Chap. 262.—An ACT to provide for the issuance of $30,000 bonds by the city of
Newport News for the payment of damage to property in the construction of the
Twenty-eighth-street bridge.

Approved May 16, 1903.

1. Be it enacted by the gencral assembly of Virginia, That in addition
to the present indebtedness of the city of Newport News, and the certifi-
cates of debt or bonds which the council of said city is authorized by law
to issue, the common council of said city may, by a three-fourths vote of
ail its members, in the name and for the use of said city, cause to be is-
sued certificates of debt or bonds (the form of which shall be prescribed
by the council) in the sum of thirty thousand dollars, which said bonds
shall not be payable in money by the said city, nor shall they bear interest,
but shall be received by the treasurer of said city in payment of taxes,
at the rate of six thousand dollars yearly, until the whole issue shall be
redeemed by the payment of taxes therewith, and shall be issued in series
of six thousand dollars each, maturing one, two, three, four, and five years
after date.

The bonds so authorized to be issued by the said council shall-not be
so] 4d by said city, but shall be delivered to the persons who, at the time of

the letting of the contract for the erection of the bridge in Twenty- -eighth

street, in “said city, owned property abutting on said | approaches thercto,
In payment of any damages sustained by the then owners of said prop-
erty by reason of the ercction and construction of said bridge, in such pro-
portion as the council may determine, according to the damages done to
tach person’s property.

But such certificate of debt or bonds shall not be issued, or be valid,
unless and until the question of issuing the same shall have been first sub-
mitted to the legal voters of said city for their approval, at an election
to be ordered and provided for by the council, and three-fifths of said
legal voters voting at said election, who shall then own any freehold estate
in real estate in caid city; and two-thirds of said legal voters of said city
voting at said election, who shall then not own any freehold estate in real
cstate in said city, shall have voted in favor of the issue of said certificates
of debt or bonds; if the question of the issuing of said certificates of debt
or bonds shall not be authorized at the election so held, then no such
certificates of debt or bonds shall be issued. Said election shall be by
viva voce vote, and only those who are Iegal voters of the said city under
the laws of Virginia shall have the right to vote. The words “freehold
estate,” as used in this section, shall be construed to embrace only a full
ownership in fee simple at law or in equity, or an estate for life. The
council shall cause to be prepared, at least sixty days prior to any elec-
tion hereunder, a list of the legal voters in said city owning such free-
hold estate, and shall cause the same to be published in a newspaper pub-
lished in the said city, for once a week for four weeks prior to any such
election. The council shall, at least ten days before any such election
convene in session, and at such session revise and correct such list, if there
be errors therein. Such list, when so revised and corrected, shall be con-
clusive on any question as to who constitute the legal voters in said city
owning a freehold estate and entitled to vote at such election.

The said election shall not be held until notice of the time, place, and
objects thereof shall have been first given by publication for at least thirty
days in a daily newspaper published in the said city.

And the said council shall not create or incur any other indebtedness
which has not been provided for in the annual levy of the said city, or hy
some other act of the general assembly of Virginia.

2. Nothing in this act shall be construed as creating or incurring any
liability upon the city on account of damages done to property Ly reason
of the erection and construction of said bridge.

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