The Common Council of said Town shall have power to lay off, vacate, close, alter, grade and keep in good repair the roads, streets, alleys, pavements, sidewalks, cross-walks, drains and gutters therein for the use of the citizens and of the public and to improve and light the same and to keep them free from obstruction of every kind; to regulate the width of the pavements, sidewalks, footways, drains and gutters to be kept in good order, free and clean by the owner or occupants of the real property next adjacent thereto; to lay off, open, close, vacate or maintain public grounds, parks, and public places, and name and rename the same, to have control and supervision thereover, to protect the same from damage or other injury by persons or property, to fix fines and punishments for any injury thereto in violation of any of the orders of said Common Council, and to maintain good order and prevent violations of the ordinances of said City therein and thereon; to establish and regulate markets, prescribe the time of holding the same, provide suitable and convenient buildings therefor, and prevent the forestalling of such markets; to prevent injury or annoyance to the public or to individuals from anything dangerous, offensive, or unwholesome; to regulate or prohibit street carnivals, or street fairs, or street parades, advertising exhibitions or other exhibitions on the streets and highways of said Town or exhibition of wares, merchandise, material, or artificial curiosities on any street, sidewalk, alley or public place of said Town; to regulate or prohibit to ringing of bells, blowing of steam whistles, or use of hand organs, or other instruments of annoyance, or other music of itinerant performers in the streets, or public speaking or preaching in the streets, roads, parks, or public places of the Municipality; to license, regulate or prohibit auctioneering; to license, regulate or prohibit the sale of goods, wares, merchandise, drugs, or medicine on the streets or in other public places; to regulate the time and place and manner of bathing in swimming pools, driving of cattle through, upon and along the streets and alleys of said Town; to arrest, convict and punish any person for gambling or keeping any gaming table, commonly called "Faro Bank," or table and chips used in playing such games, crap, crap table, chips or dice used in playing such games, or roulette or the wheel, chips or other equipment used in playing such game, or keno table or table of like kind or device used in playing the same or table of like kind under any denomination, whether the game or games be played with cards, dice or otherwise on which anything is bet or wagered, whether the same be played in any public or private room or residence, and may convict and punish any person who shall be partner or concerned in interest in the keeping of any such gambling devices heretofore enumerated, or in any game played, such as prohibited hereby, or in keeping or maintaining any gambling house or place of gambling for money or anything of value, and shall have the right to destroy such gambling paraphernalia as may be found on any such premises, and any officer armed with a warrant for the arrest of any person engaged in such unlawful game or for the search of any room in which gambling is suspected, or for the seizure of any gambling paraphernalia, shall have the right to break into any building, other than a private dwelling house, without notice or demand, and into a private dwelling or room, after demand and refusal to open same, provided, always however, that no search or seizure shall be made except in the manner provided by general law; to regulate or prohibit the placing of signs and the use of walls or walks for signs; to regulate or prevent the distribution or posting of any sign or bill, either on paper or painted, that, in the opinion of the Common Council or Mayor, is indecent, immoral or unsightly; to regulate or prohibit the distribution of hand bills, circulars and other advertisements of like kind, on the streets, roads, alleys and public places, or the placing of same in private yards, buildings or other structures; without having first-produced the consent of the owner or occupier of such property; to prevent and prohibit the use of indecent of profane language within the corporate limits, and to provide and fix punishment therefor; to prevent and prohibit any tumult, riot, quarrel, angry contention, or abusive language, and to prevent the use of insulting epithets, assaults, assault and battery, and fix fines and punishments therefor; to arrest, convict and punish any person for cruelty, unnecessarily or needlessly beating, torturing, mutilating, killing, or overloading, or overdriving, or wilfully depriving of necessary sustenance, any horse or other domestic animal; to prohibit or regulate slaughter houses, tan