§ 4. Specific powers conferred
(a) Without limitation of the generality of section 3 of this charter and the grant of
the powers therein made, but as a more specific designation of some of the powers
conferred upon the Village, the Village of Wells River has authority:
(1) To levy, assess, and collect taxes in order to carry out its powers; to appropriate
and to borrow money, within the limits prescribed by the general laws; and to levy
and collect special assessments for benefits conferred.
(2) To purchase, hold, and convey real estate and to purchase, erect, and keep in repair
buildings and other structures for Village purposes; to furnish all local public services;
to purchase, hire, construct, own, maintain, and operate or lease local public utilities,
including aqueducts, reservoirs, and a water supply system; to acquire, by condemnation
or otherwise, within or without the corporate limits, property necessary for any such
public utility and other Village purposes, subject to restrictions imposed by the
general law for the protection of other franchises and regulate the exercise thereof.
(3) To make local public improvements and to acquire, by condemnation or otherwise, property
within its corporate limits necessary for such improvements, and also to acquire an
excess over that needed for any such improvement, and to sell or lease such excess
property with restrictions, in order to protect and preserve the improvement.
(4) To issue and sell bonds as permitted by the laws of this State with or without specific
security thereof.
(5) To purchase or lease lands within or without the corporate limits of the Village;
to lay out or widen streets, highways, lanes, commons, alleys, and walks; to provide
places of healthy recreation in summer or in winter, such as a skating rink, a swimming
pool, a playing field, a public park; to provide for tourist camp, aviation landing
fields, and a municipal forest reserve; and for any municipal purposes whatever.
(6) To adopt and enforce within its limits building, police, sanitary, village planning,
and other similar regulations and ordinances, bylaws, and other similar regulations
not in conflict with the general laws.
(7) Subject always to the laws of this State and the limitations of section 3 of this
charter, to enact and adopt ordinances, bylaws, and other regulations respecting the
following matters within the Village limits:
(A) The sale and measurement of milk and dairy products, meats, fruits, provisions, vegetables,
hay, grain, petroleum products of all kinds, wood, coal, fuels, and all other articles
of public necessity.
(B) The construction, location, and use, and the licensing of hay scales; markets dealing
with meat, fish, and food stuffs; slaughter houses; groceries; restaurants and eating
establishments; manufacturing establishments, inns, and hotels; junk businesses; advertising
billboards; overhanging signs; awnings; lunch carts; billiard and pool rooms; all
places where beverages of any kind are sold or disposed of, either at wholesale or
retail; public halls, theatres; dance halls; bowling alleys; moving picture houses;
all places where tobacco, cigars, and cigarettes are sold or disposed of; blacksmith
shops; trucking depots, stands, and other trucking establishments; public garages;
repair shops; brick yards; stone sheds; cattle pens; hog pens; hen coops; coal sheds;
dairies; laundries; dyeing establishments; garbage plants; gas works; livery stables;
oil and gasoline tanks; gasoline filling stations; private sewers and cesspools; skating
rinks; stables; privies; wells; and public dumps.
(C) Processions, parades, traveling showmen and their shows, clairvoyants, mendicants,
fortune-tellers, spiritualists, mediums, itinerant street-vendors, pawnbrokers, transient
retail businesses, and professional and amateur sports.
(D) Vehicles used in the conveyance for hire of persons or goods; milk and cream businesses
and routes; pedestrian and vehicular traffic; the parking, operation, and speed of
vehicles; guide posts, street signs, and street safety devices.
(E) Cruelty to animals, fast driving, the going at large of animals, and the keeping of
bees.
(F) The erection of poles and the placing of wires, cables, and pipes; the laying of sewers;
the excavating of streets; the disposal of garbage, filth, refuse, and animal carcasses;
throwing or dumping of ashes, wastepaper, hand bills, circulars, or rubbish of any
sort; the planting, preservation, or destruction of shade trees.
(G) The clearing, repairing, and improvement of streets, highways, commons, or walks,
and the protection of the same from injury; the lighting of streets, highways, commons,
or walks; keeping a watch; the restraining of cattle, horses, sheep, swine, geese,
and other creatures from running at large; the planting and preservation of shade
and other trees, including a municipal forest; the laying out, grading, fencing, and
improving of public parks and commons.
(H) The suppression of nuisances, bawdy-houses, gaming houses; racing pools; gambling
instruments of all kinds; noisome and offensive places and occupations, loafing, obscenity,
and ribaldry upon the Village streets; vagrancy; riots and all breaches of the peace;
pollutions of the Village water supply. (Added 1937, No. 301, § 4.)