Chap. 464.—An ACT to incorporate the town of Nicholsville, in the county of
tt.

Approved April 2, 1902.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the town of
Nicholsville, in the county of Scott, be, and the same is hereby, made a
town corporate by the name of Nicholsville, and by that name may sue
and be sued, and have and exercise all the powers conferred on towns of
Jess than five thousand inhabitants by the laws of Virginia now in force,
so far as the same are not inconsistent with the provisions of this act.

2. The limits of said town shall be as follows: Beginning in a hollow
in the main road leading from Nicholsville to Gates City, west of road
leading to Bushes’ Mills; thence southeast to a cave on Gren Kilgore’s
land; thence to an oak tree near an old gate north of Aaron Hartsock’s;
thence to the main road at east end of Susan Shoemaker’s cleared land:
thence to the road leading to Corbet, and north boundary of M. 8.
Darten’s land; thence via and including W. M. Nichols’ and W. S. Quil-
lins’ dwellings to the beginning.

3. The government of said town shall be vested in a mayor and five
councilmen, one of which councilmen shall be appointed and designated
by a majority of the other councilmen as town clerk; and the first election
under this charter for mayor and councilmen shall be held on Tuesday
after the first Monday in May, nineteen hundred and two, and annually
thereafter ; such election shall be held in said town at such place as shall
be designated by the town council, and conducted under the supervision
of three commissioners appointed by the mayor for the purpose. Within
two days after any election has been held under this act, the ecommis-
sioners who conducted said election shall certify the names of the persons
voted for and elected to the council of said town, which certificate shall
he entered among the records of said town.

4. The persons to be elected under the provisions of this act shall be
qualified voters of Scott county, and residents for thirty days of said
town; and it shall be their duty on or before the first day of June next
after their election to take and subscribe the oaths prescribed by law to
be taken by county and. district officers before a justice of the pcace or
notary public for Scott county, which oaths shall be filed with th: mayor
of said town; and they shall enter upon the discharge of the duties of
their respective offices on the first day of January next after thcir elec-
tion, and hold their offices for a term of one year, and until their succes-
sors are elected or appointed and qualified.

5. H. A. Barnes is hereby appointed mayor of said town; J. P. Lay,
J. M. Darter, J. H. Hartsocks, Doctor J. M. Doughterty, and W. B.
Jackson are hereby appointed councilmen thereof, and the said persons
shall act as mayor and councilmen, and shall have and exercise all the
powers hereinafter granted to said officers, shall continue in office until
the first day of June, nineteen hundred and three, and thereafter until
their successors shall be elected and qualify according to law, a majority
of whom shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.

6. In all elections for officers of this corporation all persons who are by
the laws of this State entitled to vote for members of the general assembly,
and who shall have resided in said town for three months next preceding
the dav of election to be held, shall be entitled to vote.

7. When, from any cause, a vacancy may occur in the office of mayor or
councilmen, the town council, by a majority of such as remain, may fill
such vacancy from the citizens of said town eligible to the office under this
act.
8. The mayor and councilmen shall constitute the council of said town,
a majority of whom shall constitute a quorum to transact business, and
all the corporate powers of said town shall be exercised by said council
under its authority, except when otherwise provided by law. The mayor
shall be president of said council, and shall have all the rights, powers,
and privileges such office confers under the general ‘laws governing towns
within this State, and shall be invested with all powers of a justice of
the peace in criminal and civil cases within the limits of said town and
one mile beyond said limits. He shall have power to render judgments
and issue executions in all matters wherein he has authority vested in
him under this act; and in case of trial and conviction of any person for
the violation of any provision of this act, or any ordinance, by-law, or
regulation of said town, or any crime against the laws of this State,
wherein the punishment is by fine, and the fine be not paid immediately,
together with all costs, it shall be lawful to require such offender so con-
victed to work out all costs, fines, and jail fees on the streets, sidewalks,
or other public works of said town at the rate of fifty cents per day. In
case of death, sickness, absence, refusal, or inability of the mayor at any
time to act as such, the council shall designate some one of its members
to act in the place of such mayor, and who shall have all the powers con-
ferred upon the mayor by this charter.

9. The town council shall cause to be kept by the clerk of said town in
a journal accurate record of all its proceedings, which shall be open to the
inspection of the citizens of said town. The clerk shall attend all meet-
ings of the council, keep a journal of its proceedings, have charge of and
preserve the records of the town, and perform such other duties as the
town council may prescribe.

