Chap. 312.—An ACT to Amend and Re-enact the Charter of the Town of
Salem, in the County of Roanoke.

Approved March 31, 1873.

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1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That an act passed
March twenty-first, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, entitled
an act to incorporate the town of Salem, in the county of
Botetourt, and the acts amendatory thereof passed March eigh-
teenth, eighteen hundred and forty-one, March twentieth,
eighteen hundred and fifty, March twenty-seventh, eighteen
hundred and fifty-eight, and March sixth, eighteen hundred
and sixty, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That the town of
Salem, in the county of Roanoke, as chartered by act of as-
sembly of March twenty-first, eighteen hundred and thirty-six,
entitled an act to incorporate the town of Salem, in the county
of Botetourt, as heretofore laid off, and as may be hereafter
extended, shall continue to be a body politic in the name of
the council of the town of Salem, and as such shall have, ex-
ercise, and enjoy all the rights, immunities and powers, and be
subject to all the duties now encumbent upon the said town as
a body politic; shall have and exercise all the powers, and be
subject to all the provisions of the Code of Virginia, except so
far as may be herein otherwise provided.

§ 2. The municipal authorities of said town shall consist of
seven aldermen, who shall be elected annually by the qualified
voters of said town, and at their first meeting the said alder-
men shall elect one of their number who shall be the mayor of
said town, and shall have all the powers and privileges such
office confers in the general law governing towns within the
state of Virginia.

§ 3. The mayor and aldermen shall constitute the council of
said town, and all the corporate powers of said town, shall be
exercised by said council, or under its authority, except when
otherwise ordered.

§ 4. Be it further enacted, That the said council shall an- A
nually, on the fourth Thursday i in May, having given ten days’
notice of the time and place, at which said election all persons
living within the then corporate limits of the said town, who
are under the laws of this commonwealth entitled to vote,
may elect seven resident citizens who are twenty-one years old,
and qualified to hold office under the laws of the state, as alder-
men of said town, whose term of office shall be for one year, tT
or until their successors shall have been elected and qualified. ®
But if from any cause the annual election herein provided
shall not be held on the fourth Thursday in May, it shall be
lawful for the council of the said town to hold the said election
as soon thereafter as may be practicable. In case any two or v
more persons voted for in such election, and not being elected, ¢'
shall have an equal number of votes when the polls Shall have
been closed, a majority of the preceding council shall decide
which of the persons aforesaid shall be elected.

§ 5. Be it further enacted, That the said council shall be the C
judge of the election of its own members; whenever from any 3:
cause, a vacancy shall occur in the office of mayor or alderman, b
ine same shall be filled by the council at its next regular meet- c

me 6. Be it further enacted, That the said council shall be in- ¢
vested with and exercise, individually or collectively, all the }
powers and authority which can be exercised by justices of the
peace under the charter, by-laws and ordinances of said town,
and under the laws of the state for prosecuting and suppress-.
ing unlawful assemblies, disturbances, violent and disorderly
conduct within the corporate limits of said town. They shall
have power to enforce fines, not exceeding fifty dollars in1
amount, for violations of the peace as may be regulated by
ordinance of said council, and may commit to the jail of said
county of Roanoke till said fines are paid, or compel such per-
son or persons so committed to work on the streets and public
buildings for a term not exceeding sixty days, and to have ex-1
clusive jurisdiction in all cases arising under the by-laws and ¢
ordinances of said town, and to issue any and all proper pro-
cess, whether mesne or final, which may be necessary to enforce
their authority.

§ 7. Be it further enacted, That for the purpose of carrying 1
into effect the police regulations of said town, the said town }
shall be allowed the use of the county jail of Roanoke county, p
for the safe keeping and confinement of all persons who shall
be sentenced to imprisonment under the ordinances of the said
town.

§ 8. Be it further enacted, That the council of the said town F
shall have power, from time to time, to elect such officers as 9
are not provided for by the constitution, and, if necessary, to F
appoint a police sufficient to preserve order in said town, and 7
to elect a treasurer, secretary, and such other officers from
their own body as may be necessary, and to regulate the sala- ¢
ries of such officers, and to remove any of such officers and
appoint others, and to require from any officer a bond with ap-
proved security, for the faithful performance of his duty; and
that the sergeant for the said town shall have the same powers
within the limits of said town, and for one mile around the
same, in all matters arising within said town, as a constable;
perform the same duties, receive the fees, and be subject to
the penalties prescribed by law as to constables. In collecting
the town taxes, the sergeant may distrain and sell therefor in
like manner as a sheriff may distrain and sell for state
taxes, and shall have, in other respects, ike powers to enforce
the collection thereof.

