Town of Manchester, CT INCORPORATION AND GENERAL POWERS

Editor's Note: For first incorporation of Town, see Special Acts, Art. I in this volume.

The Town shall have the following specific powers in addition to all powers granted to Towns under the Constitution and General Statutes, such powers to be exercised by the Town through the enactment and enforcement of ordinances, bylaws or otherwise:

(1)

To contract and to be contracted with, to sue and be sued, and to institute, prosecute, maintain and defend any action or proceeding in any court of competent jurisdiction;

(2)

To make, have and use and, from time to time, to alter a common seal;

(3)

To take, purchase, hold, condemn, lease, sell and convey such real and personal property as the purposes of the Town may require;

(4)

To provide for the authentication, execution and delivery of deeds, grants and releases of Town property and evidences of debt issued by said Town;

(5)

To take by gift, grant, bequest and devise and hold real and personal estate absolutely or in trust for any public use including that of education, art, ornament, health, charity or amusement, for cemeteries, parks or gardens, or for the erection or maintenance of statues, monuments, buildings or structures, upon such terms or conditions as may be prescribed by the grantor or donor and accepted by said Town and to provide for the proper administration of the same;

(6)

To prescribe the salaries and compensation of all officers of said Town and the duties of such officers not expressly defined by law;

(7)

To manage, regulate and control the finances and property, real and personal, of the Town and to regulate and provide for the sale, conveyance, transfer and release of Town property and to provide for the due execution of contracts and evidences of indebtedness issued by the Town;

(8)

To provide for the auditing, examination and investigation of the accounts and records of the Town maintained by any of its departments, commissions, boards, bureaus or officers;

(9)

To make and enforce police, sanitary and other similar regulations and to protect or promote the peace, safety, good government and welfare of the Town and its inhabitants;

(10)

To provide for the policing of the Town and to regulate and prescribe the duties of the police force in respect to criminal matters within the limits of the Town and to maintain and regulate a suitable place of detention within the Town limits for the safekeeping of all persons arrested and awaiting trial;

(11)

To provide, organize, maintain and regulate a fire department, provide the necessary apparatus for extinguishing fires and do all other things necessary or desirable to protect the Town from fire, and to establish fire limits within said Town;

(12)

To preserve the public peace and good order, to prevent and quell riots and disorderly assemblages and to prevent disturbing noises;

(13)

To permit, regulate and prohibit games, coasting, sliding and the use of velocipedes, bicycles and tricycles on the streets or sidewalks of the Town;

(14)

To license, regulate and prohibit the keeping, storing, manufacturing, selling or use of any explosive or inflammable substances or materials, including firecrackers and fireworks, within the Town, or their conveyance into or through the Town;

(15)

To regulate the speed of vehicles, subject to the provisions of the General Statutes relating to the regulation of the speed of motor vehicles and of animals, and the driving or leading of animals through the streets;

(16)

To secure the safety of persons passing through or in the Town by regulations of fireworks, shows, parades, processions and music;

(17)

To define, prohibit and abate within the Town all nuisances and causes thereof and all things detrimental to the health, morals, safety, convenience and welfare of its inhabitants and to cause the abatement of any nuisance at the expense of the owner or owners of the premises on which such nuisance exists;

(18)

To prevent vice, suppress gambling houses, houses of ill fame and disorderly houses and to punish for gambling and policy playing;

(19)

To regulate and prohibit swimming or bathing in public or exposed places within said Town;

(20)

To provide for the health of said Town and to do all things necessary or desirable to secure and promote the public health;

(21)

To regulate and prohibit the erection or use and require the removal of sinks, cesspools, drains, sewers, privies, barns, outhouses and poultry pens and houses;

(22)

To regulate the removing of any offensive manure or other substance, night soil or dead animals through the streets of the Town and to provide for the disposal of the same;

(23)

To preserve and care for public burial grounds and regulate the burial or disposal of the dead;

(24)

To regulate and prohibit the carrying on within said Town of any trade, manufacture, business or profession which is or may be so carried on as to become prejudicial to public health, conducive to fraud and cheating or dangerous to or constituting an unreasonable annoyance to those living or owning property in the vicinity;

(25)

To regulate the emission of smoke from any chimney, smokestack or other source within the limits of the Town, and provide for the proper heating of buildings within the Town;

(26)

To license milk dealers and regulate the sale and manner of distribution of milk and beverages composed wholly or in part of milk, and to prohibit the sale thereof unless in accordance with such regulations;

(27)

To regulate and control the sale and distribution of all foodstuffs of every description;

(28)

To provide for such inspection service within and without the Town and to make such regulations as may be necessary to the purity and wholesomeness of food products sold within the Town;

(29)

To regulate weights and measures in accordance with the lawful standards thereof and provide proper inspection thereof;

(30)

To regulate the measuring, inspecting and manner of selling of wood, coke, coal, oils and other fuels, and the sale of goods by public auction in the Town;

