Chap. 837.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 1 and 2 of an act to incor-
porate the town of Dayton, Rockingham county, approved March 9, 1880, as
amended by an act entitled an act to amend and re-enact an act to incorpo-
rate the town of Dayton, approved March 9, 1880, and all acts amendatory
thereof, approved February 29, 1892, and to add an independent section em-
powering the town council of said town to negotiate a loan not to exceed five
thousand dollars.

Approved March 5, 1896.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tions one and two of an act entitled an act to incorporate the town
of Dayton, Rockingham county, approved March ninth, eighteen
hundred and eighty, as amended by an act entitled an act to amend
and re-enact an act to incorporate the town of Dayton, approved
March ninth, eighteen hundred and eighty, and all acts amendatory
thereof, approved February twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and
ninety-two, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 1. The municipal authorities of the town of Dayton, in the
county of Rockingham, shall have power to extend the corporate
limits of said town from the present exterior boundaries thereof to
the following described boundaries: Beginning at the northwest cor-
ner of the Dayton cemetery; thence to the northwest corner of J. N.
Fris’ mill-dam; thence in a straight line to S. Burtner’s corner
at breast of dam; thence with a straight line to southwest cor-
ner of S. Burtner’s barn; thence in a straight line to a large wil-
low tree on the southeast side of the Chesapeake and Western rail-
road; thence in a straight line to the middle of the bridge over
Cook’s creek near J. M. Kagey’s; thence in a straight line to a large
oak tree in Alberta Coffman’s yard; thence in a straight line, pass-
ing the corner of Mre. Margaret Coffman’s house, to a post in George
W. Hedrick’s line; thence with Hedrick’s line to Sallie Coffman’s
line; thence in a straight line with Hedrick’s and Bowman’s lines
to a corner on south side of public road; thence with the south side
of said road, passing Bowman’s barn, to the beginning, if sanctioned
by a majority of the qualified voters residing within the limits of
the part of said boundaries proposed to be included in said exten-
sion; and that the same as it has been heretofore and may hereafter
be laid off into lots, streets and alleys, be, and the same is hereby,
made a town corporate by the name of Dayton, and by that name
shall have and exercise all the powers conferred by the
chapter of the code of Virginia, so far as the same be applicable to
the government of towns of less than five thousand inhabitants, and
not inconsistent with the provisions of this act.

§ 2. The government of said town shall be vested in a mayor and
seven councilmen, who shall be residents of said town, to be chosen
annually by ballot on the fourth Thursday in May of each year. Any
person entitled to vote in Rockingham county, and residing within the
corporate limits of said town of Dayton six months, shall be entitled
to vote at all elections under said act of incorporation. The mayor
shall appoint two members of the council, who, with the clerk of the
council, shall hold said election between the hours of one in the
afternoon and sunset, and they shall decide any contest with refer-
once to the right to vote of any individual, and shall count the bal-
lots. In case it is impossible to decide the seven who has the
highest number of votes, by reason of a tie, the said clerk shall
decide in the presence of the two councilmen aforesaid, by lot.
Said clerk shall immediately thereafter make out and deliver to
each of the councilmen elected a certificate of his election.

2. The municipal authorities of the town of Dayton shall have the
power to negotiate a loan of not more than five thousand dollars for
the specific purpose of establishing a fire department and water-
works and the laying of pavements and walks for the said town.
‘They shall have power to execute bonds in the name of said corpora-
tion, and to levy a special tax, not to exceed ten cents on the
hundred dollars of the assessed valuation of the property, personal
and real, in said corporation, which shall be constituted a sinking
fund for the payment of interest and redemption of said bonds.
No bond shall be executed for a longer period than twenty-five
years.

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