Chap. 54.—An ACT to amend sections 16, 21, 23, 26, and 28 of the
charter of Suffolk.

Approved February 3, 1888.

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1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
sections sixteen, twenty-one, twenty-three, and twenty-six,
as amended by an act of the general assembly, approved the
eighth day of February, eighteen hundred and eighty-four,
and section twenty-eight of an act entitled an act to provide
anew charter for the town of Suffolk, in force March nine-
teenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, be amended and
re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§16. The council of said town shall annually make or
cause to be made and entered upon the record of its proceed-
ings, an estimate and statement of all sums of money which
may lawfully be, or may lawfully become chargeable to said
town, and which ought to be paid within one year for any
and all purposes, including for the poor and public schools,
together with a statement of the purposes or objects for
which said sums of money may be or may become go charge-
able to said town; and shall raise by levy so much money as
in its discretion shall be sufficient to meet all just demands
against the corporation on any account, including the poor
and public schools. The said levy may be made upon dogs
and, YpQy sy leuch persons residents of‘saidtown and over
the age of twenty-one years, and upon such real and personal

estate and all such other subjects of taxation (except the hall

of the Friends of Temperance and the armory of the Suffolk

Greys, and the lot upon which said hall and armory are situ-

ated,) as may be subject to state taxation, and not exempt

from taxation by the constitution and laws of the state: pro-

vided however, that the said levy for the benefit of the poor,

may be such annually as may be necessary to enable the

council to provide for them, and for the benefit of the public

schools it shall not annually exceed the levy or tax allowed |
by the general laws of the state for such purposes, and for

all the other purposes of the said town it shall not annually

exceed four-fifths of one per centum of the assessed value of
the taxable subjects or property, nor fifty cents per head per

annum upon persons in said town at the time said levy may

be made: and provided further, that no town tax or levy

shall be imposed upon the bonds of said town: and provided

further, that the assessment of property in said town for

town faxation shall in no case exceed the value at which
such property may be assessed for state taxation: and pro-

vided further, that the said town taxes may be assessed,

levied, and collected in the same manner in which state taxes

are levied, assessed, and collected, and upon the same subjects

of taxation. :

§21. The sergeant shall have the power to collect the fines |
imposed for violation of any of the ordinances of the corpo-'
ration, and he shall on or before the first day of each calen-
dar month, pay the amount of such fines collected, to the
treasurer, taking his receipt therefor; and the said sergeant
shall have the power to exercise within the corporate limits
of said town, and within one mile thereof, all the duties that
a constable can legally exercise in regard to the collection of
claims and executions and levying process, and he shall be
entitled to the same compensation therefor, and he and his
securities shall be subject to the same liabilities as a constable
for any failure in the performance of the duties of, or dere-
liction in, his said office.

§ 23. