BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF METHUEN:

A-1. This Ordinance, consisting of Chapter 1 to 25 each inclusive, shall be known as the Municipal Code of Methuen - 2000 and shall be treated and considered as a new and original comprehensive ordinance, which shall completely supersede the Municipal Code of Methuen - 1997 and all other general ordinances passed by the City Council, prior to said 1997 Code, except such as by reference thereto are expressly saved from repeal or continued in force and effect for any purpose.

A-2. Any additions or amendments to this Code, when passed in such form as to indicate the intention of the City Council to make the same a part hereof, shall be deemed to be incorporated in this Code so that a reference to the Municipal Code of Methuen shall be understood as including them.

A-3. The City Clerk shall keep two copies of this Code. These copies shall be printed, pasted, or otherwise mounted on paper sufficiently thick and tough to withstand heavy usage, and preserved by the City Clerk in a book or binder in loose-leaf form, or in such other form as the City Clerk may consider most expedient, so that all amendments thereto and all general ordinances hereafter passed may be inserted in their appropriate places in such volumes, and all sections of this Code or ordinances repealed from time to time may be extracted therefrom for the purpose of maintaining said two copies in such condition that they will show all general ordinances passed up to date at any time in such manner that ready reference may be had thereto.

In determining whether or not any ordinance hereafter passed, or any part thereof, shall be inserted in such volumes, and in determining the form, chapter, or section in which it shall be inserted, and in determining what shall be taken out, if any doubt arises the City Clerk shall be guided by the advice of the City Solicitor.

A-4. The City Council shall prepare and publish revised sheets of every loose-leaf page in need of revision by reason of amendment or repeal, when necessary.

The City Clerk shall distribute said revised loose-leaf sheets for such fee as the City Council shall direct.

A-5. No officer or employee of the City shall issue, mail, or distribute as a publication on the part of the City or any officer, department, bureau or branch of the City government, any book, pamphlet, leaflet, card, circular or other printed matter purporting to contain excerpts or quotations from this Code or purporting to give the law on any subject to the public, either as a reprint or a statute, ordinance, or other legislative enactment, or as a digest, interpretation, resume, condensation or explanation, of the same, without submitting such book, pamphlet, leaflet, card, circular or other printed matter, or the portion of the same which purports to quote or give the law, to the City Solicitor for examination and approval as to form and as to whether or not the law is correctly stated therein. Provided however, that the Solicitor shall examine and approve the above within fourteen (14) days, vacations excepted.

A-6. All printed copies of this Code, except such as shall be reserved by the City Solicitor for use in the Department of Law, shall be deposited with the City Clerk. He shall deliver one copy thereof to the Mayor, one copy to each Councilor, one copy to the Nevins Memorial Library, and one copy to each head of a department of the City and to such other persons in each department as its head may designate. The City Clerk shall sell printed copies of said Code at such price as the City Council shall fix; provided, however, that in the case of such purchase by any public library, school library, or university library, a discount of twenty per cent of the regular purchase price shall be allowed.

The Mayor shall have power to reciprocate courtesies of other cities and towns, by presenting to each a copy of this Code, bound at the expense of the City in such manner as to him may seem suitable.

A-7. Each section number shall consist of two component parts separated by a dash, the figure before the dash referring to the chapter number and the figure after the dash referring to the position of the section within the chapter.

No officer or employee of the City shall issue any book or pamphlet containing any section or sections of this Code numbered differently than as numbered herein; and no section number shall be changed by such officer or employee in drafting any ordinance amending any section.

A-8. The decimal system shall be used for all additions to this Code. When a chapter is to be added, said new chapter shall be given a decimal character. When a section is added, it shall be given a decimal character. All such decimal characters shall run consecutively to the right of the respective decimal beginning with the figure "one."

Additions to the Code introduced in the City Council shall be submitted by the City Clerk to the City Solicitor for numbering before passage. In case any amendment is passed without having been properly numbered, the City Clerk, before the next regular meeting of the City Council, shall refer the same to the City Solicitor for appropriate action.

This section shall be liberally construed for the purpose of avoiding confusion in the numbering of sections of this Code, and shall not be deemed a limitation upon the powers of the City Council.

A-9. Reference to any section of this Code shall be understood to refer to and include the penalty section relating thereto, unless otherwise expressly provided.

A-10. In case of the amendment of any section of this Code containing provisions for which a penalty is provided in another section, the penalty so provided in such other section shall be held to relate to the section so amended, whether re-enacted in the amendatory ordinance or not, unless such penalty is specifically repealed therein.

A-11. Whenever in any section of this Code the doing of any act or the omission to do any act or duty is declared to be a breach thereof, and there shall be no fine or penalty declared for such breach, any person who shall be convicted of any such breach shall be fined not less than three dollars nor more than one hundred dollars for each such breach.

A-12. Whenever in this Code a minimum but no maximum fine or penalty is imposed, the court may in its discretion fine the offender any sum of money exceeding the minimum fine or penalty so fixed, but not exceeding the sum of one hundred dollars.

A-13. In all cases where the same offense is made punishable or is created by different clauses or sections of this Code, the City Solicitor may elect under which to proceed; but not more than one recovery shall be had against the same person for the same offense.

A-14. All general ordinances of the City passed prior to this recodification, except such as are herein expressly exempted from repeal and except such as are referred to as being still in force, are hereby repealed, subject to the saving clauses contained in Chapter One.