All the corporate power of said City shall be vested in and exercised by Council or under its authority, except as otherwise provided in this act.
The Council of said City shall have, and is hereby granted power to have the City surveyed, to lay out, open, vacate, straighten, broaden, change grade of, grade, re-grade, curb, widen, narrow, repair, pave and re-pave streets, alleys, roads, squares, plots, sidewalks and gutters for public use, and to alter, improve, embellish, ornament and light the same, and to construct and maintain public sewers and laterals, and shall, in all cases, have power and authority to assess upon and collect from the property benefitted thereby such part of the expense thereof as shall be fixed by ordinance, except as hereinafter provided; to have control of all streets, avenues, roads, alleys and grounds for public use in said City, and to regulate the use thereof and driving thereon, and to have the same kept free from obstructions, pollutions or litter on or over them; to have the right to control all bridges within said City, and the traffic thereover; to change the name of any street, avenue or road within said City, and to regulate and cause the numbering and renumbering of houses on any street, avenue, or road therein; to regulate the naming of streets, avenues and public places; to regulate and determine the width of streets, sidewalks, roads and alleys; to order and direct the curbing, re-curbing, paving, repaving and repairing of sidewalks and footways for public use in said City to be done and kept clean and in good order by the owners of adjacent property; to prohibit and punish the abuse of animals; to restrain and punish vagrants, mendicants, beggars, tramps, prostitutes, drunken or disorderly persons within the City, and to provide for their arrest and manner of punishment; to prohibit and punish by fine the bringing into the City by steamboat, railroad or other carriers, of paupers, dangerous or objectionable characters or persons afflicted with contagious diseases; to control and suppress disorderly houses of prostitution or ill fame, houses of assignation, and gaming houses or any part thereof; to punish those engaged in gaming and to suppress all gaming or gambling houses, and all places where gambling or betting is in any way carried on or permitted, and to punish all persons in any way connected therewith; to prohibit within the City, or within one-half mile thereof, slaughterhouses, soap or glue factories, and houses and places of like kind, and any other thing or business dangerous, unwholesome, unhealthy, offensive, indecent or dangerous to life, health, peace or property; to provide for the entry into and the examination of all dwellings, lots, enclosures, buildings and structures, cars, boats and vehicles of every description, and to ascertain their conditions for health, cleanliness or safety; to regulate the building and maintenance of party walls, partition fences or lanes, fire walls, fireplaces, chimneys, boilers, smoke stacks and stove pipes; to provide for and regulate the safe construction, inspection and repairs of all public and private buildings, bridges, basements, culverts, sewers or other buildings or structures of any description; to take down and remove, make safe and secure, any and all buildings, walls, structures or superstructures at the expense of the owners thereof, that are or may become dangerous, or to require the owners or their agents to take down and remove them or put them in safe and sound condition at their own expense; to regulate, restrain or prohibit the erection of wooden or other buildings within the City; to regulate the height, construction and inspection of all new buildings hereafter erected, and the alteration and repair of any buildings already erected or hereafter erected in said City, and to require permits to be obtained for such buildings and structures and plans and specifications thereof to be first submitted to the Building Inspector; and to regulate the limit within which it shall be lawful to erect any steps, porticos, bay windows, show windows, awnings, signs, columns, piers or other projection or structural ornaments of any kind for the houses or buildings fronting on any street of said City; to establish fire limits and to provide the kind of buildings and structures that may be erected therein, and to enforce all needful rules and regulations to guard against fire and danger therefrom; to require, regulate and control the construction of fire escapes for any building or other structures in said City, to control the opening and construction of ditches, drains, sewers, cesspools and gutters, and to deepen, widen and clear the same of stagnant water or filth, and to prevent obstruction therein, and to fill, close or abolish the same and to determine at whose expense the same shall be done; and to build and maintain fire station houses, crematories, jails, lockups, and other buildings, police stations and police courts, and to regulate the management thereof; to acquire, establish, lay off, appropriate, regulate, maintain and control public grounds, squares, parks, hospitals, market houses, City buildings, libraries, and other educational or charitable institutions, within the City limits; and when the Council determines that any real estate in the City is necessary to be acquired by said City for any such purpose, or for any public purpose, or is necessary in the exercise of its powers herein granted, the power of eminent domain is hereby conferred upon said City, and shall have the right to institute condemnation proceedings against the owner thereof, in the same manner, to the same extent, and upon the same conditions as such power is conferred upon public corporations by Chapter forty-two of the Code of West Virginia of the edition of one thousand nine hundred and thirteen, and is now or may be hereafter amended; to purchase, sell, lease or contract for and take care of all public buildings, structures, and real estate deemed proper for the use of such City; for the protection of the public to cause the removal of unsafe walls, structures or buildings, and the filling of excavations; to prevent injury or annoyance to the business of individuals from anything dangerous, offensive or unwholesome; to abate or cause to be abated all nuisances and to that end and thereabout to summon witnesses and hear testimony; to regulate or prohibit the keeping of gunpowder and other combustible or dangerous articles; to regulate, restrain or prohibit the use of firecrackers or other explosive fireworks, and all noises or performances which may be dangerous, indecent or annoying to persons or tend to frighten horses or other animals; to provide and maintain proper places for the burial of the dead, in or out of the City, and to regulate interments therein on such terms and conditions as to price and otherwise as may be determined; to provide