§ 9. Be it further enacted, That the mayor or any two of
said aldermen shall have power to summon a meeting of said
council, which meeting shall be composed of not less than four
members, including the mayor, or in his absence a mayor pro
tempore, Mected by said aldermen who may be present, for the
transaction of business, each having one vote, except the mayor,
who shall have no vote at any meeting except in case of a tie.
The said aldermen shall moreover keep a complete record of
all their proceedings and accounts in suitable books, and de-
liver such to their successors in office; the same shall at all
times be open to the inspection for persons qualified to vote.

§ 10. Be it further enacted, That the said council shall also
have power and authority to make all necessary provisions to
prevent accidents by fire, and to supply the town with water
for all necessary purposes, and to purchase engines, hose, fire
hooks, ladders, and other fixtures useful for preventing acci-
dents by fire, and to organize fire companies. The aldermen
of said town shall also have power and authority to negotiate
any loan or loans for the purpose of buying necessary real es-
tate, and for the erecting of public buildings, and for the gen-
eral improvement of the said town, and shall also have author-
ity to issue registered or coupon bonds for said loan, payable
at not more than twenty years after date of said bonds, bear-
ing interest ata rate not greater than eight per centum per
annum, payable semi-annually. They shall also have power
and authority to establish markets and regulate the same, to
graduate and pave, or in any other manner improve the streets,
walks and alleys of said town; to prevent and punish by rea-
sonable fines, the practice of firmg guns, or in any manner set-
ting fire to powder, of running horses, and of all else detri-
mental to the peace and quiet of said town; to license and
regulate shows and other public exhibitions, and the same to
tax to such extent as they may deem reasonable and expedient;
to prescribe rules for the orderly and regular building of houses
and chimneys; to regulate blacksmiths’ shops, and all other
shops considered likely to occasion accidents by fire, and the
erection of stoves and stove-pipes; to regulate the ere~tion of
privies, stables and corn sheds, and prescribe their location;
to regulate butchers’ stalls and slaughter houses; to remove
and abate nuisances within said town at the expense of those
who may occasion them; to prohibit hogs, dogs and cows from
running at large within the limits of said town; to prevent ex-
hibition of stud horses and jackasses in said town, and gen-
erally to pass all by-laws and ordinances not contrary to the
laws and constitution of this-state or of the United States,
which the said council may think necessary and proper for car-
rying into effect the foregoing powers, or that may hereafter
be vested in them, and for regulating the police, preserving the
peace and good order and government of the said town, and
to amend or repeal the same at their pleasure, and to enforce
the observance of such by-laws and ordinances under penalties
not exceeding fifty dollars for one offence, to be recovered with
cost, in the name of said corporation, before any justice of the
peace of said town, and applied in aid of the taxes imposed
upon said town.

§ 11. Be it further enacted, That the council of said town
shall appoint annually two assessors, who shall choose a third,
all of whom shall be citizens in the said town and owners of
real estate, and the three shall, between the first and fifteenth
days of April in each year, assess the value of the real property
in the corporate limits of the said town, except the public pro-
perty hereinafter mentioned, and one of whom may by direc-
tion of the said council also assess the value of the personal
property of the said town, which assessments shall form the
basis of taxation within the said town, and also have power
and authority to levy and collect annually a tax on all real
and personal property within said town, including the public
lots, lands and buildings belonging to the county of Roanoke,
and on such other subjects within said town as are or may be
taxed by the revenue laws of this state, and on dogs belong-
ing to persons residing in said town, and for the privilege of
carrying on any regular business in said town by persons who
do not reside within the corporate limits of said town: pro-
vided, that the tax on real estate shall not exceed in any one
year fifty cents on every one hundred dollars value thereof,
and that the poll tax shall not exceed one dol\ar on each male
person in any one year, and for the purpose of doing a regular
business, or following any trade, profession, occupation or call-
ing within the said town by person or persons who do not re-
side within said town, not exceeding the sum of ten dollars
for any one year: and provided also, that the tax to be imposed
on all other property shall not exceed the taxes on like subjects
by the revenue laws of this state for the same year.

§ 12. Be it further enacted, That the county court of Roa--
noke county, at its April term, eighteen hundred and seventy- !
two, and each five years thereafter, shall appoint one person, «
who together with two other persons, one to be appointed by ‘
the council of said town and the third to be selected by the
other two, all being citizens of said county, and over the age
of twenty-one years, and being first duly sworn for that pur-
pose, shall without delay proceed to value the public lands,
lots, and buildings within the said town, belonging to the
county of Roanoke, which valuation, any two of said valuers
concurring in the same, in writing under the hands and seals
of the said valuers, or of the two concurring as aforesaid, shall
be returned forthwith to the council of said town, and also to
the next succeeding court of Roanoke county, after the same
shall have been completed, and shall have been entered of re-
cord among the proceedings of said court; and the council of
said town when assessing taxes upon the real estate thereof
for any year shall, in ascertaining the proportion of such tax
to be paid by said court for that year on the said public lands,
lots and buildings, be regulated by the valuation last returned,
as aforesaid, and when the amount of tax on said public lands,
lots and buildings shall be ascertained as aforesaid, the said
council shall enter an order among their proceedings directing
the amount of tax so ascertained to be certified to the said
county court, a copy of which order, attested by the secretary
of the town council and signed by the mayor, or mayor pro
tempore of said town council, shall be returned to said court
before the assessing and laying of the county levy for that
year, whereupon the officer or officers of said county, whose
duty it is to assess and lay the county levy, shall include the
amount of said tax so certified among the debts due by said county
of Roanoke, and make an order directing the sheriff or other
proper officer thereof to pay the same out of the levy of that
year to the treasurer of the said town.

