Town of Somerset, MD The Powers of the Town

The town shall have, in addition to its general powers, the power to adopt ordinances, resolutions, regulations, and rules not contrary to the Constitution and laws of the State of Maryland, for the following specific purposes:

(1)

Advertisment [Advertisement] and publication. To provide for advertisement and publication for the purposes of the town, for printing and publishing statements as to the business of the town, and for publishing a Somerset Town Journal.

(2)

Aisles. To regulate and prevent the obstruction of aisles in public halls, churches, and places of amusement, and to regulate the construction and operation of the doors and means of egress therefrom.

(3)

Amusements. To provide in the interest of the public welfare for licensing, regulating, or restraining theatrical or other public amusements.

(4)

Appropriations. To appropriate town moneys for any purpose within the powers of the town.

(5)

Auctioneers. To regulate the sale of all kinds of property at auction within the town and to license auctioneers.

(6)

Band. To establish a town band, symphony orchestra, or other musical organization, and to regulate by ordinance the conduct and policies thereof.

(7)

Billboards and signs. To license, tax, regulate, restrain, or prohibit the erection, placing, or maintenance of billboards, signs, bills, and posters of every kind and description on any building, fence, post, billboard, pole, or other place within the town.

(8)

Bridges. To erect and maintain bridges.

(9)

Buildings, structures and improvements. To make reasonable regulations in regard to buildings, structures, and other improvements to be erected, constructed, or reconstructed in the town, and to grant building permits for the same; to formulate a building code and a plumbing, heating, and electrical code, to appoint inspectors, and to require reasonable charges for permits and inspections; to authorize and require the inspection of all buildings, structures, and other improvements, and to authorize the condemnation thereof in whole or in part when dangerous or insecure, and to require that such buildings, structures, and other improvements be made safe or be taken down or removed.

(10)

Cemeteries. To regulate and prohibit the interment of bodies within the town and to regulate cemeteries.

(11)

Codification. To provide for the codification of all ordinances which have been or may hereafter be passed.

(12)

Community services. To provide, maintain, and operate community and social services for the preservation and promotion of the health, recreation, welfare, and enlightenment of the inhabitants of the town.

(13)

Cooperation with other bodies. To make agreements with other municipalities, counties, districts, bureaus, commissions, and governmental authorities for the joint performance of or for cooperation in the performance of any governmental or proprietary functions.

(14)

Curfew. To prohibit the youth of the town from being in the streets, lanes, alleys, or public places at unreasonable hours of the night.

(15)

Dangerous conditions. To compel persons about to undertake dangerous improvements to execute bonds with sufficient sureties conditioned that the owner or contractor will pay all damages resulting from such work which may be sustained by any persons or property.

(16)

Departments. To create, change, and abolish nonelective offices, departments, or agencies of the town government, including the nonelective offices, departments, and agencies established by this Charter; and to assign additional functions or duties to offices, departments, or agencies.

(17)

Dogs and cats. To regulate, license, or prohibit the keeping or presence of dogs or cats in the town, and to provide for their disposition or removal from the town.

(18)

Elevators. To require the inspection and licensing of elevators and to prohibit their use when unsafe or dangerous or without a license.

(19)

Expenses of officials. To provide by resolution for reimbursing the mayor, councilmen, and other officials of the town for reasonable expenses incurred, and compensating them for time lost from their regular employment, in carrying out the necessary business of the town.

(20)

Explosives and dangerous weapons. To regulate or prevent the storage of gunpowder, oil, or any other explosive or combustible matter, to regulate or prevent the use or possession of firearms, air guns or other dangerous weapons, projectiles, fireworks, bonfires, explosives, or any other similar things which may endanger persons or property.

(21)

Filth. To compel the owners or occupants of any premises or buildings in the town, when the same have become filthy or unwholesome, to abate or cleanse the condition; and after reasonable notice to the owners or occupants to authorize such work to be done by the proper officers and to assess the expense thereof against such property, making it collectible by taxes or against the occupant or occupants.

(22)

Finances. To levy, assess, and collect ad valorem property taxes and special benefit assessments; to expend town funds for any public purpose; to have general management and control of the finances of the town; and to borrow necessary funds for any public purpose.

