assess, levy and collect the sum so voted to be raised upon said town. CHAP. 275. AN ACT to incorporate the Village of Fort-Plain, in the Passed April 25, 1832. The People of the State of New-York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: village. $1. The district of country contained within the following Bounds of the bounds, viz: beginning at the intersection of the Osquake creek with the Mohawk river, in the town of Minden and county of Montgomery; thence up along the said river, as it winds and turns, to the northerly line of lot number four in Bleecker's patent; thence westerly along said line to the westerly or head line of the homestead lots number four, five, six and seven, in the patent aforesaid, on the table land adjoining the flats, to the point where said line intersects the creek aforesaid; and thence down to the centre of said creek, as it winds and turns, to the place of beginning, shall hereafter continue to be known and distinguished by the name of Fort-Plain village. S2. AH the freeholders and inhabitants residing in said vil- Corporation lage shall be, and they are hereby constituted and declared to be from time to time and forever hereafter, a body politic and corporate, in fact and in name, by the name of "The Trustees of Fort-Plain Village," and that they and their successors may have a common seal, and may change and alter the same at pleasure; and shall be capable in law of purchasing, holding and conveying any estate, real or personal, for the use of said village. created. to elect trug $ 3. There shall be an annual meeting at some proper place Meetings of in said village, on the first Tuesday in June; and all inhabi- inhabitants tants of said village, qualified to vote at town-meetings, shall tees. be qualified to vote at all village meetings. All meetings shall be called by a notice to be published for two weeks in all the public newspapers published in said village, or by putting up notices in writing in three public places in said village, which notice shall designate the time and place of the meeting. The first meeting shall be called by a justice of the peace of the town of Minden, and any justice of the peace of said town may preside at the same; and all subsequent meetings shall be called by the trustees of said village, who shall preside thereat. The said inhabitants, at their annual meetings, may elect by ballot, and by a plurality of votes, five trus Vacancies. President. By-laws. tees, three assessors, one clerk, one treasurer and one collector, all of whom shall be freeholders. All persons elected or appointed to any office or place in said village shall, within ten days after their election or appointment, and before they commence the duties of their offices, give notice in writing of their acceptance those elected at the first annual meeting to the justice who shall preside thereat, to be by him delivered to the clerk, and all others to the clerk of said village; and no oath of office shall be required. The said inhabitants, at an annual meeting, may vote to raise, by tax, a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars in any one year, and shall specify the purposes for which it is intended and to which it shall be applied, and may determine the compensation to be allowed to any officer of said village. The presiding officers at said meetings shall have the same powers as inspectors of elections, and shall canvass the votes and declare the result. The duration of all elective offices shall be one year, but the treasurer and clerk shall continue in office until their successors have filed their acceptance. $4. Vacancies in the board of trustees occurring in any manner shall be filled at a special meeting of the inhabitants, called by the remaining trustees and conducted in the same manner as an annual meeting. Vacancies in all other offices shall be filled by appointment by the trustees. All appointments shall be by warrant, signed by the trustees, and under their corporate seal. In case of a failure to elect trustees at an annual meeting, or if from any cause there should be no trustees, the treasurer and clerk shall call and preside at a meeting for the election of trustees. $5. The trustees shall within ten days after their election, elect one of their number to be their president, and may designate any other member to preside at their meetings in his absence, and supply his place in case of a vacancy. They shall have stated meetings as a board, and any trustee may call special meetings by notice to each; complaints and petitions shall be made and presented to the board; the said trustees may make, enact and publish, repeal and amend by-laws, police regulations and ordinances, for clearing off and cleansing the streets, alleys, highways and public squares; for preventing the dangerous construction and condition of chimneys, fireplaces, stoves and stove pipes, and for inspecting the same for preventing fires; and the use of fire-works and fire-arms in the streets; and the deposit of ashes in unsafe places; to compel the owners of houses, shops and stores to have scuttles on the roofs; to prevent immoderate riding or driving in said village; to prevent, abate or remove nuisances; to appoint twenty firemen to every engine at any time possessed by the said village, and ten members of every hook and ladder company; to orga nize fire companies and hook and ladder companies, and to prescribe rules for their government, and to regulate the time and manner of their exercise; to provide engines and all necessary apparatus for the extinguishment of fires, and to require the inhabitants to provide and keep fire buckets; to compel the inhabitants of said village to aid in the extinguishment of fires, and to prescribe the mode of operations; to protect property in case of fires; to prevent the encumbering of streets and side-walks, and to protect the same from encroachment or injury; to protect trees in said village; to restrain the running at large of cattle, beasts and animals of all kinds; to light the streets; for constructing and preserving reservoirs, and regulating the use thereof; to establish a pound; to establish and regulate markets, and to restrain sales in the streets; and to enforce observance to all such by-laws, police regulations and ordinances by a penalty not exceeding fifteen dollars, to be sued for in the corporate name, and recovered before any justice of the peace in the county of Montgomery, in an action of debt, in which the pleadings shall be general, and this act and any proper special matter may be given in evidence; and no inhabitant of the said village shall for that cause be disqualified from being a justice, juror, witness or constable, on the trial of any cause for the recovery of any such penalty. All penalties shall be paid to the treasurer for the use of the village, and the trustees may remit penalties wholly or in part. master.j $6. The trustees may appoint a constable and pound-mas- Constable ter, who shall hold their offices during their