(31)

To regulate the construction, reconstruction, demolition, removal, altering or repairing of buildings of any kind and materials used in, and the location, height, maintenance, use and occupancy of, buildings, and generally to regulate all building operations within said Town, and to regulate plumbing and the installation of heating apparatus, electrical wiring and all other construction work in any building in said Town;

(32)

To regulate and prohibit the moving of buildings upon or through the streets or other public places of the Town, and to cause the removal and demolition of unsafe buildings or structures;

(33)

To regulate the mode of using any buildings when such regulations seem expedient for the purpose of promoting the safety, health, morals and general welfare of the inhabitants of said Town;

(34)

To establish lines beyond which no building, steps, stoop, veranda, billboard, advertising sign or device or other structure or obstruction may be erected;

(35)

To regulate and prohibit the placing, erecting or keeping of signs, awnings or other thing upon or over the sidewalks, streets and other public places of the Town;

(36)

To prohibit and regulate the discharge of drains from roofs of buildings over or upon the sidewalks, streets or other public places of the Town or into sanitary sewers;

(37)

To lay out, construct, maintain, operate, alter, extend and discontinue sewer and drainage systems and sewage disposal plants;

(38)

To enter into or upon any land for the purpose of making necessary surveys or mapping in connection with any public improvement and to take by eminent domain any lands, rights, easements, privileges, franchises or structures which may be necessary for the purpose of establishing, constructing or maintaining any public work, either within or without the Town limits, or for any municipal purpose in the manner prescribed by § 48-12 of the General Statutes, as amended;

(39)

To prescribe the form of proceedings and mode of assessing benefits and appraising damages in taking lands for public use, or in making public improvements to be paid for in whole or in part by special assessments, and to prescribe the time when and the manner in which all benefits assessed shall be collected, when not specially prescribed in this Act;

(40)

To regulate and prohibit the excavation, altering, use or opening of streets, sidewalks, highways, public places and grounds for public and private purposes and the location of any work or thing therein, whether temporary or permanent, upon or under the surface thereof;

(41)

To regulate the laying, location and maintenance of gas pipes, water pipes, drains, sewers, poles, wires, conduits and other structures in the streets and public places of the Town;

(42)

To create, provide for, construct, regulate and maintain all things in the nature of public works and improvements;

(43)

To prevent trespassing on public and private lands and in buildings in said Town;

(44)

To keep the streets, sidewalks and public places free from undue noises and nuisances and prohibit loitering thereon;

(45)

To provide for lighting the streets, highways, and other public places of the Town and for the care and preservation of public lamps and lampposts and fixtures;

(46)

To keep open and safe for public use and travel and free from encroachment or obstruction the streets, sidewalks, public grounds and places in said Town;

(47)

To regulate and prohibit the operation of commercial motor vehicles of more than two (2) tons lightweight on residential highways;

(48)

To provide for the planting, rearing and preserving of shade and ornamental trees on the streets and public grounds;

(49)

To require owners or occupants of land adjacent to any sidewalk or public walk to remove snow, ice, sleet, debris or any other obstruction therefrom, to provide penalties upon their failure to do so and to cause such snow, ice, sleet, debris or other obstruction to be removed and to make the cost of such removal a lien on such property;

(50)

To provide public entertainments and amusements for the people of the Town;

(51)

To prohibit, restrain, license and regulate all sports, exhibitions, public amusements and performances and all places where games may be played, including places for pool, billiards and bowling, and the business of peddlers, auctioneers and junk dealers;

(52)

To regulate and protect from injury or defacement all public buildings, public monuments, trees and ornaments in public places and other public property in the Town;

(53)

To regulate and prohibit the going at large of dogs and other animals in the streets and public places of the Town and to prevent cruelty to animals and all inhuman sports;

(54)

To regulate and prohibit the keeping of swine, cattle, poultry and other animals within the Town limits or portions thereof;

(55)

To lay out, establish, construct, maintain, manage and operate cemeteries, public buildings, parks, playgrounds, libraries, reading rooms and public places;

(56)

To provide for and regulate the collection and disposal of all garbage, trash, waste and ashes, either by contract or otherwise, and prohibit and regulate the depositing of the same within the Town;

(57)

To make all lawful regulations, ordinances, bylaws, and orders in furtherance of any of said powers and to prescribe penalties and forfeitures for the violation. of the same;

(58)

To lay and collect taxes to meet the lawful expenses of the Town;

(59)

By ordinance, to make such rules and regulations concerning the preparation and filing of tax lists as it may deem proper, the provisions of the statutes to the contrary notwithstanding, provided such ordinance shall have reference only to the form and filing of tax lists by the Assessor or by property owners or to the exclusion of all or certain items of taxable property from the addition of the penalty of ten (10) percent provided by law for failure to file tax lists; and provided no such ordinance shall be valid or effective until approved by the State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management.