Title 24APPENDIX, Title 24APPENDIX: Municipal Charters

§ 1201. Amendment and repeal The said trustees may make, alter, amend, or repeal any ordinance, bylaw, or regulation which it deems necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers or for the well-being of said Village, and which is not repugnant to the Const…

§ 1202. Recordation and certification The bylaws, rules, regulations, and ordinances of said Village shall be recorded in the office of the Clerk of said Village, and the Clerk’s certificate that such bylaws, rules, regulations, or ordinances have been passed or adopted shall be …

§ 1203. Fines (a) For the breach of any bylaw, rule, regulation, or ordinance, the Village may impose a fine as specified therein. The court or Judicial Bureau shall impose the costs of prosecution in addition to the fine, in case of a conviction, and when it is necessary to abat…

§ 1204. Prosecutions The trustees of the Village and any informing or prosecuting officer of the Town or County of Bennington may prosecute for violations of the charter; or the ordinances, bylaws, and regulations of said Village.

§ 1301. Amendment and repeal This charter shall be subject to future legislation to alter, amend, or repeal.

§ 1302. [Transitional provisions related to approval of the charter and effective date]

§ 1401. Boundaries (a) All that portion of the Town of Bennington in the County of Bennington that is embraced within the following described limits, viz.: It being the same territory that on the 10th day of May, 1866, the Selectboard of Bennington, pursuant to law, set out as an…

§ 201. Authorization for the assessment and collection of property taxes The Village may, at an annual or special meeting warned for that purpose as provided in section 202 of this chapter, lay a tax upon the ratable estate within the same, whether of residents or nonresidents, f…

§ 202. Warning of annual and special meetings (a)(1) The annual meeting of the legal voters of the Village shall be held therein on the third Tuesday of March of each year at seven-thirty o’clock in the afternoon at the Village hall or at such place as the Board of Trustees shall…

§ 203. Elections at annual meetings (a) The Village shall, at every annual meeting elect a Moderator, Clerk, Treasurer, three auditors, and the number of trustees as are necessary to fill vacancies where terms of office have expired or a member has resigned, died, or been removed…

§ 204. Moderator Pro Tem In case the Moderator shall be absent from any meeting, that member of the Board of Trustees present at such meeting whose name shall have precedence on the list of trustees as recorded in the minutes of election of the then existing Board of Trustees, sh…

§ 301. Terms of office The term of office for all trustees shall be three years, staggered so that at least one trustee is elected at any annual meeting. The Moderator, Clerk, Treasurer, and auditors shall all serve a one-year term. The term of office of all the Village officers …

§ 302. Compensation of officers The compensation of the Clerk and Treasurer shall be fixed by the Village; the compensation of all other officers, servants, and employees of the Village shall be fixed by the Board of Trustees, except as otherwise provided in this chapter. (Amende…

§ 303. Board of Trustees; general authority (a) The Board of Trustees shall have the general care and management of the prudential interests and affairs of the Village; shall assess all taxes and make out a rate bill accordingly; shall direct the expenditure of all monies belongi…

§ 304. Clerk It shall be the duty of the Clerk to warn Village meetings and keep a record of all the proceedings of said Village; the Clerk shall also ex-officio be Clerk of the Board of Trustees and keep a record of its proceedings so far as the same are proper matter for record…

§ 305. Treasurer The Treasurer shall perform for the Village the same duties required by law respectively of a town treasurer and collector of town taxes and shall have the same powers, proceed in the same manner, be subject to the same liabilities, and give such bonds to the Vil…

§ 306. Auditors The auditors shall, previous to each annual Village meeting, examine and audit the accounts of the Village officers, but no account shall be allowed by such auditors without the production of proper vouchers therefor, and shall report to the Village at its annual …

§ 401. Election of Chair and appointments The Board of Trustees shall annually, at its first regular meeting, elect from its number a Chairperson and Vice Chairperson. It shall also appoint a Chief and two assistant engineers of the Fire Department, and may appoint a Highway Supe…

§ 402. Meetings The Board of Trustees shall hold their first regular meeting within three days after the annual Village meeting; and shall hold such other regular meetings as the bylaws may provide.

§ 501. Fire Chief and firefighters (a) The Chief of the Fire Department, or in the absence of the Chief, the assistant engineer next in authority shall have power at fires to suppress tumults and riots, by force if necessary, to remove all effects endangered by such fire and prot…

§ 502. Firefighting apparatus All apparatus for the extinguishment of fires and the rooms for storing the same, owned or leased by the Village, and all fire companies organized under the authority of said Village, shall be under the direction and control of the Chief of the Fire …

§ 601. Highway Superintendent The Highway Superintendent shall, under the direction and control of the Board of Trustees, have in charge the building and repairing of all the highways, streets, lanes, and sidewalks in the Village; the Superintendent shall keep such accounts relat…

§ 602. Highway tax rate The Village of North Bennington shall establish its own highway tax rate. The voters in said Village shall not vote for Road Commissioner at a Town meeting of the Town of Bennington.

