§ 1. Boundaries
All that part of the Town of Whitingham as follows: Beginning at the northeast corner
of A. C. Stetson’s pasture near the watering trough, thence southeasterly on the southerly
side of the highway to the lands of Herbert G. Porter, thence northeasterly on lands
of said Porter to lands of Mattie E. Corkins; thence easterly and northerly on said
Corkins’ land to the Roberts farm, owned by La Fill Dickenson; thence easterly on
said Dickenson’s southerly line and lands of Sarah M. Goodnow to lands of Hollis Stetson;
thence southerly on lands of said Stetson, Hulbert Stetson, C. A. Pike, Perry Hall’s
estate, Joseph Leonard, E. S. and W. S. Allen, to E. J. Corkins’ land; thence westerly
on land of E. J. Corkins, Edward Boudry, Charles Mitchell, Eva O. Bell, and A. A.
Butterfield to the southwest corner of Jane B. Chase’s farm; thence northerly on lands
of A. A. Butterfield, Wm. H. H. Packer and O. W. Parks to the Carley farm; thence
easterly and northerly on the Carley farm to the place of beginning; together with
the ratable estate included within said boundary, is hereby constituted a body corporate
to be known as the Village of Jacksonville, Vt.
§ 2. Annual and special meetings
(a) The annual meeting of the Village shall be held on the third Tuesday in June at seven
o’clock p. m., or at such other time as shall be prescribed by the bylaws at such
places as shall be prescribed by the bylaws.
(b) Special meetings shall be called by the Clerk on request of seven legal voters of
the Village. All meetings of the Village shall be warned by the Clerk by posting
a notice in at least three public places in the Village 10 days before the meeting.
Legal voters in Town meeting who have resided in the Village at least three months,
shall be legal voters in Village meetings. (Amended 2005, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. June 20, 2006.)
§ 3. Election and duties of officers
(a) At the annual meeting there shall be elected, by ballot if called for by three voters,
a Clerk, a Treasurer, a Chief Engineer, First and Second Assistant Engineers, a Collector,
and five trustees, who shall serve until their successors are elected. They shall
be sworn, and the Clerk shall make a record thereof. The Clerk, Collector, and Treasurer
shall give such bonds as shall be required by the trustees. Vacancies may be filled
at special meetings called for that purpose.
(b) The trustees shall elect one trustee to serve as President.
(c) Each of the elected officers shall perform the following duties:
(1) The President shall preside at all meetings and have all the powers of a moderator
in town meetings and be an ex-officio member and presiding officer of the Board of
Trustees.
(2) The Senior Trustee shall act as President if the President is absent at the annual
meeting or any meeting of the trustees.
(3) The Clerk shall keep a record of the annual meeting and any special meetings that
are called in accordance with the charter of the Village and also keep a record of
all proceedings at the trustees’ meetings.
(4) The Treasurer shall be custodian of all money belonging to the Village and shall pay
all obligations of the Village that the President and at least two trustees have approved.
(d) The Village shall employ an auditor who shall conduct an annual audit in accordance
with Government Accounting Standards and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
rules.
(e) The trustees shall:
(1) Have general charge of all affairs of the Village and shall meet at least once a month
at the time and place as the President may designate for the meetings, and the trustees
may hold as many additional meetings in any month as they deem advisable.
(2) Shall make all contracts concerning the building of electric light lines and maintenance
of the same.
(3) Do all things necessary to maintain the electric light system that the Village owns
in the Town of Whitingham.
(4) Fix the compensation of all employees and officers of the Village.
(5) Establish the rates for the electric light service that the Village furnishes, subject
to the approval of the Public Utility Commission of the State of Vermont. (Amended 2005, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. June 20, 2006.)
§ 4. Sewers, compensation for land taken
(a) The legal voters of the Village at a meeting duly warned and holden for that purpose,
may vote to construct and maintain for the benefit of the Village a common sewer or
sewerage system and extend the same through the highways, streets, and lanes of the
Village, and when necessary to obtain suitable grades, connections, water supply,
outlets for flushing, and discharges, may construct and extend the same through lands
of persons or corporations lying within or without the Village, upon paying suitable
compensation or damage therefor, and for such purposes may take the land of any individual
or corporation.
(b) In taking land for sewage purposes, the trustees shall proceed in the same manner
as prescribed by law for the selectboard in taking lands for highways, and in awarding
damages therefor, and returns shall be made to the Clerk of the Village.
