When a public office in which an act is to be performed is closed to the public for the entire day which constitutes the last day for doing such act, or before its usual closing time on such day, then such may be performed on the next succeeding day which is not a Sunday or legal holiday.
State law reference — Computation of time, G.L. 1956, § 43-3-13.
CORPORATE LIMITS, CORPORATION LIMITS, TOWN LIMITS — Whenever the terms
"corporate limits," "corporation limits," and "town limits" are used, they shall mean the legal boundary of the Town of New Shoreham, Rhode Island.
COUNTY — The term "county" shall mean the County of Washington in the State of Rhode Island.
DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY — Whenever a provision appears requiring the head of a department or other officer of the town to do some act or to make certain inspections, it is to be construed to authorize the head of the department or other officer of the town, as the case may be, to designate, delegate and authorize subordinates to perform the required act or make the required inspection unless the terms of the provision designate otherwise.
G.L. 1956 — The term "G.L. 1956" shall mean the latest edition or reenactment of the General Laws of Rhode Island.
GENDER — A term 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.
INTERPRETATION — In the interpretation and application of any provision of this Revision, it shall be held to be the minimum requirements adopted for the promotion of the public health, safety, comfort, convenience and general welfare. Where any provision of the Revision imposes greater restrictions upon the subject matter than the general provisions imposed by the Revision, the provision imposing the greater restriction or regulation shall be deemed to be controlling.
KEEPER, PROPRIETOR — The terms "keeper" and "proprietor" shall mean and include persons, firms, associations, corporations, clubs and partnerships, whether acting by themselves or through a servant, agent or employee.
MONTH — The term "month" shall mean a calendar month.
State law reference — Similar provisions, G.L. 1956, § 43-3-12.
NONTECHNICAL AND TECHNICAL WORDS — Words and phrases shall be construed according to the common and approved usage of the language; but technical words and phrases and such others as may have acquired a peculiar and appropriate meaning in law shall be construed and understood according to such meaning.
OATH — The term "oath" shall be construed to include an affirmation in all cases in which, by law, an affirmation may be substituted for an oath, and in such cases the words "swear" and "sworn" shall be equivalent to the words "affirm" and "affirmed." The word "engaged" shall be equivalent to the word "sworn" or "affirmed."
State law reference — Similar provisions, G.L. 1956, § 43-3-11.
OFFICERS, DEPARTMENTS, BOARDS, COMMITTEES, AND COMMISSIONS, ETC —
Whenever the title of an officer, department, board committee, commission or other agency is given it shall be construed as though the words "of the Town of New Shoreham, Rhode Island" were added.
OWNER — The term "owner," applied to a building or land, shall include any part owner, joint owner, tenant in common, tenant in partnership, joint tenant or tenant by the entirety of the whole or of a part of such building or land.
PERSON — The term "person" shall include a corporation, firm, partnership, association, organization, club, society, body corporate or politic, or any other group acting as a unit, as well as a natural person.
State law reference — Similar provisions, G.L. 1956, § 43-3-6.
PRECEDING, FOLLOWING — The terms "preceding" and "following" shall mean next before and next after, respectively.
State law reference — Similar provisions, G.L. 1956, § 43-3-16.
REVISION — The term "Revision" shall mean the Revised Ordinances of the Town of New Shoreham, Rhode Island, as designated in § 1-1.
STATE — The term "state" shall be construed to mean the State of Rhode Island.
TOWN — The term "town" shall mean the Town of New Shoreham in the County of Washington and the State of Rhode Island.
TOWN COUNCIL — The term "council" and "town council" shall mean the Town Council of the Town of New Shoreham, Rhode Island.
WEEK — The term "week" shall be construed to mean seven days.
The catchlines of the several sections of this Revision printed in boldface type are intended as mere catchwords to indicate the contents of the section, and unless otherwise expressly so provided, shall not be deemed or taken to be titles of such sections or of any part of the section, and are of no legal effect.
The ordinances shall be arranged by chapters and each subject shall be given a descriptive title and chapter number. Each chapter shall contain numbered sections pertaining to the subject. The numbering of the chapters and sections shall be by consecutive Arabic numerals and may be cited by numbers separated by a dash, the first number referring to the chapter and the number following the dash referring to the section.
The history notes appearing in parentheses after sections of this Revision are not intended to have any legal effect but are merely intended to indicate the source of matter contained in the section.
The editor's notes, cross references and state law references appearing in this Revision are merely information to assist the user of this Revision and are of no legal effect.
The provisions appearing in this Revision, so far as they are the same as those ordinances existing at the time of the effective date of this Revision, shall be considered as continuations thereof and not as new enactments. These previously established ordinances which have not been republished and incorporated herein are repealed except as otherwise provided in § 1- 11, and those which have been amended, added to or deleted in part and republished as changed shall be considered continuations of the prior ordinance or ordinances as amended.
Nothing in this Revision or the ordinance adopting this Revision shall affect any offense or act committed or done, or any penalty or forfeiture incurred, or any contract or right established or accruing, before the effective date of this Revision.
Any and all additions and amendments to this Revision, when passed in such form as to indicate the intention of the town to make the same a part hereof, shall be deemed to be incorporated herein, so that reference to this Revision shall be understood and intended to include such additions and amendments.
