City adopts law updating codes and removing old regulations
NORWICH – It’s now legal to buy contraceptives and to go to the movie house after midnight in the City of Norwich.
The Common Council Tuesday voted 4-0 Tuesday to accept revisions that remove outdated laws and archaic language from the city’s general codes.
Obsolete regulations and wording made keeping the codes – last revised in 1967 – up to date and in compliance with superseding laws cumbersome, said Deputy City Clerk Brian Drake.
“A lot of this is housekeeping stuff. It’s been 42 years,” said Drake. “This gives us a base to work from ... And we’ll always be current, which is great.”
Some revisions added wording that allows the Common Council to adjust fees and fines by vote, rather than have them be set in the codes. That was done so the codes didn’t have to be re-written each time the council wants to raise or lower them, Drake said.
The city has been working on updating the codes for at least six years, city officials said.
“This is an important step so the city can have an up-to-date code,” said city Mayor Joseph Maiurano. “We’ve been working on it for a number of years. Getting this completed will help us to stay current with state and federal laws.”
General Codes, a Rochester company that consults municipalities on how to update codes, began the revisions three years ago. It’s taken the city about two years to analyze the changes and decide what should go and what should stay, the clerk said.
No new regulations or revisions that alter current codes have been added, Drake said.
“There’s nothing new being tucked in,” said Drake. “All the laws that have been added or will be added are done at public hearing.”
A few regulations that haven’t been enforced in decades, including a ban on fortune-telling without a permit from the 1950s, will be written off the books.
One of the removed laws, added in 1935, prohibited the sale of contraceptives within the city limits. Another, written in 1915, states that kids under 16 can’t go to the movies alone, that movies can’t be shown after midnight, and that the chief of police has to approve all films before they can be shown.
Technically the outdated laws were in effect, but many were already superseded by state or federal law.
The Common Council Tuesday voted 4-0 Tuesday to accept revisions that remove outdated laws and archaic language from the city’s general codes.
Obsolete regulations and wording made keeping the codes – last revised in 1967 – up to date and in compliance with superseding laws cumbersome, said Deputy City Clerk Brian Drake.
“A lot of this is housekeeping stuff. It’s been 42 years,” said Drake. “This gives us a base to work from ... And we’ll always be current, which is great.”
Some revisions added wording that allows the Common Council to adjust fees and fines by vote, rather than have them be set in the codes. That was done so the codes didn’t have to be re-written each time the council wants to raise or lower them, Drake said.
The city has been working on updating the codes for at least six years, city officials said.
“This is an important step so the city can have an up-to-date code,” said city Mayor Joseph Maiurano. “We’ve been working on it for a number of years. Getting this completed will help us to stay current with state and federal laws.”
General Codes, a Rochester company that consults municipalities on how to update codes, began the revisions three years ago. It’s taken the city about two years to analyze the changes and decide what should go and what should stay, the clerk said.
No new regulations or revisions that alter current codes have been added, Drake said.
“There’s nothing new being tucked in,” said Drake. “All the laws that have been added or will be added are done at public hearing.”
A few regulations that haven’t been enforced in decades, including a ban on fortune-telling without a permit from the 1950s, will be written off the books.
One of the removed laws, added in 1935, prohibited the sale of contraceptives within the city limits. Another, written in 1915, states that kids under 16 can’t go to the movies alone, that movies can’t be shown after midnight, and that the chief of police has to approve all films before they can be shown.
Technically the outdated laws were in effect, but many were already superseded by state or federal law.
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