[HISTORY: Adopted by the Common Council of the City of Oswego 5-12-1980
as Ch. 121 of the 1980 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.[1]]
[1]
Editor's Note: The County of Oswego is the current enforcement agency
for the provisions of this chapter.
Every person, resident in the City of Oswego, selling meat or articles
of provision by retail, whether by weight or measure, shall provide himself
with scales, weights and measures sealed and marked with the appropriate devices
by the Director of Weights and Measures, and use the same to ascertain the
amount of such commodities so sold, but no spring balance, spring scale, spring
steelyards or spring weighing machine shall be used for any such purpose,
unless at least one (1) face or dial of any such spring balance, spring scale
or spring steelyard or spring weighing machine shall at all times, when being
used for weighing commodities for sale, be turned toward and exposed to the
full view of the purchaser for whom said scales or any of them are being used.
A violation of any of the provisions of this chapter is punishable by a fine
of not less than two dollars ($2.) nor more than ten dollars ($10.).
Every person who sells, attempts to sell or expose for sale any article
of provisions in any market or elsewhere within the city by light weight or
short count or short measurement is subject to a fine of not less than ten
dollars ($10.) nor more than fifty dollars ($50.).
Any person using weights, measures, scale beams or steelyards in weighing
any article intended to be purchased or sold in the city, or in the weight
or measurement of which other persons or the public are interested, shall
cause such weights, measures, scale beams or steelyards to be sealed and marked
by the Director of Weights and Measures, and any person who shall neglect
or refuse to have the same so marked and sealed shall be subject to a fine
of five dollars ($5.).
The Director of Weights and Measures shall have the care and custody
of the city standards of weights and measures and all weights and measures
adjusted by him shall be made conformable to the standards of the state. He
shall at least twice in each year and oftener, if he deems it necessary, visit
the markets, stores, shops and other places where weights, measures, scales,
beams or other measuring apparatus are used and examine the same, and also
measures marked on any counter, seat or fixture, and in case they be found
not conforming to law, to report the same to the Common Council.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: For additional powers and duties, see Agriculture and
Market Laws, Article 16.
The Director shall make a regular register of the weights, measures
and beams inspected by him, in which he shall record the names of the persons
owning the same and whether the same are conformable to the standards of the
state. When any such beam, weight or measure is not conformable, if the Director
shall require the same to be properly adjusted, and if the owner shall neglect
or refuse so to do, such owner shall be subject to a fine of not less than
five dollars ($5.) nor more than ten dollars ($10.) and to a like fine for
every twenty-four (24) hours he shall continue such neglect and (or) refusal
after the first conviction.
The Common Council shall designate annually as many scales as public
scales for the weighing of coal, hay and other articles as the public good
may require. The owner or owners, lessee or lessees of the scales so designated
shall be the public weigher or weighers hereinafter referred to during the
period for which said scales are so designated. Such public weigher or weighers
shall be sworn to a faithful performance of his or their duties before entering
upon the discharge of them.
Every such weigher or his representative shall be at or near the scales
of which he has the charge at all reasonable times, ready to weigh all articles
offered for that purpose. He shall deliver to the driver or owner or purchaser
of every load weighed a certificate under his hand specifying the name of
the driver or owner, his place of residence, the name of the article weighed,
the weight thereof and the tare, the date and the fees charged. He shall keep
a true account of all articles weighed by him and record the same in a book
kept for that purpose, which shall at all times be open for public inspection,
and when filled be delivered to the City Clerk. Said record shall contain
the same particulars that are required to be stated in the certificate described
in this chapter.
The City Clerk shall furnish to said weigher and each of them blank
certificates having spaces indicated thereon for the name of the owner or
driver of the load as required, his place of residence, the name of the article
weighed, the weight thereof, the tare, the date and fees charged and the name
of the weigher.
The City Clerk shall keep a record of the number of blank certificates
furnished each weigher or weighers, and settlements shall be made quarterly
from the first of January each year with the city for the city's portion of
the fees received for weighing by such weigher or weighers, and such settlements
shall be adjusted in accordance with the number of blank certificates returned
by said weigher or weighers to the City Clerk on such quarterly settlements.
The fees for weighing to be received by the weighers, which they shall
pay to the City Clerk quarterly, less the percentage hereinafter mentioned,
shall be as follows,: one cent and a half ($0.015) for every hundred (100)
pounds of coal, pig iron, ice or sand, and one cent ($0.01) for every hundred
(100) pounds of an other article; provided, however, that the fees for weighing
any article, other than hay and straw, shall never be less than ten cents
($0.10); and provided further that the fees for weighing stone shall be ten
cents ($0.10) for a single load, and fifteen cents ($0.15) for a double load.
The vehicle containing the same and other tare shall be weighed without charge,
and no fees shall be taken for weighing done on account of the city.
Each weigher shall receive and may retain as full compensation for his
services a sum equal to seventy-five percent (75%) of the fees received by
him. He shall pay the remainder of such fees to the City Clerk, who shall
immediately turn the same over to the City Chamberlain, who shall place the
same to the credit of the contingent fund of the city.
It shall be the duty of the weighers to keep the scales under their
care in good order and clear of snow and ice, so that they shall be in good
condition for use at all times, and the Director of Weights and Measures shall
have the general control and supervision of all such scales and shall test
and certify the same once in every three (3) months in each year.
A weigher who shall falsely or fraudulently weigh or certify to the
weight of any hay, coal or other articles or fail to furnish a statement,
as required, of the actual tare thereof or willfully refuse to give the certificate
provided for in the foregoing section upon due payment of the fees or fail
to account to and pay over to the City Chamberlain the city's share of the
fees received by him shall be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine
of one thousand dollars ($1,000.) or imprisonment for one (1) year, or both.