§ 603. Board of Trustees; authority with respect to roads, streets, and sidewalks The trustees of said Village shall have the same power, whenever in their judgment the public good requires, to take gravel, earth, stone, and other materials to repair or build a road, street, or s…

§ 701. Police Department; appointment; duties (a)(1) The Board of Trustees may also appoint a Chief of Police and not more than five additional police officers, except on public occasions, when they may appoint such number of special police for that occasion as they may think nec…

§ 801. Construction and maintenance of reservoir The said Village shall also have authority and power to construct, maintain, and repair a reservoir or reservoirs, pumps, engines, and apparatus, take, purchase, and acquire, as in this charter provided, any ponds, springs, streams…

§ 802. Use of land for reservoir Said Village for the purposes aforesaid may enter upon and use any land and enclosures over or through which it may be necessary for an aqueduct or pipes to pass and may thereon dig, place, lay, and construct such pipes, aqueducts, reservoirs, app…

§ 803. Use of water; payment; inspection; damages The owner of any tenement, house, or building who shall take the water of said Village shall be liable for the rent or the price of the same, and the officers and agents of said corporation entrusted with the care and superintende…

§ 804. Unauthorized diversion and malicious damage Any person who shall willfully, wantonly, or maliciously divert the water or part thereof of any of the ponds, springs, streams, aqueducts, water courses, or reservoirs, which shall be taken, used, or constructed by the Village, …

§ 805. Sewers and drains (a) The Trustees shall have the care and supervision of the public sewers and drains of the Village and shall see that the same are properly constructed and maintained, and that the sewers or drains from abutting or adjacent property are properly connecte…

§ 806. Connections to sewer system After such system of sewers or mains has been constructed as above provided, each and every owner of a house or other building in said Village situate upon any highway, street, lane, or alley through which a sewer main has been so laid out and c…

§ 807. Entry onto land for construction The trustees shall have authority to enter upon private lands or property to clear out, open, or construct any drain or ditch which, in their judgment, is required or necessary to receive or carry off the surface water falling or flowing up…

§ 808. Electric light plant The Village shall also have authority to construct and maintain an electric or other light plant, for the purpose of lighting the streets, walks, and public grounds of said Village, and the lighting any buildings therein, and for this purpose may take …

§ 809. Furnishing of water Said Village shall have authority to contract for the furnishing of water to said Village for extinguishing fires, sprinkling the streets, supplying drinking places, or other public uses, and may contract for the furnishing of lights or the light of str…

§ 810. Rights-of-way of public service corporation If in the construction, completion, maintenance, or future extension of said water system it becomes necessary, in order to complete said system or to convey water to the said Village or its inhabitants, to lay the water pipes or…

§ 811. Rates for water The inhabitants of said Village and of those parts of said Towns of Bennington and Shaftsbury to which said Board of Water Commissioners may decide to extend said system shall be entitled to water from said system at reasonable rates and under reasonable ru…

§ 812. Prohibition on taxation, assessment, or encumbrance of water works The Village of North Bennington shall never tax or assess said system of water works or the income thereof, and shall never mortgage or encumber the same or allow or permit the same to be encumbered.

§ 813. Board of Water Commissioners The entire management and control of the said water system and property shall be vested in the Village of North Bennington acting through a Board of Water Commissioners, five in number, at least four of whom shall be residents of the Village of…

§ 814. Gross income of water works The gross income from said system of water works shall from time to time as collected be paid into the Village treasury and the same shall by the Treasurer be kept separate and apart from all other monies of the Village and a separate account of…

§ 815. Payment of water works’ funds No money from said system of water works shall be paid out from the treasury of said Village except upon the written order of a majority of the Board of Water Commissioners.

§ 816. Board of Water Commissioners’ rules The said Board of Water Commissioners shall adopt rules and regulations and a proper system of bookkeeping for the keeping of accurate accounts of the receipts and income received by it for water or from any other source from or for said…

§ 817. Prohibition on abatement of water rates Neither said Village nor said Board of Water Commissioners shall abate the water rates or rents except overcharges.

§ 818. Annual net income of water works The annual net income from said system of water works, as defined by said deed from the said Laura H. Jennings or her heirs, administrators, or executors shall be used for the following purposes, viz., If the said Village installs a sewer s…

§ 819. Annual report Said Board of Water Commissioners shall make a report to the annual meeting of said Village each year showing the receipts and disbursements of their department and the general condition thereof.

§ 820. Staff assistance Said Board of Water Commissioners may employ and pay from the receipts of the water system such assistance, clerical or otherwise, as they deem necessary.

§ 901. Bonding for water and sewer systems and light plant The Village at an annual or special meeting called for that purpose, is hereby authorized and empowered to borrow money for any of the purposes herein mentioned, including the construction and establishment of a water sys…