The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 24 Appendix: Municipal Charters

Chapter 213: Village of Cambridge

• Subchapter 001: Boundaries and General Powers

• § 1. Boundaries

  The inhabitants of all that part of the Town of Cambridge bounded and described as follows:

  All that portion of the Town of Cambridge, in the County of Lamoille, known as the Village of Cambridge and enclosed in the following boundaries, to wit: the northern boundary of the Village shall be the southern bank of the Lamoille River, beginning at a point on the highway leading through Cambridge Village at northwest corner of the covered bridge over the Lamoille River and following the highway to the boundary line between the lands of Charles E. Ellenwood and the estate of O.W. Reynolds, Sidney Leach, and Saphronia Cady, meaning to include all property between the highway and the Lamoille River; thence following the southwest boundary of the Ellenwood’s farm to lands by E. J. Gates, and following the boundary of the Gates’ property to a point on the highway leading from Cambridge Village to Pleasant Valley near the Rogers Bridge; thence following the highway to the southern bounds of land owned by Mrs. W.H. Parker, and following the boundary of the lot to the highway known as the Hill road to Pleasant Valley; thence following the highway to a point that marks the boundary of the farm known as the Cutting place; thence along the boundary to the Lamoille River, meaning to include all that district on the west bank of the river between the Cutting farm and the point of beginning at the river bridge over the river, are hereby incorporated and made a body politic, and shall be hereafter called the Village of Cambridge.

• § 2. Powers of corporation

  The Village by that name may have perpetual succession and may sue and may be sued, may have a common seal and the same alter at pleasure, and shall be capable of purchasing, holding, and conveying real and personal estate for the use of the Village corporation, and at any annual or special meeting of the legal voters of the corporation legally warned and holden for that purpose may lay a tax upon the grand list of the Village of Cambridge for any of the purposes mentioned in this charter. (Amended 2023, No. 6, § 289, eff. July 1, 2023.)

• § 3. Assessment of taxes

  All taxes voted by the corporation shall be assessed by the Board of Trustees, which shall make rate bills thereof and deliver the same to the Collector of Taxes with proper warrants for the collection thereof.

• Subchapter 002: Village Officials

• § 21. Officers

  (a) The officers of the corporation shall be a Board of three Trustees, a Clerk, a Treasurer, a Collector of Taxes, an Auditor, and a Fire Marshal, all of which officers shall be chosen by ballot at each annual meeting of the legal voters of the corporation or at a special meeting as hereafter provided.

  (b) The term of office of the officers shall be one year and until their successors are elected. Any vacancy in a Village office may be filled by the Board of Trustees by appointment in writing, recorded by the Clerk.

• § 22. Powers of trustees; general

  The Board of Trustees shall have the general care and management of the prudential interests and affairs of the corporation, shall draw orders upon the Treasurer for and direct the expenditure of all monies belonging to the corporation, and generally perform all duties legally enjoined upon it by the corporation. The Board of Trustees shall have power to abate taxes imposed by the corporation subject to the same limitations and for the same causes provided in section 3069 of the Vermont Statutes. All powers vested in the Board may be exercised by a majority of its members.

• § 23. Duty of Clerk

  The Clerk shall keep a record of all meetings and proceedings of the corporation and of the Board of Trustees and give copies of the same when required upon payment of reasonable fees. The Clerk shall warn all meetings of the legal voters of the corporation, by posting notices thereof containing a statement of the business proposed to be transacted, in three or more public places within the limits of the corporation at least six days before the time of meeting.

• § 24. Duties of Treasurer and Collector

  The powers and duties of the Treasurer and Collector of Taxes shall be the same with respect to the corporation as are the powers and duties of town treasurers and town collectors of taxes with respect to towns. Each shall give a bond to the corporation, conditioned for the faithful performance of duties, in such sum and with such sureties as the Board of Trustees shall prescribe. If a Treasurer or Collector of Taxes does not give such bond within 10 days after election or appointment, the office shall be vacant.

