Chap. 479.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 2854 of the Code of Vir-
ginia, as heretofore amended, which section is in chapter 115 of the said
Code on courthouses, clerk’s offices, jails and jailers. (S B 194]

Approved March 25, 1926.

1. Beit enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
twenty-eight hundred and fifty-four of the Code of Virginia, as here-
tofore amended, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 2854. Courthouse, clerk’s office and jail to be provided by
supervisors and council; offices for certain other officers may be pro-
vided; vacant rooms may be let for offices and provisions made for
public entertainments; buildings may be leased for private purposes,
or used for market houses or other public purposes.—There shall be
provided by the board of supervisors for every county and the council
for every city a courthouse, clerk’s office and jail, the cost thereof, and
of the land on which they may be, and of keeping the same in good
order, shall be chargeable to the county or city; the fee simple of the
lands shall be in the county or city, and the supervisors of the county
or the council of the city, may purchase so much land, as, with what
it has, will make two acres, whereof what may be necessary for the
purpose, shall be occupied with the courthouse, clerk’s office and jail
and the residue planted with trees and kept as a place for the people
of the county or city to meet and confer together. And the board of
supervisors of any county may, if they deem it expedient, acquire, in
addition to the two acres of aforementioned, as much as ten acres of
land, at any point within their county to be used for county purposes,
and in counties having a density of population of three hundred or
more per square mile according to the last preceding United States
census, as much as fifty acres for county purposes including the uses
of the local board of health; and the board of supervisors of each
county, or the council of each city shall, if there be offices in the court-
houses of the respective counties and cities, available for such pur-
poses, provide offices for the treasurer, Commonwealth’s attorney,
sheriff, commissioner of the revenue, commissioner of accounts and
division superintendent of schools for such county or city, and if such
offices are not available in the courthouse, same may be provided by
said board of supervisors or council, if they deem it proper, elsewhere
than in the courthouse of said county or city; and with the approval
of the judge of the circuit or corporation court, any vacant rooms
in the courthouse, after furnishing offices to the said officers, may be
rented for a term of not exceeding one year to other parties for offices
purposes, and any public room or hall in the building may be hired
for compensation for the purpose of giving public entertainments,
and all moneys received by the counties or cities under this section,
shall constitute a fund to maintain and care for such building. Fur-
thermore, where the board of supervisors of any county or the council
or other governing body of any city, in providing land for the court-
house, clerk’s office, and jail purposes, has purchased land, a part of
which had valuable buildings thereon when purchased and that por-
tion of the land so occupied by such buildings, is, in the discretion of
such board, council or other governing body, not required for said
purposes, such board, council, or other governing body, if deemed
proper by it, may either lease such building or buildings for private
purposes, or remodel and use the same for a markethouse or for other
public purposes, or both, although such lease or use may reduce the
total to less than two acres, and although as much as two acres may
never have been acquired, but such lease or use shall be first approved
by the judge of the circuit court of the county, or of the corporation
court of the city, as the case may be, and such lease or use shall be
terminated when, in the opinion of such judge such building or build-
ings or the land occupied by same, is needed for the purposes of a
courthouse, clerk’s office or jail. ;