Chap. 254.—An ACT to incorporate the town of Saltville, and to repeal an
act entitled “an act to incorporate the town of Saltville,’” approved March

Approved February 7, 1896.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the ter-
ritory in the counties of Smyth and Washington, contained within
the following described boundaries, namely: Beginning at a stake
on the south side of Glade Spring road, on the line between the
Buena Vista plaster company and the Saltville land company, near
the Witt spring; thence with the south side of the said Glade Spring
road in a southeasterly direction to the junction with the valley
road ; thence with the south side of the said valley road, passing the
house of William Poston and the Chiddix Jot, to a stake on the south
side of the said valley road, between corners number twenty-nine
and number thirty of the line between the Saltville land company
and V. S. Morgan, near two large oaks standing on the north side of
said road; thence north, crossing said road and Chestnut ridge to
corner number sixty-two of the Saltville land company near a small
branch; thence with the said Saltville land company’s line to the
corner between the said Saltville land company and the Mathieson
alkali works’ land, on the south bank of the north fork of Holston
river, near the mouth of Cedar branch, near the iron bridge; thence
crossing the said north fork of the said Holston river, and with the
said Mathieson alkali works’ line to the north bank of said river;
thence up said north bank of said river and still with the said Mathie-
son alkali works’ line to where it leaves the said north fork of Holston
river; thence further with the said Mathieson alkali works’ line up
the side of Little mountain; and thence along the side of Little moun-
tain with the line of the said Mathieson alkali works’ land, crossing
through Allison’s gap and Covecreek, and still with the said Mathieson
alkali works’ land, to the north bank of the north fork of Holston
river; thence across said river to a stake on the south bank of said
river near the house of Samuel P. Scott; thence down the south
bank of said river to a corner near the mouth of Scott road branch ;
thence with the Saltville land company’s line to the mouth of
McHenry’s creek; thence up the said McHenry’s creek to a stake on
the line between the Saltville land company and the Buena Vista
plaster company; thence with the said line between the Saltville
land company and the Buena Vista plaster company, crossing the
Saltville branch of the Norfolk and Western railroad, passing near
the fresh water reservoir, crossing the county road, and still with the
said line, to the beginning, shall constitute the town of Saltville,
and the inhabitants within said boundaries, and their successors,
shall be a body politic in fact and in name, under the style and de-
nomination of the town of Saltville, and by that name shal] have and
exercise all the powers conferred upon towns by chapter forty-four
of the code of Virginia of eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, and
all laws now in force or that may hereafter be enacted for the gov-
ernment of towns of less than five thousand inhabitants, and not in-
consistent with the provisions of this act.

2. The territory within the corporate limits of said town is hereby
created and declared to be a separate and distinct road and school
district, and all persons and property therein shall be exempt from
all road taxes and services, from taxes for the support of the poor
and from county and district taxes for free school purposes; provi-
ded the said town shall keep its streets and alleys and the public
roads within its limits in good order, support its own poor and main-
tain its own public or freeschools. And itis further provided that all
lands contained within the corporate limits of said town which are
used exclusively for agricultural purposes shall be exempt from all
corporation tax, except for road and school purposes and supporting
its poor.

3. The officers of said town shall consist of one mayor and
six residents, who shall compose the council of said town; a ser-
geant, who shall be elected by said council, and such other officers,
including policemen, as the council may deem necessary to elect or
appoint.

The mayor and all other officers of said town, whether elected or
appointed as herein provided, before entering upon the duties of
their respective offices, shall take the oath of office required by the
laws of the state, and shall give bond for the faithful discharge of
their duties in such sum and upon such terms as may be required
by the council. If any person so elected or appointed to any office
in said town shall neglect or refuse to take such oath or to give such
bond before the day on which he is to enter upon the discharge of
the duties of his office he sha]] be considered as having declined said
office, and the same shall be declared vacant, and such vacancy shall
be filled by the council of said town.

The mayor and four members of the council, or in the absence of
the mayor, five members of the council shall constitute a quorum
for the transaction of business.

