Chap. 571.—An ACT to charter and incorporate the town of Neapolis, in Pitt-
sylvania county, Virginia.

Approved March 2, 1894.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the
act approved eighth of March, eighteen hundred and seventy-seven,
entitled an act to incorporate the town of North Danville, and the
act approved fourth of April, eighteen hundred and seventy-seven,
entitled an act to amend and re-enact sections eleven and twelve of
an act approved eighth of March, eighteen hundred and seventy-
seven, entitled an act to incorporate the town of North Danville,
and an act approved seventh of March, eighteen hundred and eighty-
four, entitled an act to amend and re-enact the charter of the town
of North Danville, and the act approved fourteenth of May, eighteen
hundred and eighty-seven, entitled an act to amend and re-enact
section two of an act approved seventh of March, eighteen hundred
and eighty-four, entitled an act to amend and re-enact the charter
of the town of North Danville, and section eight of an act approved
twenty-sixth of February, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, entitled
an act to amend and re-enact sections three and eight of an act ap-
proved seventh of March, eighteen hundred and eighty-four, entitled
an act to amend and re-enact the charter of the town of North Dan-
ville, as amended by an act approved twenty-third of August, eigh-
teen hundred and eighty-four, and all acts and parts of acts
empudatory thereof, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as

ollows:

2. That portion of Pittsylvania county, Virginia, included in the
following boundaries, to-wit: beginning at a point in Dan river,
fifty feet distant from the ordinary northern shore line thereof, and
opposite the point where Fall creek empties into said river; thence
up said river in a line continuing fifty feet from its ordinary shore
line to the dam across Dan river above the upper bridge; thence
with the upper side of said dam, and with the fall of the bulkhead
thereof to the road leading from the Union street bridge to the Henry
county road; thence along the western side thereof to said Henry
county road, crossing same and with the northern side thereof to its
Intersection with Keen’s old mill road or Walker street; thence
across said Walker street, and with the fence of E.S. Arnett south
eighty degrees east to the southwest line of the right of way of the
Virginia Midland railway; thence along the southern and western
line of said railway about one-half mile to a stone culvert, near the
mouth of the deep cut; thence a straight course to the northwestern
corner of the lot of land of David Tyree, senior, as now enclosed on
Franklin turnpike road; thence crossing said turnpike road and
continuing the same course to the Bradley road; thence crossing the
said Bradley road a straight course to the line of M. B. Hodnett on
Fall creek; thence down said creek as it meanders to Dan river, and
thence into said river fifty feet to the point of beginning, be, and
the same is hereby, incorporated and chartered under the name of
Neapolis, and by that name shall continue to have all the rights,
powers, privileges and franchises provided by law for towns contain-
ing less than five thousand inhabitants, and be subject to and
governed by all the laws of Virginia now in force, or which may be
hereafter enacted for such towns, not inconsistent with the provi-
sions of this act, and may contract and sue and be sued in its said
corporate name.

3. The said town of Neapolis and the inhabitants thereof shall
be exempt from all county levies, road tax, poor tax, school tax, or
taxation in any form whatever by the county of Pittsylvania, except
for the purpose of paying her proportionate part of the existing debt
due by said county.

It shall keep its own streets and the public road running through
it in good order and repair; shall provide for its own poor, and levy
and collect its own school tax, sufficient in amount to maintain
its own schools in compliance with the laws of the state respecting
education.

4. The corporate powers of the town of Neapolis shall be vested
in a board to be known as the “ council of Neapolis,” which shall be
composed of nine members, any five of whom shall constitute a
quorum for the transaction of business. Said councilmen shall be
elected and qualified in the manner provided by law for the govern-
ment of towns of less than five thousand inhabitants, and their
term of office shall be for four years, except that at the first election
hereunder on the fourth Thursday in May, eighteen hundred and
ninety-four, there shall be elected four councilmen for two years and
five for four years, and thereafter there shall be elected every two
years councilmen to fill vacancies in the board arising from expira-
tions of terms of office.

5. There shall be elected on the fourth Thursday in May, eighteen
hundred and ninety-four, and each second year thereafter, by the
qualified voters of said town, one mayor and two justices of the
peace, who shall hold their offices for the period of two years, or
until their successors in office shall qualify.

