236 ARTICLE 1.

penalties and regulations as they may think necessary to preserve the
public health and secure the inhabitants from contagious, infectious or
other diseases, to suppress drunkenness, vice and immorality and punish
all violations of the public peace from whatever cause, and generally they
shall have the power to ordain and enforce all ordinances, rules and regu-
lations necessary for the peace, good order, health and safety of the town
and of the people and property therein, and may impose such reasonable
fines, forfeitures or imprisonments as to them may appear necessary for
the violation of any of the ordinances of said town. They shall have power
to establish and regulate a station house or lock-up for confinement of
violators of the law and ordinances of said town. Upon written petition
signed by the majority in interest of the owners of the majority of front
feet of property abutting on any street, lane and alley of a distance not
less than a block the said Mayor and Commissioners shall have power
to grade and pave all of the streets, lanes, and alleys of said town, which
in their judgment the public convenience may require to be graded, curbed
and paved, and apportion the expense of said improvement among the
owners of lots fronting on said street or improved portion thereof, so that
one-third of such expense shall be borne by the owner or owners of each
abutting lot on each side of said street, and the remaining one-third of
such expense shall be paid out of the general corporate funds of said town;
and all assessments made by the Mayor and Commissioners of Western-
port for any of the purposes mentioned herein are hereby made a lien
upon the abutting real estate, equal in rank to corporate taxes, and may
be collected as taxes levied by the Mayor and Commissioners of Western-
port and enforceable and collected in the same manner as the general
corporate taxes of said town can be collected, provided that each owner
may have the privilege of three years in which to make the said payments
with interest thereon at the rate of six (6%) per cent, for assessments,.
the time of each payment being determined by the Mayor and Commis-
sioners. They shall have power to make reasonable regulations in regards
to buildings to be erected in said town and to grant building permits for
the same; to make and establish grades on the streets and highways of the
town; to cause the sidewalks and gutters along the public streets and high-
ways of said town to be graded, paved or repaired at the cost and expense
of the abutting property or owner thereof and to collect from said abut-
ting property owner thereof the cost of making said improvements there-
to, when made by the Mayor and Commissioners of Westernport, after
refusal or neglect on the part of the property owner to do so after reason-
able notice, the cost of which improvement as made by the Mayor and
Commissioners, shall be a lien against said abutting property and col-
lectable as are liens for taxes against said property or owner thereof;
to charge for and grant licenses for marketable commodities and for car-
rying on any business, trade, industry, profession or occupation within
the limits of said town, and more specifically in connection therewith but
not by way of limitations or restrictions, to regulate and provide for the-