Chap. 204.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 10, 18, 14 and 17
of the charter of the town of Danville.

Approved March 1, 1884,

1. Be it enacted by the gencral assembly of Virginia, That
sections ten, thirteen, fourteen and seventeen of the churter of
the town of Danville, be amended and re-enacted so as to read
as follows: °

§ 10. The mayor, justices of the peace, and members of the
council, within one week after their election, or as soon there-
after as convenient, shall make oath before the mayor, a jus-
tice of the peace, or a notary public, faithfully and impar-
tially to discharge the duties of their respective offices, and
shall take the other oaths of office prescribed by the Code of
Virginia; and the mayor and justices of the peace shall sev-
erally give bonds to the town of Danville, with security, to be
approved by the council, conditioned so as to secure the faith-
ful discharge of their duties to the town in their respective
officos, and the several penalties of said bonds shall be as fol-
lows: The mayor's in the penalty of ten thousand dollars ;
the justices of the peace, each, in the penalty of five hundred
dollars. If any person elected to the office shall fail to qual-
ify in sixty days thereafter, his office shall be declared
vacant.

§ 13. The council shall have power to purchase, receive,
lease, and hold lands, tenements, goods and chattels, either in
fee simple or any less estate therein, either for the use of said
town or in trust for the benefit of any persons or associations
therein, and the same to let, sell or grant, or assign again ;
to purchase and hold any quantity of land outside the limits
of the corporation, and in the county of Pittsylvania, not ex-
ceeding one hundred acres, as may be necessary for the use,
convenience and comfort of the people, and for a public ceme-
tery, a public park and a poor-house. Any land so acquired,
and bona fine used for such purposes, shall be subject to the
jurisdiction of said council, and the corporation court of said
town, in like manner as if the same were within the corporate
limits of thesame.and betree trom state tax. The council shall
have power, also, to erect a town hall and a market-house,
and regulate the same; a work-house, jail, and other buildings
deemed necessary and convenient for said town ; to establish
and organize fire companies, and purchase engines; to pro-
hibit the erection of any buildings, or any addition to any
building, more than ten feet square and ten teet high, unless
the outer walls thereot be made ot brick and mortar, or such
material as cannot take fire; and provide tor the removal of
any building or addition erected contrary to such prohibi-
tion, within the limits of said corporation; and if at any
time it should be deemed advisable for the better pro-
tection from fire, the council may, in their discretion,
select suitable citizens to be members of tire companies,
who by certificate of the president, ordered by a vote
of the council, may be released from serving as a juror
or jurors in the corporation and circuit courts of the town of
Danville, so long as they are bona fide active members of such
fire company; and also, in their discretion, may excuse mem-
bers of such fire companies from militia duty, except in the
case of invasion or danger of the state, so that they shall be
relieved trom the payment of fines for failure to attend the
company and general musters prescribed by law; to regulate
and graduate the streets and alleys gf said town, and pave
the same; and to have the footways or sidewalks of the town
paved at the expense of the owners or occupiers of the lots
or parts of lots; and in case they, or any of them, shall
neglect or refuse to pave the same when required, it shall be
lawful for the council to have the same paved, and recover
the expense thereof, for the use of the town, before the mayor
or any justice of the peace of the corporation; and in all cases
where a tenant shall be required to pave in front of the pro-
perty in his or her occupation, the expense of pavement shall
he a good offset against so much of the rent as he shall have
paid towards such pavement. The council shall have power
to open and establish new streets and alleys in said town,

