Section 261-17 - Ordinances, regulations, and bylawsSaid Village shall have power to make, establish, alter, or amend or repeal ordinances, regulations, and bylaws for the following purposes:
(1) To establish and regulate a market.(2) To suppress and restrain disorderly and gaming houses, billiard tables, and all descriptions of gaming and for the destruction of all instruments and devices used for that purpose.(3) To regulate the exhibition of common showmen, and of shows of every kind not interdicted by law.(4) To abate and remove all public and private nuisances.(5) To compel the owner or occupant of any unwholesome, noisome, or offensive house or place to remove or cleanse the same from time to time as may be necessary for the health or comfort of the inhabitants of said village.(6) To direct the location and management of all slaughterhouses, meat markets, steam mills, blacksmith shops, and sewers.(7) To regulate the manufacture and keeping of gunpowder, ashes, and all other combustible and dangerous materials.(8) To regulate the making of alterations and repairs of stovepipes, furnaces, fireplaces, and other things from which damage by fire may be apprehended, and also to regulate the use of buildings in crowded localities for hazardous purposes; to provide for the preservation of buildings from fires by precautionary measures and inspections and to establish and regulate a fire department and fire companies.(9) To prevent immoderate riding or driving in the streets and cruelty to animals.(10) To regulate the erection of buildings, and to regulate entrances and exits to public halls and theatres, and to direct the closing of public halls and theatres until proper exits are provided, to prevent the encumbering of the street, sidewalks, and public alleys with firewood, lumber, carriages, boxes, and other things, and provide for the care, preservation, and improvement of the public grounds.(11) To restrain or regulate the running at large of cattle, horses, swine, sheep, and other domestic animals and establish and maintain a pound for impounding the same, subject to the provisions of chapter 179 of the Revised Laws as to notices, fines, penalties, and fees, which fines, penalties, and fees may be doubled.(12) To provide a supply of water for the protection of the Village against fire, and for other purposes, and to regulate the use of the same.(13) To compel all persons to remove from the sidewalks and gutters adjacent to the premises owned and occupied by them, all snow, ice, dirt, and garbage, and to keep such sidewalks and gutters clean.(14) To license innkeepers, keepers of saloons or victualing houses, peddlers, itinerant venders, and auctioneers, under such regulations and for the sums of money as shall be prescribed therefor.(15) To regulate or restrain the use of rockets, squibs, fire crackers, or other fireworks in the streets or commons and to prevent the practicing therein of any amusements having a tendency to injure or annoy persons passing thereon, or to endanger the security of property.(16) To regulate gauging; the place and manner of selling and weighing hay; packing, inspecting, and branding beef, pork, and produce, and selling and measuring wood, lime, and coal, and to appoint suitable persons to superintend and conduct the same.(17) To regulate porters, truckmen, cartmen, and cartage; also hackney coaches, cabs, and carriages, and their drivers.(18) To prescribe the powers and duties of watchmen of said Village.(19) To regulate the grade of the streets, and the grade and width of sidewalks, and construction thereof, and protect the same.(20) To provide for lighting the Village.(21) To prohibit and punish willful injury to trees planted for shade, ornament, convenience, or use, public or private, and to prevent and punish trespasses or willful injuries to or upon public buildings, squares, commons, cemeteries, or other property.(22) To restrain and punish vagrants, mendicants, and common prostitutes, and to suppress houses of ill fame.(23) To establish and maintain a public library and reading room.(24) To regulate the burial of the dead.(25) And said Village may make, establish, alter, amend, or repeal any other by-laws, rules, and ordinances which it may deem necessary for the well-being of said village, and not repugnant to the Constitution or laws of this State or of the United States. And such corporation may impose a fine, not exceeding $100.00, for the breach of any bylaw, rule, or ordinance, to be prosecuted and recovered by an action of the case on this statute, before any justice of the peace within said Village, in which action it shall be sufficient to declare generally that the defendant or defendants is or are guilty of the breach of a certain bylaw, naming such bylaw generally; and under such declaration the special matter may be given in evidence. And all writs for the breach of any bylaw may issue in due form of law. Prosecutions for offenses under this charter shall be brought within three months after the commission of the offense, if the respondent remains in the State within the reach of process during the time.24 Appendix V.S.A. § 261-17
Added 1892, No. 114, § 17.