N.Y. Town Law § 79-a: Dissolution of certain towns

§ 79-a Dissolution of certain towns. 1. Any town having no bonded

indebtedness may be dissolved and may be annexed to and become a part of

an adjoining town in the same county, upon compliance with the following

conditions:

a. The submission at a special or biennial town election in the town

proposed to be dissolved of a proposition, in the manner provided by

article six, for the dissolution of such town and the annexation of the

territory therein to a specified adjoining town in the same county, and

the approval of such proposition by a majority of the electors voting

thereon at such election.

b. The submission at a special or biennial town election in such

adjoining town, at the same time as the proposition provided for in the

last preceding paragraph is submitted, of a proposition, in the manner

provided by article six, for the annexation of the territory of the town

proposed to be dissolved, and the approval of such proposition by a

majority of the duly qualified electors voting at such election.

2. If such proposition be so approved and adopted, the dissolution and

annexation therein provided for shall become effective at the expiration

of the thirty-first day of December of the odd numbered year next

succeeding the year in which such propositions are so approved and

adopted except in the county of Broome where such dissolution and

annexation shall become effective at the expiration of the next

succeeding even numbered year. Provided, however that such dissolution

or annexation shall not affect a fire district or other special

improvement district in the territory to be annexed. No election of town

officers shall be held in the town so to be dissolved during the year

immediately preceding the time such dissolution becomes effective but

voters of such town shall have the right to vote at the election in such

year for officers of the town to which such town is to be annexed and

the board of elections shall make provision for the holding of such

election in such town. The terms of office of all town officers of such

town shall expire when such dissolution becomes effective, except

justices of the peace who shall continue in office until the expiration

of the term for which they were elected or appointed and who shall

exercise all the powers and duties of and be entitled to compensation as

a justice of the peace of the town to which such dissolved town is

annexed, provided that they shall not be members of the town board of

such town. No successors to such justices of the peace of the town so

dissolved shall be elected or appointed.

3. All the property and assets, real and personal, of a town so

dissolved, shall become the property and assets of the town to which it

is annexed, and all debts and charges of a town so dissolved shall be

the liability of and be paid by the town to which it is annexed. All

funds and sums of money held by such a town so dissolved or any officer

thereof to the credit of such town shall be paid to the supervisor of

the town to which such dissolved town is annexed. All the books, records

and documents of or on file with the town officers of a town so

dissolved, shall be turned over at the expiration of their terms of

office to appropriate officers of the town to which such territory is

annexed.

4. In case of dissolution and annexation as herein permitted, in the

year at the end of which the dissolution and annexation become

effective, the retiring supervisor of the town to be so dissolved shall

present the assessment roll of such town, as completed by the assessors

thereof, to the board of supervisors of the county and such board of

supervisors shall cause each of the assessments thereon to be

transferred and added to the assessment roll of the town to which such

dissolved town is to be annexed, consolidated and treated as one tax

roll and each of the pieces of property and all of the assessments so

transferred shall thenceforth, for tax purposes, be part of the taxable

property and assessments of the town to which such dissolved town is to

be annexed.

5. In case of dissolution and annexation as herein permitted, the town

board of the town to which the territory of the dissolved town is

annexed shall make a proper revision of the election districts in such

town.