6. The mayor shall be the chief magistrate and executive officer
of said town, and as such shal! see that the ordinances and by-laws
of the town and resolutions of the council are faithfully enforced
and executed, and that the various officers of said town honestly dis-
charge their duties.

He shall be vested with full powers of a justice of the peace in all
matters, civil and criminal, arising within the corporate limits of
said town, and one mile beyond and outside said limits on the north
side of Dan river, and shall in addition have all the powers and per-
form all the duties now prescribed or which may hereafter be pre-
scribed by law, for mayors of towns of less than five thousand inhabi-
tants, except that he shall not be a member of the town council.
The salary of the mayor shall be fixed by the ordinances of the town,
and paid as therein directed, but the same shall not be diminished
during his term of office.

And in case of absence or disability of the mayor, the president
of the council, or such justice of the peace as the council may desig-
nate, shall act as mayor, and shall poseess all powers and discharge
all duties incumbent upon the mayor hereunder.

7. The justices of the peace for said town shall have the same
powers and duties within the corporate limits of said town, and one
mile beyond and outside the same on the north side of Dan river,
as devolves by law upon justices of the peace in the state of Vir-
ginia.

8. The council of said town shall have all the powers which are
now or may hereafter be by law vested in the council or mayor and
council of towns of less than five thousand inhabitants, except that
the councilmen shall not have, as such, the powers of justices or
conservators of the peace. Said council shall have specifically
power and authority to lay annually and collect taxes on all real
and personal property in said town according to its value, and on in-
comes in excess of six hundred dollars: provided that the rate of
taxation shall not exceed for any one year one dollar and fifty cents
for each one hundred dollars of such real and personal property.

The council shall bave like power to impose a tax upon all corpo-
rations located in said city or doing business therein not exempt by
law from taxation; on all trades, professions, businesses, employ-
ments, avocations, pursuits, shows, exhibitions and public perform-
ances of any kind, whether the same be taxed by the state or not;
and as to all such businesses, trades, employments, avocations, pro-
fessions, pursuits and performances said council may lay a direct
tax or may require a lincese tax therefor, as may be deemed most ex-
pedient, and the council may impose a tax of fifty cents per annum
upon each male resident of the town above the age of twenty-one
years.

The council shall have power to fix and impose fines and penalties
for the violation or disregard of town ordinances, and said fines and
penalties shall be recoverable by warrant before the mayor or justice
of the peace of said town: provided that no fine of more than fifty
dollars shall be imposed on any one person in any one case. Said
council may also provide for the imprisonment of persons convicted
in case of non-payment of fines: provided that no person shall be
confined in jail for a longer period than three months for the non-
payment of any fine; and provided, further, that in any case where the
fine, exclusive of costs, exceeds ten dollars the person convicted shall
be entitled to an appeal to the corporation court of the city of Dan-
ville, Virginia, as now provided by law.

The council shall bave power to establish markets in and for said
town, to erect suitable buildings therefor, prescribe the times and
places for holding the same, and pass all such ordinances as shal! be
necessary and proper to regulate said markets and prevent huckster-
ing, forestalling and regrating; toestablish and enlarge water-works,
gas-works or other artificial lights within or without the limits of
said town; to contract or agree with the owners of land for the use
or purchase thereof, or, in case of a failure to agree, to have said land
condemned, either within or without the corporate limits of said town,
for the location, extension or enlargement of said works, the pipes
connected therewith, or any fixtures or appurtenances thereof; to
yrotect from injury by adequate penalties the said works, pipes, fix-
ures, land or anything connected therewith, within or without the
imits of said town, and to prevent the pollution of the water by pro-
1ibiting the throwing of filfth or other offensive matter therein, or
30 placing the same that the water may be affected thereby, and en-
force such prohibition by proper penalties; to open, extend, widen,
narrow, lay out, grade and improve and otherwise alter streets and
public alleys in said town, and have them properly lighted, either by
yas-works owned and operated by the town or by contract with other
persons or corporations, and close said streets when deemed expe-
dient; to cause all said streets and sidewalks to be kept in good con-
dition and to pave the same, charging the costs of such paving, in
part or in whole, as the council may deem reasonable to the own-
ers of lots and lands fronting, abutting or lying on said streets, and
collect said costs and charges as taxes are collected; to make and
construct sewers and ducts through the streets and public grounds of
said town, and compel the owners of lots to connect therewith; to
exercise over any street or alley which may have been ceded or dedi-
cated to the public use or laid off by any owner of lands upon a
plat of said lands like authority as over the streets or alleys regularly
opened by the town, and may build bridges in or over or culverts
under said streets and alleys, or authorize the same to be built; to
prevent or remove any obstruction or encroachment in any street,
alley or sidewalk, and cause shade trees to be planted along said
streets.

