any member thereof, except to the secretary. Each commissioner, however, shall be entitled to receive his actual disbursements for necessary expenses in the performance of any duty imposed upon him by the direction of the said board of commissioners. The office of any one of the said park commissioners who shall not attend the meetings of the board for three successive months, after having been duly notified of such meetings, without reason therefor satisfactory to said board, or without leave of absence from said board, shall by said board be declared vacant; and they shall proceed to fill the vacancy for the unexpired term, as hereinbefore provided. Upon the expiration of the term of office of that member of the board of park commissioners whose term expires in April, 1895, the remaining commissioners, with the mayor of the city, may appoint his successor in office, by and with the consent and advice of the board of aldermen, to serve for a term of five years and until his successor in office has been appointed and qualified. § 68. Officers, meetings, records, and accounts. The said board of park commissioners shall annually, in May, choose one of their number to be president of the board, and another as vicepresident; and the said board shall elect a secretary, who, in the discretion of the board, may be one of their own number, at a salary not exceeding five hundred dollars per annum; but the said salary, and all other expenses of the commission, shall be paid out of the annual appropriation. At all meetings, except such as are specially called for the appointment of a commissioner, six shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. At no meeting shall it be proper to proceed to the appointment of a new commissioner unless the mayor of the city be present; and at all meetings called for this purpose the mayor shall preside and certify to the appointment before it be transmitted to the board of aldermen for their consent. The said board of park commissioners shall have full and exclusive power to make rules and by-laws for the orderly transaction of their business. The board shall keep an accurate record and books of account, and shall annually transmit to the court of common council a full and detailed report and statement of all its acts and doings, together with a complete and itemized account of all receipts and disbursements. The books of account and records of the board shall at all times be open to the inspection of the mayor, and subject to an annual audit by the proper municipal officer. It shall be 1895. 12 S. L. 207. 1895. 12 S. L. 68. 1895. 12 S. L. 69. the duty of the mayor, or other proper municipal officer, to assign a suitable and convenient office, in some public building, to the use of the board of park commissioners, with proper vault or safe for the protection of their books and papers; and until such office is provided, to the satisfaction of said board, they are hereby authorized to rent an office at an expense of not more than fifty dollars per month. Said board shall have power to appoint or employ such superintendents, engineers, architects, and other officers and employees as it may deem necessary, and shall prescribe and define their respective duties, powers, and authority, and shall fix and regulate the compensation to be paid to the several persons so employed. § 69. Particular powers. The board constituted as aforesaid shall have the care, management, and control of all parks and grounds used for park purposes, all boulevards, connecting parks and structures thereon, and parkways, now or hereafter owned by or in the control of the city of Hartford, within or without the corporate limits of the city and may give proper designating names thereto. The board shall have power to acquire, and the city of Hartford to hold, property, whether within or without the corporate limits of said city, for the purpose of establishing public parks and public squares or the enlarging of existing parks, or for boulevards, connecting parks, or park-ways, by condemnation, or by contract for the same; to accept conveyances thereof; to receive gifts, donations, or devises of land or other property for park purposes; to lay out and to improve with walks, drives, and roads, to build necessary culverts and bridges, to drain, plant, and otherwise at their discretion to improve and adorn the parks and other park property thus held or acquired by said board, to erect such buildings as may be needed for the purpose of administration, or for the use, protection, and refreshment of the public; provided, however, that in no case shall any expenditure be made in excess of the amount previously appropriated. The said board shall have power to make and alter, from time to time, all needful rules and regulations for the maintenance of order, safety, and decency in said parks, both within and without the limits of the city, and to affix penalties for disobedience thereto; which rules and regulations shall have the force of ordinances of the city of Hartford; provided, that no such rule or regulation shall be of any effect unless it shall have been first approved by the board of aldermen, and then published in full in one or more of the daily newspapers published in Hartford, and also printed and posted in conspicuous places within the limits of the property to which such regulation is intended to apply. For the purpose of enforcing such rules and regulations, all such parks and property, whether within or without the limits of said city, are hereby placed under the police jurisdiction of the city of Hartford; and complaints for the violation of such regulations may be made by the prosecuting attorney to the police court of said city. Any member of the police department may arrest, without warrant in any of such parks or places, whether within or without the limits of the city of Hartford, any person who has broken any park rule, or