CHAPTER 21

An Act to amend and reenact §§ 8, as amended, and 18 of Chapter 150 of
the Acts of Assembly of 1930, approved March 20, 1980, which pro-
vided a Charter for the town of Bluefield, the sections relating to
powers of the Council and to the powers of the town manager,

respectively. rH 5
Approved February 11, 1964

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That §§ 38, as amended, and 18 of Chapter 150 of the Acts of Assembly
of 1930, approved March 20, 1930, be amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 3. Powers of the town of Bluefield.—In addition to the powers
mentioned in section one hereof, the said town of Bluefield shall have the
following powers:

First. To raise annually by taxes and assessments in said town such
sums of money as the council thereof shall deem necessary for the pur-
poses of said town, and in such manner as said council shall deem expedient,
in accordance with the Constitution and general laws of this State and
with the Constitution of the United States; provided, however, that it
shall impose no tax on the bonds of said town.

Second. To impose special or local assessments for local improve-
ments and enforce payment thereof, subject, however, to such limitations
prescribed by the Constitution of Virginia, as may be in force at the time
of the imposition of such special or local assessments.

Third. To contract debts, borrow money and make and issue evi-
dence of indebtedness.

Fourth. To expend the money of the town for all lawful purposes.

Fifth. To acquire by purchase, gift, devise, condemnation, or other-
wise, property, real or personal, or any estate or interest therein, within
or without the town or State and for any of the purposes of the town; and
to hold, improve, sell or lease the same or any part thereof, including any
property now owned by the town; except that no school property, water
works, cemetery, or lighting plant, shall be sold, unless it is submitted to
a vote of the people.

Sixth. To make and adopt a comprehensive plan for the town, and
to that end all plats and re-plats subdividing any land within the town or
within one mile of the corporate limits thereof, into streets, alleys, roads,
and lots or tracts shall be submitted to and approved by the council before
such plats or re-plats are filed for record or recorded in the office of the
clerk of the circuit court of the county of Tazewell, Virginia.

Seventh. To construct, maintain, regulate and operate public im-

provements of all kinds, including municipal and other buildings, and all
buildings and structures necessary or appropriate for the use and proper
operation of the various departments of the town; and to acquire by con-
demnation or otherwise all lands, riparian and other rights and easements
necessary for such improvements, or any of them.
Kighth. To own, operate and maintain water works and to acquire
in any lawful manner in any county of the State such water, lands, property
rights and riparian rights as the council of said town may deem necessary
for the purpose of providing an adequate water supply for said town and
of piping or conducting the same; to lay all necessary mains and service
lines, either within or without the corporate limits of the said town, and
to charge and collect water rents therefor; to erect and maintain all
necessary dams, pumping stations and other works in connection there-
with; to make reasonable rules and regulations for promoting the purity
of its said water supply and for protecting the same from pollution; and
for this purpose to exercise full police powers and sanitary patrol over all
lands comprised within the limits of the watershed tributary to any such
water supply whenever such lands may be located in this State; to impose
and enforce adequate penalties for the violation of any such rules and
regulations, and to prevent by injunction any pollution or threatened
pollution of such water supply and any and all acts likely to impair the
purity thereof; and for the purpose of acquiring lands, interest in lands,
property rights and riparian rights or materials for any such use to
exercise within the State all powers of eminent domain provided by the
laws of this State. For any of the purposes aforesaid said town may, if
the council shall so determine, acquire by condemnation, purchase or
otherwise, any estate or interest in such lands or any of them in fee.

That in addition to the powers mentioned and enumerated in the
preceding sections of this charter, and those granted by general law to
towns, the council of the said town shall have the power:

(a) To acquire by purchase, gift, devise, condemnation or otherwise,
property, real and personal, or any estate or interest therein, within or
without the town, for the purpose of a water supply for the said town;
to construct, maintain, regulate and operate a water system for the use and
benefit of the public within and without the corporate limits of said
town; to contract with the board of directors or other governing body of
the city of Bluefield, West Virginia, for the sale to said municipal cor-
poration of its surplus supply of water from such system, and to provide
in said contract the rates of charge for said surplus supply of water, and
to provide for the collection of said charges; to contract with the board of
directors or other governing body of the city of Bluefield, West Virginia,
for the joint ownership of a public water system.

(b) 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 to acquire the lands, water supplies, rights-of-way, options
and contracts necessary to perfect such system.

(c) To contract for the purchase of water, for such period of time,
and from time to time, as the judgment of the council deems proper, from
any person, firm, association, corporation, or municipality within or with-
out the State, and to fix the rates or charges to be paid for such water, and
to provide for the payment of such charges.