for shade and ornamental trees, shrubbery, grass, flowers and other ornamentation, and the protection of the same; to provide for the poor of the City; to make suitable and proper regulations in regard to the use of the streets, public places, sidewalks, and alleys by street cars, foot passengers, animals, vehicles, motors, automobiles, traction engines, railroad engines and cars, and to regulate the running and operation of the same so as to prevent obstruction thereon, encroachment thereto, injury, inconvenience or annoyance to the public; to prohibit prize fighting, cock and dog fighting; to license, tax, regulate or prohibit theatres, moving pictures, circuses and exhibitions of showmen and shows of any kind, and the exhibition of natural or artificial curiosities, carnivals, menageries and musical exhibitions and performances, and other things or business on which the State does or may exact a license tax; to organize and maintain fire companies and departments and to provide necessary apparatus, engines and implements for the same, and to regulate all matters pertaining to the prevention and extinguishment of fires; to make proper regulations for guarding against danger and damage from fires, water and other elements; to regulate and control the kind and manner of plumbing and electrical wiring, air ships, balloons, wireless stations, and other appliances for the protection of the health and safety of said City; to levy taxes on persons, property and licenses; to license and tax dogs and other animals, and to regulate, restrain and prohibit them and all other animals and fowls running at large; to provide revenue for the City and appropriate the same to its expenses to adopt rules for the transaction of business of its own regulation and government; to promote the general welfare of the City, and to protect the persons and property of citizens therein; to regulate and provide for the weighing of produce and other articles sold in said City and to regulate the transportation thereof and other things, through the streets, alleys and public places; to have the right to grant, refuse or revoke any and all licenses for the carrying on of any business within said City on which the State exacts a license tax; to establish and regulate markets and to prescribe the time for holding the same and what shall be sold in such market, and to let stalls or apartments and regulate the same; to acquire and hold property for market purposes; to regulate the placing of signs, billboards, posters and advertising, on or over the streets, alleys, sidewalks, and public grounds of said City; to preserve and protect the peace, order and safety and health of the City and its inhabitants, including the right to regulate the sale and use of cocaine, morphine, opium and poisonous or dangerous drugs; to appoint and fix the place of holding City elections; to erect, own, lease, authorize or prohibit the erection of gas works, electric light works, water works, or ferry boats, in or near the City, and to operate the same, and to sell the product or services thereof and to do any and all things necessary and incidental to the conduct of such business; to provide for the purity of water, milk, meats and provisions offered for sale in said City, and to that end provide for a system of inspecting the same and making and enforcing rules for the regulation of their sale, and to prohibit the sale of any unwholesome or tainted milk, meats, fish, fruit, vegetables, or the sale of milk, containing water or other things not constituting a part of pure milk; to provide for inspecting dairies and slaughterhouses, whether in or outside of the City, where the milk and meat therefrom are offered for sale within said City, and to prohibit the sale of any articles deemed unwholesome, and to condemn the same or destroy or abate it as a nuisance; to provide for the regulation of public processions so as to prevent interference with public traffic, and to promote the good order of the City; to prescribe and enforce ordinances and rules for the purpose of protecting the health, property, lives, decency, morality, cleanliness and good order of the City and its inhabitants, and to protect places of divine worship in and about the premises where held, and to punish violations of all ordinances, if the offense under and against the same shall also constitute offense under the laws of the State of West Virginia or the common law; to provide for the employment and safekeeping of persons who may be committed in default of the payment of fines, penalties, or costs under this act, who are otherwise unable to discharge the same, by putting them to work for the benefit of the City upon the streets or other places in or out of the City provided by said City, and to use such means to prevent their escape while at work as the Council may deem expedient; and the Council may fix a reasonable rate per day as wages to be allowed such person until the fine and costs against him are thereby discharged; to compel the attendance at public meetings of the members of the Council; to have and exercise such additional rights, privileges and powers as are granted to municipalities by Chapter forty-seven of the Code of West Virginia, as amended.
And the Council shall have the right to establish, construct and maintain public markets, landings, ferries, wharves and docks on any ground which does or shall belong to said City, or which it shall acquire, by purchase or otherwise, and to sell, lease, repair, alter or remove any public markets, landings, ferries, wharves, dikes, buildings, or docks, which have been or shall be so constructed, to levy and collect reasonable duty on vessels and other craft coming to or using said landings, ferries, wharves, dikes, docks, and buildings, and to preserve and protect the peace and good order at the same, and regulate the manner in which they shall be used; and to have the sole right, under State laws and in the same manner as now control county courts; to establish, construct, maintain, regulate and control all such wharves, docks, ferries and landings within the corporate limits of said City.
To carry into effect these enumerated powers and all other powers conferred upon said City expressly or by implication in this and other acts of the legislature, the Council of said City shall have the power, in the manner herein described, to adopt and enforce all needful order, rules and ordinances not contrary to the laws and constitution of this State; and to prescribe, impose and enforce fines and penalties, including imprisonment in the City lockup, jail, or station house, and to work prisoners found guilty, as the Council may prescribe, and market the product of such labor, and with the consent of the county court of Kanawha County entered of record, shall have the right to use the jail of said County for any purpose necessary to the administration of its affairs.