(23)

Fire. To suppress fires and prevent the dangers thereof and to establish and maintain a fire department; to contribute funds to volunteer fire companies serving the town; to inspect buildings for the purpose of reducing fire hazards, to issue regulations concerning fire hazards, and to forbid and prohibit the use of fire-hazardous buildings and structures permanently or until the conditions of town fire-hazard regulations are met; to install and maintain fire plugs where and as necessary, and to regulate their use; and to take all other measures necessary to control and prevent fires in the town.

(24)

Food. To inspect and require the condemnation of, if unwholesome, and to regulate the sale of, any food products.

(25)

Franchises. To grant and regulate franchises to water companies, electric light companies, gas companies, telegraph and telephone companies, transit companies, taxicab companies and any others which may be deemed advantageous and beneficial to the town, subject, however, to the limitations and provisions of the Constitution and laws of the State of Maryland. No franchise shall be granted for a longer period than fifty years.

(26)

Gambling. To restrain and prohibit gambling.

(27)

Garbage. To prevent the deposit of any unwholesome substance either on private or public property, and to compel its removal to designated points; to require slops, garbage, ashes, and other waste or other unwholesome materials to be removed to designated points, or to require the occupants of the premises to place them conveniently for removal; to make contracts for the removal of garbage and rubbish.

(28)

Grants-in-aid. To accept gifts and grants of federal or state funds from the federal or state governments or any agency thereof, and to expend the same for any lawful public purpose, agreeably to the conditions under which the gifts or grants were made.

(29)

Hawkers. To license, tax, regulate, suppress, and prohibit hawkers and itinerant dealers, peddlers, pawnbrokers, and all other persons selling any articles or services on the streets of the town, and to revoke such licenses for cause.

(30)

Health. To protect and preserve the health of the town and its inhabitants; to appoint a public health officer, and to define and regulate his powers and duties; to prevent the introduction of contagious diseases into the town; to establish quarantine regulations, and to authorize the removal and confinement of persons having contagious or infectious diseases; to prevent and remove all nuisances; to inspect, regulate, and abate any buildings, structures, or places which cause or may cause unsanitary conditions or conditions detrimental to health; provided, that nothing herein shall be construed to affect in any manner any of the powers and duties of the state board of health, the county board of health, or any public, general or local law relating to the subject of health.

(31)

House numbers. To regulate the numbering of houses and lots and to compel owners to renumber the same or in default thereof to authorize and require the same to be done by the town at the owner's expense, such expense to constitute a lien upon the property collectible as tax moneys.

(32)

Insurance. To obtain hazard and liability insurance of such kinds and in such amounts as the council may determine.

(33)

Jail. To establish and regulate a station house or lock-up for temporary confinement of violators of the laws and ordinances of the town or to use the county jail for such purpose.

(34)

Land and building regulations. To provide for the preparation and revision of a plat of said town upon which shall be shown all streets, roads, and public ways, whether projected or already laid out, and by which all lots and real property in said town may be thereafter described, said plat to be prepared and recorded in plat books in the office of the clerk of the circuit court for Montgomery County and of the county surveyor of said county; to control the subdivision or resubdivision of all land and real property within the corporate limits of said town and to make reasonable regulations in regard to buildings to be erected in said town, and to grant permits for same.

(35)

Licenses. Subject to any restrictions imposed by the laws of the State of Maryland, to license and regulate all persons beginning or conducting transient or permanent business in the town for the sale of any goods, wares, merchandise, or services, to license and regulate any business, occupation, trade, calling or place of amusement or business; to establish and collect fees and charges for all licenses and permits issued under the authority of this Charter.

(36)

Liens. To provide that any valid charges, taxes or assessments made against any real property within the town shall be liens upon such property, to be collected as municipal taxes are collected.

(37)

Lights. To provide for the lighting of the town.

(38)

Livestock. To regulate or prohibit the keeping of cattle, horses, swine, fowl, sheep, goats, dogs, or other animals; to authorize the impounding, keeping, sale, and redemption of such animals when found in violation of such regulations or prohibitions.

(39)

Maintenance of private property. To require all owners or occupants to maintain their properties in decent, clean, and presentable condition.

(40)

Markets. To obtain by lease or rent, own, construct, purchase, operate, and maintain public markets within the town.

(41)

Minor privileges. To regulate or prevent the use of public ways, sidewalks, and public places for signs, awnings, posts, steps, railings, entrances, racks, posting handbills and advertisements, and display of goods, wares, and merchandise.

(42)

Noise. To regulate or prohibit unreasonable noises.

