CHAPTER 330

An Act to provide a new charter for the town of Fries; and to repeal
Chapter 42, as amended, of the Acts of Assembly of 1901-02, approved
December 21, 1901, which provided a charter for the town of Fries.

(S 152]
Approved March 380, 1962

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

§ 1. The boundaries of the Town of Fries, Virginia, shall be and re-
main as now established by a decree of the Circuit Court of Grayson
County, Virginia, entered on the 25th day of March, 1940, and recorded in
the Clerk’s Office of the Circuit Court of Grayson County, in Common Law
Order Book 12, at Pages 288 and 289.

§ 2. The powers set forth in §§ 15-77.5 through 15-77.70 of the Code
of Virginia as in force on January 1, 1959, are hereby specifically conferred
upon the Town of Fries.

§ 3. The municipal authorities of the Town shall consist of a mayor,
seven councilmen, who shall compose the council of the said town, a
treasurer, a clerk, a sergeant, and such number of policemen as may from
time to time, be determined on by the council of the said town, or as is
herein otherwise provided, and such other offices as may, from time to time,
be created, and officers as may be provided for by the council aforesaid.
§ 4. The seven councilmen, as provided in section three, shall be elected
for a term of two years, and each shall serve until his successor shall have
qualified. They shall be elected on the second Tuesday in June, immediately
preceding the expiration of the terms of their predecessors, and shall enter
upon their duties on the first day of September next succeeding their
election, qualifying by taking and subscribing to the usual oath, as
preseribed by the general law, before a person duly authorized to administer
oaths.

§ 5. There shall annually, at such time in the month of July as the
Council may designate, be selected by ballot by the Council of the said
town, a mayor, who shall, on or before the first day of September of each
year, qualify in the manner prescribed by law, and he shall hold his office
for a term of one year from the first day of September next succeeding his
appointment, and until his successor shall have been duly elected and
qualified.

The mayor shall be the presiding officer of the council, but he shall
not, except as hereinafter provided, vote upon any question raised before
it, except in a case of a tie. He shall be ex officio a justice of the peace,
whose jurisdiction shall be the territorial limits of said town, and outside
thereof within two miles of the mouth of Eagle Bottom Creek, and he shall
have all the powers, be charged with all of the duties and entitled to all
emoluments of a justice of the peace, including such jurisdiction, both civil
and criminal, as is now, or may hereafter by law, be conferred upon a
justice of the peace in the State of Virginia, and from his judgment an
appeal shall lie to the court of the county of Grayson in such cases, and in
manner and form, as appeals may by law be allowed from the judgments of
justices in said county of Grayson. He shall be a conservator of the peace,
and it shall be his duty as such, and in the exercise of the other functions of
his office, to see that peace and good order are preserved within his juris-
diction, and to that end he shall have the power, whenever deemed by him
necessary to appoint extra policemen, who shall, however, not continue in
office longer than three days. In addition to the emoluments and fees
allowed the justice of the peace, he shall be entitled to such other compensa-
tion as may, from time to time, be determined by the common council. He
shall be executive head of the town government, and shall have the power,
and it shall be his duty to see to the enforcement of which is not specifically
confined to some other officer.

§ 6. If any person elected as councilman shall fail to qualify, or a
vacancy in said council occur from any other cause, then the remaining
members shall, by a majority vote, fill such vacancy for the unexpired term.
Any person qualified to vote in the Town shall be eligible to the office of
mayor or councilman.

§ 7. All ordinances and resolutions heretofore made and adopted by
the town, not in conflict with this charter shall be and remain in full force
and effect until altered, amended or repealed by the council of the town.

§ 8. Ordinances: Except in dealing with questions of parliamentary
procedure, the council shall act only by ordinance or resolution and all
ordinances, except ordinances making appropriations, or authorizing the
contracting of indebtedness or issuance of bonds or other evidence of debt,
shall be confined to one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in the title.
Ordinances making appropriations or other obligations and appropriating
the money to be raised thereby shall be confined to those subjects respec-
tively. The enacting clause of all ordinances passed by the council shall be:
“Be it ordained by the council of the Town of Fries.”” No ordinance, unless
it be an emergency measure shall be passed until it has been read at two
regular meetings not less than seven days apart, unless the requirement of
such reading has been dispensed with by the affirmative vote of four of the
members of the council. No ordinance or section thereof shall be revised or
amended by its title or section only, but the new ordinance shall contain the
entire ordinance or section as revised or amended. The ayes and nays shall
be taken upon the passage of all ordinances or resolutions and entered upon
the journal of the proceedings of the council and every ordinance or resolu-
tion shall require, on final passage, the affirmative vote of at least four of
its members. All ordinances and resolutions passed by the council shall be
in effect from and after thirty days from the date of their passage, except
that the council may, by the affirmative vote of two-thirds of its members
present, pass emergency measures to take effect at the time indicated there-
in. Ordinances appropriating money for any emergency may be passed as
emergency measures, but no measure providing for the sale or lease of town
property or making a grant, renewal or extension of a franchise or other
special privilege or regulating the rate to be charged for its services by any
public utility, shall be so passed as an emergency measure. Every ordinance
or resolution upon its final passage shall be recorded in a book kept for the
purpose, and shall be authenticated by the signature of the presiding
officer and the clerk of the council. Every member, when present, when a
question is put, shall vote unless excused by the council. But no member
who has any personal or financial interest in the result of any ordinance or
resolution before the council shall vote thereon. All ordinances and resolu-
tions of the council may be read in evidence in all courts and in all other
proceedings in which it may be necessary to refer thereto, either from a
copy thereof certified by the clerk or from the volume of ordinances printed
by authority of the council. The council may at any time have a codification
or revision of all ordinances in force at the time, which codification can be
passed by the council as a single ordinance and without prior publication,
which codification shall be known and cited officially as the Town Ordi-
nance. All ordinances before passage shall be posted at least ten days before
hearing thereon, at the front door of the town office and three or more
public places in the town, giving the time and place for the hearing of said
proposed ordinance, and no other publication shall be required.

