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system and sewer system of the city shall be made, laid and constructed and to let necessary contracts therefor.

(p) To establish and fix the water rents and change the same; to prescribe rules for regulating the use of the water supply and for the protection and preservation of the property, water works, reservoirs, pipes and sewers and the appurtenances thereto.

(q) And for the purpose aforesaid or any or either of them, or for executing any powers conferred upon the common council, the commissioner of public works, commissioner of public safety, commissioner of charities or any official or employee of the city, or upon the said city by this act or otherwise, the said common council shall have full power to make, establish, publish, modify, amend or repeal ordinances and prescribe, fix and enforce such penalties and fines as it may deem proper for the violation of them respectively.

§ 44. Ordinances. The common council shall also have power to enact ordinances for the following purposes and to amend and repeal the same:

(a) To restrain and punish vagrants, mendicants, street beggars and persons soliciting alms, keepers of houses of ill fame, common prostitutes, lewd and disorderly persons, and to prevent and punish drunkenness and disorderly or immoral conduct in streets and public places.

(b) To prohibit the gathering or assembling of persons upon the public streets of said city or congregating upon the corners of the streets thereof, and to authorize the police officers of said city to disperse all such gatherings or assemblages of persons, and upon the refusal of persons so congregated or assembled to disperse when commanded so to do by a duly appointed police officer, such police officer may make summary arrest of any person or persons so refusing, and take him or them forthwith before the recorder of said city to be by him tried as disorderly persons and punished as such, and all such persons are hereby declared to be disorderly

persons.

(c) To restrain cattle, animals and fowls from running at large in said city, and to authorize the distraining, impounding and sale of the same for the penalty incurred and the cost of their keeping and the proceedings; to make regulations for taxing and confining dogs and destroying such as may be found running at large, contrary to any ordinance; and to establish a public pound which shall be subject to the jurisdiction and management of the commissioner of public safety.

(d) To license, regulate and control all porters, cartmen, hack or cabmen, stages, omnibuses or other vehicles, for the transportation of passengers within the city; to fix their rates of compensation and to require them to have licenses and prescribe the amount to be paid therefor; to regulate by license or prohibit the exhibition of any circus, caravan, theatre, curiosities, or other show or entertainment; to regulate by license or prohibit auction sales in said city, and hawking and peddling on the streets of said city. (e) To prohibit all kinds of gambling; to regulate billiard rooms and bowling alleys; to suppress and restrain disorderly houses and houses of ill fame; to regulate and prevent bathing in the Mohawk river and all the creeks and other waters within the city; to prevent immoderate driving and racing in said city. (f) To prevent or regulate the deposit of building materials. upon the streets or sidewalks to such an extent and for such time as it may prescribe.

(g) To prohibit, license or regulate the keeping, storing, use or sale of gun powder, kerosene or any other combustible or explosive substance or compound, and the conveyance or transportation. of the same in or through any part of the city; to regulate or prohibit the use of firearms in said city; to regulate the use of lights in stables or other buildings in which combustible materials may be collected or deposited.

(h) To regulate the erection and use of telegraph, telephone or electric light poles or poles for the carrying of electric wires on the streets or public grounds; or the stringing or placing of wires in, over, under or upon the streets or public places, or upon, over, or in front of any building or buildings and to provide for the removal of any pole or wire erected or maintained contrary to such regulation or any ordinance of the city; to prescribe rules and regulate the installation in all houses, buildings or structures of all wires, conductors or other substances used for the transmission of electric energy for light, heat, power or other purposes. (i) To prohibit and punish any game, practice, amusement or act in the public streets or elsewhere having a tendency to frighten teams or horses, or to injure or annoy persons residing in the city or passing in or along the highways or streets of the city, or to injure or endanger life or property.

(j) To regulate the speed of locomotives, tenders, railroad and street railway cars and all other vehicles, and to prevent the unnecessary obstruction of streets by the same.

(k) To regulate and prescribe plans, methods and materials

for the erection and repair of buildings within said city or any district or districts thereof which it may establish, and for such purpose to establish a building code.

(1) To prevent or regulate the ringing of bells, blowing of whistles and horns, the crying of wares and making of any unnecessary noise, which may tend to disturb the peace of the city; to prevent or regulate the sale or exposure for sale of fireworks or other explosive compounds; to prevent and punish the discharge of firearms, rockets, fireworks and gun powder in or near the streets of the city or in the vicinity of any building.

(m) To regulate, prevent or punish the posting of bills, signs or advertisements, on any public building, or any telegraph, lighting or telephone poles, within said city.

(n) To compel the owners or occupants of buildings to have scuttles in the roofs thereof and stairs or ladders leading to them; to prescribe and compel the erection and use of fire escapes, fire doors and fire shutters in such buildings as it may deem necessary and to compel the furnishing and placing of fire buckets, pails, fire extinguishers, hose, stand pipes and such other apparatus for the prevention and extinction of fires as it may deem proper.

