CHARLEMONT — In a speedy eight-minute meeting, 14 Charlemont voters unanimously approved reorganizing the town’s bylaws into a single document with chapters organized by category on Tuesday.

Town Clerk Thorne Palmer told voters the bylaws have not been compiled into a single document since 1982. Having a document with all the approved bylaws organized into chapters by topic will make it easier for future reviews and edits, while also making it easier for residents to locate any bylaws they need.

Palmer has sent the past few months reorganizing and categorizing the bylaws. He noted that the version provided to voters at Tuesday’s Special Town Meeting at Hawlemont Regional School was slightly different from the one that had been put online ahead of time. Palmer found there was one bylaw in the document that was printed twice and one bylaw was included that had been repealed by Town Meeting voters.

“I had one bylaw repeated in two sections, so I removed it,” Palmer said. “None of them are my words; they’re all the words we agreed upon at Town Meetings.”

Palmer said he hopes to also add a bylaw appendix to the town website, featuring letters from the Attorney General’s Office that note when bylaws were approved.

After approving the single article on the warrant, residents clapped and thanked Palmer for his work in compiling the bylaw document.

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.