• § 25. Auditor

  The Auditor shall at least once each year, and whenever the Auditor sees fit, examine and adjust and state the accounts of all corporation officers and of the corporation and shall report all such accounts and the items thereof and the state of the treasury to the corporation at each annual meeting, and shall cause the Auditor’s report to be printed and a copy thereof to be delivered to each taxpayer of the corporation at least five days before the day of the annual meeting.

• § 26. Fire Marshal

  (a) The Fire Marshal may by writing recorded by the Clerk appoint one or more deputy fire marshals.

  (b) The Fire Marshal or in the Fire Marshal’s absence the deputy fire marshal next in authority shall have power at fires to suppress tumults and riots, by force if necessary, to direct the labor of all persons present at times of the fire, to remove all effects endangered by the fire and protect the same from waste and depredation, to pull down or remove any building when the Fire Marshal deems it necessary to prevent the spreading of the fire, and to require the assistance of any and all inhabitants of the corporation for the several purposes described in this section, and for any such acts, the Fire Marshal and those acting under the Fire Marshal’s authority shall not be held personally responsible.

  (c) The Fire Marshal shall inspect the manner of manufacturing and keeping gunpowder, lime, ashes, matches, lights, fireworks, and other combustibles and the construction and repairs of fireplaces, chimneys, and stoves within the Village, and if the Fire Marshal deems the same dangerous shall by the Fire Marshal’s order in writing recorded by the Clerk and delivered to the person conducting such manufacturing, keeping, construction, or repairs direct in what way to conduct the same, and any person refusing or neglecting to obey any such order of the Fire Marshal or in the Fire Marshal’s absence of the Fire Marshal’s deputy next in authority, so made and recorded and delivered, shall be punished by a fine of not exceeding $20.00 with costs of prosecution. (Amended 2023, No. 6, § 290, eff. July 1, 2023.)

• § 27. Powers of the Fire Marshal

  All apparatus for the extinguishment of fires and buildings for storing of the same, owned or leased by the corporation and all fire companies organized under the authority of the corporation, shall be under the direction and control of the Fire Marshal who shall make a detailed report to each annual meeting of the corporation of the condition of the Department.

• § 28. Collector to be Chief of Police

  The Collector of Taxes shall by virtue of the office be the Chief of Police of the Village of Cambridge and shall be sworn to the faithful discharge of the office’s duties and shall cause the oath of office to be recorded by the Clerk. The Chief of Police may by writing recorded by the Clerk appoint police officers not exceeding two in number, who shall be sworn to the faithful performance of their duties and cause their oaths of office to be recorded by the Clerk. The Chief of Police and police officers shall be informing officers and conservators of the peace within the Village of Cambridge, and may serve any criminal process returnable within the Village of Cambridge, and any mittimus issued by any court, and shall be proper officers of the court in all criminal causes before justices within the corporation and for all services shall receive the fees provided by law for constables. (Amended 2023, No. 6, § 291, eff. July 1, 2023.)

• Subchapter 003: Prosecutions

• § 31. Prosecutions

  Prosecution for violation of the provisions of this charter or the provisions of any bylaw of the Village of Cambridge made in pursuance of this charter may be commenced before any justice of the peace of the County of Lamoille upon complaint of any grand juror of the Town of Cambridge or the State’s Attorney of the County of Lamoille, and all fines and costs imposed for the violations of the provisions of this charter, or the Village bylaws, or the laws of the State within the limits of the corporation shall be paid into the treasury of the corporation, and the costs of prosecution shall be paid out of the same treasury to the persons entitled to the payment on the order of the court before which the trial was had. (Amended 2023, No. 6, § 292, eff. July 1, 2023.)

• Subchapter 004: Grand List; Infrastructure and Services

• § 41. Grand list

  The grand list of the Town of Cambridge comprised within the limits of the Village of Cambridge shall be the grand list of the corporation.