houses, and factories within the corporate limits; and to prohibit the exercise of any offensive business, trade or employment; to abate all nuisances within the corporate limits, and to require or compel the abatement or removal thereof, at the expense of the person causing the same, or by or at the expense of the owner of the ground at the place they are found; to cause to be filled up, raised or drained by or at the expense of the owner, any City lot or tract of land covered or subject to be covered by stagnant water; to prevent horses, hogs, cattle, sheep and other animals and fowls of all kinds from going or being at large in said Town, and as a means of prevention, said Common Council may provide for impounding and confining said animals and fowls, and upon the failure to reclaim, for the sale thereof; to protect places of divine worship and preserve order in and about the premises where and when such worship is held; to protect places of public instruction, schools and high schools, and to preserve order in and about all school buildings therein; to regulate the keeping of gun powder and other dangerous explosives and substances; and to regulate or prohibit the use of fire-crackers, sky-rockets, toy pistols, air rifles or guns, within the said Municipality; to apprehend and punish any person who, without a State license therefor, is guilty of carrying about his person, within the Municipality, and revolver or other pistol, dirk, bowie knife, sling shot, razor, billy, metallic or false knuckle, or any other dangerous or deadly weapons of like kind and character, and the punishment therefor, whether for the first or other offenses, shall be that now or hereafter prescribed by West Virginia Code guilty under the misdemeanor clause provided therein; to regulate the building of houses and other structures; for the maintaining and making of division fences by the owners of adjacent premises; and for the proper drainage of Town lots and other parcels of land by or at the expense of the owner or occupant thereof, when such drainage shall be deemed necessary for the protection of the public health; to provide against danger or damage by fire; to prohibit the keeping of or loitering in or visiting houses of ill fame, or loitering upon the streets of said Town; to prevent lewd or lascivious conduct, the sale or exhibition of indecent pictures or other representations; the desecration of the Sabbath day; to prevent swearing; the illegal sale of intoxicating liquors, mixtures and preparations, porter, beer, ale, wine or other drinks of like nature; to protect the persons of those residing or being within said Town; to prevent the illegal sale of tobacco, cigars, snuff, or cigarettes, within said Municipality, and to fix fines and punishments for violations thereof; to restrain all felons and persons guilty of offenses against this State or the United States, and deliver them over to the authorities or court having jurisdiction of the offense whereof such persons are accused; to appoint when necessary or advisable a police force, permanent or temporary, to assist the Chief of Police in the discharge of his duties; to build or purchase or lease and use a suitable place of imprisonment within said Town for the safe keeping or punishment of persons charged with or convicted of the violation of ordinances; to erect, maintain, authorize or prohibit gas or water works within the corporate limits; to prevent injury of such works, or the pollution of any water used or intended to be used by the public or individuals; to provide for and regulate the measuring and weighing of hay, coal, lumber or other articles sold or kept or offered for sale within said Town, and to establish rates and charges for said weighing or measuring; to limit the speed, size and weight of vehicles upon the streets, alleys, and other public thoroughfares within its limits as are not designated by the State Road Commission as connecting parts of the State road system, and to regulate the parking of vehicles upon any designated streets, alleys and other public thoroughfares within its limits, and to regulate the progress of traffic at street intersections, in congested districts thereof; to create by ordinance such committees and boards and delegate such authority thereto as may be deemed necessary or advisable; to provide for the annual assessment of the taxable property therein, including dogs, kept in said Town, and to regulate their running at large; to provide a revenue for the Town for Municipal purposes and to appropriate such revenue to its expenses and to take such measures as may be deemed necessary or advisable to protect the property, public and private, within said Town; to preserve and maintain peace, quiet and good order therein, and to preserve and promote the health, safety and well being of the inhabitants thereof.