Said council may also regulate the size, materials and construction
of buildings hereafter erected in such manner as the public safety
and convenience may require; provide, in or near the town, lands tc
be appropriated, improved and kept in order as places of interment!
for the dead; charge for the lots or plats in such places of interment
and.control and regulate the same by proper ordinances; prevent
the burial of the dead in the town except in such public burying.
grounds; adopt rules for burials in said grounds and require the keep:
ing and return of bills of mortality by the keepers of such cemeteries:
provided, however, that al] moneys received for the sale or use of the
lots in such cemeteries shall be set apart and used for the repair and
improvement of the same.

Said council may require and compel the abatement and removal
of all nuisances in said town at the expense of the person or person:
causing the same, or the owner or owners of the land whereon the
same may be; regulate slaughter-houses or soap and candle factories
in said town or the exercise of any dangerous, offensive or unhealthy
business, trade or employment therein, or may wholly probibit and
prevent the same; may regulate the transportation of coal or othe!
articles through the streets and alleys of said town; prevent hogs,
dogs, or other animals from running at large in said town by such
regulations and the imposition of euch fines and penalties as may
be deemed necessary and proper, and prohibit the raising or keeping
of hogs in said town.

Said council shall have power to establish and maintain a fire de-
partment in said town, provide for the regulation and government
of the same, and compel the residents of the town to aid and assist
said fire department when necessary; to establish fire limits in the
town within which no building shall be erected without the consent
of the council, unless the outer walls be of brick, stone, or some in-
combustible material.

9. There shall be elected by the council of said town, as soon as
gaid council is legally organized, or as shortly thereafter as may be,
one commissioner of the revenue and one collector for said town,
who shall be residents and qualified voters of said town, and shall
hold office for the term of two years, or until their successors shall
legally qualify.

10. The commissioner of the revenue shall also be a freeholder of
said town and shall perform all the duties of commissioner of the
revenue, or assessor in and for said town, provided by law both for
the town and state.

He shall assess the value of all real and personal estate and
property liable to taxation within the limits of said town, and shall
also assess all merchants and other licenses within said town for the
state, according to the law of the state, and for the town, according
to its ordinances and by-laws, not inconsistent with the state laws,
and the assessments so made by him shall be the basis of all taxa-
tion within said town.

The official bond and oath required of him by Jaw shall be given
and taken before and filed in the corporation court of the city of
Danville, Virginia, and the penalty of his bond shall be two thousand
dollars.

11. The collector for said town shall collect the state taxes as well
as the town taxes within the same. His duties and responsibilities
for the collection and disbursement of taxes shall be such as now
are or may hereafter be provided by the laws of Virginia and the
ordinances of the council, not inconsistent therewith.

Before entering upon the discharge of his duties, and within sixty
days from the date of his election, said collector shall qualify and
give bond before the corporation court of the city of Danville in the
penalty of twenty thousand dollars, with good security and condi-
tioned for the faithful discharge of his duties, but the judge of said
corporation court of the city of Danville may, at any time, upon his
own motion or at the request of the council of Neapolis, increase the
penalty of such bond, and the council may for proper cause suspend
or remove said collector from office.

