Chap. 304.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Sections 1, 11, 12-a and 12-b of Chap-
ter 161 of the Acts of Assembly of 1926, approved March 17, 1926, as amended,
relating to sanitary districts in certain counties, so as to include additional
counties within the provisions of the chapter, to permit investments of sinking
funds in certain bonds, to authorize bond issues by small districts within any
such sanitary district, and to prescribe the rights of certain persons whose prop-
erty is taken or used for improvements in sanitary districts and to further amend
such chapter by adding thereto a new section numbered 3-a conferring addi-
tional powers as to such districts on boards of supervisors. [S 231]

Approved March 29, 1944

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia :

1. That sections one, eleven, twelve-a and twelve-b of chapter one
hundred sixty-one of the ‘Acts of Assembly of nineteen hundred twenty-
six, approved March seventeen, nineteen hundred twenty-six, as
amended, be amended and re-enacted, and that such chapter be further
amended by adding thereto a new section numbered three-a, as follows:

Section 1. The circuit court of any county in this State having a
population of more than five hundred inhabitants per square mile, or
of any county adjoining any county in this State having a population of
more than one thousand inhabitants per square mile, or of any county ad-
joining a city having a population of one hundred seventy thousand
inhabitants, or more, or the judge of such court in vacation, upon the
petition of fifty qualified voters of the 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 the district.

On and after the effective date of the amendments to chapter one
hundred sixty-one of the Acts of Assembly of nineteen hundred twenty-six
made by the General Assembly of nineteen hundred forty-four, all the
provisions of such chapter, as amended, shall be fully applicable to any
and all sanitary districts heretofore created in any county included within
the provisions of such chapter by reason of such amendments, and the
provisions of the sanitary district act under which any such district was
created shall no longer apply.

Section 3-a. In addition to the powers and duties conferred upon
the board of supervisors in section three, such board shall have the fol-
lowing powers and duties, subject to the conditions and limitations
hereinafter prescribed ;

(a) To employ and fix the compensation of counsel for such legal
advice or services as the board deems necessary ;

(b) To levy and collect an annual tax upon all the property in
such sanitary district subject to local taxation to pay, either in whole
or in part, the expenses and charges incident to maintaining and operating
water supply, sewerage, garbage removal and disposal, heat, lights, fire
fighting equipment and power and gas systems and sidewalks for the
use and benefit of the public in such sanitary district ;

(c) To exercise the same power and authority for the abatement
of nuisances in such sanitary district as is vested by law in councils of
cities and towns for the abatement of nuisances therein, and it shall be
the duty of the board to exercise such power when any such nuisance
shall be shown to exist.

Section 11. The net revenue derived from the operation of such
systems shall be set apart by the 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 au-
thorized and empowered to apply any part or all of such sinking fund
to the payment, if redeemable by their terms, or to the purchase of any
such bonds, at any time, and all bonds so paid off or purchased by the
board of supervisors shall be immediately cancelled, and shall not be
reissued. The board of supervisors is authorized and empowered to in-
vest all accumulations of money to the credit of the sinking fund in
bonds of the United States, of-the State of Virginia, or of any county,
city or town of the State of Virginia, or 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 the sinking fund and to collect and reinvest the same and
the interest accruing thereon from time to time, so often as is necessary
or expedient, until the bonds become subject to call; provided that no
money to the credit of the sinking fund shall be loaned out or deposited
or invested by the board of supervisors unless such loan, deposit or in-
vestment is first approved by the circuit court of the county, or the judge
in vacation, and the form of the security be examined and approved by
the Commonwealth’s attorney of the county, which approval shall be
entered of record in the order book of the court.

The treasurer shall not be liable for any funds herein provided for
that are 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 board of supervisors shall, if necessary for the payment of in-
terest on the bonds or to increase the sinking fund provided for here-
under, levy an annual tax upon all the real property in such sanitary dis-
trict subject to local taxation to pay such interest and to make payments
into such sinking fund.

Section 12-a. In any county in which a sanitary district has been
created, or is hereafter created under this act, the board of supervisors
of such county may, if they deem it necessary, furnish to any thickly
populated area within such district, public utilities, as provided in section
three of this act, and thereupon they may form such thickly populated
area within such sanitary district into a smaller district, hereinafter re-
ferred to as “small district”, and allocate to such ‘‘small district” such
sum or sums of money from the sanitary district bond issue, or issues,
as are, in their judgment, necessary for the construction of public utilities
within the “small district” so formed.

All of the property subject to local taxation within the “small dis-
trict” shall be primarily obligated for the payment of the interest and
principal on that part of the bonded indebtedness of the sanitary dis-
trict as is equal to that part of the proceeds therefrom which have been
allocated for use within the “small district”, and the board of super-

visors of the county shall, in the event that the net revenue from the
operation of the public utilities is not sufficient to pay the interest and
to create a sinking fund to liquidate the amount so allocated, levy an
annual tax on all of the property, subject to local taxation in. the “small
district”, to pay such interest and to make payments into the sinking
fund. But nothing in this act shall be construed to exempt the sanitary
district, and the property subject to local taxation therein, from its ob-
ligation under and by reason of such sanitary district bond issue or
issues.

In lieu of allocating such sum or sums from the sanitary district bond
issue or issues, as hereinbefore provided, the board of supervisors, in
order to raise the necessary funds to furnish public utilities to such
“small district”, shall have the power, subject to the conditions and
limitations of sections four to twelve, both inclusive, of chapter one
hundred sixty-one of the Acts of Assembly of nineteen hundred twenty-
six, aS amended, to issue bonds of the “small district” to an amount in
the aggregate of not exceeding eighteen per centum of the assessed value
of all real estate in the “small district”? subject to local taxation and it
is further declared that whenever this paragraph is utilized the words
“small district’? and “district” appearing in sections four to twelve, both
inclusive, of such chapter, as amended, shall be construed to mean “small
district” as referred to in this paragraph.

Section 12-b. The board of supervisors of any such county is hereby
vested with the power of eminent domain insofar as necessary for the
construction, reconstruction, alteration, additions to, maintenance, and
repair of any part of such sewerage system, water system, or other public
utility, and in the exercise of such power is hereby vested with all of the
authority to exercise such power as is given to the State Highway Com-
missioner of Virginia by chapter three hundred eighty of the Acts of
Assembly nineteen hundred forty, as amended.

The enhancement, if any, in the value of the remaining property of
the landowner by reason of the construction, reconstruction, alteration,
additions to, maintenance and repair of any part of such sewerage sys-
tem, water system or other public utility contemplated or made by such
board, shall not be shown as an offset against the damage, if any, result-
ing to such remaining property of such landowner by reason of such con-

struction, reconstruction, alteration, additions to, maintenance or repairs;
nor shall the taking of any such property under the provisions of this
section preclude the board from assessing the land in proportion to the
peculiar benefits accruing to such land by reason of such improvement in
the same manner and to the same extent that other property may be as-
sessed for the peculiar benefits accruing thereto.

2. An emergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.