The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 24 Appendix: Municipal Charters

Chapter 227: Village of Jacksonville

• § 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.)