[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:
The terms "Board," "Board of City Commissioners" or "City
Commission" shall be construed to mean the Board of City Commissioners
of Williston, North Dakota.
The words "the City" or "this City" shall be construed as
if followed by the words "of Williston."
The words "the Code" or "this Code" shall mean the "Code
of Ordinances, City of Williston, North Dakota."
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.
The words "the county" or "this county" mean Williams County,
in the State of North Dakota.
A day is the period of time between any midnight and the
midnight following.
"Daytime" is the period between sunrise and sunset. "Nighttime"
is the period of time between sunset and sunrise.
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.
Words used importing the masculine gender include the feminine
and neuter.
The term "health department" shall mean the Upper Missouri
District Health Unit.
The head of the Upper Missouri District Health Unit or his
designee.
Includes all territory over the City now has, or shall hereafter
acquire, jurisdiction for the exercise of its police powers or other
regulatory powers.
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.
A calendar month.
The abbreviation "N.D.C.C." shall refer to the North Dakota
Century Code, as now or hereafter amended.
The singular number includes the plural, and the plural the
singular.
Includes "affirmation."
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" may be read "and," and "and" may be read "or," if the
sense requires it.
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.
Includes and be applied to corporations, associations, clubs,
societies, firms, partnerships, municipalities and bodies politic
and corporate as well as to individuals.
Includes money, goods, chattels, things in action and evidences
of debt.
Next before and next after, respectively.
Includes real and personal property.
Includes lands, tenements and hereditaments.
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.
In relation to number, shall mean two or more.
Is mandatory, and "may" is permissive.
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.
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.
The State of North Dakota.
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.
Words used in the present or past tense include the future
as well as the present and past.
"According to usage."
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.
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.
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.