whenever it shall think the public convenience requires its

grant or refuse licenses to auctioneers, hawkers and pedlars,

keepers of bowling alleys, billiard or bagatelle tables, or for
theatrical performances, or for any other show or perfor-
mance to be used or exhibited in said town, or within one
mile thereof; to impose a tax on any such license in addition.
to any tax paid to the state, and to adopt in all cases of
license, such rules and regulations as it may deem proper; to
prevent the practice of running horses or firing guns or pis-
tols in said town; to levy a fine on those who create a nui-
sance, public or private; to lay and collect taxes on the real
estate and personal property in said town, according to its
value, and on incomes, not to exceed one and one-half per
centum on each hundred dollars value thereof, for all the
purposes of said town, including therein the tax for public
free school purposes: provided that this limit of one and one-
half per centum on each one hundred dollars of value shall
only exist for two years from this date, and that the limit,
atter the expiration of two years, shall be one and one-quar-
ter per centum on each one hundred dollars value of the same
subjects for same purposes: provided also, that the value of
the real estate in said town shall be ascertained in such way
as the council may prescribe; also to lay and collect taxes on
such other professions, occupations, and employments as are
not specifically herein mentioned: provided the same docs

not conflict with any law of the state or the United States;

to tax dogs in such manner as they may prescribe; to tax
the occupiers of houses, and all male persons in the town
above the age of sixteen years; and in order the better to
ascertain and determine what persons are liable to taxation,
it is hereby declared that all tithable persons resident in said
town on the first of February, shall be subject to taxation
the then current year. The council shall also have power to
appoint all officers necessary for the conducting of the affairs
of the corporation, not otherwise provided for in this act; to
take from the treasurer and collector of the corporation taxes,
honds with security, in such penalties and with such con-
ditions as to the council may seem fit, payable to the town
of Danville; and to make such by-laws, rules, and regulations
for the government of said town, as shall not be contrary to
the laws of the United States, or of this state, and to entorce
all such by-laws, rules, and regulations, by reasonable fines
and penalties, not exceeding, for any one offence, the sum of
titty dollars, to be recovered, with costs, before the mayor or
any justice ‘of the peace of said town—such fines to be paid
intu the treasury of the said town—and by imprisonment in
the corporation jail for a period not exceeding twelve months ;
and in case the person or persons so fined shall have no visible
effects, it shall be lawful to require such offenders to work out
such fines on the public strects, or on other public works,
under the direction of the mayor, and the council is hereby
empowered to establish a chain-gang, as a punishment for the
incorrigibly vicious, which shall make a part of the police
regulations, and be controlled by the chief of police, under
the direction of the mayor of the town.

§ 14. The council may, in the name and for the use and
benefit of said corporation, subscribe to the stock of any
company incorporated for the purpose of conducting any
improved or artificial road to the said town, and other incor-
porated companies: provided the question of subscription
shall have been first submitted to the qualified voters of said
town, and three-fourths of the legal voters of said town, and
a majority of the registered freeholders thereof voting shall
have approved the same. It may also contract loans and
issue certificates of debt, and provide a sinking fund for the
same, and for this sinking fund there shall be set apart, after
two years from this date, from the resources of the town, a
sum equal to one per centum per annum on the aggregate
debt, not payable within one year, whether contracted here-
after or heretofore, and the same shall be applied to the pay-
ment of the debt of the town as it shall become due, and if
no part be due and payable, it shall be invested in the bonds
or certificates of debt of the town or of this state or éf the
United States, or of some state of this Union, but no loan
contracted shall be irredeemable for a longer period than
thirty-four years, nor shall the outstanding debt of the said
corporation at any time exceed the sum of six hundred and
sixty thousand dollars, which sum shall include the sixty
thousand dollars subscribed under an act of the general
assembly, approved sixth day of March, eighteen hundred
and eighty-two, to the Danville and New river railroad
company.

§17. The said council may provide, by purchase or other-
wise, all proper and necessary supplies of water and gas for
the use of said town, and for this purpose may build, erect,
purchase or hold water works and gas works, and all other
property, real and personal, requisite for such work, and may
manage and control the same as the said council may seem
fit. It may also regulate and prescribe the price at which
gas and water shall be furnished; and when gas and water
mains are laid in a street, the council shall have power, for
the purpose of meeting the expenses of the water works and
gas works of the town, to levy an annual special assessment
upon the real estate on both sides of such street: provided
such assessment shall not exceed one-fourth of one per centum
of its assessed value; but it shall also be authorized to exempt
any property from such assessment to which water and gas
are supplied at the rates charged for water and gas.

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