[Code 1957, § 1.1]
The ordinances embraced in the following chapters and sections shall constitute and be designated as the "Code of Ordinances, City of Williston, North Dakota," and may be so cited. Such Code may also be cited as the "Williston City Code."
[Code 1957, § 1.2]
In the construction of this Code, and of all ordinances, the following rules shall be observed, unless such construction would be inconsistent with the manifest intent of the Board of City Commissioners:
BOARD, BOARD OF CITY COMMISSIONERS, CITY COMMISSION
The terms "Board," "Board of City Commissioners" or "City Commission" shall be construed to mean the Board of City Commissioners of Williston, North Dakota.
CITY
The words "the City" or "this City" shall be construed as if followed by the words "of Williston."
CODE
The words "the Code" or "this Code" shall mean the "Code of Ordinances, City of Williston, North Dakota."
COMPUTATION OF TIME
The time in which any act provided by law is to be done is computed by excluding the first day and including the last, unless the last is a holiday, and then it is also excluded.
COUNTY
The words "the county" or "this county" mean Williams County, in the State of North Dakota.
DAY
A day is the period of time between any midnight and the midnight following.
DAYTIME, NIGHTTIME
"Daytime" is the period between sunrise and sunset. "Nighttime" is the period of time between sunset and sunrise.
DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY
Whenever a provision appears requiring an officer of the City to do some act or make certain inspections, it is to be construed to authorize the officer to designate, delegate and authorize subordinates to perform the required act or make the required inspection unless the terms of the provision or section designate otherwise.
GENDER
Words used importing the masculine gender include the feminine and neuter.
HEALTH DEPARTMENT
The term "health department" shall mean the Upper Missouri District Health Unit.
HEALTH OFFICER
The head of the Upper Missouri District Health Unit or his designee.
IN THE CITY
Includes all territory over the City now has, or shall hereafter acquire, jurisdiction for the exercise of its police powers or other regulatory powers.
JOINT AUTHORITY
All words giving a joint authority to three or more officers or other persons shall be construed as giving such authority to a majority of them, unless it is otherwise expressed.
MONTH
A calendar month.
N.D.C.C.
The abbreviation "N.D.C.C." shall refer to the North Dakota Century Code, as now or hereafter amended.
NUMBER
The singular number includes the plural, and the plural the singular.
OATH
Includes "affirmation."
OFFICERS, DEPARTMENTS, ETC.
Officers, departments, boards, commissions and employees referred to by title only shall mean officers, departments, boards, commissions and employees of the City of Williston unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
OR, AND
"Or" may be read "and," and "and" may be read "or," if the sense requires it.
OWNER
Applied to a building or land, shall include any part owner, joint owner, tenant in common, tenant in partnership or joint tenant of the whole or a part of such building or land.
PERSON
Includes and be applied to corporations, associations, clubs, societies, firms, partnerships, municipalities and bodies politic and corporate as well as to individuals.
PERSONAL PROPERTY
Includes money, goods, chattels, things in action and evidences of debt.
PRECEDING, FOLLOWING
Next before and next after, respectively.
PROPERTY
Includes real and personal property.
REAL PROPERTY
Includes lands, tenements and hereditaments.
REASONABLE TIME
In all cases where any section of this Code or other City ordinance shall require any act to be done in a reasonable time or reasonable notice to be given, such reasonable time or notice shall be deemed to mean such time only as may be necessary for the prompt performance of such duty, or compliance with such notice.
SEVERAL
In relation to number, shall mean two or more.
SHALL, MAY
Is mandatory, and "may" is permissive.
SIDEWALK
That portion of a street between the curb lines, or the lateral lines, of a roadway and the adjacent property lines, intended for the use of pedestrians.
SIGNATURE, SUBSCRIPTION
Includes a mark when the person cannot write, his name being written near it and written by a person who writes his own name as a witness.
STATE
The State of North Dakota.
STREET
The entire width between property lines of every way or place of whatsoever nature when any part thereof is open to the use of the public, as a matter of right-of-way, for purposes of vehicular traffic.
TENSE
Words used in the present or past tense include the future as well as the present and past.
USUAL AND CUSTOMARY
"According to usage."
WEEK
Shall be construed to mean seven days; but publication in a newspaper of any notice or other matter indicated to be for a stated number of weeks shall be construed to mean one insertion in each week, unless specifically stated to be for each day of the week or for more than one day in each week.
WRITTEN AND PRINTED
The words "writing" and "written" shall include "typewriting" and "typewritten" and "printing" and "printed," except in the case of signatures and when the words are used by way of contrast to "typewriting" and "printing." Writing may be made in any manner, except that when a person entitled to require the execution of a writing demands that it be made with ink, it must be so made.
YEAR
A calendar year, except where otherwise provided.
The rules of construction set forth in this chapter shall not be applied to any section of this Code or other City ordinance which shall contain any express provision excluding such construction, or when the subject matter or context of such provisions or ordinances may be repugnant thereto.