(c) When any person or corporation shall be dissatisfied with the decision of the trustees,
either as to the necessity for or extent of the taking, or as to the award of damages
for land taken for such sewer or drain, they may petition the Windham County Superior
Court for a rehearing in the premises, and any such number of persons aggrieved may
join in the petition; but such petition shall not delay the laying or repairing of
such sewer or drain, where the petition is for a reassessment of the damages only;
such petition shall be served on the Clerk of the Village within 60 days after the
trustees shall have filed their returns in the Village Clerk’s office, and not less
than 12 days before the term of Court to which it is made returnable. The proceedings
shall be had in Court on the petition as are provided by law in case of petitions
or appeals from the proceedings of the selectboard in laying out highways, except
as herein provided; and the commissioners appointed by the Court shall notify one
of the trustees of the Village of the time and place when they will hear the matter.
(d) When the public health requires it, the local Board of Health of the Village may order
that any hotel, dwelling house, or other building in the Village shall be connected
with the public sewer, and shall give notice in writing to the owner thereof of the
order, and if the owner neglects or refuses to comply with the order within a reasonable
time, the owner shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars nor less than ten
dollars, upon complaint of the State’s Attorney of the County of Windham, the Grand
Juror of the Town of Whitingham, or the Health Officer of the Village, who for this
purpose is constituted a prosecuting officer.
(e) The trustees of the Village may assess annually the owner of any building connected
with the sewer the sum as they shall think just, by a sewer rental to be paid by the
owner thereof within 30 days after notice in writing is delivered to the owner, the
owner’s agent, or tenant if the owner resides out of the Village, or if the owner
resides out of the Village and has no tenant or agent therein, then by mail to the
owner at the owner’s last known post office address, which assessment shall be a lien
in the nature of a tax. Appeals may be had in the same way and the same proceedings
as in appeals above set forth in relation to taking lands for the sewer or drain.
§ 5. Acquisition of land and water courses
The Village may purchase, lease, or take by right of eminent domain, hold and convey
real and personal estate, springs, water courses, and existing aqueducts, construct
and maintain such aqueducts, and build and lay pipes and conduits as may be required
for the purpose of furnishing the Village with suitable protection from fire and sewer
purposes and sprinkling streets, for furnishing the inhabitants of the Village with
water for household, culinary, and other purposes; may erect and maintain buildings
and hydrants, purchase and hold fire apparatus and other property necessary for such
purposes, and in acquiring any property other than by purchase or lease may proceed
in the same manner and the same proceedings had as provided in taking land for sewers,
as hereinbefore stated.
§ 6. Lighting
The Village may light its streets in such way as it may determine, and construct,
own, and maintain gas or electric plants for lighting them or furnishing its inhabitants
and the inhabitants of the Towns of Whitingham and Halifax with lights, heating, and
power and for this purpose may purchase, take, and hold such real estate, water powers,
and water rights and such other real and personal estate as may be necessary and may
contract with such person or corporation as it sees fit for supplying light, heat,
and power for the purposes aforesaid, and make all necessary regulations in relation
thereto, and to the control and management of the same. (Amended 1925, No. 182, § 1.)
§ 7. Police officers
(a) The trustees of the Village shall have power to and may appoint the number of police
officers within the Village as the trustees may judge necessary for the interests
of the inhabitants thereof, by writing under their hands, which shall be recorded
by the Village Clerk, and the appointments may in the same way be revoked at any time.
(b) The trustees may specify their duties as watchmen and patrols, and agree with them
for their compensation, which shall be paid by the Village. Each of the police shall
be sworn, and shall have the same powers within the limits of the Village as constables
in serving criminal process and in criminal matters, and when on duty shall wear conspicuously
a badge of office, and shall hold their office one year unless sooner discharged as
aforesaid. The police officers may serve warrants beyond the limits of the Village
for offenses committed therein, and shall be a complaining officer for all offenses
committed within the limits of the Village in violation of any provision of this charter
or the bylaws and lawful orders of the Village and its officers.
§ 8. Bylaws; penalty for violations
The Village may impose a fine or forfeiture not exceeding $100.00 for a violation
of any bylaw or ordinance. The penalty may be recovered in an action on the case
upon this statute in the name of the Village, in which action it shall be sufficient
to declare generally that the defendant is guilty of a violation of a certain bylaw,
naming it generally, and under the declaration the special matter may be given in
evidence. Nothing herein contained shall be construed as to prevent the Village from
having such other and further relief as it may be entitled by law to compel a compliance
with the bylaws and ordinances of the Village.
§ 9. Fire district
The Village is hereby constituted a fire district for the purpose of preventing the
destructive consequences of fires, and the trustees shall have all the powers, and
be subject to the same restrictions as prudential committees in fire districts, in
making contracts and expenditures for the preservation of property in the Village
from loss or damage by fire.
