Establishment; responsibility of cities and towns; penalty for noncompliance

Section 117. Cities and towns shall provide for units of the armed forces of the commonwealth not provided with a state armory or air installation, and permanently stationed within their limits, adequate facilities, including a suitable hall for the purpose of drill, and suitable rooms, properly equipped, annexed thereto for the assemblies of such units, for administrative work, and for the safekeeping of military property. They shall provide for such facilities the necessary fuel, lights, water, janitor service and necessary repairs, or shall make a reasonable monetary allowance therefor to the commonwealth. Where two or more units of the armed forces of the commonwealth are permanently stationed in the same city or town, the city or town may, instead of providing each with a suitable hall for drill, provide one or more halls to be used by the units in common. Any city or town failing to comply with this section shall forfeit to the commonwealth a sum not exceeding five thousand dollars for each year, for each unit, during which such failure continues, to be recovered upon an information in equity brought in the superior or supreme judicial court by the attorney general at the relation of the adjutant general. Any amount so forfeited shall be credited to the armory appropriation for the fiscal year in which the forfeiture occurs.