§ 13. Be it further enacted, That in order the better to deter-
mine who shall be liable to taxation in the said town under
this act, it is hereby declared that all persons liable to taxation,
as hereinbefore provided, and residing in, or in pursuit of any
business, trade, occupation, calling or profession in said town,
as aforesaid, annually on the first day of February, shall be
subject to taxation the current year.

§ 14. Be it further enacted, That the said council shall have
power and authority, whenever they deem it expedient, to have
the sidewalks, footways and gutters, along any street or alley
within said town of such width as they may prescribe properly
paved or otherwise suitably improved and repaired and altered
whenever they may think fit, at the proper cost and expénse
of the owners or o:cupants of the lands or lots along the front
or side of which such footways, sidewalks or other improve-
ments extend, and to levy and collect for that purpose a spe-
cial tax on each of such lots or pieces of land proportioned to
the number of feet of the same fronting on such pavement or
other improvement, which special tax shall be collected by the
sergeant of said town as other taxes on real estate within the
said town are herein directed to be collected: provided, how-
ever, that before any owner or occupant of any land or lot,
within said town, shall be required to make any such pavement
or other improvement at his own proper cost and expense, or
a tax shall be levied upon the same for that purpose, there
shall be on such land or lot fronting the side along which such
pavement or other improvement shall be required a house or
building at least twenty feet square. In all cases where a
lessee or tenant shall pay the expense of any such pavement
along the side or sides of the land or lot by him occupied, fox
which land or lot by contract with his lessor or landlord he
shall be bound to pay rent, the amount of any such expense
paid by him or collected from him, or made out of his pro-
perty, shall be a good and valid setoff against so much of the
rent due or accruing to his lessor or landlord.

§15. Be it further enacted, That all taxes, whether general t
or special, assessed upon any land or lot in said town under !
this act, are hereby declared to constitute a lien upon such
land or lot, and if the town sergeant shall not have been able
with due diligence to collect the said taxes by the first day of
November of the year in which the same were assessed, he
shall, at the first meeting of the council thereafter, make re-
turn upon oath of the taxes so uncollected, and the lands and z
lots whereon such uncollected taxes were levied, and thereupon !*
the said council shall have the same remedy against the said q
delinquent lots or lands as this commonwealth now has in sim- },
ilar cases.

§ 16. Be it further enacted, That the council of said town yp
may, as soon as practicable after the passage of this act, pro- i
ceed to extend the corporate limits of said town, and at the ex- ~
piration of each fourth year thereafter, unless otherwise or-
dered by a two-thirds majority vote of the citizens of said town
voting on such proposition, to extend the corporate limits of
the town, and make an order to be recorded among their pro-
ceedings establishing such extended limits and particularly de-
scribing the same, and also at any time after the passage of this
act to lay off and open new streets, cross streets and alleys of p
such width and extent as said council may think fit and conve- 2
nient, or alter those already laid off and opened, or such as may 1i
hereafter be laid off and opened, whether within the original or
extended limits of the said town.

§ 17. Be it further enacted, That the said town and the tax- ¢
able persons and property therein shall be exempt and free fi
from the payment of any poor rates or road tax, and from con- p
tributing to any county expenses for any year in which it shall
appear that said town shall, at its own expense, provide for its
own poor and keep its streets in order.

§ 18. Be it further enacted, That forthe purpose of main- 5
taining the police regulations of said town under the authority P
of this act, and for no other purpose, the jurisdiction of the cor- t
porate authorities thereof shall be and the same is hereby made
to extend one mile beyond the limits of said town.

§ 19. Be it further enacted, That the by-laws heretofore pr
passed by the trustees of said town of Salem, and which have , "1
not been repealed, shall be and continue in force until altered —
or repealed by the council of said town.

§ 20. Be it further enacted, That all acts and parts of acts
concerning the town of Salem, i in the county of Roanoke, or °¢
the lands and lots therein, conflicting with or contrary to the
provisions of this act, shall be and the same are hereby repealed.

§ 21. This act shall be in force from its passage. C