Chap. 60.—An ACT to amend and re-enatt the charter of the town of
Edinburg, Shenandoah county, Virginia.

Approved February 6, 1877.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That an act
passed May twenty-four, eighteen hundred and fi‘ty-two, en-
titled an act incorporating the town of Edinburg, and the
acts amendatory thereof, be amended and re-enacted so as to
read as foliows: .

2. The town of Edinburg shall continue to be a body politic
and corporate, and the boundaries thereof are hereby ex-
tended as follows, viz: Beginning at a stake the northwest
corner of the present corporate lines; thence north fifty-one
degrees, east eighty-one and three-quarter poles over the
lands of Joseph F. Grandstaff and George Grandstaff, senior,
to a white oak on the east side of the Stony Creek road ;
thence due east, passing over-the lands of P. M. Grandataff,
George Grandstaff, senior, D. D. Evans, J.C. McDonald and
John A. Saum, one hundred and seventy-two and eight-tenth
poles, to a planted rock on a hill-side; thence south five de-
grees, east one hundred and fourteen poles, passing over the
lands of John A. Saum, Joseph Comer, D. D. Evans and
Charles Hutcheson, to a stake, a corner to the present cor-
porate lines of said town.

3. The municipal authorities of said town shall consist of
one mayor and six councilmen, who shall be elected biennially
by the qualified voters of said town. The mayor shall have
all the powers and privileges such office confers in the general
law governing towns within the state of Virginia. The mayor
and councilmen shall constitute the council of said town, and
all the corporate powers of said town shall be exercised by
said council or under its authority, except when otherwise
ordered.

4. The said council shall hold an election biennially, on the
fourth Thursday in May, having given ten days notice of the
time and place of holding the same, at which said election
all persons living within the then corporate limits of said
town, who are under the laws of this state, entitled to vote,
may elect one mayor and six councilmen, who are resident
citizens and qualified voters in said town, and twenty-one
years old, and qualified to hold office under the Jaws of this
state, as officers of said town, whose term of office shall be
for two years, or until their successors shall have been elected
and qualified. But, if from any cause, the biennial election
herein provided, shall not be held on the fourth Thursday in
May, it shall be lawful for the council of said town to hold
the said election as soon thereafter as may be practicable. In
case any two or more persons voted for in such election, for
the office of mayor, shall receive the same number of votes
cast, and a higher number than any other person voted for,
for said office, the judges of said election, who are hereby
designated the commissioners of election of said town, shall,
immediately after canvassing the vote, ascertain by lot who
shall be declared elected to said office. And if six of the per-
sons voted for at such election, for councilmen, shall not each
have received a majority of the votes cast, said commission-
ers shall determine by lot which of such as have received an
equal number of the highest votes cast shall be declared
elected.

5. The said council shall judge of the election, qualifications
and return of its own members. Whenever, from any cause,
a@ vacancy shall occur in the office of mayor or councilmen,
the same shall be filled by the council at its next regular
meeting.

6. The mayor and members of said council shall be invested
witb the same powers and autbority within said town, and
one mile beyond its limits, as justices of the peace. They
shall have power to issue process, hear and determine all
prosecutions arising under the by-laws and ordinances of said
town, and issue executions, saving to parties the right of
appeal to the county court of Shenandoah county in all cases
where the fine imposed shall exceed ten dollars. They may
commit to the jail of said county any person fined under the
said by-laws, until the fine imposed is paid, or such person is
discharged according to law, or compel such person to work
on the streets and public buildings not exceeding thirty days.

7. The council shall have power to appoint a treasurer,
secretary, and sergeant, and such otber officers as may be
necessary; to regulate the salaries of such officers, and to
remove any of such officers, and to appoint others, and to
require from any officer a bond, with approved security, for
the faithful performance of his duty; and that the sergeant
for the said town shall have the same power within the limits
of said town, and for one mile around the same, in all matters
arising within said town, as a constable, and shall receive the
same fees and be subject to the same penalties prescribed by
law for constables. In collecting the town taxes, the ser-
geant may distrain and sell therefor in like manner as any
collector of the revenue may distrain and sell for state taxes,
and shall have in other respects like powers to enforee the
collection thereof.