(d) To negotiate and contract with any person, firm, corporation or
municipality, whether within or without this State, with regard to the
connection of any such system with any other system or systems now in
operation or hereinafter to be established, and with regard to any other
matter necessary and proper for the construction or operation and
maintenance of any such system.

Tenth. To establish, impose, and enforce water and sewerage rates;
and to assess or to cause to be assessed, after reasonable notice to the
owner or owners, water and sewerage rates and charges directly against
the owners or owner of the buildings, or against the proper tenant or
tenants; * if such rates and charges shall be assessed against a tenant,
then the said council may by an ordinance, require of such tenant a deposit
of such reasonable amount as may be by such ordinance prescribed before
furnishing such services to such tenant; and to terminate water service to
any owner or tenant until such time as delinquent water or sewerage, or
both, charges are properly paid or to require such owner or tenant to cease
to use such water sewer service.

Eleventh. To establish, open, widen, extend, grade, improve, con-
struct, maintain, light, sprinkle, and clean public highways, streets, alleys,
boulevards and parkways, and to alter or vacate the same; to establish and
maintain parks, playgrounds, and other public grounds; to construct,
maintain and operate bridges, viaducts, subways, tunnels, sewers and
drains, and to regulate the use of all such highways, parks, public grounds
and works; to plant and maintain or remove shade trees along the streets
and upon such public grounds; to prevent the obstruction of such streets
and highways, abolish and prevent grade crossings over the same by
railroads in the manner prescribed by general law for the elimination of
grade crossings; to acquire any railroad company operating a railroad at
the place where any highway or street is crossed within the town limits
to erect and maintain at such crossings any style of gate deemed proper
and keep a man in charge thereof, or keep a flagman at such crossing,
during such hours as the council may require; and to regulate the length
of time such crossings may be closed due to any operations of the rail-
roads; to permit or prohibit poles and wires for electric, telephone and
telegraph purposes to be erected and gas pipes to be laid in the streets and
alleys, and to prescribe and collect an annual charge for such privileges,
heretofore or hereafter granted; to require the owner or lessee of any
electric light, telephone or telegraph pole, or poles, or wires now in use
or hereafter used, to be placed in conduits underground and prescribe
rules and regulations for the construction and use of such conduits; to
open, lay out, and improve new streets across the track or tracks, yard
or yards, of any railroad in the town, and any such new or existing street
or streets may cross any such track or tracks, yard or yards, of any rail-
roads in the town, in the discretion of the council, either at grade, or pass
above or below any such existing structure or structures; provided, that
after due notice to such railroad company and full opportunity to be heard
and after the council shall have decided whether such crossing shall be
made at grade, or pass above or below any such existing structure or
structures, the plans and specifications for such crossing as the council
shall have determined upon, shall be submitted to the principal agent of
such railroad company in the town, and in the event the town and railroad
company cannot within sixty days thereafter agree upon such plans and
specifications, or cannot agree in regard to the division of the cost of
constructing such crossing, then the town shall submit such plans and
specifications to the State Corporation Commission, and the State Cor-
poration Commission, after reasonable notice to such railroad company and
after hearing such evidence as either party may adduce, shall approve
or revise and approve the plans for such crossing as the council shall
have determined shall be made, or substitute such other plans or character
of crossing, whether at grade, overhead or underpass, as the State Cor-
poration Commission may deem proper under all the facts, circumstances
and conditions, and the said improvements shall be made by the cor-
poration whose track is to be crossed and the expense thereof shall be
borne equally by the said corporation and the town, and after such
crossing shall have been constructed, it shall be maintained, within the
limits of the railroad right of way, by such railroad company or by the
lessee thereof; and to do all other things whatsoever adapted to make said
streets and highways safe, convenient and attractive.

Twelfth. To establish, construct and maintain sanitary sewers, sewer
lines and systems, and to acquire the abutting property owners to connect
therewith and to establish, construct, maintain and operate sewerage
disposal plants, and to acquire by condemnation or otherwise within or
without the town, all lands, right of way, riparian and other rights and
easements necessary for the purposes aforesaid, and to charge, assess, and
collect reasonable fees, rentals or assessments or costs of service for
connecting with and using the same.

Thirteen. Subject to the provisions of the Constitution of Virginia
and of this charter to grant franchises for public utilities.

Fourteen. To collect and dispose of sewerage, offal, ashes, garbages,
carcasses of dead animals, and other refuse, and to make reasonable
charges thereof; and to acquire and operate reduction or any other plants
for the utilization or destruction of such materials, or any of them; to
contract for and regulate the collection and disposal thereof, and to require
and regulate the collection and disposal thereof.

