For the purpose of this subchapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
BOARDING HOUSE. A dwelling containing a single dwelling unit and not more than ten guest rooms or suites of rooms, where lodging is provided with or without meals, for compensation for more than 30 days.
CIGARETTES. Any roll for smoking made wholly or in part of tobacco, irrespective of size or shape and whether or not such tobacco is flavored, adulterated or mixed with any other ingredient, the wrapper or cover of which is made of paper or any other substance or material except tobacco.
CITY. The City of Nitro, West Virginia.
FAMILY. A group of persons who are connected by blood or law and within two generations, and by any other method accepted under state law.
GENERAL STORE. Includes any store or stores or any mercantile establishment or establishments, in which goods, wares, or merchandise or any kind are purchased, ordered, sold or offered for sale either at retail or wholesale.
HAWKER. A person who sells merchandise on the street, road or highway, or from door to door.
HOTEL. Any facility or building, publicly or privately owned (including a facility located in a state, county or municipal park), in which the public may, for a consideration, obtain sleeping accommodations. The term shall include, but is not limited to, boarding houses, hotels, motels, inns, courts, lodges, cabins and tourist homes. The term shall include state, county and city parks offering accommodations as set forth in this subchapter. The term shall not be construed to mean any hospital, sanitarium, extended care facility, nursing home, university or college housing unit, or any facility providing fewer than three hotel rooms, or any tent, trailer or camper campsites; however, where a university or college housing unit provides sleeping accommodations for the general nonstudent public for a consideration, the term shall, if otherwise applicable, apply to such accommodations for the purposes of this tax. A HOTEL, MOTEL or INN may include a restaurant, nightclub, newsstand or tavern, provided that such uses are clearly accessory to the principal use of overnight accommodations.
ITINERANT JUNK COLLECTOR. Only those persons who gather junk from place to place, and who have no fixed place of business.
ITINERANT VENDOR.
(1) Includes all persons who engage or conduct within the city a temporary or transient business of selling goods, wares and merchandise; and who, for the purpose of carrying on such business, use, lease or occupy either in whole or in part, a room, building or other structure, or who use, lease or occupy for such purposes a room or rooms in any hotel or lodging house, for the exhibition and sale of such goods, wares and merchandise; and the person so engaged shall not be relieved from the provisions of this section by reason of association temporarily with any local dealer, trader, merchant or auctioneer, or by conducting such temporary or transient business in connection with or as part of the business of, or in the name of, any local dealer, trader, merchant or auctioneer.
(2) ITINERANT VENDOR includes:
(a) Commercial travelers or selling agents who make sales to persons in the usual course of business;
(b) Commercial travelers or selling agents who make bona fide sales of goods, wares or merchandise by sample for future delivery;
(c) Hawkers or peddlers on the streets, roads or highways, from packs or vehicles;
(d) Persons selling farm or garden products derived from such person’s farm or garden business activities;
(e) A society making sales for charitable, religious or benevolent purposes; or
(f) Any person making judicial sales directed by law, or under the orders of any court.
JUNK. Old or scrap gold, copper, brass, rope, rags, batteries, paper, rubber, automobile parts, iron, steel and other old scrap ferrous or nonferrous metals.
JUNK DEALERS. All persons engaged in the business of buying or selling junk as herein above defined.
JUNK DEALER’S AGENTS. All persons who buy or sell junk for or on behalf of a junk dealer, but the term JUNK DEALER’S AGENT shall not be construed to include any persons regularly employed upon a salary by a regularly licensed junk dealer engaged in such business within the city.
MUNICIPAL LICENSE. The municipal license required by this subchapter to practice the professions, occupations, trades and activities stated in § 38.083.
NONRESIDENT JUNK DEALER or NONRESIDENT JUNK DEALER’S AGENT. Includes all persons who act as junk dealers or junk dealer’s agents who are nonresidents of the state, and all firms so engaged whose members are nonresidents of the city.
ON-CAMPUS RESIDENTIAL FACILITY. A building owned or controlled by an educational institution and/or other institution of higher learning, or spaces within buildings owned or controlled by an educational institution and/or other institution of higher learning, where housing is provided exclusively for students.
