Charter

Charter of the Westfield Fire District of the City of Middletown

Section 1. All electors of the city of Middletown dwelling within that portion of said city comprised of that area bounded northerly by the Middletown Town Line; westerly by the Middletown Town Line; southerly by Washington Street where the said Washington Street lies within the confines of the Town of Middletown, State Route 6A where the said State Route 6A lies within or on the Town Line of the Town of Middletown, the Town Line of the Town of Middletown easterly by a line which runs northerly along Camp Street and then easterly on Westfield Street and then northerly along West Swamp Brook to Mile Lane and then westerly along Mile Lane and then northerly and northwesterly along Ridgewood Road to East Street and then northerly along East Street to the Middletown Town Line, this area is also to include land and buildings three hundred (300) feed east of Camp Street, Ridgewood Road and East Street where said streets constitute the easterly bound of the above described land, are constituted, ordained and declared forever, a body politic and corporate by the name Westfield Fire District of the City of Middletown, and by that name they and their successors shall have perpetual succession, and shall be a person in law capable of suing and being sued in all courts and of purchasing, holding and conveying any estate, real or personal, and may have a common seal, and may change and alter the same at its pleasure.

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Sec. 2. The officers of said fire district shall be the following: A commission of nine to be known as the Westfield District Fire commission. Said commission shall be elected by a plurality of the members of the said Fire District in attendance at the annual meeting of the district as vacancies shall occur on said commission. At the first annual meeting of said fire district, the first nine commissioners elected shall be elected to serve as follows: Three commissioners for one year; three commissioners for two years; and three commissioners for three years, respectively, from the day next succeeding the date of said annual meeting, and thereafter three commissioners shall be elected at each annual meeting to serve for a term of three years from the day next succeeding the date of such annual meeting. Any vacancies which may arise upon the commission between the dates of said annual meetings may be filled by the remaining commissioners. Said appointments to any vacancy shall be valid only until the time of the next succeeding annual meeting when any and all vacancies on the said commission shall be filled as hereinbefore provided. Said commissioners shall hold office for the rest of their terms, and until their successors are duly qualified; provided, if any commissioner ceases to reside within the limits of said fire district, the office held by him shall thereupon become vacant and shall be filled at the next annual meeting. No more than three members of any fire company, hook and ladder company or hose company organized or continued under the terms of this act shall be eligible to be a member of the Westfield District Fire Commission at any given time. Any candidate for the office of fire commissioner who receives a plurality of the votes cast at any annual meeting shall be declared elected as fire commissioner.

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Sec. 3. Said fire district shall have full power and authority to organize or continue within its limits such number of fire companies, hook and ladder companies and hose companies as it deems necessary, and to purchase and procure suitable fire engines, hooks, ladders, hose and other apparatus for extinguishing fires, and to provide suitable buildings and places for keeping the same, and to provide an adequate fire alarm system for the said district, and to provide for emergency ambulance service within the said district, and to provide for a proper and sufficient supply of water for fire purposes; and may at any legal meeting, direct its commissioners to organize such companies, purchase and procure apparatus, provide buildings and places for keeping the same, provide an adequate fire alarm system for the said district, provide for emergency ambulance service within the said district, and provide a sufficient supply of water as aforesaid, in such way and within such time and upon such terms and conditions as such meeting may by vote direct and such fire companies, hook and ladder companies and hose companies, when organized or continued, shall be under and subject to the control of said commission.

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Sec. 4. The commissioners shall have charge of all the property of said fire district and shall manage and conduct the affairs and business thereof, and shall make a report of their doings and of the condition of the affairs of said fire district at the annual meeting. Said commissioners shall have the power to appoint personnel of any fire department organized or continued, and to set salaries for all non-volunteer services provided to said companies or to said fire district. Said commissioners shall have the power to appoint all necessary administrative personnel to carry on the affairs of the district, including but not limited to a treasurer, a clerk and a tax collector.

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Sec. 5. Any clerk, treasurer or tax collector appointed by said commission, before entering upon the duties of his office, shall be sworn to a faithful discharge of the duties of such office, in the form of general oaths prescribed by the statutes of this state, before some officer by law authorized to administer oaths; and the treasurer and collector shall, before entering upon their duties, give bond with surety to the acceptance of said commission, conditioned for the faithful discharge of the duties of their offices.

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Sec. 6. The electors of said fire district may at any legal meeting levy taxes upon the taxable property within the limits of said fire district for such purposes and objects as are authorized by this act. The grand list of the city of Middletown, lying within the limits of the fire district, as prepared by the assessor of the said city, shall be used as a basis for any taxes which may be levied upon the property within the limits of the fire district; and such taxes shall be collectible and subject to lien as provided for municipalities by chapters 203 and 204 of the general statutes.

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Sec. 7. The annual meeting of said fire district shall be held on the first Tuesday of February in each year, and at such place and hour as may be designated in the notice of such meeting, which notice shall be given by publicly advertising the call of said meeting in a local daily paper, and if deemed advisable, in other papers. Such advertisement shall be placed no less than five days nor more than ten days before the date of such meeting. Special meetings may be called and held in such manner as the by-laws of said fire district may prescribe.

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Sec. 8. The commissioners may meet at any time, and at all meetings of the commissioners a majority thereof shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.

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Sec. 9. The clerk of said fire district shall keep the records thereof, and shall also act as clerk of said commission and shall keep a record of its proceedings.

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Sec. 10. All inhabitants living within the limits of the fire district for six months and qualified as electors of the City of Middletown shall be legal voters and members of the said fire district.

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Sec. 11. This act shall take effect upon its approval by a meeting of the electors of said fire district duly warned and called for that purpose, said call to be made by the present board of directors of the Westfield Volunteer Fire Department, Inc., which is a body politic and corporate under the laws of the state of Connecticut. The notice of the meeting provided for in this section shall be published twice in a local daily paper, with the first publication no earlier than ten days before said meeting. Said meeting shall take place no later than two years from the date of the passage of this act.

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