10. The council shall have the power to clect a treasurer, sergeant, and
any other officers they may deem necessary for said town; to regulate
their duties, prescribe their compensation, remove them from office, and
require bonds, with approved security, for the faithful performance of
their respective duties. The council shall also have the power to pass all
necessary by-laws and ordinances for the government of said town, so
that the same be not in conflict with the constitution and laws of this
State and the constitution and laws of the United State; to lay off streets,
walks, and alleys; to alter or change the same; to keep the same in ordgy,
and for which purposes shall have the same power and jurisdiction for
condemning lands for streets, allevs, and sidewalks as the county court
has for condemning lands for roads in said county; to prevent riding and
driving horses and other animals at an improper speed along the roads
and streets of said town; to prevent riding, driving, or leading horses or
other animals across or ‘along any sidewalk : to prevent the erection of
unsightly, unsuhstantial, and unsafe houses, and unsafe flues and chim-
nevs to buildings in said town, and to require the owner or occupier of
houses in said town to erect safe flues or chimneys to their houses; to
lease, acquire, or erect water works for said town, and to require #11 per-
sons getting or using water from the same to pay a license therefor; to
prevent vice and immorality; to preserve peace and order; to quell dis-
turbances and disorderly conduct and assemblages; to suppress houses of
ill-fame and gambling; to prevent engaging in any sport or employment
in said town dangerous or annoying to the citizens thereof; to punish
lewdness or immoral conduct in said town; to make regulations in refer-
ence to contagious diseases; to abate nuisances, and to punish all viola-
tions of the ordinances and by-laws of said town by fine or imprisonment,
or both. °

11. The said town council shall have the power and authority tc have
sidewalks, curbings, and footways along any street or alley within said
town of such width as they may prescribe, properly paved or otherwise
made, improved, or repaired and altered, whenever they may think fit, at
the cost and expense of the owner or owners of the lots of land along the
front or side of which such footways, sidewalks, or other improvements
extend, 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 treasurer or collecting officer of said town as other
taxes on real estate within the said town are herein directed to be col-
lected: provided, however, that the owner or occupier of any lot or parcel
of land extending from one street to another shall not, within three years
from the passage of this act, be required to pay a special tax of more than
enough to crect or repair the sidewalk or other improvement on one side
of such lot or parcel of land. In all cases where a lessee or tenant shall
pay the expense of any such improvement along the side or sides of any
lot or parcel of land occupied by him, by contract with his lessee cr land-
lord, 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: provided, further, that the owner of such lot of land shall
not be required to pay thereon any other tax for town purposes tor the
year that said special tax shall be assessed and paid.

12. For the purposes of taxation, the council shall provide for the an-
nual assessment of all real and personal property within the corporate
limits of said town, so that said assessment be not higher than that made
for county and State purposes, and such assessment shall be the basis of
taxation.

~13. The town council may levy and provide for the collection of such
taxes as it may deem proper on all property—real and personal—within
said town, so that the same does not exceed one hundred cents on the one
hundred dollars’ assessed value; to impose a specific license on all shows,
performances, and exhibitions that may be given in or within one mile
of said town’s corporate limits; may impose a license tax on all business
on which the State imposes a license tax; may impose a license tax on the
sale of merchandise or other manufactured articles that be offered for
sale by any person not permanently located and doing a regular business
in said town; and the officers of said town shall have the same power to
collect taxes within the corporate limits of said town that the county
officers now have under the general laws of the State.

14, In the taxation of real estate provided for in this charter all lots,
tracts, or parcels of land which lie partly within and partly without the
corporate limits of said town, that part which lies within shall be properly
taxable by said town council.

15. All taxes assessed upon property—real or personal—within the
corporate limits of said town under this act are hereby declared to be lien
upon said property.

16. Said town and persons and property therein shall be exempt from
the payment of county and district road taxes, and for which exemptions
said town shall keep its own streets and roads in order, and shall not be
embraced in any road district of said county. And this provision shall
apply to the assessment of taxes for the year nineteen hundred and two.

1%. The mayor and councilmen, except the clerk, shall serve without
any compensation ; the compensation of the clerk to be fixed by the coun-
cil: provided, that the mayor shall be entitled to receive such fees as are
now allowed by law to justices of the peace when he acts in that capacity.

18. This act shall be in force from the time of its passage.