Fifteen. To compel the abatement and removal of all nuisances
within the town or upon property owned by the town beyond its limits
at the expense of the person or persons causing the same, or of the owner
or occupant on the ground or premises whereon the same may be, and to
collect said expense by suit or motion or by distress and sale; to require
all lands, lots and other premises within the town to be kept clean and
sanitary and free from stagnant water, weeds, filth, and unsightly de-
posits, or to make them so at the expense of the owners or occupants
thereof, and to collect said expense by suit or motion, or by distress and
sale; to regulate or prevent slaughter houses or other noisome or offensive
business within the said town, the keeping of hogs or other animals,
poultry or other fowl therein, or the exercise of any dangerous or unwhole-
some business, trade or employment therein; to regulate the transporta-
tion of all articles through the streets of the town; to compel the abate-
ment of smoke and dust, and prevent unnecessary noise; to regulate the
location of stables and the manner in which they shall be kept and con-
structed; to regulate the location, construction and operation and mainte-
nance of billboards and generally to define, prohibit, abate, suppress and
prevent all things detrimental to the health, morals, aesthetics, safety,
convenience and welfare of the inhabitants of the town; and to require
all owners or occupants of property having sidewalks in front thereof to
keep the same clean and sanitary, and free from all weeds, filth, unsightly
deposits, ice or snow.

Sixteen. To inspect, test, measure, and weigh any commodity or
article of consumption for use within the town, and to establish, regulate,
license, and inspect weights, meters, measures and scales.

Seventeen. To extinguish and prevent fires, and to establish, regu-
late and control a fire department or division, to regulate the size, height,
materials and construction of buildings, fences, walls, retaining walls and
other structures hereafter erected in such manner as the public safety
and conveniences may require; to remove or require to be removed or
reconstructed any building, structure or addition thereto, which by reason
of dilapidation, defect or structure, or other causes, may have become
dangerous to life or property, or which may be erected contrary to law:
to establish and designate from time to time fire limits, within which
limits wooden buildings shall not be constructed, removed, added to,
enlarged, or repaired, and to direct any or all future buildings within such
limits shall be constructed of stone, natural or artificial, concrete, brick,
iron or other fireproof material; and may enact stringent and efficient
laws for securing the safety of persons from fires in halls and buildings
used for public assemblies, entertainments or amusements.

Eighteen. To charge and to collect fees for permits to use public
facilities and for public service and privileges.

Nineteen. To prevent any person having no visible means of sup-
port, paupers, and persons who may be dangerous to the peace or safety
of the town, from coming to said town from without the same; and also
to expel therefrom any such person who has been in said town less than
twelve months.

Twenty. To provide for the preservation of the general health of
the inhabitants of said town, make regulations to secure the same, inspect
all food and foodstuffs and prevent the introduction and sale in said town
of any articles or thing intended for human consumption, which is adul-
terated, impure or otherwise dangerous to health, and to condemn, seize
and destroy or otherwise dispose of any such article or thing without
liability to the owner thereof; prevent the introduction or spread of con-
tagious or infectious diseases, and prevent and suppress disease generally;
to provide and regulate hospitals within or without the town limits, and
if necessary to the suppression of diseases, to enforce the removal of
persons afflicted with contagious or infectious diseases to hospitals pro-
vided for them; to provide the organization of a department or bureau
of health, to have the powers of a board of health for said town, with the
authority necessary for the prompt and efficient performance of its duties,
with power to invest any or all the officials or employees of such depart-
ments of health with such powers as the police officers of the town have;
to establish quarantine ground within or without the town limits; and
establish such quarantine regulations against infectious and contagious
diseases as the council may see fit.

Twenty-one. To provide in or near the town, lands to be used as
burial places for the dead; to improve and care for the same and the
approaches thereto, and to charge for and regulate the use of ground
therein; and to provide for the perpetual upkeep and care of any plot or
burial lot therein, the town is authorized to take and receive sums of
money by gift, bequest, or otherwise, to be kept invested, and the income
thereof used in and about the perpetual upkeep and care of the said lot
or plot, for which the said donation, gift, or bequest shall have been made.

Twenty-two. To exercise full police powers and establish and main-
tain a department or division of police.

Twenty-three. To restrain and punish drunkards, vagrants and
street beggars; to prevent and quell riots, disturbances and disorderly
assemblages; to suppress houses of ill-fame and gambling houses; to pre-
vent and punish lewd, indecent and disorderly exhibitions in said town;
and to expel therefrom persons guilty of such conduct who have not
resided therein as much as one year.