In addition to his other duties said collector shall, during his term
of office, be a conservator of the peace, and shall have all the powers,
duties and liabilities of a constable within the corporate limits of
the town of Neapolis, and one mile beyond and outside thereof on
the north side of Dan river, and for his acts as such constable he
and his sureties shall be responsible on his official bond as collector.
He may, with the consent of the council, appoint one or more
deputies to act for him, both as collector and constable, taking bond
from such deputies and causing them to qualify before the corpora.
tion court of the city of Danville.
12. The council shall annually appoint a clerk, whose duty it shall
be to keep a record of the proceedings of said council and perform
such other duties as may be prescribed by said council; and shall
also have power to appoint policemen and such other officers and
agents as may be necessary for the proper government and business
of the town. Such policemen and other officers and agents shall be
appointed for such time as the council may by ordinance provide,
and removable at the pleasure of said council.

13. The council of said town shall elect or appoint to all vacancies
occurring in its own body, or any office provided for under this char-
ter, by death, resignation, removal or total disability ; but such elec-
tion or appointment shall be only for the unexpired term of such
office.

14. The said town of Neapolis shall be and continue a separate
school district, and shall not be chargeable with the expenses of any
other school district or subject to any taxation or assesements there-
for, and the council of said town shall appoint three school trustees,
to serve one, two and three years, respectively, from and after the
fourth Thursday in May, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and an-
nually thereafter it shall appoint a school trustee for said district,
to serve for three years; and admission to the public free schools in
said districts shall be restricted to persons between the ages of seven
and twenty-one years; but for all purposes of school supervision,
said town of Neapolis shall be attached to the city of Danville.

15. The said town of Neapolis shall be authorized, empowered,
and is hereby required and consents to assume and pay off its fair
and just proportion of the bonded debt of the county of Pittsyl-
vania, incurred on account of the subscription to the Washington
City, Virginia Midland and Great Southern railroad company and
chargeable to the town of North Danville, which proportion shall be
ascertained and determined between the council of Neapolis and the
board of supervisors of said county of Pittsylvania, by and in accord-
ance with the relative assessed values for taxation in the year
eighteen hundred and ninety-three, of the real and personal property
in the town of North Danville and the county of Pittsylvania, or
with the assessed values of said town in the year eighteen hundred
and ninety-five, should said values prove to be greater than they now
are.

16. In the exercise of its powers relative to the establishment of
water works and artificial lights, the council of Neapolis shal] have
power to provide the same or to contract with other persons or cor-
porations therefor; and to this end may borrow money to the amount
of thirty thousand dollars, and issue therefor the bonds of the town,
to run for thirty years or less, and be redeemable after ten years if
said council elect so to provide, and to bear interest at a rate not
greater than six per centum per annum, payable semi-annually, and
may levy a tax, to be known as a water and light tax, on the real
and personal property taxable in said town, not to exceed in any one
year eight cents on the hundred dollars of the assessed value of such
property, to be used in paying the interest on said bonds and to cre-
ate a sinking fund to redeem the same.
Said council may regulate and prescribe the price at which gas
and water shall be furnished, and when gas and water mains are laid
in a street said council shall have power to require the owners of
dwelling houses on said street to connect with the same; and in the
case of the refusal of such owners to use the water and gas, or either
of them, to levy a special assessment upon the lots of said owners
for the purpose of meeting the expenses of the water and gas works
of said town.

17. The council of said town shall have the right to issue the
bonds of said town to the amount of eight per centum of the assessed
value of the real and personal estate in said corporation, and pledge
the revenues of said corporation for the payment thereof, which bonds
shall bear interest at the rate of six per centum per annum, payable
semi-annually, and shall be redeemable in thirty years or less, as
said council may determine. Said bonds shall not be sold for less
than their par value, and the proceeds shall be applied as the council
may direct for the use and benefit of said town. The issue of bonds
provided for in this section shall be in addition to the bonds author-
ized to be issued by the next preceding section of this charter.

18. All appeals from the judgments, decisions and orders of the
mayor, justices of the peace and other officers of said town, in cases
wherein appeals are allowed by law, shall be to the corporation court
of the city of Danville, or to the circuit court of said city when an
appeal lies to a circuit court, and not to the county or circuit court
of Pittsylvania county; and whatever, by the general laws for the
government of towns containing less than five thousand inhabitants,
ig required or provided to be done by the county court of the county
within which such town is located, shall, in respect to the said town
of Neapolis, be done by the corporation court of the city of Danville,
and not by the county court of Pittsylvania.