8. That the mayor or any two of said councilmen sball
have power to summon a meeting of said council, which
meeting sball be composed of not less than four members,
ine!uding the mayor, or'in his absence a mayor pro tempore,
elected by said councilmen who may be present, for the trans-
action cf business, each having one vote, except the mayor,
who shall have no vote at any meeting, except in the case of
a tie. The said councilmen shall, moreover, keep a complete
record of all their proceedings and accounts in suitable books,
and deliver such to their successors in office; the same shall,
at all times, be open to the inspection of persons qualified to
vote.

9. That the mayor, as chief magistrate of the corporation,
shall preside over the said council, and shall take care that
the by-laws and ordinances of said town be faithfully executed.

10. That the said council shall have power and authority
to make all necessary provisions to prevent accidents by fire,
and to supply the town with water for all necessary purposes,
and to purchase engines, hose, fire-hooks, ladders and other
fixtures useful for preventing accidents by fire, and to organize
fire companies. The councilmen of said town shall also have
power and authority to negotiate any loan or loans for the
purpose of buying necesssary real estate and for the erecting
of public buildings and for the general improvement of the
said town, and shall also have authority to issue registered or
coupon bonds for said loan, payable at not more than twenty
years after date of said bonds, bearing interest at a rate not
greater than eight per centum per annun, payable annually:
provided the said loan sball be sanctioned by a two-thirds
vote of the property-holders of said town. ‘They shall also
bave power and authority to establish markets, and regulate
the same; to graduate and pave and in any other manner im-
prove the streets, sidewalks and alleys of said town; to pre-
vent and punish, by reasonable fines, the practice of firing
guns or pistols, or in any manner setting fire to powder, of
running horses, and of all else detrimental to the peace and
quiet of said town; to license and regulate shows and other
public exhibitions, and the same to tax to such extent as they
may deem reasonable and expedient; to prescribe rules for
the orderly and regular building of houses and chimneys; to
reguate blacksmiths’ shops, and all other shops considered
ikely to occasion accidents by fire, and the erection of stoves
snd stove-pipes; to regulate the erection of privies, hog pens,
stables and cow-sheds, and prescribe their location; to regu-
ate butchers’ stalls and slaughter houses; to remove and
sbate nuisances within said town, at the expense of those
who may occasion them; to prohibit hogs, dogs, horses and
cattle from running at large within the limits of said town ;
‘0 prevent the exhibition of studborses and jackasses in said
town; and generally to pass all by-laws and ordinances, not
contrary to the laws and constitution of this state or of the
United States, which the said council may think necessary
and proper for carrying into effect the foregoing powers, or
‘ach as may hereafter be vested in them, and to enforce such
ty-lawa, under penalties not exceeding twenty dollars for
cach offence, to be recovered, witb costs, in the name of the
corporation, as hereinbefore provided.

11. That the council of said town shall appoint, annually,
three assessors, all of whom shall be citizens and -property-
holders of said town; who shall, between the first and fifteenth
days of April, in each year, assess the value of the real pro-
perty in the corporate limits of said town; and one of whom
shall, by the direction of said council, also assess the value
ofthe personal property of said town, which assessments shall
furm the basis of taxation within the said town.

12. The council of said town shall have authority to levy
and collect annually a tax on real and personal property
within said town, and on such other subjects within said
town as aro or may be taxed by the revenue laws of this
state, and on dogs belonging to persons residing in said town,
und for the privilege of carrying on any regular business in
‘aid town by persons who do not reside within the corporate
limits of said town: provided, that the tax on real estate
thall not exceed in any one year fifty cents on every one
hundred dollars value thereof, and that the poll tax shall not
exceed fifty cents on each male person in any one year; and
lor the purpose of doing a regular business, or following any
\rade, profession, occupation, or calling within the said town,
ty person or persons who do not reside within said town, not
exceeding the sum of ten doliars for any one year: and pro-
vided also, that the tax to be imposed on all otlrer property
shall not exceed the taxes on like subjects by the revenue
laws of this state for the same year.

13. That in order the better to determine who shall be lia-
ble to taxation in the said town under this act, it is hereby
declared that all persons liable to taxation as hereinbefore
provided, and residing in, or in pursuit of any business, trade,
vccupation, calling or profession, in said town as aforesaid,
annually, on the first day of February, shall be subject to
taxation the current year.

