§ 1405. Soldiers' monument corporations.

(a) Property; erection of monuments.

A corporation formed for the purpose of erecting and maintaining a
monument or memorial, including a memorial hall or building to
perpetuate the memory of persons who served in the armed forces of the
United Colonies or of the United States in the Revolutionary War, the
Civil War, or in any other war in which the United States has been
engaged may acquire and hold real property necessary for its corporate
purposes, and may erect any such monument, monuments or memorial upon
any public street, square or ground of any town, city or village, with
the consent of the proper officers thereof, or may purchase or accept
the donation of land suitable for that purpose; and may take and hold
the property given, devised or bequeathed to it in trust, to apply the
same or the income or proceeds thereof for the erection, improvement,
embellishment, preservation, repair, renewal, care and maintenance of
such monument, monuments or memorial, or of any structure, fences or
walks upon its lands, or for planting or cultivating trees, shrubs,
flowers and plants, in and around or upon its lands, or for improving or
embellishing the same in any manner consistent with the design and
purposes of the association, according to the terms of such grant,
devise or bequest. It may take by gift or purchase any lots or lands in
any cemetery to be used and occupied exclusively for the burial of
honorably discharged members of the armed forces who served in any of
such wars, and for the erection of suitable monuments or memorials
therein.

(b) Type of corporation.

A soldiers' monument corporation is a charitable corporation.

(c) Town and village aid.

The town clerk of a town or the board of trustees of a village, upon
the petition of twenty-five resident taxpayers, shall submit to a
biennial town meeting or village election, as the case may be, a
proposition to raise by taxation a sum stated therein, not exceeding
five hundred dollars in any one year, to be spent during the fiscal year
for which such tax is to be levied, for the purpose of erecting such a
monument, or contributing to the expense of such a monument, erected by
a corporation specified in this article, or for repairing, improving and
maintaining the same and the grounds thereof; and such tax shall be
levied in the manner prescribed by law for levying general taxes in such
town or village, and when raised shall be applied to the purposes
specified in such proposition.

(d) Exemptions.

The property of a corporation specified in this section or of a
corporation formed under the laws of eighteen hundred and sixty-six,
chapter two hundred and seventy-three, as amended by laws of eighteen
hundred and eighty-eight, chapter two hundred and ninety-nine, shall be
exempt from levy and sale on execution, and from all public taxes, rates
and assessments, and no street, road, avenue or thoroughfare shall be
laid through the lands of such association held for the purposes
aforesaid without the consent of the trustees of such corporation,
except by special permission of the legislature of the state.

(e) Improvement taxes.

A tax may be levied and collected on the taxable property in a town,
village or city in which such monument, monuments or other memorial may
be erected, for the purpose of repairing or improving the same and the
grounds thereof; and such tax shall be levied in the manner prescribed
by law for levying general taxes in such town, village or city.

(f) Transfer of property from unincorporated association.

Any unincorporated association organized solely for one or more of the
purposes set forth in paragraph (a) by a majority vote of all its
members present at a meeting thereof, called as in this section
provided, may transfer to and vest in any incorporated association
created by general or special law having like objects any or all money
or other property which it shall have accumulated for such objects, but
the property so transferred shall be used exclusively for one or more of
the purposes mentioned in such paragraph. A vote upon the question of
transferring the funds or property of such unincorporated association
shall be had only at a meeting of such association called for that
purpose by the president or secretary or other managing officer thereof,
upon notice stating the object of the meeting of at least ten days
before the time fixed for such meeting, served personally or by mail on
each member of the association within the United States whose residence
or post office address is known.