And all certificates for obtaining license to sell liquors of any kind
within the corporate limits of Neapolis, or for obtaining other licenses
in said town where certificates of a court are required, shall be
granted by the corporation court of the city of Danville, and not by
the county court of Pittsylvania county.

19. Process of the courts of Pittsylvania county and of the courts
of the city of Danville shall continue to run within the town of
Neapolis, but the residents of said town of Neapolis shall not here-
after be liable to be sued in the courts of Pittsylvania county, as if
residents of the county, or to be summoned or required to attend the
courts of said county as grand jurors or petit jurors, except in special
cases provided by law, but they shall be liable to be sued or sum-
moned and to serve as jurors, grand or petit, in the courts of the city
of Danville as if they were residents of said city; and to this end
they may be included in the list of jurors required by law to be pre-
pared by the judge of the corporation court of the city of Danville,
and, generally, the corporation and circuit courts of the city of Dan-
ville shall have as full and complete jurisdiction of all property and
persons situate and resident in the town of Neapolis, in and for aj]
legal and equitable proceedings, civil and criminal, as if such pro-
perty and persons were situate and resident in the city of Danville,
and the courts of Pittsylvania county shall have no jurisdiction
thereof, and all judgments, decrees and orders of courts, all accounts,
statements, mechanics’ liens, contracts, deeds, agreements and other
writings or matters required by law to be recorded in order to affect
the property or persons situate or resident within the corporate limits
of Neapolis, shall, when recorded in the clerk’s office of the corpora-
tion court of the city of Danville, be valid and binding upon the pro-
perty and persons situate and resident in the town of Neapolis, as if
said property and persons were situate and resident in the said city
of Danville, and the samme shall not be recorded in the clerk’s office -
of the county court of Pittsylvania county, when intended only to
bind property and persons within the corporate limits of the said
town of Neapolis.

And in order to carry into effect the police regulations of said
town of Neapolis and provide a place for the confinement of the
prisoners and convicts of said town, said town of Neapolis shall be
allowed until such time as it shall have provided a jail within its
own limits to use the public jail of the city of Danville or of Pitt-
sylvania county for the safe-keeping of persons sentenced to im-
prisonment under the ordinances or by-laws of said town, or for
violation of state laws therein; but for the use of such jails, the
said town of Neapolis shall pay to the said city of Danville or
county of Pittsylvania such compensation as may be agreed upon
between said town and said city or county, or, in case of failure to
agree, such compensation as may be just and reasonable, and said
town of Neapolis may pay such proportion of the court expenses of
the city of Danville as may be agreed upon between said town and
city.

20. The laws of Virginia now in force or hereafter to be enacted
in reference to the registration of voters, the appointment of election
officers, and the conduct and returns of elections shall apply and be
in force in said town, but such returns shall be to the clerk’s office
of the corporation court of Danville, when required to be made toa
clerk’s office, and not to the clerk’s office of the county court of Pitt-
sylvania.

21. The said town of Neapolis shall succeed to and have all the
estates, rights, titles, franchises and privileges, all the property,
funds, revenues and claims, and all the powers, capacities and im-
munities which were vested in, conferred upon or belonged or apper-
tained to the town of North Danville by or under any acts of the
general assembly heretofore passed not in conflict with this act.

And said town of Neapolis shall be subject to all the duties and
obligations appertaining to or incumbent upon the town of North
Danville at the time of the passage of this act, and be and remain
liable and responsible for all indebtedness and liabilities whatso-
ever of said town of North Danville, and all such liabilities, rights,
claims, as well as all contracts, actions and prosecutions existing for
or against the town of North Danville at the time of the passage of
this act, shall remain and continue for and against the said town of
Neapolis as if this act had not been passed, and all ordinances and
by-laws of the town of North Danville. together with all police regu-
lations thereof, in force at the time of the passage of this act, so far
as consistent herewith, shall continue in force and binding within
the corporate limits of Neapolis until the same shall be amended or
repealed, and all persons holding any office under the charter of
the town of North Danville shall continue in such office and to dis-
charge the duties of the same unti) their successors are duly elected
and qualified hereunder.

22. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby
repealed.

23. This act shall be in force from its passage.