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*14 COUNTIES*
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“BARNSTABLE”
“BERKSHIRE”
“BRISTOL”
“DUKES”
“ESSEX”
“FRANKLIN”
“HAMPDEN”
“HAMPSHIRE”
“NANTUCKET”
“NORFOLK”
“PLYMOUTH”
“SUFFOLK”
“WORCESTER”
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(‘massachusetts’ has abolished 8 of its 14 ‘county governments’ between ‘1997’ and ‘2000’; but the counties in the southeastern portion of the state retain ‘county-level local government’ (‘barnstable’ / ‘bristol’ / ‘dukes’ / ‘norfolk’ / ‘plymouth’), or in one case (‘nantucket county’) combined ‘county’ + ‘town’ government)
(vestigial ‘judicial’ and ‘law enforcement’ districts still follow ‘county boundaries’ even in the ‘counties’ whose ‘county-level government’ has been ‘disestablished’, and the ‘counties’ are still generally recognized as ‘geographic entities’ if not ‘political’ ones, along with continuing to provide ‘geographical demarcation’ for ‘national weather service’ weather warnings)
(3 counties (‘hampshire’ / ‘barnstable’ / ‘franklin’) have formed new ‘county regional compacts’ to serve as a form of ‘regional governance’)
(mismanagement of middlesex county’s ‘public hospital’ in the ‘mid-1990s’ left that county on the brink of ‘insolvency’, and in ‘1997’ the ‘massachusetts legislature’ stepped in by assuming all ‘assets’ and ‘obligations’ of the county)
(the government of ‘middlesex county’ was officially abolished on ’11 july 1997)
(later that year, the ‘franklin county commission’ voted itself out of existence.
(“if only all other governmental entities followed their lead!”)
(“…so says the nihilistic anarchist”)
(then…
(then what?)
(then…)
(then what??)
(then…)
(THEN WHAT?!?)
(the law abolishing ‘middlesex county’ also provided for the elimination of ‘hampden county’ and ‘worcester county’ on ‘1 july 1998’)
(this law was later amended to abolish ‘hampshire county’ on ‘1 january 1999’; ‘essex county’ and ‘suffolk county’ on ‘july 1st’ of that same year; and ‘berkshire county’ on ‘1 july 2000’)
(‘chapter 34B’ of the ‘massachusetts general laws’ allows other counties either to ‘abolish themselves’, or to reorganize as a “regional council of governments”, as ‘hampshire’ and ‘franklin’ counties have done)
(*cue rush’s “subdivisions’*)
(the governments of ‘bristol’, ‘plymouth’, and ‘norfolk’ counties remain substantially ‘unchanged’)
(‘barnstable’ and ‘dukes’ counties have adopted modern ‘county charters’, enabling them to act as efficient ‘regional governments’)
(‘dukes county’ in particular has a strong ‘regional planning agency’ known as the ‘martha’s vineyard commission’)
(‘jurisdictional areas’ for ‘district attorneys’ are created by ‘state law’ and while some follow traditional ‘county boundaries’, ‘names’ and ‘geographic’ areas covered are often different)
(‘criminal matters’ in ‘essex county’ are handled by the ‘district attorney’ for the ‘eastern district’; in ‘middlesex county’ by the ‘district attorney’ for the ‘northern district’; in ‘worcester county’ by the ‘district attorney’ for the ‘middle district; in ‘dukes’, ‘barnstable’, and ‘nantucket’ counties by the ‘district attorney’ for the ‘cape’ and ‘islands’ district and in ‘franklin’ and ‘hampshire’ counties by the ‘district attorney’ for the ‘northwestern district’)
(the districts for the counties of ‘berkshire’, ‘bristol’, ‘hampden’, ‘norfolk’, ‘plymouth’, and ‘suffolk’ are the same in ‘geography’ and ‘nomenclature’ as the respective counties, and the ‘district attorneys’ for the ‘eastern’, ‘middle’, and ‘northern’ districts are commonly known as the ‘essex county’, ‘worcester county’, and ‘middlesex county’ district attorneys, respectively)
(11 other ‘historical counties’ have existed in ‘massachusetts’, most becoming ‘defunct’ when their lands were absorbed into the colony of ‘new hampshire’ or the state of ‘maine’, both of which were created out of territory originally claimed by ‘massachusetts colonists’)
(the oldest counties still in ‘massachusetts’ are ‘essex county’, ‘middlesex county’, and ‘suffolk county’, created in ‘1643’ with the original ‘norfolk county’ which was absorbed by ‘new hampshire’ and bears no relation to the modern ‘norfolk county’)
(when these counties were created, they were a part of the ‘massachusetts bay colony’, which would remain separate from the ‘plymouth colony’ and that colony’s counties until ‘1691’)
(‘hampden county’ (created in 1812) is the most recently created county still in ‘massachusetts’, although ‘penobscot county’ (in ‘maine’) bore that distinction until ‘maine’ broke off from ‘massachusetts’ in ‘1820’)
(the majority of ‘massachusetts counties’ are named in honor of ‘english place names’, reflecting massachusetts’ ‘colonial heritage’)
(the term shire town is the ‘statutory term’ for the massachusetts town having a ‘county court’ and ‘administration offices’; a county can have multiple ‘shire towns’)
(‘county seat’ is the standard term used in ‘general communications’ by the ‘massachusetts government’)
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💕💝💖💓🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤❤️💚💛🧡❣️💞💔💘❣️🧡💛💚❤️🖤💜🖤💙🖤💙🖤💗💖💝💘
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*🌈✨ *TABLE OF CONTENTS* ✨🌷*
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🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥*we won the war* 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