Chap. 171.—An ACT to amend and re-enact the first, seventh, and
ninth sections of an act entitled an act to amend and re-enact an
act entitled an act to incorporate the town of Goodson, in the
county of Washington, approved June 17, 1870.

Approved May 10, 1887.

1. Be it enacted by the general :.ssembly of Virginia, That
be first, seventh, and ninth sections of an act entitled an act
.O amend and re-enact an act entitled an act to incorporate
che town of Goodson, in the county of Washington, approved
June seventeenth, eighteen hundred and seventy, be amended
and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia,
That the corporate limits of the town of Goodson, in the
county of Washington, shall be and are hereby established
rns follows: Beginning on the State line between the States
of Wirginia and Tennessce at the point where Beaver creek
crosses said line on Main street between the towns of Bristol,
Tennessee, and Goodson, Virginia, and running thence east
along said State line for the distance of one mile; thence
running a due course north for the distance of one mile;
thence running west and parallel with said State line for the
distance of two miles; thence running a due course south to
the said State line, and thence along said State line east to
the beginning. And the same shall be and is hereby made a
town corporate by the name of the town of Goodson, and
by that name shall bave and exercise all the powers conferred
upon towns by the fifty-fourth chapter of the Code of Vir-

inia, 60 far as the same are not in conflict with this act. __

§ 7. The mayor, recorder, and councilmen shall and may
exercise all the jurisdiction of a justice of the peace in order
to preserve the peace and good order in said town, and to
this end they and each of them shall be a conservator of the
peace, with all the powers and duties authorized to be exer-
cised by such conservator by the constitution and laws made
in pursuance thereof: provided that the council of said town

shall elect one of its members as mayor pro tempore, who in
the absence of the mayor shall preside at the meetings of
said council, and who shall, when the mayor is absent, from
said town, or unable from any cause to attend to the duties
of his office, have and exercise all the powers and authority
conferred by law upon the mayor of said town, including the
power to issue warrants and hear and determine cases in the
same manner as the mayor might do if he were present or
able to attend to the duties of the office: and provided fur.
ther, that the mayor alone, or in his absence or inability
from any cause to perform the duties of his office, the mayor
pro tempore shall have authority to hear and determine mat-
ters in controversy arising under the laws and ordinances of
said town.

§ 9. All taxes, general or special, assessed upon lands or
lots within said town under this act, are hereby declared to
constitute a lien upon such land or lots in the same manner
and to the same extent as State taxes are a lien on real et
tate in the hands of the owner, or bis heirs, devisees, assigns,
or any subsequent purchaser, or other person claiming the
same, and may be collected from such subsequent purchaser
entitled to such Jands or lots in like manner as they might
have been collected trom the original owner or occupier: pro-
vided that no tax shall be assessed on lands lying within said
corporation which is not divided into town lots and sold or
offered tor sale as lots: and provided further, that whenever
any of such Jand is divided into lots and sold or offered for
sale as lots, then it shall be the duty of the council of said
town to appoint some proper person, who shall be a citizen
of said town, whose duty it shall be, after taking and sub-
scribing an oath before the mayor to faithfully discharge his
duties, ‘to go upon any such lot or lots, as may from time to
time be sold or offered for sale, and assess the same at a fair
and reasonable valuation, and shall report in writing to the
council his assessment of any such lot or lots, together with
the numbers or a description of any such lot or lots. Said
report shall be entered upon the records of said town, and
the council shall thereupon levy a tax against the owners of
said lot or lots at the same rate per hundred dollars as is
levied upon other property in said town, and have tickets is-
sued against the owners of said lot or lots, and the taxes collected

and applied in the samo manner as the other taxes of said
town are collected and applied. Such assessment and collec-
tion of taxes however, shall only continue until the same
can be levied and collected on the next assessment of pro-
perty, made in pursuance of the general law of the State, in
the same manner as taxes upon other property in the town
is levied and collected. Said council shall have the power to
make a reasonable allowance to such person as it may ap-
point to assess such lot or lots.

2. This act shall be in force from its passage.