Chap. 161.—An ACT to provide for the creation of sanitary districts in counties
_of the State adjoining a city having a population, according to the last pre-
ceding United States census, of one hundred and seventy thousand in-
habitants or more; to prescribe the powers and duties of the boards of
supervisors of such counties as to the construction, acquisition, maintenance
and operation of water supply, sewerage, heat, light and power and gas
systems in such districts; and to provide for the issuance of county bonds;

to provide funds for establishing and operating such public utilities in said
sanitary districts. [S B 215]

Approved March 17, 1926.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the
circuit court of any county in this State adjoining a city having a
population, according to the last preceding United States census, of
one hundred and seventy thousand inhabitants, or more, or the judge
of such court in vacation, upon the petition of fifty qualified voters
of said proposed district, may make an order creating a sanitary dis-
trict or districts in and for such county, which order shall prescribe
the metes and bounds of said district.

2. Upon the filing of the said petition the court shall fix a day for
a hearing on the question of the proposed sanitary district, notice of
which hearing shall be given by publication once a week for three
consecutive weeks in some newspaper of general circulation within the
said county. At least ten days shall intervene between the completion
of the publication and the date set for the hearing, and no such “.
trict shall be created until the said notice has been given and t
hearing had.

3. After the entry of such order creating a sanitary district in
such county the board.of supervisors thereof shall have the follow-
ing powers and duties, subject to the conditions and limitations here-
inafter prescribed:

(a) To construct, maintain and operate water supply, sewerage,
heat, light and power and gas systems for the use and benefit of the
public in such sanitary district.

(b) To acquire by gift, condemnation, purchase, lease, or other-
wise, and to maintain and operate any such water supply, sewerage,
heat, light and power, and gas systems in such district.

(c) Tocontract with any person, firm, corporation or municipality
to construct, establish, maintain and operate any such water supply,
sewerage, heat, light and power, and gas systems in such district.

To require owners or tenants of any property, in the said dis-
trict to connect with any such system or systems, and to contract with
the said owners or tenants for such connections. Said owners or
tenants shall have the right of appeal to the circuit court or the judge
thereof in vacation within ten days from action by the said board
of supervisors.
(e) To fix and prescribe the rates of charge for the use of any such
system or systems, and to provide for the collection of such charges.

(f) To employ and fix the compensation of any technical, clerical
or other force and help which from time to time, in their judgment may
be deemed necessary for the construction, operation or maintenance
of any such system or systems.

(g) To negotiate and contract with any person, firm, corporation
or municipality with regard to the connection of any such system or
systems with any other system or systems now in operation or here-
after to be established, and with regard to any other matter necessary
and proper for the construction or operation and maintenance of any
such system within the said sanitary district.

4. In order to raise the necessary funds to carry into effect the
foregoing powers the board of supervisors in any such county in which
any such sanitary district has been created shall have power, subject
to the conditions and limitations of this act, to issue the bonds of the
said county to an amount in the aggregate of.not exceeding eighteen
per centum of the assessed value of all real estate in the said sanitary
district subject to local: taxation.

5. The circuit court of such county, or the judge thereof in va-
cation, upon the petition of a majority of the board of supervisors of
said county, or upon the petition of fifty qualified voters residing in
said sanitary district shall make an order requiring the judges of elec-
tion, at the next election of county officers or at any other time not
less than thirty days from the date of such order, which shall be
designated therein, to open a poll and take the sense of the qualified
voters of the said sanitary district or districts on the question whether
the board of supervisors shall issue bonds for said purposes.

6. The regular election officers of said county in and for the said
sanitary district, or districts, at the time designated in the order
authorizing the vote, shall open polls at such voting places in the
said district or districts, as may be designated in the said order, and
shall conduct such election and close the polls in such manner as 1s
provided by law in other elections. At the said election there shall
be printed on each ballot in separate lines the following:

For Bond Issue
Against Bond Issue

Voters desiring to vote in favor of the issuance of said bonds shall
strike out the words ‘‘against bond issue,’’ and voters desiring to vote
against bond issue shall strike out the words “for bond issue.’’ Voters
striking out or erasing the words ‘‘for’’ or ‘‘against’’ shall be deemed
to have stricken out or erased the entire line. The judges of election
at the several voting places shall immediately after the closing of the
polls at each of the said places count the ballots deposited, and shall,
within two days after the said election, make return thereof as is pro-
vided in other elections. Said ballots shall be printed and furnished
by the regular election officers.

