Chap. 140.—An ACT to authorize the town of Shenandoah, Virginia, to issue

bonds not exceeding $50,000, for the purpose of building and maintaining

@ sewerage system, high schoo] building, street paving and filtration

plant. (H. B. 297.)
Approved March 20, 1914.

Whereas, it is desired that the town of Shenandoah, Virginia,
shall construct and establish hydro-electric dam and fixtures, and if
fcund necessary, to establish and maintain a sewerage system, also
high school building, street paving, filtration plant, in the said
town; and

Whereas, the construction and establishment of the above named
will necessitate the borrowing of money and the issuance of bonds;
and

Whereas, the great advantage to be obtained by the construction
of such works before the winter season sets in renders it a matter of
emergency that this bill enforce from its passage; therefore,

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
the town council of Shenandoah, Virginia, be, and is, hereby au-
thorized and enipowered to borrow money for the said corporation
for the purpose of constructing and establishing the above named
system in and for the use of said town, not to exceed the sum of
fifty thousand dollars, by the issue and sale of bonds of the said
corporation as hereafter provided.

2. Said bonds may be either coupon or registered, in denomina-
tions of one hundred dollars, or multiples thereof, to bear a rate of
interest not exceeding six percentum per annum, payable semi-
annually. The principal of said bonds shall be payable in thirty
years from their date, or upon call of said corporation at any time
after twenty years from their date. The said bonds shall be signed
by the mayor of said town. and shall have affixed to them the seal
of said town, attested by the clerk of said town, and shall be ne-
gotiated or sold in such manner as may be prescribed by the town
council; provided, that they shall not be sold for less than their
face value. .

3. The council of said town shall annually include in the levy
on the property in the said town, subject to taxation, as a part of
the annual town levy, a tax sufficient to pay the interest on the
bonds issued under this act, and to create a sinking fund for the
redemption of said bonds, which levy shall at all times be subject
to such reduction as may be by reason of any contribution from
general revenues toward the payment of said interest or sinking
fund; and it shall be lawful for the said town to at all times use
the sinking funds for the payment and retirement of such bonds as
the holders thereof may be willing to deliver for cancellation prior
to the time of their maturity.
4. The said council of the said town is hereby authorized and
empowered to construct, erect, and operate a hydro-electric dam, a
sewerage system, a high school building, and said street. paving,
within or without the corporate limits of the said town, and to do
any and all things connected therewith or necessary thereto; and
the said town, by its mayor and council, is hereby empowered to
contract and agree with the owners and tenants of freeholds
through and on whose lands the said works of the said town, or
any part thereof, are located, constructed, or pass for the purchase
or use thereof, whether permanent or temporary; and upon failure
to so contract or agree with the owner or tenant of such freehold to
proceed to condemn same, as prescribed by the charter of said town,
if said lands or freeholds are within the corporate limits of said
town, and by proceedings in the circuit court of Page county, under
chapter of the Code, and acts amendatory thereof, if out-
side of the said corporate limits.

5. The council of said town are hereby authorized to enact suc
by-laws and ordinances. and prescribe such penalties, not in con-
flict with the Constitution and laws of this State and the United
States, for the protection of the said pipes. works, and fixtures of
the said systems against willful or wanton injury as may be neces-
sary, whether such offenses against same be within or without the
said corporate limits, for which purpose the jurisdiction of the
mayor and other corporate authorities of the said town is hereby —
extended for one hundred yards on either side, and beyond any and
all the various lines and branches of its entire said works.

6. The foregoing provisions of this act shall not be operative
until the question of the issue of the said bonds shall have been
submitted to an election of such freeholders as were qualified to
vote in said town under the Constitution and laws of Virginia, as
they existed on the ninth day of July, nineteen hundred and two,
and such as would become qualified to vote in said town before the
day of said election: and it shall appear from the return of the
votes cast at the said election, as hereinafter provided for, that a
majority of the said votes so cast were in favor of the issue of the
bonds provided for in this act; provided, that any voter whose wife
is seized of a freehold, whether in fee or in trust for her, shall be
deemed a freeholder under this act.

7. The said election shall be called by a written order over the
signature of the mayor of the said town, true copies of which shall
be posted at not less than five conspicuous places in said town not
less than twenty days before the day named in said call by the
sergeant of the said town as a means of advertisement of the time
and place of said election; and the return of said sergeant on the
hack of the original order as to the posting of the same shall be
conclusive evidence of such posting; and the said original shall be
filed with the clerk of said town.

8. The election shall be by ballot, and shall be held by five free-

holders of the town designated and appointed by the mayor of said
town, three of whom shall act as judges, and two of whom shall act
as clerks, and they shall be sworn by the mayor of said town to
perform their several duties fairly and impartially before entering
upon the respective duties of judges and clerks of said election.

9. The judges and clerks of said election shall make a correct
count and return of said election, sealing the ballots after counted
and returning them to the clerk of said council to be filed away with
the records of the town by him. to whom said judges and clerks shall
also certify the result of said election over their signatures and such
certificate shall be absolute and conclusive evidence of the verity
of such return after five days from the date of said election and
return.

10. All acts or parts of acts in conflict herewith, are hereby re-
pealed.

11. For the reason of emergency expressed in the preamble,
this act shall be in force from its passage.