(a) The Town shall have the power to:
(1) Assess, levy, and collect taxes for all general and special purposes on all subjects and objects of taxation authorized by law;
(2) Adopt such classifications of subjects and objects of taxation as may not be contrary to law;
(3) Make special assessments for local improvements;
(4) Contract and be contracted with;
(5) Incur debts by borrowing money or otherwise and to give any appropriate evidence thereof;
(6) Issue and give, sell, pledge, or in any manner dispose of negotiable or non-negotiable interest-bearing or non-interest bearing bonds, warrants, promissory notes, or orders of the Town, upon the credit of the Town or solely upon the credit of specific property owned by the Town or solely upon the credit of income derived from any property used in connection with any public utility owned or operated by the Town or solely upon the credit of the proceeds of special assessments for local improvements or upon any two (2) or more such credits;
(7) Expend the money of the Town for all lawful purposes;
(8) Acquire or receive and hold, maintain, improve, sell, lease, mortgage, pledge, or otherwise dispose of property, real or personal, mixed, and any estate or interest therein, including the acquisition of property for recreational use, within or without the Town or state. Furthermore, to regulate all public grounds belonging to the Town, to provide for the erection and repairing of all buildings and other improvements necessary for the use of the Town, and the power to convey property by sale to any purchaser thereof in any manner provided by the ordinances of the Town, when a property is no longer required for public use. The Town shall also make all necessary rules and regulations for the use of public grounds and property;
(9) Condemn property, real or personal, or any easement, interest, estate, or use therein, either within or without the Town, for present or future public use. Such condemnation shall be made and effected in accordance with the terms and provisions of general law;
(10) Take and hold property within or without the Town or state upon trust and to administer trusts for the public benefit;
(11) Acquire, construct, own, operate, maintain, sell, lease, mortgage, pledge, or otherwise dispose of public utilities or any estate or interest therein, or any other utility or service to the Town, its inhabitants, or any part thereof, whether within or without the corporate limits;
(12) Grant any person, firm, association, corporation or other legal entity franchises and/or contracts for public utilities and public services to be furnished to the Town and those therein. Such power to grant franchises and make contracts shall embrace the power hereby expressly conferred to grant exclusive franchises and make exclusive contracts; and whenever an exclusive franchise or contract is granted, it shall be exclusive not only as against any other person, firm, association, corporation, or other legal entity but also as against the Town itself. The board of mayor and aldermen may prescribe in each grant of a franchise, or in each contract respecting same, the rates, fares, charges, the method of determining same, and regulations that may be made by the grantee of the franchise or contract. Franchises or contracts may, by their terms, apply to the territory within the corporate limits of the Town at the date of the franchises or contracts and to such corporate limits thereafter as same may be enlarged and to the then existing streets, alleys, and to other thoroughfares which may be opened; provided, however, this paragraph shall not affect existing contracts or franchises;
(13) Prescribe reasonable regulations regarding the construction, maintenance, equipment, operation, and service of public utilities and compel from time to time reasonable extensions of facilities for such services, but nothing herein shall be construed to permit the alteration or impairment of any of the terms or provisions of any exclusive franchise granted or of any exclusive contract entered into under subsection 12 of Section 2.02;
(14) Establish, open, relocate, vacate, alter, widen, extend, grade, improve, repair, construct, reconstruct, maintain, light, sprinkle, and clean public highways, streets, boulevards, parkways, sidewalks, alleys, parks, golf courses, public grounds, and squares, bridges, viaducts, subways, sewers, and drains within or without the corporate limits, and to take any appropriate property for such uses as may be provided by general law;
(15) Construct, and improve any streets, highways, avenues, alleys, or other public places within the corporate limits, to take all other action necessary and incidental thereto, and to assess a portion of the cost of such improvements upon the property abutting upon,or adjacent to, such streets, highways, or alleys under and as provided by general law;
(16) Establish the limits of street, road and alley rights-of-way when necessary;
(17) Assess against abutting property within the corporate limits the cost of removing from sidewalks and other public property all accumulations of snow, ice, and earth; cutting and removing obnoxious weeds and rubbish; street lighting, street sweeping, street sprinkling, street flushing, and oiling; and cleaning and rendering sanitary, or removing, abolishing, or prohibiting of unsanitary conditions in such manner as may be provided by general law or by ordinance of the board of mayor and aldermen;
(18) License and regulate, in accordance with applicable law, all persons, firms, corporations, companies, associations and other legal entities engaged in any business, occupation, calling, profession, or trade;
(19) Impose a license tax upon any animal, thing, business, vocation, pursuit, privilege, or calling unless prohibited by law;
(20) Define, prohibit, abate, suppress, prevent, and regulate all acts, practices, conduct, business, occupations, callings, trades, uses of property, and all other things whatsoever detrimental or liable to be detrimental to health, morals, comfort, safety, convenience or welfare of the inhabitants of the Town and to exercise general police powers;