§ 10. Designation of real estate in Village by listers
It shall hereafter be the duty of the listers of the Town of Whitingham in making
the lists of the Town to designate therein such of the ratable estate real and personal
as shall belong within the limits of the Village, and the same shall constitute the
grand list of the Village.
§ 11. Tax assessment
The Village may, at its annual meeting called for that purpose, assess a tax on the
grand list of the Village for any of the purposes mentioned in this charter, and shall
have all the powers and may collect the tax in such manner as is provided by law for
the collection of town taxes in towns, and the trustees of the Village are to have
the powers, and perform the duties herein required, of the selectboard in towns, and
the Collector the same powers as the collector and constable in collecting taxes so
assessed.
§ 12. Board of Abatement
The trustees and Clerk of the Village shall constitute a Board for the Abatement of
Village Taxes and shall have the same powers and proceed in the same manner as the
board for abatement of taxes in towns.
§ 13. Maintenance of library
The Village may establish, keep, and maintain a free public library for the improvement
of its inhabitants, and to that end may purchase, hold, and dispose of real and personal
property to preserve, improve, enlarge, and continue the library and erect such building
as may be necessary for its safe and convenient keeping and receive such donations
of books, maps, charts, or other property as may be donated to the Village or the
library.
§ 14. Power to borrow money
The Village at an annual or a special meeting called for that purpose is hereby authorized
and empowered to vote to borrow money for any of the purposes herein mentioned, and
to issue its notes and bonds therefor; and such notes or bonds shall be signed by
the trustees and countersigned by the Treasurer of the Village, and if interest coupons
are attached, they shall be signed by the Treasurer, and the bonds or notes shall
contain a statement that they are issued for the purposes mentioned, and in conformity
with the provisions of this charter, and such statement shall be conclusive evidence
of the same, and of the liability of the Village to pay such notes or bonds in an
action by a person who in good faith holds such notes or bonds. The Village Treasurer
shall keep a record of every note or bond under the provisions of this charter, therein
stating the number and denomination of such note or bond, when and where payable,
to whom issued, and the rate of interest thereon; and also shall keep a record of
payments, interest, and principal; and if any coupons are taken off shall deface the
same.
§ 15. Bylaws
The Village, at an annual or special meeting duly warned for that purpose, may make,
alter, and repeal bylaws of the following subject matter, viz.:
(1) Relating to their streets, sidewalks, alleys, public highways, commons, parks, and
public grounds, the cleaning, repairing, and improving the same; to prevent the encumbering
the same with fire wood, coal, ashes, lumber, carriages, boxes, and other things,
and to compel persons to remove from the sidewalks and gutters adjacent to the premises
owned or occupied by them snow, dirt, and garbage and to keep the sidewalks and gutters
clean.
(2) Relating to policing and lighting the streets.
(3) Relating to nuisances generally and to compel the owner or occupants of an unwholesome,
dangerous, or offensive house or place to remove or cleanse the same from time to
time, as may be necessary for the health, comfort, and protection of the inhabitants
of the Village.
(4) Relating to sewers.
(5) Relating to water supply for the protection of the Village and the inhabitants thereof,
and for other purposes, and to regulate the use of the same.
(6) To restrain animals from running at large in the Village.
(7) To suppress disorderly and gambling houses and all descriptions of gaming, and for
the destruction of instruments used for that purpose.
(8) To prevent immoderate driving in the streets and cruelty to animals.
(9) To regulate the manufacture or keeping of gunpowder and all combustibles or dangerous
materials.
(10) To regulate the making, altering, and repairing of stovepipes, furnaces, fire places,
depositories for ashes, and other things from which loss or damage from fire may be
apprehended, and in general to provide for the preservation of buildings from fire,
precautionary measures and inspections.
(11) To establish and regulate a fire department and fire hose and hook and ladder companies.
(12) To regulate and restrain the sale and use of rockets, squibs, firecrackers, toy pistols,
or other fireworks within the Village; also guns, cannons, and explosives.
(13) To license inn-keeping and victualing, peddlers, itinerant vendors, and auctioneers;
to license and suppress billiard and pool tables, bowling alleys, skating rinks, and
other places of amusement.
(14) To regulate the length, width, and grade of streets and sidewalks, and the construction
of and protect the same.
(15) To prohibit and punish willful injury to trees planted for shade, ornament, convenience,
or use, public or private, and to prevent and punish trespass or willful injury to
or upon public buildings, squares, commons, cemeteries, or other property within the
Village, and the corporation may establish other or repeal other bylaws and ordinances
that it may deem necessary for the well-being of the Village, and for the proper regulation
of the officers thereof, not repugnant to the laws of the State. (Amended 2005, No. M-15 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. June 20, 2006.)