4. The election for mayor and councilmen shall be held on the
fourth .Thursday in May, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and
every two years thereafter. The officers so elected, and all other
officers elected or appointed by the council, shall begin their terms
on the first day of July succeeding their election, and shall hold
their term of office for two years, or until their successors are elected
and qualified, except that the council may prescribe the terms of all
the officers elected or appointed by it. If any vacancy occur in the
office of mayor or in the council the same shall be filled by the
council.

5. The council of the said town shall, not less than thirty days
before any election held under this charter, appoint a qualified voter
of said town as registrar to register in a special registration-book,
provided for the purpose, all the citizens of said town as hereinafter
set forth, who shall apply to him to be registered.

On the twelfth and eleventh days preceding any regular election
under the charter it shall be the duty of the registrar to sit two days,
and from sunset of the‘eleventh day preceding each election to‘sun-
rise of the day following such election no name shall be entered
upon the registration-book. It shall be the duty of such registrar to
give notice of the days upon which he shal] sit to register voters
by posting notices at three or more public places in said town for
ten days preceding such sitting, and five days previous to any elec-
tion he shall post at a conspicuous place in said town a liat of all
voters who have been registered since the next preceding election.

The registrar so appointed shall register all male citizens of the
town who shall apply to be registered, and who shall be of the age
of twenty-one years at the first election to be held after the regis-
tration, and who are citizens of the United States and shall have
resided in this state for twelve months and in the town of Saltville
six months next preceding any election at which they may offer to
vote.

No one shall be entitled to vote in any election held under this
charter who has not been duly registered as herein provided.

The council shall appoint three judges of election and two clerks,
fifteen days before each election held under this charter.

The judges shall hold said election in the manner prescribed by
law and between the hours of sunrise and sunset. And they shal)
have all the powers conferred by law upon judges of election.

At the close of each election the persons conducting such election
shall count the ballots and make duplicate returns of the result.
One of said returns, with ballots sealed up, shall be returned to the
clerk’s office of the court of Smyth county under seal, which office:
shall receive and safely keep the same; the other shall be returnec
to the council and recorded in the record book of said council, The
council shall judge of the election and qualification of the person:
returned, make out proper certificates of election and cause the per-
sons duly elected to be notified of their election within ten days
after the election so held. As to all other requisites in reference to
the election and qualification of officers the same shall be as de-
scribed by chapter forty-four, code of Virginia, eighteen hundred
and eighty-seven, except that in the event of a tie in any election
the council shall decide by lot.

It shall be the duty of the council at its regular meeting in the
month preceding any election to provide a place for conducting such
election, and to give notice of said time and place by having posted
in said town three or more notices thereof for five days preceding
any election.

The county court of Smyth shall have jurisdiction in cases of
contested elections in said town, with the right of appeal to the cir-
cuit court. The mode of contesting such election and of hearing
and determining such contest shall conform to the laws with refer-
ence to contesting the election of county officers.

6. The mayor, as chief magistrate of the town, shall be the pre-
siding officer of the council, but shall not have a vote except in case
of atie. His salary shall be fixed by the council at its first meet-
ing, or as soon thereafter as practicable, and the same shall not be
diminished during the term of office.