pleasure, and shall and pound have the same powers and rights, and be charged with the same duties and responsibilities as the same officers in towns; but the constable shall not serve any process in civil suits out of said village, except in favor of said village or against a person fleeing therefrom. The treasurer, constable, collector and pound-master shall give a bond, with such sureties and in such amount for the faithful performance of the duties of their offices as the trustees shall require, and may be prosecuted in the corporate name thereupon, for any violation of the condition thereof. may tion of taxes. $ 7. The assessors shall make all assessments as soon as Assessment be after every annual meeting, at which a tax shall be and collec voted, and the trustees may prescribe a time within which they shall complete it, by a resolution, a copy of which shall be served upon each assessor by the clerk. In making assessments, they shall proceed in the same manner, give the like notice, and have the same power to make corrections as assessors in towns. When they shall have completed an assessment, they shall deliver one corrected copy of the assessment roll to the clerk and another to the treasurer. A copy of the assessment roll, certified by the clerk, with a warrant under Payment of Renalties. Shows, &c. the corporate seal, and signed by the trustees, shall be delivered to the collector, commanding him within a time to be specified therein, to collect of each individual named in the assess ment roll, the amount of the tax assessed to each respectively, and to pay the same to the treasurer; and for the purpose of such collection, the collector shall have the same powers, and be subject to the same liabilities as collectors in towns, and may collect for his fees five per cent upon and in addition to the amount specified in his warrant. The trustees may enlarge the time of collection in case of necessity. All assessments for the general purposes of the village shall be made upon all the taxable real and personal property in said village, as near as may be, according to the last corrected assessment roll of the town of Minden; all assessments for local improvements shall be made upon the property of those deemed to be benefitted thereby, and in proportion to their respective benefits, and for such local improvements, the trustees shall determine who are to be assessed, and furnish the assessors with a list containing the names of all such persons, and the assessors shall then make the assessment upon those only. No inhabitant of said village shall vote on a question of taxation unless he be liable to be assessed for the payment of a tax for the general purposes of said village. $8. All assessment for taxes upon real estate shall be against the owner and occupant, and may be collected of either; and if paid by the occupant, may be recovered by him in an action against the owner, for money paid at his request. Taxes against non-resident owners of land, may be collected in the ordinary way or by suit in the corporate name; a certificate under the corporate seal, signed by the president and clerk, specifying the amount of tax, the lots or lands upon which it was assessed, when the assessment was made, and the name of the person assessed, shall be evidence in any such suit; interest and cost shall be allowed in all such cases. $9. All penalties for the violation of any ordinance restraining cattle, beasts and animals from running at large, shall be collected by suit and not by impounding and sale. All cattle, beasts and animals may be impounded for such violations, and sold for non-payment of the fees of the pound master in the same manner and upon the like notice as is required in the case of strays; the surplus of any such sales, deducting the fees of the pound master, shall be paid within five days thereafter to the treasurer of the village for the owner, if claimed within three months, if not, for the benefit of the village. $10. The trustees may restrain all exhibitions of any natural or artificial curiosities, caravans of animals, theatrical or other shows or exhibitions or performances, for money in said village. 11. The treasurer shall receive all moneys belonging to Treasurer. the village, and keep an account of all receipts and expenditures in such manner as the said trustees shall direct, and subject at all times to their inspection. All moneys shall be drawn from the treasury by warrants under the corporate seal, signed by the trustees and countersigned by the clerk, who shall keep a copy thereof, which warrant shall specify for what purpose the amount specified therein is to be paid. He shall exhibit at every annual meeting a full account of all receipts and expenditures of the preceding year, and of the state of the treasury, which account shall be filed in the office of the clerk. S 12. The clerk shall keep the corporate seal and all the Clerk. papers belonging to said village, and make a record of all the proceedings of the inhabitants at their meetings, and of the trustees, whose meetings it shall be his duty to attend. S13. The trustees shall be fire wardens, and shall have Fire wardens the charge of all the engines belonging to said village, and all other apparatus for the extinguishment of fires, and all other village property. They shall appoint the officers of the fire and hook and ladder companies; the firemen, and hook and ladder men, shall be exempt from service on juries in courts of record, and in the militia, except in case of war, invasion or insurrection; the evidence to entitle them to the exemption shall be a warrant, under the corporate seal, signed by the trus tees and clerk, within the year in which the exemption is claimed. $ 14. The said village of Fort-Plain shall be a road dis- Road distrios, trict, and shall be exempt from the superintendence of the commissioners of highways of the town of Minden, and the trustees of the said village shall be commissioners of highways, and shall have the same powers and be charged with the same duties over the roads in the said village, as commissioners of highways in towns have or possess. They may divide the said village into districts, and appoint an overseer in each, who shall hold his place during their pleasure; and all such overseers shall have the same powers, duties and liabilities, as overseers of highways in towns. The said trustees may cause such portion of work to be laid out, and in such places on the highways leading into the said village, as the inhabitants of said village at an annual meeting may direct and designate, S 15. If any person having been an officer in said village, Penalty. shall not, within ten days after notification and request, deliver to his successor in office all the property and effects of every description in his possession belonging to the said village, or appertaining to the office he held, he shall forfeit and pay one hundred dollars, besides all damages caused by his neglect or refusal so to deliver, to be recovered in the corpo |