(a) The repeal of an ordinance shall not revive any ordinances in force before or at the time the ordinance repealed took effect.
(b) The repeal of an ordinance shall not affect any punishment or penalty incurred before the repeal took effect, or any suit or prosecution pending at the time of the repeal, for an offense committed or cause of action arising under the ordinance repealed.
State law reference — Similar provisions, G.L. 1956, §§ 43-3-22 — 43-3-24.
Nothing in this Revision or the ordinance adopting this Revision shall be construed to repeal or otherwise affect the validity of any of the following when not inconsistent with this Revision:
(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; or
(2) Any right or franchise, permit, or other right granted by any ordinance; or
(3) Any personnel regulations; any ordinance establishing salaries of town officers and employees or civil service rules; or
(4) Any ordinance dedicating, naming, establishing, relocating, opening, paving, widening, repairing or vacating any street, alley or other public way in the town; or
(5) Any ordinance establishing and prescribing the street grades in the town; or
(6) Any appropriation ordinance or any ordinance levying or imposing taxes; or
(7) Any ordinance providing for local improvements and assessing taxes therefor; or
(8) Any ordinance dedicating or accepting any plat or subdivision in the town; or
(9) Any ordinance establishing the official plat of the town; or
(10) Any zoning map amendment or land use, rezoning or zoning ordinance; or
(11) Any ordinance prescribing traffic regulations for specific locations, or prescribing through streets, parking limitations, parking prohibitions, one-way traffic, limitations on loads of vehicles or loading zones, not inconsistent with such Revision; or
(12) Any subdivision regulations adopted by the planning board; or
(13) Any ordinance creating special districts or assessing taxes therefor; or
(14) Any ordinance granting specific tax exemptions; or
(15) Any temporary or special ordinance; or
(16) Any administrative ordinance;
and all such ordinances are hereby recognized as continuing in full force and effect to the same extent as if set out at length herein. A copy of the ordinance is on file in the town clerk's office.
(a) All ordinances passed subsequent to this Revision, which amend, repeal or in any way affect this Revision, may be numbered in accordance with the numbering system of this Revision and printed for inclusion herein, 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 Revision 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 Revision and subsequent ordinances numbered or omitted are readopted as a new Revision by the town council.
(b) Amendments to any of the provisions of this Revision should be made by amending such provisions by specific reference to the section of the Revision in substantially the following language: "That section of the Revised Ordinances of the Town of New Shoreham, Rhode Island, is hereby amended to read as follows: (Set out new provisions in full) ."
(c) In the event a new section not heretofore existing in the Revision is to be added, the following language may be used: "That the Revised Ordinances of the Town of New Shoreham, Rhode Island, 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:
(d) (Set out new provisions in full) ."
(e) All sections, articles, chapters or other provisions of this Revision desired to be repealed should be specifically repealed by section number, article number, chapter number or other number, as the case may be.
(a) By contract or by town personnel, supplements to this Revision shall be prepared and printed whenever authorized or directed by the town council. A supplement to the Revision 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 this Revision. The pages of a supplement shall be so numbered that they will fit properly into this Revision and will, where necessary, replace pages which have become obsolete or partially obsolete, and the new pages shall be so prepared that, when they have been inserted, this Revision 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 Revision, all portions of the Revision which have been repealed shall be excluded from the Revision by the omission thereof from reprinted pages.
(c) When preparing a supplement to this Revision, 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 Revision. 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 Revision 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 Revision 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 6 to " (inserting section numbers to indicate the sections of the Revision which embody the substantive sections of the ordinance incorporated into the Revision); and
(5) Make other nonsubstantive changes necessary to preserve the original meaning of ordinance sections inserted into the Revision; 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 Revision.
It is hereby declared to be the intention of the town council that the sections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses and phrases of this Revision are severable, and if any phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section of this Revision 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 Revision, since the same would have been enacted by the town council without incorporation in this Revision of any such unconstitutional phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section.
No. 2015-06, October 21, 2015, § 1-15]
Except where otherwise provided in this Revision, whenever in this Revision or in any ordinance of the town any act is prohibited or is made or declared to be unlawful or an offense, or whenever in this Revision or ordinance the doing of any act is required or the failure to do any act is declared to be unlawful, where no specific penalty is provided therefor, the violation of any such provision of this Revision or any ordinance shall be punished by fine not exceeding $200 or by imprisonment not exceeding three months, unless other penalties therefor, or penalties within other limits, are specially prescribed by statute, to be prosecuted by some officer appointed for that purpose, and to be recovered to the use of the town, or of such person and in such proportions, as they in their said ordinances and regulations shall designate. Each day any violation of any provision of this Revision or of any ordinance shall continue shall constitute a separate offense.
State law reference — Authority to enact general penalty, limitations on penalties, G.L. 1956,
§ 45-6-2; imposition of penalties for ordinance violations in New Shoreham, G.L. 1956, § 45- 6-2.1.
All fines and penalties for the violation of this Revision or other town ordinances, rules or regulations shall be recoverable by complaint and warrant, or other appropriate legal process, and when recovered shall inure to the use of the town, unless otherwise provided by general law or the ordinance respecting the same.