Chap. 400.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 13 and 37 of an act en-
titled an act to provide a new charter for the town of Liberty, to extend
its limits and change its name to Bedford City, Virginia, approved March
3, 1890; and to change the name of the town of Bedford, as amended and
re-enacted by an act approved March 12, 1912. {H B 317)

Approved March 24, 1922.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tions thirteen and thirty-seven of an act entitled an act to provide a
new charter for the town of Liberty, to extend its limits and change
its name to Bedford City, as amended and re-enacted by an act ap-
proved March twelfth, nineteen hundred and twelve, be amended and
re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 13. In addition to the powers conferred by other general
statutes, the council of the town shall have power to lay off streets,
walks, or alleys; alter, improve and light the same, and have them
kept in good order ; to lay off public grounds and provide all buildings
proper for the town; to provide a prison house and workhouse, and
employ managers, physicans, nurses and servants for the same, pre-
scribe regulations for their government and discipline, and for per-
sons therein; to prescribe the time for holding markets and regulate
the same; to prevent injury or annoyance from anything dangerous,
offensive or unhealthy, and cause any nuisance to be abated; to
regulate the keeping of gun powder or other combustibles, and pro-
vide magazines for the same; to provide places for the interment
of the dead near the town; to acquire or otherwise obtain control of
or establish, maintain, operate, extend and enlarge water works, gas
works, electric plants, and other public utilities within or without
the limits of the town, for the purpose of supplying the consumers
within the town of Bedford, and without the town, in the county
of Bedford, with water, gas, lights, power, et cetera, and for the
public use and for such other purposes as are permitted by the laws
of the State; to acquire within or without the limits of the town by
purchase, condemnation or otherwise whatever land may be necessary
for acquiring, locating, establishing, maintaining, operating extending,
or enlarging said water works, gas works, electric plants and
other public utilities, and the rights of ways, rails, pipes, poles,
conduits or wires connected therewith, or any of the fixtures or appur-
tenances thereof; to keep on hand, sell and supply to customers of its
electric plant and water works, without profit to the town, motors,
lamps, electric fixtures, heating devices and other materials or supplies
used by customers of electric power or water; to lease or own, operate
or maintain, rock quarries for the purpose of obtaining material for
use upon the public places or works of the town; to prevent the pol-
lution of water and injuries to water works, for which purpose
its jurisdiction shall extend to five miles above the same; and to
protect from injury, by ordinances prescribing adequate penalties
and by prosecution in the State courts, and pipes, poles, wires, fix-
tures, land or other things used in connection with the water works,
electric plant or other public utility; to make, erect and construct,’
within or without said town, drains, sewers and public ducts, and to
acquire within or without said town by purchase, condemnation or
otherwise, so much land as may be necessary to make, erect, construct,
operate and maintain the same; to make regulations concerning the
building of houses in the town, and in its discretion to establish and
maintain parks, playgrounds, and boulevards, and cause the same to
be laid out, equipped or beautified, and in particular districts, or
along particular streets, to prescribe and establish building lines, or
to require property owners in certain localities or districts to leave a
certain percentage of lots free from buildings, and to regulate the
height of buildings ; to make regulations for the purpose of guarding
against danger from accidents by fire, and, on the petition of the own-
ers of not less than two-thirds of the ground included in any square,
to prohibit the erection in such square of any building, or an addition
to any building more than ten feet high, unless the outer walls thereof
be made of brick and mortar or stone and mortar, and provide for
the removal of any building or addition erected contrary to such
prohibition; to provide for the weighing or measuring of hay, coal,
or any other articles for sale, and regulate the transportation thereof
through the streets; protect the property of the town and its in-
habitants, and preserve peace and good order therein.” The council
of the town may, in its discretion, authorize or require the fire de-
partment thereof to render aid in cases of fire occuring beyond its
limits, and may prescribe the conditions on which such aid may be
rendered. For carrying into effect these and its other powers, it may
make ordinances and by-laws, and prescribe fines or other punish-
ment for violation thereof, keep a town guard, maintain a chain-gang,
appoint a collector of its taxes and levies, and such other officers as
it may deem proper, define their powers, prescribe their duties and
compensation, and take from any of them a bond, with sureties, in
such penalty as to the council may seem fit, payable to the town by
its corporate name, and with condition for the faithful discharge of
the said duties.

The council may make appropriations of public funds, of personal
property, or of any real estate, to any charitable institution or asso-
ciation, located within the limits of the town; provided such insti-
tution or association is not controlled in whole or in part by any
church or sectarian society. But the words “sectarian society” shall
not be construed to mean a non-denominational young men’s Chris-
tian association, or a non-denominational women’s Christian asso-
ciation.

All fees, penalties and imprisonments shall be recovered or en-
forced under the judgment of the mayor, or the person exercising
his functions, for the benefit of the town, and in the case of the
failure to pay any fine or costs imposed by such judgment, the
offender may, in the discretion of the mayor or other officer, be re-
quired to work the same out upon the public works of the town.

Section 37. The council of the town shall annually cause to be
‘made up and entered on its journal an account of all sums lawfully
chargeable on the town which ought to be paid within one year, and
order a town levy of so much as in its opinion is necessary to be
raised in that way, in addition to what may be received for licenses
and from other sources. The levy so ordered may be upon all per-
sons in the town above the age of twenty-one years, and upon the
property therein, and on such other subjects as may at the time be
assessed with State taxes, except such subjects as cities and towns
are forbidden by general law to impose taxes upon or require licenses
of. The council may add penalties for the failure of any person to
pay taxes at the time provided for by ordinance; and there shall be
a lien for all taxes assessed, which may be enforced in a method to
be prescribed by the council, provided the same is not in conflict with
the general law.

The council may by a two-thirds vote of the entire council exempt
real and personal property used for manufacturing or other enter-
prises from all taxes for municipal purposes for a period not exceed-
ing ten years, if it shall deem it expedient to do so in order to
encourage the establishment of such manufacturing or other enter-
prises in the town.