• § 42. Contracts for lighting and water

  The corporation is empowered to contract with any water company or any electric light company for water and lights or either for extinguishing fires, for watering the streets, for public drinking places, and for lighting the streets, and other public purposes, and may levy and collect a tax to provide funds to meet such contracts.

• § 43. Sewers

  The corporation is empowered to construct a system of sewers and repair the same, and for that purpose may take such lands as are necessary, and in taking lands for such purposes, the corporation and its Board of Trustees shall proceed in the manner prescribed for towns and the selectboard in taking lands for highway purposes, and the corporation may borrow such sums of money to defray the expenses of such sewers as it may by vote determine, and for that purpose, may issue bonds with coupons attached on such terms and in such manner as the corporation may prescribe.

• § 44. Connection with sewer

  After the system of sewers has been constructed as provided in section 43 of this charter, each and every owner of a house in the Village of Cambridge situate upon a street, alley, or lane through which a main sewer has been constructed shall cause to be constructed under the direction of the Board of Trustees a sewer or drain from the owner’s house to the main sewer, so constructed as to take all slops and filth from any sink, bowl, water closet, or privy in or around the house and discharge the same into the main sewer, and in case any person or corporation owning a house in the Village shall fail or neglect to construct the branch sewer from the house, it shall be the duty of the Board of Trustees to give the person notice in writing, recorded by the Clerk, requiring the owner to build the branch sewer from the premises to the main sewer; and in case the person does not so construct the branch sewer within 30 days from the time of receiving the notice, it shall be the duty of the Board of Trustees to declare the premises a nuisance, and the Board of Trustees is authorized and empowered to enter upon the premises and properly construct the branch sewer, and the person upon whose premises the branch sewer has been so constructed by the Board of Trustees shall pay to the Treasurer of the corporation upon the completion of the work all expense that the Board of Trustees has incurred in the construction of the branch sewer, and in case the person neglects to pay the same, the corporation shall have action founded on this statute to recover such expense, and the premises shall be holden for the payment of any judgment received in the action, and no homestead shall be exempt from attachment and execution in the action. (Amended 2023, No. 6, § 293, eff. July 1, 2023.)

• § 45. Powers of trustees; streets, walks, and lanes

  The Board of Trustees of the Village shall have the power to lay out, alter, maintain, or discontinue any sidewalk in the Village, and appraise and settle the damages, causing its proceedings to be recorded in the Town Clerk’s office in the Town, provided that the trustees, in laying out, altering, and maintaining, or discontinuing any sidewalk shall be subject to the same regulations, and in all respects shall proceed in the same manner, as the selectboard of towns in laying out, altering, and discontinuing highways; and any party aggrieved shall be entitled to the same redress to which they would be entitled if the same had been done by the Selectboard of the Town of Cambridge. (Amended 2023, No. 6, § 294, eff. July 1, 2023.)

• § 46. Water pipes

  The Village is empowered to take, in addition to the water rights already owned or acquired by the Village, the water of any fountain, springs, ponds, or streams for the purpose of affording the Village or any of the inhabitants of the Town of Cambridge water for domestic or other purposes, and may acquire the same by purchase or by right of eminent domain and in like manner may take and hold such real estate as may be necessary for preventing the pollution of the water supply of the Village, provided that the Village shall not take water, or a water supply, so as to deprive an owner of water of an amount sufficient for domestic or agricultural uses without the owner’s consent. The Village, for the purposes described in this section, may enter upon and use any land and enclosures over or through which it may be necessary for an aqueduct or pipes to pass and may on that land dig, place, lay, and construct such pipes, aqueducts, reservoirs, appurtenances, and connections and repair the same from time to time, may lay water pipes, within the limits of the Village, and for that purpose may enter upon the lands of any landowner in the Village, and lay and maintain water pipes through such land, and repair the same when necessary, upon payment or tender of payment of such compensation as damages as the trustees shall award to the landowner, and to any tenant or occupant of the land to the amount that the interests are affected. Any party aggrieved shall be entitled to the same redress as is provided in the case of the taking of land by the selectboard for highway purposes. The Village may borrow sums of money to defray the expenses of the water supply as it may by vote determine and, for that purpose, issue its negotiable notes or bonds on terms and in the manner as the Village may prescribe, the notes or bonds shall on their face state for what purpose they were issued and be signed by the trustees and Treasurer of the Village. (Amended 2023, No. 6, § 295, eff. July 1, 2023.)