OWNER or LANDLORD. One or more person(s), in whom is vested all or part of the legal title to a rental unit, or all or part of the beneficial ownership and a right to present use and enjoyment of the rental unit, including a mortgagee in possession who rents or leases such rental unit either personally or through a designated agent, to any tenant.
PAWNBROKER. Any person engaged in the business of lending money on deposit or pledge of personal property or other valuable thing, other than securities or printed evidences of indebtedness, or in the business of purchasing personal property, such as articles made of or containing gold, silver, platinum or other precious metals or jewels of any description for the purpose of reducing or smelting them into any form different from their condition or construction when purchased and reselling or marketing the product.
PEDDLER. A person who travels from place to place selling goods.
PERSON. Any natural person, corporation, partnership or limited liability company deemed to be actively engaged in the practice of any profession, trade or activity previously specified in § 38.083 during any fiscal year, if that person is licensed by the state to practice a particular profession and holds himself or herself out to the public, or represents to the public that he or she is authorized and available to practice a particular profession and maintains any office, place of business, establishment or the like, within the corporate limits of the city, or any other legal entity, executor, personal representative, government, governmental subdivision or agency, estate, trust, trustee, conservator or other representative appointed by order of any court.
RENTAL UNIT. A room or group of rooms within any structure, building, house, mobile home, or any portion thereof, arranged or designed to be occupied for residential sleeping, living, cooking, and sanitation purposes by one or more persons, which is leased or rented from the owner of such units, or the owner’s designated agent, to any tenant, whether by day, week, month, year, or any other term. The words RENTAL UNIT shall not include any of the exceptions contained in § 38.086.
RESPONSIBLE LOCAL AGENT. The owner or a natural person designated by the owner as the agent responsible for operating a rental unit in compliance with the ordinances adopted by the city. In many instances, the RESPONSIBLE LOCAL AGENT may be the owner if no other responsible party exists.
SPECIAL STORE. Includes any store or stores or any mercantile establishment or establishments, in which goods, wares or merchandise of any kind except cigarettes, tobacco products and soft drinks are purchased, ordered, sold or offered for sale, either at retail or wholesale, and which contains no coin operated device, or devices, owned or operated by the store proprietor.
STREET VENDOR.
(1) Includes any person, except an itinerant vendor, hawker or peddler, who engages in or conducts, either as principal or agent, and whether working independently or as part of an organized event under the umbrella of a promoter, sponsor or organizer of an event in the city, a business selling goods, wares, merchandise, food, confectionery or drink upon any street, sidewalk or public park, regardless of whether the STREET VENDOR makes such sales while occupying portable table, open sided cart or trailer, or a motorized vehicle, or using a container.
(2) STREET VENDOR. Shall not apply to:
(a) Sales made to dealers by commercial travelers or selling agents in the usual course of business;
(b) Bona fide sales of goods, wares or merchandise by samples for future delivery; or
(c) Sidewalk sales carried on by a vendor.
TENANT. Any individual who has, in exchange for monetary or other valuable consideration, the temporary use and occupancy of real property owned by another person in subordination to that other person’s title and with that other person’s consent; for example, a person who rents or leases a rental unit from an owner.
VENDOR. Any person, whether selling at retail to the general public or otherwise selling to a person engaged in business in the city, who is engaged in this city in furnishing or rendering services or making sales of tangible personal property; provided, that a VENDOR does not mean or include an itinerant vendor, street vendor, hawker or peddler.
WHOLESALER. Includes any person who:
(1) Purchases cigarettes directly from the manufacturer;
(2) Purchases cigarettes from any other person who purchases from the manufacturer and who acquires the cigarettes solely for the purpose of bona fide resale to retail dealers or to persons for the purposes or resale only; or
(3) Services retail outlets by the maintenance of an established place of business for the purchase of cigarettes, including, but not limited to, the maintenance of warehousing facilities for the storage and distribution of cigarettes. A person may qualify in different capacities as both a WHOLESALER and a retailer of cigarettes.
(Prior Code, § 733.15) (Ord. 09-06, passed 7-21-2009; Ord. passed 12-17-2019)