Chap. 189.—An ACT to provide for the creation of sanitary districts in the coun-
ties of this State; to prescribe the powers and duties of the boards of super-
visors of such counties as to the acquisition, construction, maintenance and op-
eration 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 there-
of, and for the payment of such bonds. [S B 276]

Approved March 22, 1932

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

Section 1. The circuit court of any county in this State, having
a population of not less than thirty-five thousand and not more than
thirty-seven thousand according to the United States census of nine-
teen hundred and thirty, or the judge thereof in vacation, upon the
petition of fifty qualified voters of said proposed district, may make
an order creating a sanitary district 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 petitions the court shall
fix a day for a hearing on the question of the proposed sanitary dis-
trict, notice of which hearing shall be given by publication once a
week for three consecutive weeks in some newspaper of general cir-
culation within the said county. At least ten days shall intervene be-
tween the completion of the publication and the date set for the hear-
ing, 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
supply, sewerage, heat, light and power, and gas systems in such
district.

(d) 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 ten-
ants 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 the 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, corpora-
tion or municipality with regard to the connections of any such sys-
tem or systems with any other system or systems now in operation
or hereafter to be established, and with regard to any other matter
necessary and proper for the construction or operation and mainte-
nance of any such system within the said sanitary district.

Section 4. In order to raise the necessary funds to carry into ef-
fect 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 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 ques-
tion 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
purchase 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 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 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 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 su-
pervisors 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 pro-
vided 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 sinking fund.

Section 7. When the said county wishes to redeern 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 no-
tice 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 pub-
lished 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. ,