The board of commissioners shall have authority to subdivide the territory within the corporate limits into wards, at least five in number, to be known and designated by numbers. The board may by ordinance alter ward boundaries or create additional wards but no ordinance shall be effective to reduce the number of wards to less than five. In the event an ordinance is adopted creating one or more additional wards, it shall also provide for the election of commissioners from such wards in accordance with the provisions of this Article at the next regular municipal election following the effective date of the ordinance. However, no ordinance altering ward boundaries or creating new wards shall be adopted until after a public hearing in relation thereto, at which interested citizens shall have an opportunity to be heard. A notice of such public hearing shall be given once a week for two successive calendar weeks in a newspaper published in the town, such notice to be published for the first time not less than fifteen days prior to the date fixed for said hearing, and to include a statement of the purpose of the hearing and sufficient information regarding the proposed changes to adequately apprise the public thereof. After such public hearing, the board of commissioners may adopt an ordinance incorporating any changes which were included in the aforesaid public notice. Such ordinance shall become effective thirty days following its adoption unless there is deposited with the town manager within said thirty days a written petition actually bearing the signatures of a number of registered voters equal to twenty-five per cent of the number of votes cast for the candidates for mayor in the preceding municipal election protesting the changes or any part thereof and requesting that an election be held upon the same. In the event such a petition is deposited within the prescribed time, then such changes as are protested in the petition shall become effective only upon approval of a majority of the votes cast upon the same in the next regular municipal election on a special ballot provided for such purpose.
(Session Laws of 1965, Chapter 79 § 4.6)