• Subchapter 005: Village Meetings

• § 51. Annual meeting

  The annual meeting of the corporation for the choice of officers and for the transaction of any business specified in the warning of such meeting shall be held in the Village of Cambridge on the first Wednesday in May.

• § 52. Special meeting

  If the annual meeting of the Village fails to be held, for want of notice or for any other cause, the corporation shall not be prejudiced, and the several officers may at any later time be elected at a special meeting called for that purpose as provided by this charter for calling annual meetings, but the term of office of any officers so selected at any special meeting shall expire at the same time as if they had been regularly chosen at the annual meeting. (Amended 2023, No. 6, § 296, eff. July 1, 2023.)

• § 53. Voters

  Every person who resides within the limits of the Village and is a legal voter in Town meeting of the Town of Cambridge shall be entitled to vote at any Village meeting.

• § 61. Bylaws

  The corporation shall have power to make, amend, or repeal bylaws not repugnant to the Constitution or laws of this State or of the United States for the following purposes:

  (1) To establish and regulate a market.

  (2) To suppress and restrain disorderly and gaming houses, billiard and pool 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 the Village.

  (6) To direct the location and management of all slaughterhouses, meat markets, steam mills, blacksmith shops, and sewers.

  (7) To prevent immoderate riding or driving in the streets and cruelty to animals.

  (8) To regulate the erection of buildings and to regulate entrances and exits to public halls and theatres until proper exits are provided; to prevent the encumbering of the streets, sidewalks, and public alleys with firewood, lumber, carriages, boxes, and other things; and provide for the care, preservation, and improvement of public grounds.

  (9) To restrain all cattle, horses, sheep, swine, and fowls from running at large in the streets of the Village.

  (10) 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.

  (11) To compel all persons to remove from the sidewalks and gutters adjacent to the premises owned or occupied by them all snow, ice, dirt, and garbage, and to keep the sidewalks and gutters clean.

  (12) To license innkeepers, keepers of saloons or victualing houses, peddlars, itinerant venders, and auctioneers under such regulations and for such sums of money as shall be prescribed for the license.

  (13) To regulate or restrain the use of rockets, squibs, firecrackers, or other fireworks in the streets or commons and to prevent the practicing in the streets or commons of any amusements having a tendency to injure or annoy persons passing on the streets or commons or to endanger the security of property.

  (14) To regulate 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.

  (15) To prescribe the powers and duties of watchmen of the Village.

  (16) To regulate the grade of streets and the grade and width of sidewalks and the construction thereof and protect the same.

  (17) To provide for lighting the Village.

  (18) 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.

  (19) To restrain and punish vagrants, mendicants, and common prostitutes, and to suppress houses of ill-fame.

  (20) To establish and maintain a public library and reading room. (Amended 2023, No. 6, § 297, eff. July 1, 2023.)

• Subchapter 006: Bylaws

• § 62. Bylaws; recordation

  The bylaws of the corporation shall be recorded in the office of the Clerk, and the Clerk’s certificate that such bylaws were adopted at an annual meeting of the corporation or at a special meeting thereof, called for that purpose, shall be prima facie evidence of such fact in any court in this State; and certified copies of the bylaws and Clerk’s certificates shall also be received as evidence in all the courts of the State.

• § 63. Penalty for breach of bylaws

  A fine not exceeding $20.00 with costs of prosecution may be imposed by the corporation for the breach of any of its bylaws with the alternative sentence to the house of correction in case the fine and costs are not paid as is provided by law in other criminal cases.

• Subchapter 007: Transitional Provisions

• §§ 71-72. [Transitional provisions related to the first Village meeting and the effective date]