14. That the said council shall have power and authority,
whenever they deem it expedient, to have the side-walks and
gutters along any street or alley within said town of such
width as they may prescribe, properly paved or otherwise
suitably improved and repaired, and altered whenever they
may think fit, at the proper cost and expense of the owners
or occupants of the lands or lots along the front or side of
‘which such footways, sidewalks, or other improvements ex-
tend; and to levy and collect for that purpose a special tax
on each of such lots or pieces of land proportioned to the
number of feet of the same, fronting on such pavement or
other improvement, which special tax shall be collected by
the sergeant of said town, as other taxes on real estate within
the said town are herein directed to be collected: provided,
however, that before any owner or occupant of any land or
lot sball be required to make any such pavement or other
inprovement at his own proper cost and expense, or a tax
shall be levied upon the same for that purpose, there shall be
on such land or lot, fronting the side along which such pave-
ment or other improvement shall be required, a house or
building at least twenty feet square: provided, further, that
the tax levied under this section shall not exceed one per
centum of the assessed value of such property for any one
year. In all cases where a lessee or tenant shall pay the ex-

ense of any such pavement, along the side or sides of the
and or lot by him occupied, for which land or lot by contract
with his lessor or Jandlord he shall be bound to pay rent, the
amount of any such expense paid by him, or collected from
him, or made out of his property, shall be a good and valid
set-off against so much of the rent due or accruing to his
lessor or landlord.

15. That all taxes, whether general or special, assessed
upon any land or lot in said town under this act, are hereby
declared to constitute a lien upon such land or lot; and if
the town sergeant shall have not been able with due diligence
to collect the said taxes by the thirty-first day of December
of the year in which the same were assessed, he sball, at the
first meeting of the council thereafter, make return upon oath
of the taxes so uncollected, and the Jands and lots whereon
such uncollected taxes were levied, and thereupon the said
council shall have the same remedy against the said delin-
quent lots or lands as this commonwealth now has in similar
cases. °

16. That whenever anything for which a state license is
required, is to be done in said town, the council may require
a town license therefor, and may impose a tax thereon for
the use of said town.

17. That the town treasurer sball collect the taxes in the
same manner as is now provided by law in relation to the
collection of state taxes by county treasurers: provided, that
the time for payment to the town treasurer in cach year
shall expire on the thirty-first day of October. All taxes not
paid to the town treasurer by the thirty-first day of October
thall be placed by him in the hands of the town sergeant
with five per centum on the amount thereof added. The
sergeant shall collect the taxes thus turned over to him, and
shall retain the said five per centum as his commission. He
shall collect all fines, levies and licenses, and after thirty days
from the time of receiving the assessor’s books, or the said
taxes or tax tickets, may distrain and levy for said taxes,
fines, levies and licenses (in like manner as the collector may
for state taxes, fines, levies and licenses), and shall in all
respects, have the same power to enforce the payment and
collection thereof.

18. That the council of said town may, with the consent
of the board of supervisors of Shenandoah county, at any
time proceed to extend the corporate limits of said town, and
make an order to be recorded among their proceedings,
establishing such extended limits, and particularly describing
the samc; said order, certified by the mayor of said town,
shall be recorded in the clerk’s office of the county court of
said county.

19. The council of said town may at any time lay off and
open new Streets and alleys of such width and extent as said
council may think proper, or alter those already laid off and
opened, or such as may be hereafter laid off and opened.

20. The said town, and persons and property therein, shall
be exempt from all road service and taxes for the support of
the poor, or for free school purposes outside of its own cor-
porate limits: provided, the said town shall keep its streets
and alleys in good order, and shall support its own poor, and
levy its own school tax. The council of the said town may
keep and provide for the poor of said town at Beckford
parish in Shenandoah county, by the payment to the county
superintendent of poor for said county, such a sum for each
pauper sent from said town, as appears to be the actual
average costs of keeping paupers per capita at said place,
from the annual report of said superintendent.

21. That for the purpose of maintaining the police regula-
tions of said town under the authority of this act, and for
no other purpose, the jurisdiction of the corporate authori-
ties thereof shall be and the same are hereby made to extend
one mile beyond the limits of said town; and that the mayor
shall bave power and authority to deputize any number of
citizens of the town, and such as may be in town from said
county, he may think requisite and proper, to assist the ser-
geant in the full discharge of his duties, in the case of riot
aod all misdemeanors, as he shall judge necessary.

22. That the by-laws berctofore passed by the trustees of
eaid town of Edinburg, and which have not bevn repealed,
sha]! be and continae in force until altered or repealed by the
council of said town.
23. That all acts and parts of acts concerning the town of
Ediuburg, in the county of Shenandoah, or the lands and lots
therein, conflicting with or contrary to the provisions of this
act, shall be and the same are hereby repealed.

| 24. This act shall be in force from its passage.