7. The commissioners of election of said county shall, within two
days after the judges of election have made return of the poll books
and ballots as aforesaid, meet at the office of said clerk and, having
taken an oath before him faithfully to discharge their duties, canvass
the returns and certify the results thereof to the circuit court.

8. If it shall appear by the report of the commissioners that a
majority of the qualified voters of the said sanitary district or districts
voting on the question, are in favor of issuing the bonds for the pur-
poses aforesaid, the circuit court, or the judge thereof in vacation,
shall, at its next term, enter of record an order requiring the super-
visors of the county to proceed at their next meeting to carry out the
wishes of the voters as expressed at the said election.

9. Whenever the sense of the qualified voters of any district or
districts shall be taken on the question whether the board of super-
visors of the said county shall issue bonds for the purposes aforesaid,
the said election and returns shall be subject to the inquiry, determi-
nation and judgment of the circuit court of the county in which said
election was held, upon the written complaint of twenty-five or more
of the qualified .voters of such county, of an undue election or false
returns, two of whom shall take an oath that facts set forth in such
complaint are true to the best of their knowledge and belief, and tne
court shall in judging of such election and returns, proceed upon thie
merits thereof and determine concerning the same according to the
Constitution and laws of this State, but such complaint shall not be
valid unless it shall have been filed within thirty days after said
election in the clerk’s office of the said circuit court. The board of
supervisors of such county shall be made a defendant by summons or
notice to its chairman of the filing of the complaint, and after such
service of notice on the chairman of the board of supervisors, either
party, upon reasonable notice to the other, shall be at liberty to take
depositions to sustain or invalidate such election. Service of notice
on any three of the complainants shall be sufficient. The court shall
proceed at its next term after such service of summons or notice to
determine the contest without a jury on the evidence, oral or written,
unless good cause be shown for a continuance, and shall make a proper
record of its judgment. If the judgment be that the election was a
valid one in favor of the issuing of bonds in said district or districts,
the court shall make an order in conformity with the preceding sec-
tion.

