9-240. General powers of common council

A. The common council shall have control of the finances and property of the corporation.

B. The common council shall also have power within the limits of the town:

1. To erect, purchase or lease necessary buildings for the purposes of the corporation.

2. To appropriate money and provide for the payment of its debts and expenses.

3. (a) To exercise exclusive control over the streets, alleys, avenues and sidewalks of the town and to give and change the names thereof.

(b) To prevent and punish for the encumbering thereof, and to abate and remove all encumbrances and obstructions thereon.

(c) To widen, extend, straighten, regulate, grade, clean or otherwise improve the same.

(d) To open, lay out and improve new streets, avenues and alleys.

(e) To vacate or abandon any street, avenue, alley, park, public place or sidewalk in such town or to abolish them, provided that rights-of-way or easements of existing sewer, gas, water or similar pipelines and appurtenances and for canals, laterals or ditches and appurtenances, and for electric, telephone, and similar lines and appurtenances shall continue as they existed prior to the vacating, abandonment, or abolishment thereof.

(f) To protect the same from encroachment and injury.

4. To erect and maintain bridges, culverts, sidewalks and crossways, and prevent and punish for injuries thereto or obstructions thereon.

5. (a) To construct and maintain sewers and drains, and prevent and punish for any obstruction thereof, or thereto.

(b) To change the channels of natural watercourses, to wall the same and cover them over, and regulate the same as sewers.

(c) To prevent and punish for the filling up, altering or changing of natural watercourses by private persons.

(d) To regulate the bridging of all millraces, irrigating and other ditches at the crossings of public highways, by the owners of such millraces and ditches, and after such bridge or ford is built according to the street commissioner's instructions, the crossing shall thereafter be a public charge.

6. To provide the town with water, to construct public wells, cisterns and reservoirs in the streets and other public and private places within the town, or beyond the limits thereof, and to supply the same with pumps and conducting pipes or ditches.

7. (a) To provide regulations for the prevention and extinguishment of fires.

(b) To prevent the erection of wooden buildings within prescribed limits.

(c) To regulate the construction of chimneys, furnaces and fireplaces.

(d) To regulate the storage of explosives, tar, pitch, resin and other combustible or inflammable materials, and to prescribe the places and manner of storing the same.

8. To provide for lighting the streets and other public places of the town, and to exclusively regulate and control the laying and repairing of gas pipes and other appurtenances therein.

9. To provide for enclosing, improving and protecting the public grounds and cemeteries of the town, and to direct and regulate the planting of ornamental and shade trees therein and in the streets of the town.

10. To establish markets and marketplaces for the town and to regulate the same.

11. (a) To establish and maintain necessary cemeteries and burial places for the town beyond the limits thereof.

(b) To regulate the burial of the dead.

(c) To require a registration of the deaths and births, and to impose penalties upon physicians and surgeons for any default in the premises.

12. To establish and regulate the police of the town, to appoint watchmen and policemen, and to remove them, and to prescribe their powers and duties.

13. To prevent, suppress and punish any riot, rout, affray, disorderly noise or disturbance in any public or private place within the town.

14. To prevent, suppress and punish racing or immoderate riding or driving through the streets.

15. (a) To prohibit and punish any amusements or practice tending to annoy or obstruct persons passing upon the streets or sidewalks, or frighten horses or other animals being ridden or driven thereon.

(b) To restrain and punish the ringing of bells, blowing of horns, crying of goods or other noises, performances and practices tending to cause the collection of persons upon the streets or sidewalks and the obstruction thereof.

16. (a) To prohibit the roaming at large of animals within the town.

(b) To authorize the impounding and summary sale thereof when found roaming at large contrary to ordinance.

(c) To impose penalties upon the owners thereof for a violation of any ordinance in relation thereto.

(d) To regulate, restrain and prohibit the running at large of dogs and to authorize their destruction when at large contrary to any ordinance of the town, and to impose penalties upon the owners thereof.

17. (a) To suppress and prohibit prostitution and unlawful sexual intercourse and to punish persons guilty thereof.

(b) To suppress and prohibit the operation of disorderly houses and to punish the owners, managers, lessees, agents, keepers and inmates thereof.

(c) To suppress and prohibit gambling and the operating of gambling houses and to punish the owners, managers and employees thereof and players at such games.

18. To fix the amount of license taxes to be paid by any person, firm, corporation or association for carrying on any business, game or amusement, calling, profession or occupation, and prescribe the method of collection or payment of the same, for a stated period in advance, and fix penalties for failure to comply by fine or imprisonment, or both. Nothing in this article shall be construed as authorizing any town or city to levy an occupational license or fee on any activity when the general law of the state precludes levying such a license or fee.

19. To authorize the clerk to issue licenses, to direct the manner of issuing and registering the same, and the fees of the clerk therefor. No license shall be granted for more than one year, and not less than ten dollars nor more than five thousand dollars shall be charged for any license so issued.

20. (a) To provide regulations to prevent the introduction or spread of contagious, loathsome or infectious diseases within the town.

(b) To make quarantine laws and enforce them within the town and within two miles thereof, and to provide pest houses and hospitals necessary therefor.

21. (a) To define, abate and remove nuisances, and punish persons committing nuisances.

(b) To compel the owner or any occupant of any house or premises to clean the grounds, stables, alleys, streets and walks appurtenant and adjacent thereto.

(c) To prohibit within the town and within two miles beyond the limits thereof slaughterhouses, tanneries, soap factories, establishments for the steaming or rendering of tallow, lard or offal, and all other establishments and places where any nauseous, offensive or unwholesome business may be carried on.

22. To perform other acts, and prescribe other regulations, which may be necessary or expedient for the prevention or suppression of disease.

23. To establish and maintain a workhouse or houses of correction, to make regulations for the government thereof and to appoint the officers and keepers thereof.

24. To authorize the arrest and punishment of vagrants, stragglers and idle and disorderly persons found loitering or strolling about in public places, leading an immoral or profligate life, and to authorize the confinement of any such person, and persons who fail to pay any fine, in the workhouse or house of correction for a period not exceeding three months.

25. (a) To direct and control the laying and construction of railroad tracks, bridges, switches and sidetracks in the streets, alleys and other public places of the town.

(b) To require the same to be so laid and constructed as to interfere as little as possible with the ordinary travel and use of the streets, and other public places.

(c) To authorize the construction of tramways, electric, steam or cable roads and railways in the town, and to regulate the operation thereof, and the fares to be charged thereon and to require the owners thereof to keep in repair the streets wherein the same may be laid, and to construct and keep in repair all bridges, culverts, crossways, ditches and sewers.

(d) To regulate the speed of locomotives.

26. To levy taxes as hereinafter mentioned in this article.

27. To apply any surplus money in the treasury of the town to the extinguishment of the debt of the town, or to provide a sinking fund for that purpose.

28. (a) To make, amend or repeal all ordinances necessary or proper for the carrying into effect of the powers vested in the corporation, or any department or officer thereof.

(b) To enforce the observance of such ordinances, and to punish violations thereof by fine or imprisonment, or both, and by confinement at hard labor, in the discretion of the magistrate or court before whom a conviction may be had, but no fine shall be imposed exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars, nor imprisonment or confinement at hard labor exceeding six months.

(c) Unless specifically prohibited by statute, to classify ordinance violations as criminal or civil offenses.

29. To adopt ordinances for the government of the corporation, its officers and persons within its corporate limits needful for the good government and order of the municipalities, and to provide the manner of prosecution and define the punishment for the violation of such ordinance.