committed any other offense in said park; and the police court of Hartford shall have jurisdiction of all misdemeanors committed within the limits of said parks. § 70. Parkways. Location of public service pipes, wires, etc. The said board of commissioners shall have sole power to determine the places in said parks and park-ways, and in other property under their control, where sewers, gas, and water pipes shall be laid; and no trench, for these purposes, shall be opened until the commissioners shall have designated the location of the same, and given permission in writing. No telegraph, telephone, or electric light wires, or other wires, or posts or supports therefor, shall be erected in, upon, through, or over said parks or park-ways, without the consent in writing of said board, who shall designate the place and the manner of erecting and maintaining the same, to be altered at such time and in such manner and under such conditions as the said board may deem best. § 71. Exemption of taxation of park property. All real and personal estate of the city used for park purposes within the limits of any other town shall be exempted from taxation. § 72. Bonds. For the purpose of providing necessary funds for the purchase or improvement of lands for park property, and for such other purposes as are herein provided for, the city of Hartford is hereby authorized and empowered to issue its bonds to an Idem. 1895. 12 S. L. 70. Idem. Idem. Idem. amount not exceeding three hundred thousand dollars, payable in not more than fifty years from their dates, and bearing interest not 'exceeding four per centum per annum, payable semi-annually in such manner and form as shall be determined by the mayor and the court of common council of said city. And within thirty days after the passage of this act, the mayor of said city shall submit to the qualified electors of the city the proposition to issue the bonds of the city to the amount aforesaid, the proceeds of the sale of which shall be exclusively applied, under the direction and at the discretion of the board of park commissioners, to the acquisition, layout, and improvement of land for public parks, park-ways, or boulevards established as approaches to or for the purpose of connecting parks, and for the other purposes set forth in section sixty-nine; but the said board shall make no expenditures of said proceeds, or contract of expenditure thereof, involving liability to the city of Hartford exceeding the amount of the bonds thus issued. Such election shall be conducted, and the result determined, as in other city elections. § 73. Special tax for support of parks. For the purpose of providing necessary funds for the care and improvement of park property, and to meet the expenses of the board of park commissioners, the court of common council of the city shall, in each year, levy, and cause to be collected, a tax of not less than five cents upon each one hundred dollars of value of all the property within the city taxable for municipal purposes. All moneys collected and arising from the said tax shall be paid by the tax collector, or other officer collecting the same, into the treasury of the city; and shall be deemed, thereupon, appropriated and set apart for the maintenance, preservation, and improvement of said parks and grounds; and shall be paid out by the city treasurer upon warrants signed by at least three members of the said board of park commissioners. § 74. Park-ways and boulevards. The said board of park commissioners shall have power to connect any public park under its control with any other park over which it has jurisdiction, by a boulevard or park-way; and whenever, in their judgment necessary, they may designate, as such, any existing highway, or parts thereof, which shall thereupon be deemed a part of said park-way; but the same shall remain under the control of the city authorities now having jurisdiction thereof. park § 75. Definition of "park property." The term “ property" includes all parks, squares, and areas of land within the management of said board; and all buildings, structures, improvements, seats, benches, fountains, boats, floats, walks, drives, roads, trees, plants, herbages, flowers, and other things thereon, and inclosures of the same; and all resting places, watering stations, play-grounds, parade-grounds, or the like; and all connecting parkways and roads or drives between parks; and all avenues, roads, ways, drives, walks, with all trees, shrubbery, vines, flowers, and ornaments of any description; and all birds, animals, or curiosities, or objects of interest or instruction, and all tools and implements placed in or on any of such inclosures, ways, park-ways, roads, or places; and said included terms shall be liberally construed. § 76. Members of park board prohibited from being interested in property or contracts connected with parks. No member of the said board of park commissioners shall be concerned in any contract with the said board, or any of its departments or institutions, either as contractor, sub-contractor, bondsman, or party directly or indirectly interested. If any member of the board be the owner of, or interested in, any property necessary, in the opinion of a majority of the other members of the board, to be taken for park purposes, then proceedings shall be by condemnation, and such facts of ownership and interest shall be fully set forth in the petition. § 77. Board not compelled to accept gifts. The board shall not be compelled to accept any gift or offer of land which, in its judgment, is unsuited to park purposes, or the improvement of which would entail an injudicious outlay. § 78. May lease property not needed for immediate improvement. The said board shall, at its discretion, have power to lease any buildings or land not needed for immediate improvements, for a term not to exceed three years; the proceeds to be paid Idem. 1895. 12 S. L. 71. Idem. Idem. |