He shall take care that the laws, by-laws and ordinances of the
town be faithfully executed. He shall be clothed with all the pow-
ers and authority of a justice in civil matters within the corporate
limits of the town, and in criminal matters within said limits and
one mile beyond same, and shall have power to issue procear, hear
and determine all prosecutions, cases and controversies which may
arise under the laws, by-laws, and ordinances of the town; impose
fines and inflict punishment when and wherever they are authorized
by said laws, by-laws, and ordinances, and issue executions for the
collection of said fines; and when in his judgment it 1s necessary he
may issue & capias pro fine, and may imprison the person found
guilty until the fine is paid, so that such imprisonment shal! in no
case exceed ninety days, or sentence them to work in chain gangs
upon the streets, roads, and public property in said town, under
such restrictions and for such terms as shal] be prescribed by the
council; provided such term of work shall not exceed ninety days
for any one offence. But in all cases appeals may be taken to the
county court of Washington or Smyth, according as the case arose or
the offence was committed within the said counties respectively, in
the same manner upon the same terms, and be tried in the same
way as appeals from the decisions of a justice are taken and tried in
like cases, except that no appeal shall be granted from the decision
of the mayor, or acting mayor trying same, imposing a fine for the vi-
olation of any of the laws, by-laws or ordinances of said town for of-
fenses not made criminal by the common law or the statutes of Virgi-
nia, until and after bond be given by the person fined, with security
approved by the officer imposing the same or the mayor, conditioned
to pay all fines, costs, and damages that may be awarded by the said
court on appeal; the penalty of said bond to be double the sum suf-
ficient to pay all such fines, costs and damages. Should the decis.
ion of the officer rendering the same be affirmed, in whole or in part,
the said court shall enter judgment against said principal and surety
for the amount so affirmed, with costs before the officer trying the
same and the costs of the appeal, and the clerk of the said court shal!
issue execution thereon in the name of the town against both prin-
cipal and surety; or the said clerk may make return thereof to the
mayor of said town, who may take such course in reference to the
carrying out of the sentence or judgment with fine and costs as would
have been proper had the same been rendered in his court. And in
either case when the said fine or cost have been collected, they shall
be paid to the treasurer of said town, who shall immediately return
to the clerk of the said court all costs attending said appeal in said
court.

In the absence or inability of the mayor the council shall have
authority to designate one of its members acting mayor, who shall,
during said absence or inability, perform all the duties and exercise
all the powers and authority of the mayor.

7. The council shall have power to pass such by-laws and ordi-
nances for the government of said town as they may deem expe-
dient, and to elect a sergeant and such other officers, including po-
licemen, as they may deem necessary, and to fix the salaries of all
officers of the town. The members of the council shall be, and are
hereby, constituted conservators of the peace, and as such shall have
all the powers of other conservators of the peace under the general
laws of the state.

They shall have power to enforce all laws, by-laws and ordinances
of the town by a penalty not exceeding one hundred dollars for a
violation thereof, and may provide that the offender, on failing to
pay the penalty recovered, shall be imprisoned in the prison-house
of the town or in the jail of Smyth county, by and with the consent
of the board of supervisors of said county, for a term not exceeding
ninety days, and the said penalty may be prosecuted and recovered,
with costs, in the name of the town of Saltville, or they may compel
such offender to work on the streets or other public improvements
of said town.

The council shall have power to appoint and organize a board of
health for said town, and invest it with authority for the prompt and
efficient performance of its duties, to pass such ordinances and regu-
lations as may be deemed advisable to secure the inhabitants of said
town from contagious, infectious or other dangerous diseases, and to
prevent, by appropriate legal remedy, all measures affecting, or
likely to affect, the town or inhabitants thereof, when the same may
originate outside the limits of said town; to establish, erect and
regulate hospitals, and to provide for and enforce the removal of
patients to said hospitals.

The council shall have authority to provide for the interment of
the dead, and to regulate the same; to establish a market and make
ordinances for the management thereof. They shall also have power
to prevent the obstruction of streets, alleys, sidewalks, roads, gutters,
and so forth, the firing of guns or pistols, the setting fire to powder
nd other combustible or explosive material, the running or fast
lriving or riding of horses and other animals within the corporation,
yy imposing a reasonable fine for such offences. They shall have
ower to prescribe rules for the orderly building of houses, and their
proper location, such as stables, water-closets, hog-pens, cattle-sheds,
8 well as dwellings, stores, and shops.

They shall have power to regulate the erection of chimneys, stoves
ind stove-pipes, and to abate and remove all nuisances at the ex-
pense of those who occasion it or them.