The said Common Council shall have authority to pass all ordinances which shall be necessary or proper to carry into full effect and force, the authority and jurisdiction which is or shall be granted or vested in said Town, or in the Common Council thereof, or in any officer, or body of officers of said Town, and to enforce any and all ordinances by reasonable fines and penalties and by imprisonment, and upon failure to pay any such fine or penalty imposed, by compelling defaulting party to labor without compensation on any of the public works or improvements undertaken or to be undertaken by said Town, or to labor at any work which the said Town may lawfully employ labor upon, at such rate per diem as the Common Council may fix, but not at a less rate than is fixed by said Common Council for like labor from other employees of the Town, until all fines imposed upon such offenders have been paid and discharged, after deducting the charges of support while in the custody of the officers of said Town; provided, however, that no fines shall be imposed exceeding one hundred dollars ($100.00), and no person shall be imprisoned or compelled to labor as aforesaid more than sixty days for any offense; and in all cases where a fine is imposed for an amount exceeding ten dollars ($10.00) or a person be imprisoned or compelled to labor as aforesaid for a term greater than ten
days, an appeal may be taken from such decision upon the same terms and regulations that appeals are taken from the judgment of a justice of this State; such fines and penalties shall be imposed and recovered and such punishment inflicted and enforced by and under the judgment of the Mayor of said Town, or, in case of his absence or inability to act, by the Recorder, or if he be unable to act, then a member of the Common Council shall be appointed by the Council for that purpose. In addition to the powers already enumerated, the said Council shall have power to amplify, improve, extend and expand the water works of said Town, to contract by public contract for an adequate supply of pure, healthful water for said Town, and do all things necessary to secure an adequate supply of pure, wholesome water, and to provide, contract by public contract for and construct, an adequate sewerage system for said Town. When anything for which a State license is required is to be done within the limits of said Town, the Common Council may decide whether such license may be granted or not, and if granted it shall be assessed and collected the same as if granted by the County Court of each respective county. Such license shall be issued in the manner and form prescribed by Sections ten and eleven, Chapter thirty-six of the Code of West Virginia; and the sole and exclusive power is vested in said Town Council to grant or refuse State licenses within the limits of said Town. When any such license as is hereinbefore mentioned is granted by said Common Council, said Common Council may impose a tax thereon for the use of said Town in conformity with the State law, and shall also require license bonds payable to the said Town in its corporate name, with good security, such bonds to be approved by said Common Council, to be in the same penalty as required by the State law, and the said Common Council may revoke such license at any time the condition of the bond shall be broken, upon ten days' previous notice to the person, persons or corporations holding the same, and suits may be prosecuted and maintained on such bond as is prescribed in Section twenty-two of Chapter thirty-two of the Code of West Virginia, by the same person, in the same manner and to the same extent, as upon the bond mentioned in the said section, and all the provisions of said section in relation to the bonds therein mentioned shall be applicable to the bonds required by this section. Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed as authorizing or empowering the said Town or its Council to impose any license or other tax upon motor vehicles except the regular property tax.
Said Common Council shall also have power to levy, assess, and collect taxes upon the real and personal property within said Town, but such taxes shall be uniform with respect to persons and property within the jurisdiction of said Town; and the said Common Council as soon as convenient after the first day of May, in each year, and after the annual assessment, shall cause to be made up and entered upon its journal an account and estimate of all sums which ought to be paid within one year; and it shall order a levy of so much as in its opinion may be necessary to pay the same not exceeding that allowed by law. The levy so ordered shall be upon the male persons, residents of the said Town, all real and personal estate within the said Town subject to State and County taxes, but in no year shall such levy exceed one dollar ($1.00) on each one hundred dollars ($100.00) of valuation. Such levy shall also include a poll tax of not more than one dollar ($1.00) upon each male resident of said corporation over twenty-one years of age.
Said Common Council shall also have power to contract by public contract, for the paving of its streets and alleys; to establish and regulate the grade thereof, and to provide for the maintenance and repair of the same; to provide for the maintenance, continuance and enjoyment of its water works; to provide for the maintenance, establishment and enjoyment of fire companies, for the purpose of protecting the property of the citizens of said Town from destruction or damage by fire. But said Town shall not hereafter be allowed to become indebted in any manner for any purpose to an amount including the existing indebtedness, in the aggregate, exceeding five per centum (5%) of the value of the taxable property therein, to be ascertained by the last assessment for State and County purposes previous to the incurring of such indebtedness, without at the same time providing for the collection of a direct annual tax sufficient to pay annually the interest on such debt and the principal thereon within and not exceeding thirty-four years; provided, that no debt shall be contracted under this charter unless all questions connected with the same shall have been first submitted to a vote of the people and have received three-fifths of all the votes cast for and against the same. Said Common Council shall not grant any franchise to any person, or corporation, within said Town limits which shall be either exclusive or perpetual, and no franchise involving the use or occupancy of the same, shall be granted except by an ordinance to that effect; and no such. ordinance shall be passed unless the question of the granting of such franchise shall have been first submitted to a vote of the people, and shall have and receive a majority of all the votes cast upon the question; provided, such submission shall have been petitioned for by at least one-tenth of the qualified voters of said Town, to be ascertained according to the number of votes cast at the last preceding election.