10. The board of supervisors at their meeting or as soon there-
after as practicable, shall determine what amount of bonds shall be
issued for constructing and operating said system or systems in said
district or districts, but the maximum amount of bonds issued shall
in no case exceed the maximum amount prescribed in section four of
this act, and in event they do not at said meeting direct the present
issuing of all the said bonds, they may thereafter, from time to time,
direct the residue thereof to be issued to carry out the wishes of the
voters, so far as necessary, as expressed in such election, and in event
the board, for any reason, fails or refuses to issue the bonds so auth-
orized to be issued, the circuit court of the county may, upon the
complaint of ten qualified voters of such district and after ten days’
notice to the chairman of the board, for cause shown, issue an order
directing them to issue the said bonds or any unissued residue thereof,
or such portion thereof as the court may, from time to time, deem
proper to be issued in order to carry out the wishes of the voters as
expressed in said election. They shall have the power to appoint an
agent or agents to sell said bonds (and to pay said agent or agents a
commission for negotiating said sale not to exceed three per centum
of the amount of bonds sold by them, or to pay such sum to the pur-
chaser of such bonds, provided that said bonds shall be sold to be paid
for in lawful money only, and shall not be sold at less than par value).
When such a sale of bonds has been negotiated, the board of supervisors
shall issue the same. Such bonds may be either registered or with
coupons attached, as said board of supervisors may prescribe, and
shall have written or printed in ink the following sentences: ‘“These
bonds are issued for the construction and operation of a public....
Loe eee eens system in............sanitary district, but the full
faith and credit of the entire county of.................. is hereby
pledged for their payment.’’ Such bonds shall be signed by the
chairman and countersigned by the clerk thereof under the seal of the
board; shall be in denominations of one hundred dollars or some multi-
ple thereof; shall bear interest at a rate not exceeding six per centum
per annum, payable semi-annually, both principal and interest to be
payable at such place or places as may be determined by the board of
supervisors, and shall be payable not exceeding thirty-four years
from the date thereof at said office, but may, in the discretion of the
said board, be made redeemable at such time or times within such
period or periods and upon such notice as the said board may pre-
scribe and stipulate upon the face of the bonds when issued. The
board shall deliver them to the treasurer of the county, who shall
deliver said bonds to the purchasers thereof, or their order, upon the
payment of the price thereof. The said treasurer and his sureties
shall be liable for the amount received for said bonds as though it
were a county levy, and said funds shall be expended for the purposes
and in the sanitary district or districts for which it wasintended, and
none other. The said treasurer shall receive as compensation for his
services hereunder one-eighth of one per centum of the amount thus
coming into his hands, and also the reasonable cost to him of giving
surety on such additional bond or bonds as may be required of him,
if any, on account of his receipts heretofore or hereafter of said funds,
and the board of supervisors of such county may direct the treasurer
to deposit the proceeds of said bond issue in such bank or banks as
it may approve, to the credit of the said treasurer, to be paid out on
his checks therefor, and at the rate of interest to be specified, and all
interest accrued therefrom shall be accounted for by the said treas-
urer and be expended for the purposes for which the bonds were
issued, and in so far as not necessary therefor, shall be used for the
payment of the interest on the bonds, or shall be paid into the sinking
fund to redeem the principal thereof at maturity.

11. The net revenue derived from the operation of such systems
shall be set apart by the said board to pay the interest on the bonds
so issued or to be issued, and to create a sinking fund to redeem the
principal thereof at maturity. The board of supervisors is hereby auth-
orized and empowered to apply any part or all of said sinking fund to
the payment, if redeemable by their terms, or to the purchase of any
of said bonds, at any time, and all bonds so paid off or purchased by
said board of supervisors shall be immediately cancelled, and shall not
be reissued, and the board of supervisors is authorized and empowered
to lend out, upon real estate security, the loan not to exceed fifty per
centum of the assessed value of such real estate, or deposit in bank at
interest all accumulations of money to the credit of said sinking fund
and to collect and reinvest the same and the interest accruing thereon
from time to time, so often as may be necessary or expedient, until
such bonds become subject to call; provided, that no money to credit
of said sinking fund shall be loaned out or deposited or invested by the
said board of supervisors, unless said loan, deposit or investment shall
be first approved by the circuit court of said county, or the judge
thereof in vacation, and the form of the security be examined and
approved by the Commonwealth’s attorney of said county, which
approval shall be entered of record in the order book of said court.

The treasurer shall not be liable for any funds herein provided
for that shall be lost while on deposit made by order of the board of
supervisors with any bank or banks, or when invested in any real
estate security as provided herein, but the board of supervisors may
require of any such bank a bond, with corporate or other surety, to
secure such deposit.

The said board of supervisors shall, if necessary for the payment of
interest on the said bonds or to increase the sinking fund provided for
hereunder, levy an annual tax upon all the property in such sanitary
district subject to local taxation to pay such interest and to make
payments into the said sinking fund. ,

12. When the said county wishes to redeem any of its outstand-
ing bonds subject to call, issued under the provisions of this act, it
may, through the chairman of the board of supervisors, give notice
of its readiness to do so to the holder in person or by publication
thereof once a week for two successive weeks in a newspaper published
in said county or nearest thereto. It shall be sufficient in the notice
to give the number and amount of such bond, and fix a day for its
presentation for payment, which shall not be less than ten days from
the date of personal service of notice, or the completion of the publi-
cation thereof, as the case may be.

If the bond be not presented on the day fixed for its redemption,
interest thereon shall cease from that day.

13. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from its pas-
sage.