They shall have power to prohibit all animals from running at
large and beyond their owners’ premises, and to pass all by-laws and
ordinances not contrary to the constitution and laws of the common-
wealth and of the United States which said council may deem neces-
sary for the peace, good order, and government of the said town, and
the carrying into effect of such powers and privileges as are hereby
or may hereafter be vested in them.

They shall have power to amend or repeal any by-law or ordinance
or remit any fine that may to them seem proper and just.

The said council shall have power, whenever they may deem it ex-
pedient, to have the sidewalks, foot-ways and gutters along any
street or alley in said town, of such width as they may prescribe,
properly paved and otherwise suitably improved, altered or repaired
as they may think fit, one-half of the cost of which shall be paid
by the owners of the said lands or lots along the front side of which
such foot-ways, sidewalks, and so forth, may extend, and to levy and
collect for that purpose a special tax on each of said Jands or lots
proportioned to the number of feet of the same, which special tax
shall be collected as taxes on real and personal property are by this
act directed to be collected: provided that before any owner of any
land or lot in said town, shall be required to make such payment
upon the terms above stated, or a tax levied upon the same for such
purpose, there shall be on such land or lot a dwelling or business
house that will average fifteen feet square.

The council shall have power and authority to erect a prison-house
with such apartments as may be necessary for the safe-keeping and
employment of all persons confined therein, and toestablish a chain-
gang in conformity with law; to erect in or near the town suitable
work-houses, houses of correction and reformation, and houses for
the reception of the poor; and to erect and keep in order such pub-
lic buildings as may be necessary for the use of the town.

The council shall have power to purchase and hold lands and lots
on which to erect school-houses and other necessary buildings, and
may sell and convey the whole or any part thereof, provided two-
thirds of the council concur therein. They shall have power and
authority to appoint school trustees of the town, such trustees to be
clothed with all the powers and to perform all the duties now vested
in and required of district boards of school trustees; and in pro-
viding funds for the support of the schools the trustees shall be
governed by the provisions of section fifteen hundred and forty of
the code of Virginia of eighteen hundred and eighty-seven.

8. For purposes of taxation the council shall have authority ta
provide for the assessment of all male persons of the age of twenty-
one years, and all property, real or personal, within the said town,
and such other subjects as may at the time be assessed with state
taxes against persons residing therein. But the assessment of real
estate for purposes of municipal taxation shall not exceed the assess-
ment thereof for state taxation.

The council shall have power to levy and collect annually a poll-
tax of fifty cents on each male person so assessed for free-school
purposes, and a tax on all property, real and personal, and other
subjects so assessed, to meet the current expenses of the town, pro-
vided such levy shall not exceed in any one year one dollar on the
hundred dollars assessed value thereof. But the council may, by
ordinance, exempt from municipal taxation the machinery, imple-
ments, and capital invested’in the plant of any manufacturing estab-
lishment which may be hereafter erected and actually in use for
manufacturing purposes within the said town, and the buildings in
which said machinery is located, with its offices, and so forth, for a
period not exceeding ten years from the date that said manufac-
turing establishment shall begin operations.

9. The council of said town is prohibited from subscribing to the
stock of any company incorporated for a work of internal improve-
ment or other purpose, as provided for by section one thousand two
hundred and forty-three of the code of Virginia of eighteen hun-
dred and eighty-seven, and from creating any indebtedness upon
said town for any purpose in excess of five per centum of the assessed
value of the real and personal property within said town.

10. In all cases in which the laws of the state require a license to
be taken out by any person engaged in the pursuit of any business,
trade, occupation or calling, or for any other purpose, the said coun-
cil shall have power to require a license to be taken out in all such
cases for the benefit of said town before such person shall be permitted
to pursue such business, trade, occupation or calling within the cor-
porate limits of said town. Said council may also grant or refuse
license to owners or keepers of wagons, drays, carts, hacks, and
other wheeled carriages kept or employed in said town for hire or as
carriers for the public, and may require the owners of said wagons,
drays, carts, and so forth, using them in the town to take outa
license therefor and require taxes to be paid thereon, and subject
the same to such regulations as they may deem proper.