§ 9. For the purpose of constructing, maintaining and operating any
system of publicly owned water works or sewerage in the town of Fries,
there shall be established a board composed of three citizens, which board
shall be known as the water commission for the town of Fries.

The said water commission shall have power:

(a) To acquire by purchase, lease, or condemnation such real and
personal property as may be necessary for carrying out the provision of
this section.

(b) To establish rules and regulations governing the operation of such
system or systems.

(c) With the approval of the council, and for the purpose of carrying
out the provisions of this section, to borrow an amount or amounts not
exceeding a total of twenty-five thousand dollars for which the said water
commission shall issue its obligations payable out of funds to be derived as
provided for herein; and, with the approval of the council, to pledge as
security for such loan or loans such of the receipts to be derived from the
use of such system or systems as may be agreed upon between the lender or
lenders and the water commission and council, and in addition thereto to
give as security for such loan or loans a deed of trust or other incumbrance
on any such system or systems or any part thereof.

(d) To provide for the disbursement and accounting of all moneys
received by it from any source whatever.

Vacancies in the membership of the said commission shall be filled by
the council. The said commission shall make a full report of its activities
to the town council within sixty days after the close of every fiscal year.

The town council is hereby authorized and empowered in so far as not
prohibited by the Constitution of the State, to make and assess charges and
rentals for the use of such water or sewerage systems, or both, to make
assessments for the use of such sewerage system or systems a lien on the
real estate served thereby, and to provide for the collection of such charges
and rentals and the turning over of the moneys so collected to the water
commission. The council may require each of the members of the water
commission to give a bond in such penalty and with such security as may
be fixed by the council, conditioned upon the faithful performance of his
duties.

The following citizens and taxpayers of the Blair Addition to the Town
of Fries, who are presently members of said water commission, Virgil L.
Jackson, Roscoe Rector, and C. R. Phillips, shall serve respectively until
September first, nineteen hundred sixty-two, September first, nineteen
hundred sixty-three and September first, nineteen hundred sixty-four, or
until their successors are duly elected and qualified. In July of each year
prior to the expiration of the term of any member of said water commis-
sion, the town council shall elect as a successor to such member a citizen
and taxpayer of the Blair Addition of the town and the person so elected
shall serve for a period of two years from September first, in the year
elected or until his successor is elected and qualified.

§ 10. (a) The schools of the said district shall be under the supervision
of a board of trustees, to consist of three residents of said district and the
superintendent of the public schools of the County of Grayson. It shall be
the duty of the council of said town to provide for the support of the public
schools in said school district upon estimates that may be furnished by said
school board, and for this purpose it may levy a pro rata tax on all the real
and personal property therein, not exceeding five mills on every dollar there-
of. All school funds raised by taxation or otherwise within the limits of
said school district shall be used exclusively for the establishment and con-
duct of the schools therein. The school taxes shall be collected and disbursed
by the treasurer of said town, as county and district school taxes are
collected and disbursed, and the said school district shall be exempt from
any district school tax, except that herein provided for.

It shall be the duty of the council of the said town of Fries to purchase
real estate, if necessary, and to erect thereon suitable school buildings, and
for this purpose the said council shall have power to borrow money, not
exceeding six thousand dollars; and for the payment of same, it shall have
power to execute and issue bonds of said town, to be called public school
building bonds, either coupons or registered, and in such denominations as
said council may determine, and bearing a rate of interest not exceeding
six per centum per annum, payable semi-annually, which bonds shall be
payable on or before the expiration of twenty years, from their date. To
provide for the payment of the interest and principal of said bonds when
due, and a sinking fund, an annual tax may be assessed and levied by said
council upon all the lands and subjects within the said school districts liable
to State tax and county and corporation levies; the said tax to be collected
as other municipal taxes of said town are collected.

(b) The title to said property shall be vested in the said school board
of the town of Fries school district, and the said buildings and other im-
provements, when completed, shall be turned over by said council to said
school board.

(c) The said school board, as soon after their appointment and
organization as practicable, shall cause a census to be taken of the school
population of the said district, under forms to be furnished by the su-
perintendent of public instruction, and shall report the same to the county
superintendent of schools and thereafter all State school funds to which
said district shall be entitled shall be apportioned accordingly.

2. Chapter forty-two of the Acts of Assembly of nineteen hundred one-
nineteen hundred two, approved December twenty-one, nineteen hundred
one, and all amendments thereof, is repealed.

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