CHAPTER 80

AN ACT to amend and reenact §§ 8 and 29, as amended, of an act entitled
“An act to amend and reenact the charter of the town of Culpeper’,
approved January 11, 1898, the sections relating, respectively, to elec-
tion of the president of the council and compensation of the members
of the council and to the powers of the council. $7]

[

Approved February 21, 1958

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 8 and 29, as amended, of an act entitled “An act to amend and
reenact the charter of the town of Culpeper”, approved January 11, 1898,
be amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 8. At its first meeting in September, nineteen hundred and thirty-
six, and biennially thereafter, the council shall elect one of its members to
act as president, who shall be mayor and who shall preside and also have
a vote on all questions. If a vacancy occur in the office before the end of
his term, such vacancy shall be filled as is hereinafter provided for. At the
same time the council shall elect one of its members to be vice-president and
who shall be vice-mayor and who shall preside at such meetings in the ab-
sence of the president and who, when the president shall be absent or unable
to perform his duties, shall perform any and all duties so entrusted to the
president. The president or vice-president, when acting as president, shall
have power at any time to call a meeting of said council. Each member of
the council may receive a salary to be fixed by the council, but such salary
shall not be in excess of * three hundred dollars per year for each such
member.

§ 29. The council so constituted shall have powers within said town to
lay off, open, curb and pave streets, alleys, walks and gutters for the public
use, and to alter, improve and light the same and have them kept in good
order and free from obstruction on, over, under or through them; to
regulate the width of sidewalks, and to order the sidewalks, footways and
gutters to be kept free and clean and also may require the owners or occu-
pants of property facing on such sidewalks to keep them free and clean;
to lay off public grounds, and to provide contract for and take care of all
public buildings proper for the needs of the town; to establish and regulate
markets ; to prescribe the time for holding the same and what articles shall
be sold only in such markets; to prevent injury or annoyance to the public
or individuals from anything dangerous, offensive or unwholesome; to pro-
tect the places of divine worship and about the premises where held; to
abate or cause to be abated anything which, in the opinion of a majority of
the whole council, shall be a nuisance; to regulate the keeping of gunpowder
and other combustibles or explosives; to provide in or near the town places
for the burial of the dead, and to regulate interments therein in the town;
to provide for and regulate building of houses or other structures and for
making of division fences and for the drainage of lots; to make regulations
and provisions for guarding against danger or damages from fire; to es-
tablish and regulate fire zones in said town; to provide for the poor of the
town; to provide a revenue for the town and appropriate the same to its
expenses and to provide the annual assessment of taxable property in the
town; to adopt its own rules for the transaction of business and for the
government and regulation of its own body ; to promote the general welfare
of the town, and to protect the property of persons therein; to keep a town
guard ; to appoint and order out a patrol for the town in like manner and for
like purposes within the same as the patrol may be ordered out by the cir-
cuit court or justice within the county ; to require and take from the police-
men, treasurer and recorder bonds with sireties, in such penalty as the
council may see fit, conditioned for the true and faithful discharge of their
duties (all bonds taken by the council shall be made payable to the town by
its corporate name) ; to permit or prohibit the establishment of new places
for the interment of the dead in or near the town, and to regulate the same;
to erect or authorize or prohibit the erection of gas works or water works
or gasoline tanks in or near the town and to regulate the transportation and
sale of gas or gasoline or other explosives in or through the town; to prevent
injuries to or pollution, or danger to the water and healthfulness of the
town; to receive gifts of real or personal property either by will or other-
wise; (for all which purposes named in this clause, except that of taxation,
the council shall have jurisdiction for one mile beyond the town) ; to regu-
late and provide for the weighing and measuring of hay, coal and other
articles sold or for sale in said town, and to regulate the transportation
thereof through the streets: except when prohibited by general law, to levy
a tax or a license on any person, firm or corporation pursuing or conduct-
ing any trade, business, profession, occupation, employment or calling what-
soever, or offering to pursue or conduct the same, within the boundaries of
the town, whether or not such license is required therefor by the State or
exceeds any State license or tax, and provide penalties for any violation
thereof; to require licenses of persons, firms or corporations selling and de-
livering at the same time at other than a definite place of business, goods,
wares to licensed dealers, retailers or consumers in the town.