Twenty-four. To license and regulate the holding and location of
shows, circuses, public exhibitions, carnivals and similar shows or fairs,
or prohibit the holding of the same or any of them within the town, or
within one mile thereof; to require every owner of a motor vehicle resid-
ing in the said town, on a date to be designated by the council, to annually
register such motor vehicle and obtain a license to operate the same by
making application to the treasurer of said town, and to require said
owner to pay an annual license fee therefor, to be fixed by the council,
but said license fee shall not exceed the amount charged by the State on
said machine.
*

Twenty-six. To adopt and enforce zoning ordinances for the promo-
tion of health, safety, morals, comfort, prosperity, or general welfare of
the general public, and to do all things whatsoever necessary or expe-
dient, and lawful, to be done, for promoting or maintaining the general
welfare, comfort, education, morals, peace, government, health, trade,
commerce, or industries of the town or its inhabitants.

Twenty-seven. To prescribe any penalty for the violation of any
town ordinance, rule or regulation or of any provisions of this charter
not oxcceding five hundred dollars or twelve months’ imprisonment in jail
or .

Twenty-eight. To prohibit and punish for mischievous, wanton, or
malicious damage to school and public property as well as private
property.

Twenty-nine. To prohibit and punish minors from frequenting, play-
ing in, or loitering in any public poolroom, billiard parlor or tenpin alley
and to punish any proprietor or agent thereof for permitting same.

i To pass and enforce all by-laws, rules, regulations and ordi-
nances which it may deem necessary for the good order and government
of the town, the management of its property, the conduct of its affairs,
the peace, comfort, convenience, order, morals, health and protection of
its citizens or their property, and to do such other things and pass such
other laws as may be necessary or proper to carry into full effect, all
power, authority, capacity, or jurisdiction, which is or shall be granted to
or vested in said town, or in the council, court or officers thereof, or which
may be necessarily incident to a municipal corporation.

The town of Bluefield may maintain a suit to restrain by injunction
the violation of any ordinance, notwithstanding punishment may be pro-
vided for the violation of such ordinance.

Thirty-one. To create by ordinance for the benefit of the officers and
employees of the town a pension and retirement plan, or a plan allowing
for the payment or reimbursement of expenses incurred as a result of
sickness, accident or death, or any of such events; with the cost thereof
to be paid by the town, or jointly by the town and officers and employees
of the town, or by the officers and employees of the town.

Thirty-two. The power of eminent domain shall be subject to the
provisions of § 25-288 of the Code of Virginia, 1950, as amended.

§ 18. Powers and duties of the town manager.—The town manager
shall be responsible to the council for the proper administration of all
affairs of the town coming within his jurisdiction under this charter, the
general law or the ordinances or resolutions of the council. He shall have
power and it shall be his duty:

(a) To see that all laws and ordinances are enforced.

(b) To see that such town officers and employees as the council shall
determine are necessary for the proper administration of the town be
appointed, and they may be removed by the town manager. * The town
manager shall report each appointment and removal to the council at the
next meeting thereof following any such appointment or removal; to see
that all terms and conditions imposed in favor of the town or its inhab-
itants in any public utility franchise or any contract are faithfully kept
and performed; upon knowledge of any violation thereof to call the atten-
tion of the same to the council, whose duty it shall be forthwith to direct
such steps as are necessary to protect and enforce the same.

_ , (c) To exercise supervision and control over all departments and
divisions created herein, or that may be hereafter created by the council
and have general supervision over all public improvements, works and
undertakings, except as otherwise provided in this charter.
(d) To attend all meetings of the town council with the right to take
part in the discussion but having no vote.

(e) To recommend to the council for adoption such measures as he
may deem necessary or expedient. ;

(f) To prepare the annual budget and keep the town council fully
advised as to financial conditions and needs of the town.

(g) To make all such contracts in behalf of the town as may be
authorized by this charter, or in accordance with the provisions of the
appropriation made by the council or under continuing contracts or loans
authorized under the provisions of this charter, or pursuant to resolution
or ordinance of the council.

) Unless and until provided by the council, he shall act as town
purchasing agent.

(i) To perform such other duties as may be prescribed by this
marie or be required of him by ordinance or resolution of the town
council.

(j) He shall have the further power to perform such other duties as
may be prescribed by the council not in conflict with the foregoing, and
shall be bonded as the council may deem necessary, which bond shall be
with corporate surety approved by the council.