(21) Prescribe limits within which business occupations and practices liable to be nuisances or detrimental to the health, morals, security, or general welfare of the people may be lawfully established, conducted or maintained;
(22) Inspect, test, measure and weigh any article for consumption or use within the Town and to charge reasonable fees therefor; and to provide standards of weights, tests and measures;
(23) Establish, regulate, license, and inspect weights and measures;
(24) Regulate the location, bulk, occupancy, area, lot, location, height, construction, and materials of all buildings and structures and to inspect all buildings, lands, and places as to their condition for health, cleanliness, and safety, and, when necessary, to prevent the use thereof and require any alteration or changes necessary to make them healthful, clean, or safe;
(25) Provide and maintain charitable, educational, recreative, curative, corrective, detention, or penal institutions, departments, functions, facilities, instrumentalities, conveniences, and services;
(26) Purchase or construct, maintain, and establish a penal facility for the confinement or detention of any person convicted in Town Court of offenses against the laws and ordinances of the Town and who is required to be confined as a result of such conviction or to contract with other governments to keep said persons in their penal facility(s) and to provide by said contract and by ordinance for the commitment of such persons to the penal facility(s) so provided;
(27) Enforce any ordinance, rule or regulation by means of fines, forfeitures, and penalties, or by action or proceedings in any court of competent jurisdiction, or by any one or more of such means and to impose costs as a part thereof, but no fine, forfeiture or penalty shall exceed five hundred dollars ($500) per violation, or as provided by State law, whichever is greater;
(28) Establish schools, determine the necessary boards, officers, and teachers required therefor, and fix their compensation; to purchase or otherwise acquire land for schoolhouses, playgrounds and other purposes connected with the schools; to purchase or erect all necessary buildings and to do all other acts necessary to establish, maintain, and operate a complete educational system within the Town;
(29) Regulate, tax, license, or suppress keeping or going at large of animals within the Town, to impound the same and in default of redemption, to sell or dispose of the same;
(30) Call elections as hereinafter provided;
(31) Determine the boundaries of the Town by appropriate survey or other acceptable method when necessary;
(32) Provide compensation and benefits program for the welfare of the employees and elected officials of the Town;
(33) Provide for the establishment and operation of all offices, boards, divisions, and departments not herein enumerated which may be deemed necessary or expedient in the interest of the Town;
(34) Provide for and establish a planning commission and a board of zoning appeals pursuant to, and consistent with, the general law and to invest such bodies with all the powers conferred by general law; and to act upon the plans, plats, decisions, and recommendations made by such bodies, respectively, as in the general law provided;
(35) Do all things necessary to provide the Town sufficient and safe water; to provide for the regulation, construction, and maintenance of water works, settling basins, pumping stations, water pipes, mains, rights-of-way for the same, reservoirs, and all appurtenances, whether within or without the corporate limits of the Town; to provide for rates and assessments for water service and to provide and fix liens or penalties including withdrawal of services for refusal or failure of the party served to pay for same;
(36) Provide for a sewerage collection, treatment, and disposal facility, whether within or without the corporate limits of the Town; to provide for rates and assessments for water service and to provide and fix liens or penalties including withdrawal of service for refusal or failure of the party served to pay for same;
(37) Collect and dispose of drainage, including storm water drainage, sewage, offal, ashes, garbage, and refuse, and to impose a compulsory service charge for such, or to license and regulate such collection and disposal;
(38) Provide an electric utility;
(39) Provide a gas utility system;
(40) Provide for health and safety of citizens, and preservation of property;
(41) Provide for and establish a design review commission for the purpose of developing aesthetic and architectural controls for the community, ensuring compatible development, promoting functional utility and property values, and maintaining balanced uses of land.
(42) Impose a historical preservation privilege tax on persons or entities constructing commercial and office developments on land within the corporate limits, as the Town deems appropriate, to pay the cost of capital improvements in the historic town square business district and other expenses related to such developments, including, but not limited to, incentive programs for private improvements and the providing of administrative services; and
(43) Have and exercise all powers that now or hereafter it would be competent for this charter specifically to enumerate, as fully and completely as though these powers were specifically enumerated herein.
(b) In addition, if the present or any future provisions of the general law of the State of Tennessee would grant powers to the Town that are not specifically set forth herein, the Town shall also have such powers.
SECTION 2.03. INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS. The Town may exercise any of its powers or perform any of its functions and may participate in the financing, by contract or otherwise, jointly or in cooperation with any one or more states, political subdivisions, or civil divisions or agencies thereof of the government of the United States.
SECTION 2.04. CONSTRUCTION. The powers of the Town under this charter shall be construed liberally in favor of the Town, and the specific mention of particular powers in this charter shall not be construed as limiting in any way the general powers stated in this article or those otherwise available to the Town by general law.