Chap. 460.—An ACT to provide for the creation of sanitary districts in any
county adjacent to a city having a population of thirty thousand, or more,
according to the latest United States census; to prescribe the powers and
duties of the boards of supervisors of such counties as to the acquisition, con-
struction, maintenance and operation of water supply, sewerage, heat, light,
power and gas systems in such districts; to provide for the issuance of bonds
to raise funds for establishing of such public utilities in such districts,
and to provide for the maintenance thereof, and for the payment of such
bonds. [S B 272]
Approved March 27, 1930

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia as follows:

Section 1. The circuit court of any county in this State adjacent
to a city having a population, according to the last preceding United
States census, of thirty 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. |

Section 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 district shall be created until the said notice has been given and
the hearing had.

Section 3. After the entry of such order creating a sanitary dis-
trict in such county, the board of supervisors thereof shall have the
following powers and duties, subject to the conditions and limitations
hereinafter 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) To contract with any person, firm, corporation or munici-
pality to construct, establish, maintain and operate any such water sup-
ply, sewerage, heat, light and power, and gas systems in such district.

(d) To require owners or tenants of any property, in the said
district 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 mainte-
nance of any such system or systems.

(g) To negotiate and contract with any person, firm, corporation
or municipality with regard to the connections 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.

Section 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.

Section 5. The circuit court of such county, or the judge thereof
in vacation, upon the petition of a majority of the board of super-
visors of said county, or upon the petition of fifty qualified voters
residing in said sanitary district shall make an order requiring the
judges of election, 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.

Such election shall be held and conducted, and the bonds issued
(if the result of the election be in favor of bonds) in conformity with
the provisions of sections twenty-seven hundred and thirty-nine and
twenty-seven hundred and forty of the Code of Virginia.

Section 6. 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
authorized and empowered to apply any part or all of said sinking
fund to the payment, if redeemable by their terms, or to the pur-
chase of any of said bonds, at any time, and all bonds so paid off
or purchased by the said board of supervisors shall be immediately
cancelled, and shall not be reissued, and the board of supervisors /s
authorized and empowered to Jend 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 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 sani-
tary district subject to local taxation to pay such interest and to make
payments into the said sinking fund.

Section 7. When the said county wishes to redeem any of its
outstanding 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 publica-
tion 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
publication 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.