CHAP. 104 Sec. 30. Existing ordinances, rules and regulations to remain in force; existing actions, contracts, etc., to be continued. All ordinances in force at the time when this charter takes effect, not inconsistent with the provisions of this charter, shall continue in force until amended or repealed. All rules and regulations of the municipal officers of the city of Portland in force at the time when this charter takes effect, not inconsistent with the provisions hereof, shall continue in force until amended or repealed. The powers and duties of any committee of the city council or of the board of aldermen of the city of Portland heretofore conferred or prescribed by statute, may by ordinance be conferred upon or prescribed for any committee of the city council. All rights, actions, proceedings, prosecutions and contracts of the city or any of its departments, pending or unexecuted when this charter goes into effect, and not inconsistent therewith, shall be enforced, continued or completed in all respects as though begun or executed hereunder. Sec. 31. Existing laws and ordinances relative to terms, removal, retirement or pensions of police, fire and electrical departments, not affected; terms of office of certain members of commissions, trustees, etc., with definite terms, not affected. Nothing in this act shall be construed as repealing or amending any law of the state, or ordinance of the city of Portland relative to the appointment, term of office, removal, retirement or pension of the members of the police department, the fire department and of the electrical department of the city of Portland, except so far as relates to the appointment, removal and term of office of the chief of the fire department, chief of the police department, appointment and removal of the city electrician and the appointment of the deputy and district chiefs of the fire department. The passage and acceptance of this act shall not, except as specifically provided therein, affect the term of office of such officers, trustees, members of commissions, or departments, as may be holding office, with a definite term of years fixed by statute, at the time this charter takes effect, but such officers, trustees, members of commissions, or departments, shall complete the term of office to which they have been elected or appointed, subject to removal by the mayor, with the consent of the city council. for cause. Sec. 32. Date act becomes effective. So much of this act as authorizes the submission of the acceptance of this charter to the electors of the city of Portland shall take effect as provided in the constitution of the state, but it shall not take further effect unless adopted by the electors of the city of Portland as hereinafter provided. If adopted by the electors CHAP. 104 of the city, then this act for the purpose of nominating and electing officers hereunder shall take effect on the date of its adoption by the electors, and for all other purposes this act shall take effect on the second Monday of December in the year nineteen hundred and twenty-three. All provisions of the present charter of the city of Portland not inconsistent with this act are hereby expressly continued in full force and effect, but all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby expressly repealed. Sec. 33. Provision for local referendum; form of ballot. This act shall be submitted for approval or rejection to the qualified voters of the city of Portland at an election to be held the second Monday in September, A. D. nineteen hundred and twenty-three, and warrants shall be issued for such election in the manner now provided by law for the holding of municipal elections, notifying and warning the qualified voters of said city to meet at the several ward meetings of said city, there to cast their ballot for the approval or rejection of this act. The question proposed on said ballot shall be in substantially the following form: FORM OF BALLOT. "Place a cross X in the square after the form of charter which you select. Mark only one form or your ballot will not be counted. Plan I. Plan 2. FORMS OF CHARTER. Present form of charter with mayor, board of Form providing mayor and board of fourteen Plan 3. Council-manager form providing for a city coun- Otherwise said ballot shall be in the form provided by law when a constitutional amendment is submitted to the vote of the people. The provisions of law relating to the preparation of voting lists for municipal CHAP. 105 elections shall apply to such election and said election shall in all other respects be conducted as municipal elections in said city are now conducted by law, and the results thereof shall be determined in the manner now provided by law for the determination of the election of mayor. If a plurality of the valid ballots deposited as aforesaid shall favor the adoption of plan two, so called,-on said ballot, and provided further, if the number of ballots favoring plan two, so called, on said ballot shall also constitute more than fifty per cent of the total number of valid ballots cast at said election, then this act shall take effect as herein provided and the mayor shall forthwith make proclamation of the fact. Approved April 4, 1923. Chapter 105. An Act to Incorporate the Ogunquit Beach District. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine, as follows: Sec. I. Territorial limits; name; purpose. The inhabitants of the territory comprised within the limits of Ogunquit Village Corporation, in the town of Wells, shall be and hereby are made a body corporate, for the purposes of this act, under the name of the Ogunquit Beach District, hereinafter referred to as the "district." Sec. 2. Authorized to take and hold real estate for public park; right of eminent domain conferred; time for claiming damages limited. Said district, in its corporate capacity, is hereby authorized and empowered to take, hold, exchange or convey, in the name of the Ogunquit Beach District, for public purposes and particularly for the creation and establishment of a public park, any real estate lying between the thread of the Ogunquit river on the west and the Atlantic ocean on the east and the boundary line of the Ogunquit Village Corporation on the north and the land of Walter M. Perkins on the south, together with a forty-foot road from said tract of land southerly to the county road, and may also take, hold, exchange or convey any real estate lying between the thread of said Ogunquit river on the west and south and the Atlantic ocean on the east and said county road on the north. The said district may exercise the right of eminent domain in the taking of land, for the purposes herein specified, in the same manner as provided in chapter twenty-four of the revised statutes for the ascertainment of damages in the location and establishment of highways; provided, that application by either party in interest for the determination of damages shall be made within three years after the said land is so taken. Sec. 3. First meeting, how called; regular and special meetings, how CHAP. 105 called. The first meeting of said corporation shall be called by petition of seven legal voters within said district, directed to any justice of the peace within the state, who shall issue his warrant to any constable within the town of Wells to call said meeting within said district at a time, place and for the purposes indicated therein. The regular meetings of said district shall be called within said district by a majority of the trustees thereof in the same manner as is provided by statute for calling town meetings, and shall be held on the fourth Tuesday of August annually. Special meetings shall be called by a majority of the trustees, upon request of seven legal voters, within said district, and held in the same manner as provided for the calling of town meetings. Sec. 4. Organization; officers; seal and place of business. The organization of said district shall be consummated at the first meeting for organization thereof, or any adjournment thereof, by the election of a clerk and three trustees, who shall serve without compensation, and a treasurer, who shall give a bond approved by a majority of the trustees, for the faithful performance of the duties of his office, and who shall receive such compensation as the district shall determine. The said district shall also provide a corporate seal and have an established place of business within said. district. Sec. 5. Authorized to assess and collect taxes. The said district is hereby authorized to raise and appropriate money by taxation upon the polls and estates within its corporate limits, for the payment of its contracts, liabilities, obligations and incidental charges for interest; and said. taxes shall be assessed by the assessors and collected by the collectors of the town of Wells, in addition to other municipal taxes, and all funds received by any town official by virtue of this provision shall be paid to the treasurer of said district within thirty days of the collection of any part thereof. Sec. 6. Authorized to issue bonds. The said district may issue its bonds, or notes, secured or unsecured, for a term not exceeding ten years, in such amounts and of such denominations, not exceeding in the aggregate five per centum of the valuation of said district, as the legal voters, present at any regular or special meeting of said district, may determine. And said bonds or notes when authorized by vote of said district, signed by its treasurer and sealed with the corporate seal, shall be legal obligations of said district. Sec. 7. Bonds, how issued and retired. All bonds, or notes, issued by the said district shall become due and payable, serially, and the trustees CHAP. 106 of the said district shall annually provide, by taxation or otherwise, for the retirement of at least one thousand dollars, par value, of the amount of such bonds, or notes, at any one time, outstanding. Sec. 8. Trustees authorized to receive in trust, gifts and donations. The said trustees are hereby authorized to receive any gift of real estate, which shall be described in a trust deed, or the donation of any sum of money, or other thing of value, in trust, to be expended under the provisions of this act and in every particular as if the same had been appropriated by said district for the purposes herein specified. Sec. 9. Local referendum provided for. This act shall not take effect until approved by a majority of the legal voters of the town of Wells resident within said district, present and voting at a meeting of the legal voters resident within said district held within said district upon the fifteenth day of August in the year nineteen hundred and twenty-three; and the record of the vote taken at said meeting shall be transmitted to the secretary of state at Augusta, Maine, by registered mail, postpaid; and if the vote upon this act of incorporation be affirmative, the district shall thereafter be established and known as the Ogunquit Beach District. Approved April 4, 1923. Chapter 106. An Act to Provide a New Charter for the City of Rockland and to Repeal Chapter Four Hundred and Eighty-two of the Private and Special Laws of Eighteen Hundred and Eighty-five. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine, as follows: Sec. 1. Corporate existence continued. The inhabitants of the city of Rockland, in the county of Knox, shall continue to be a body politic and corporate, by the name of the city of Rockland, and, as such, shall have, exercise and enjoy all the rights, immunities, powers, privileges and franchises, and be subject to all the duties and obligations now appertaining to, or incumbent on said city as a municipal corporation, and may ordain and publish such acts, laws and regulations, not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of this state, as shall be needful to the good order of said body politic; and may impose fines and penalities for the breach thereof, not exceeding one hundred dollars for any one offense, which may be recovered by said city in an action of debt or on complaint before the police court of said city. Sec. 2. Administration vested in mayor and aldermen, styled city council. The administration of all the fiscal, prudential and municipal affairs of said city, with the government thereof shall be vested in one principal |