(a) 
In addition to the rules of construction specified in this chapter, the following rules shall be observed in the construction of these ordinances
(1) 
All references to chapters, articles or sections are to the chapters, articles and sections of this Code unless otherwise specified.
(2) 
If the provisions of different chapters of this Code conflict with or contravene each other, the provisions of each chapter shall prevail as to all matters and questions growing out of the subject matter of such chapter.
(3) 
If conflicting provisions are found in different sections of the same chapter, the provisions of the section which is last in numerical order shall prevail unless such construction be inconsistent with the meaning of such chapter.
[Code 1957, § 1.3]
The catchlines of the several sections of this Code, printed in boldface type, are intended as mere catchwords to indicate the contents of the section and shall not be deemed or taken to be titles of such sections, nor as any part of the section, nor unless expressly so provided shall they be so deemed when any of such sections, including the catchlines, are amended or re-enacted.
[Code 1957, § 1.4]
The provisions appearing in this Code, so far as they are substantially the same as those of ordinances existing at the time of the adoption of this Code, shall be construed as a continuation thereof and not as new enactments.
[Code 1957, § 1.7]
The repeal of any ordinance by the Board of City Commissioners shall not have the effect of releasing or extinguishing any penalty, fine, liability or forfeiture incurred under such ordinance, but as to cases tried before, or subsequent to, the repeal of such ordinance, it shall have the effect of extinguishing any jail or prison sentence that may be, or that has been, imposed by reason of such ordinance, unless the repealing ordinance shall provide expressly that the penalties of imprisonment shall remain in force as to crimes committed in violation of such ordinance prior to its repeal. In other respects, such ordinance shall remain in force only for the purpose of the enforcement of such fine, penalty or forfeiture.
[Code 1957, § 1.6]
Whenever any ordinance of the Board of City Commissioners which repealed a former ordinance is repealed, such former ordinance shall not be revived by such repeal, unless there is express provision to the contrary.
[Code 1957, § 1.5]
Should any section, paragraph, sentence, clause, phrase or word of this Code be declared invalid or unconstitutional by a court of competent jurisdiction, such invalidity or unconstitutionality shall not affect any of the remaining words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs or sections of this Code, since the same would have been enacted by the Board of City Commissioners without the incorporation in this Code of any such invalid or unconstitutional word, phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph or section.
It is unlawful for any person to change or amend by additions or deletions any part or portion of this Code, or to insert or delete pages, or portions thereof, or to alter or tamper with such Code in any manner whatsoever which will cause the law of the City to be misrepresented thereby.
[Code 1957, § 1.9; Ord. No. 455, 8-12-1969; Ord. No. 455-A, 9-2-1969; Ord. No. 485, 9-25-1973; Ord. No. 568, 3-10-1981; Ord. No. 803, 9-23-1997; Ord. No. 973, 8-27-2013; amended 8-13-2019 by Ord. No. 1106]
(a) 
Class B misdemeanor. Whenever in this Code or in any ordinance of the City any act is prohibited or is made or declared to be unlawful or an offense, or whenever in this Code or any ordinance the doing of any act is required or the failure to do any act is declared to be unlawful, where no specific penalty is provided therefor, the penalty shall be classified as a Class B misdemeanor. Any person upon conviction for the violation of any such provision of this Code or any ordinance shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $1,500 or by imprisonment not to exceed 30 days, or by both such fine and imprisonment, for each such offense. Each day any violation of any provision of this Code or of any ordinance shall constitute a separate offense. In the construction and interpretation of this section, the revocation of a license or permit shall not be considered as a recovery or penalty so as to bar any other penalty from being enforced.
(b) 
Infraction. The penalty for violation of an offense classified as an infraction is a maximum fine of $1,000. Any person convicted of an infraction who, within one year before commission of the infraction of which the person was convicted, has been convicted previously at least twice of the same offense classified as an infraction may be sentenced as though convicted of a Class B misdemeanor. If the prosecution contends that the infraction is punishable as a Class B misdemeanor, the complaint must specify the offense is a misdemeanor.
The jurisdiction of the City extends to all persons, places and property within its boundaries and such extra-territorial jurisdiction as is granted to it under the provisions of the law of the state.
[Code 1957, § 1.8]
(a) 
Central standard time, based on the nineteenth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich, shall be the standard time for the City, except when state or federal law requires the City to be on central daylight saving time. All ordinances providing for the doing or not doing of any act or thing after or before a certain time, and the time designated for holding the municipal court, or the orders made therein, and the meeting of the Board of City Commissioners or the performance of any contract in which the City is a party where time is made an element in the transaction, shall be taken to mean the legal central standard time.
(b) 
The chief of police shall keep his time regulated by the legal central standard time, and enforce the provisions of this Code and other ordinances and all other matters coming under his jurisdiction according to central standard time.