Timeline of Legislative Records
The legislative body of the Town of Amherst is a Representative Town Meeting, consisting of 240 elected Town Meeting members, 24 from each of 10 precincts plus 14 ex officio members: the five members of the Select Board (the town's chief elected officials, in many ways the counterpart of the city mayor, who enforce votes of town meetings and carry out the daily affairs of the town to reduce the necessity for numerous town meetings throughout the year, helping to shape policies by issuing warrants for town meetings, appointing the Town Manager...), the five members of the School Committee, the President of the Library Trustees, the Chair of the Finance Committee (elected annually by the committee, which investigates all proposals in the articles of the warrant for any town meeting that shall in any way affect the finances of the town and to recommend to the town at the time of said meeting a course of action and in general make recommendations to the town in regard to any financial business of the town), the Moderator (elected annually, presides over all sessions of Town Meeting, appoints the Finance Committee and ad hoc committees when so directed by Town Meeting), and the Town Manager (the chief administrative officer of the town, appointed by the Select Board) A majority of the Town Meeting members constitutes a quorum for conducting business. Warrant and Sponsorship.
The Select Board calls a town meeting by issuing a warrant -- the name given to the agenda. The Select Board and other town committees sponsor most items (articles) in the warrant. All town meetings meet for as many evenings as are required to cover all the articles in the warrant. The state requires every town to call an Annual Meeting between February 1 and May 31 to adopt a budget for the ensuing fiscal year. Amherst's Annual Meeting usually begins in late April or early May. Other than these spring meetings, special town meetings may be called any time during the year by the Select Board or by petition of 200 registered voters. Amherst regularly schedules a fall meeting. All meetings except the annual spring meeting are special meetings.
The Amherst noise bylaw was passed in 1987, and then amended in 1991 and again in 2000. As much public records from the Town as possible.
Please refer to the bottom of this page and the Enforcement and Press pages for even more documents!
Board of Selectmen Regular Meeting
April 16, 1987
Chief of Police Don Maia provides impetus for a noise by-law:
- increased drinking age resulted in more off-campus parties
- Town Meeting member Fran Fortino source of by-law, based on one from East Langsing, MI
- avoid arrests; fine concept
- individual officer's personal opinon is first level of judgement;
the by-law gives the officer the tool he needs to make a judgment
- non-criminal method of enforcing ("like parking tickets")
Board of Selectmen Regular Meeting
May 11, 1987
Voted unanimously to endorse Article 50 - Noise By-Law
Town Warrant
April 27, 1987
Article 50 - Noise By-Law
Finance Committee Report
April 27, 1987
The Finance Committee has no recommendation on this Article.
ERRORS: No Section 4, Other Remedies;
Article 52, Distribution of Free Cigarettes, merged into Section 3, the Penalties section, of this Article
Amherst Town Meeting
April 27, 1987
May 18, 1987
ADD: Penalties, Landlord, Other Remedies
Motions: Minear, Landlord
Attorney General Approval
September 2, 1987
Town Clerk Certification
September 3, 1987
ERROR on ATM records, in margin says:
"Articles 49 & 50 approved by Attorney General 9/1/1987"
| 1987AGApprovalTCCert.pdf |
| File Size: | 202 kb |
| File Type: | pdf |
Download File
Select Board Special Meeting
May 15, 1991
VOTED unanimously to support Article 23
Suggested Agenda Item for Future Meetings. 05-3-04 By consensus, agreed to discuss at a future meeting the Noise and other By-Laws with respect to enforcement of non-criminal violations.
Town Warrant
Special Town Meeting
May 20, 1991
Article 23 - Amendment to the Noise By-Law:
To see if the Town will amend Section 3, the Penalties section of the Noise By-Law, by deleting language that would eliminate the requirement of a written warning before being fined
Special Town Meeting
May 20, 1991
Si Freedman Amendment
Grammatical Correction
Attorney General Approval
September 6, 1991
Town Clerk Certified
January 7, 1992
Tony Penski, Assistant Attorney General, 10/9/1991: "more than one half (1/2) hour" should still remain in by-law because "script error"
| 1991AGApprovalTCCert.pdf |
| File Size: | 167 kb |
| File Type: | pdf |
Download File
Select Board Meeting
October 16, 2000
Voted unanimously to recommend Article 6
Town Warrant
Special Town Meeting
October 30, 2000
To see if the Town will add exemptions for "noise caused by agricultural, farm-related, or forestry-related activities"
Special Town Meeting
October 30, 2000
Pitts Motion: define according to Massachusetts General Law defining "farming" and "agricultural"
Attorney General Approval
February 16, 2001
Town Clerk Certification
February 22, 2001
| 2001AGApprovalTCCert.pdf |
| File Size: | 119 kb |
| File Type: | pdf |
Download File