(0) To provide or regulate the erection, placing or maintaining on or above any street of the city any goods, sign, sign-board or other device which shall hang, suspend or project from or upon any such street or the sidewalk thereon.

(p) To enact ordinances, not inconsistent with law, for the government of the city and the management of its business, for the preservation of good order, peace and health, for the safety and welfare of its inhabitants and the protection and security of their property.

45. Violations of ordinances. Every person violating any ordinance heretofore passed, or that may hereafter be passed by the common council of the city of Amsterdam, shall be liable to the penalty or fine therein prescribed, and in the event that no fine or penalty is fixed therein, then he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished by fine or imprisonment, or both, in the discretion of the court before which such conviction shall have been had.

$ 46. Power to summon witnesses. The mayor, common council or any committee thereof, by its chairman, shall have power to issue a subpoena to any person to appear and testify before him or them in respect to any matter pending or referred to either of them or to any board of the city. Such subpoena may

be served at any place within the county of Montgomery in the same manner as subpoenas for witnesses in criminal cases. Any person who shall refuse to attend in obedience to any such subpœna may be arrested by an order or attachment which shall be issued by the mayor or recorder upon proof of the service of such subpoena and of such refusal, and may be committed to the county jail or other proper place of detention until he shall appear or testify. Such witness so refusing to attend may also be fined or imprisoned for disobedience of such subpoena by the mayor or recorder in the manner and to the same extent as witnesses refusing to attend in obedience to subpoena duly issued by a justice of the peace. Whenever any person summoned as a witness before said mayor, common council, or any committee thereof shall refuse to be sworn or affirmed or to answer any proper or pertinent question, the mayor or recorder on complaint made may forthwith commit such person to the county jail or other proper place of detention for a period not exceeding twenty days, or until he shall be sworn or affirmed or answer such question. Such commitment shall be made by a warrant directed to the sheriff of the county or other officer having such place of detention in charge, and shall recite the cause of such commitment, and such officer shall keep such person in close confinement as directed thereby.

847. Accounts against city. No account or claim against the city, except for a fixed salary, for the principal or interest on a bonded or funded debt or other loan, or for the regular or stated compensation of officers or employees in any city department, or for work performed or materials furnished under the contract therefor, shall be paid unless a claim therefor, itemized and verified by or on behalf of the claimant and approved by the head of the department or officer whose action gave rise or origin to the claim shall have been filed with the city clerk, and shall have been audited and allowed by the common council; the city clerk shall cause all such claims to be presented to the common council for audit, and they shall be referred by said common council to a standing committee thereof, to be composed of five members. to be called "Auditing Committee." It shall be the duty of said committee to inquire or examine into said claim or account and they may send for persons and papers and examine the claimant and witnesses on oath in relation thereto. The said committee shall report the matter referred to them to the common council, either favorably or adversely with their reasons, and said com

mon council shall then hear, examine and determine the same as a board of town auditors, and for that purpose shall possess the powers and be subject to the duties of town auditors.

§ 48. Claims for injuries to person or property. Claims against the city for injuries to the person or property of the claimant, alleged to have been caused or sustained by defects, want of repair, or obstructions from snow or ice, or other causes in the highways, streets, sidewalks or crosswalks of the city, shall be filed with the city clerk in writing within three months after such injury is received. Said claim shall describe the time, place, cause and extent of the injuries so far as practicable, verified by the oath of the claimant if possible; the omission to present the said claim as aforesaid within three months shall be a bar to any claim or action therefor against the city, and no action shall be commenced against said city on such claim until after three months from the filing thereof. The city clerk shall present all such claims to the common council for audit.

49. Designation and marking of certain streets. The common council may designate those streets and highways in the city which in its judgment cannot be put in proper condition for general travel without too great expense and shall cause such streets so designated to be appropriately marked on such streets and highways and on the map thereof.

§ 50. Official newspapers. The common council shall, at its first meeting in each official year, designate two newspapers in said city in which shall be published all official notices and all ordinances and proceedings of the common council; which said newspapers shall be selected from the newspapers of said city which are allied to and supporting different political parties. In making such selection, each member of the common council may designate one newspaper, and the two newspapers receiving the greatest number of votes shall be selected and designated as such official newspaper of the city for the ensuing year, provided that they are opposite in politics, as aforesaid, and if they are not opposite in politics the designation shall be a nullity. After the close of each fiscal year the common council shall cause to be printed a volume containing all the proceedings of the common council.

§ 51. Franchises. No license, permission, grant or franchise for the use or occupation of any street, highway or public ground or any part thereof shall be entered into, given, made or granted for a term exceeding fifty years. The power to grant such license, permission, grant or franchise shall be vested in the common

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