(43)

Nuisances. To prevent or abate all nuisances in the town which are so defined at common law, by this Charter, or by the laws of the State of Maryland, whether the same be herein specifically named or not; to regulate, to prohibit, to control the location of, or to require the removal from the town of all trading in, handling of, or manufacture of any commodity which is or may become offensive, obnoxious, or injurious to the public comfort or health. In this connection the town may regulate, prohibit, control the location of, or require the removal from the town of such things as stockyards, slaughterhouses, cattle or hog pens, tanneries, and renderies. This listing is by way of enumeration, not limitation.

(44)

Obstructions. To remove all nuisances and obstructions from the streets, lanes, and alleys, and from any lots adjoining thereto, or any other places within the limits of the town.

(45)

Parking facilities. To license and regulate, and to establish, obtain by purchase, condemnation, or lease, own, construct, operate, and maintain parking lots and other facilities for off-street parking.

(46)

Parking meters. To install parking meters on the streets and public places of the town in such places as the council shall determine, and to prescribe rates and provisions for the use thereof; except, that the installation of parking meters on any street or road maintained by the state roads commission of Maryland as part of the state road system must first be approved by the commission.

(47)

Parks and recreation. To establish and maintain public parks, gardens, playgrounds, and other recreational facilities and programs to promote the health, welfare, and enjoyment of the inhabitants of the town.

(48)

Planning and zoning. To exercise all powers of planning, zoning, and the control of subdivision or resubdivision which are not contrary to the Constitution and laws of the State of Maryland.

(49)

Police force and marshals. To establish, operate, and maintain a police force or appoint a town marshal and deputy marshal. All town policemen, the marshal and deputy marshals shall, within the town, have the powers and authority of constables in this state.

(50)

Police powers. To prohibit, suppress, and punish within the town all vice, gambling, and games of chance; prostitution and solicitation therefore and the keeping of bawdy houses and houses of ill fame; all tramps and vagrants; all disorder, disturbances, annoyances, disorderly conduct, obscenity, public profanity, and drunkenness. To enforce all ordinances relating to disorderly conduct and the suppression of nuisances equally within the limits of the town and beyond those limits for one-half mile, or for so much of this distance as does not conflict with the powers of another municipal corporation.

(51)

Property. To acquire by purchase, condemnation, gift, bequest, devise, lease, or otherwise real, personal, or mixed property, within or without the corporate limits of the town, for any public purposes; to erect and equip buildings, and structures and make other improvements thereon for the benefit of the town and its inhabitants; to regulate their use; to convey or lease any property when no longer needed for the public use, after having given at least twenty days' public notice to the proposed conveyance or lease; and to control, protect and maintain public buildings, grounds, and property of the town.

(52)

Quarantine. To establish quarantine regulations in the interest of the public health.

(53)

Regulations. To adopt and enforce within the corporate limits police, health, sanitary, fire, building, plumbing, heating, electrical, traffic, speed, parking, and other similar regulations not in conflict with the laws of the State of Maryland or with this Charter.

(54)

Rubbish. To regulate or prevent the throwing or depositing of rubbish, lawn, garden, or tree refuse, sweepings, dust, ashes, offal, garbage, paper, handbills, dirty liquids, or other unwholesome materials into any public way or onto any public or private property in the town.

(55)

Sidewalks. To regulate the use of sidewalks and all structures in, under, or above the same; to require the owner or occupant of premises to keep the sidewalks in front thereof free from ice, snow, dirt, and other obstructions.

(56)

Taxicabs. To license, tax, and regulate public hackmen, taxicab men, draymen, drivers, cabmen, porters, and expressmen, and all other persons pursuing like occupations.

(57)

Trees, shrubs and grass. To protect, enhance, and maintain the natural beauty of the town property, and to conserve the trees, shrubs, and grass on the public ways.

(58)

Vehicles. To regulate the use, operation, speed, weight, direction of travel, parking, or keeping of vehicles of every kind, including but not limited to automobiles, trucks, tractors, trailers, wagons, motorcycles, scooters, and bicycles, to the extent that such regulation by the town is not contrary to the Constitution and laws of the State of Maryland.

(59)

Voting machines. To purchase, lease, borrow, install, and maintain, voting machines for use in town elections.

The enumeration of powers in this section and in section 83-17 of this Charter is not to be construed as limiting the powers of the town to the several subjects mentioned.

(Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 59-18.)