The council may subject any person who, without having obtained
8 license therefor, shall do any act or do any employment or busi-
ness in the town, for which a license may be required by ordinance,
to such fine or penalty as it is authorized to impose for any violation
of its laws, by-laws, or ordinances.

11. No license to sell within the corporate limits of said town
ardent spirits, malt liquors, wine, beer, ale, porter, malt, or any in-
toxicating drinks, or intoxicating bitters, or mixtures thereof, shall
be granted to any one by any court or judge or other person.

It shall not be lawful to sell or barter such ardent spirits, malt
liquors, wine, beer, ale, porter, malt, or any intoxicating drinks or
intoxicating bitters within the corporate limits of said town, nor
bring any such articles into said town for barter or exchange; nor
shall it be lawful within said territory to solicit or receive orders or
to take orders unsolicited for the sale of same or any of them; nor
shall it be lawful for any person to keep the same or any of them
deposited or stored in any place in said corporation for sale, barter,
or exchange, directly or indirectly. And whenever any person 18
suspected of selling or of having in his possession for sale, or hand-
ling such ardent spirits, malt liquors, wine, beer, ale, porter, malt,
or any intoxicating drinks, or any intoxicating bitters or mixtures
thereof, contrary to law, within the corporation, upon complaint
thereof, the mayor shall have power to issue warrants requiring
search to be made in any wagon, tent, booth, house, or premises of
the person so suspected, and for the arrest of the said person ; and if
any such articles be found therein, or in the possession of said party,
they shall be seized and kept in safe custody until the final order in
the case. And if the person so suspected be found guilty under this
act, he shall be fined not exceeding one hundred dollars, exclusive
of costs, for each offence, and may be required to give bond, with
good sureties, payable to the town of Saltville, in a penalty not ex-
ceeding three hundred dollars, to keep the peace and be of good be-
havior for a term not exceeding twelve months.

And in case of such conviction, or in case the party so suspected
escapes or avoids process of law for thirty days, all such ardent
spirits, malt liquors, wine, beer, ale, porter, malt, or any intoxicat-
ing drinks, or intoxicating bitters or mixtures thereof, shall be for-
feited to the corporation. If the party is acquitted the same shall
be restored to him.

12. All taxes, whether general or special, assessed upon any prop-
erty in said town under the provisions of this act, are hereby de-
clared to constitute a lien on such property; and if the sergeant or
other legally authorized collector has not been able, with due dili-
gence, to collect the same by the first day of December of the year
in which the same were assessed, he shall, at the first meeting there-
after, make return, upon oath, of the taxes he has failed to collect,
and the property upon which such uncollected taxes were assessed,
and thereupon the council shall have the same remedy against the
property of said delinquents as the commonwealth has in similar
cases.

13. The town treasurer or sergeant, as the council may direct, shall
collect the taxes in the same manner as is now provided by law in
relation to the collection of state taxes by the county treasurers,
and the time for payment shall expire on the thirtieth day of Novem-
ber of each year; all taxes not paid by the first day of December
following shall have five per centum added to the amount thereof;
and the collecting officer 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,
levies, and licenses, in like manner as the treasurer may for state
taxes, levies, and licenses, and shall in all respects have the same
power to enforce the payment and collection thereof.
14. The following named persons are hereby appointed to fill the
oftices of mayor and councilmen of the town of Saltville until the
first day of July, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and until their
successors are duly elected and qualified, namely: E. E. Arnold, as
mayor, and C. M. Perry, Worley Musselwhite, Jobn F. Moore, Doctor
George E. Wiley, W. D. Mount, and P. C. Landrum, as councilmen.
Said persons shall take the oath of office and enter upon the dis-
range of their duties as soon as practicable after the passage of
this act.

15. The act entitled “An act to incorporate the town of Saltville,
in Smyth and Washington counties,” approved March eighth, eigh-
teen hundred and ninety-four, is hereby repealed.

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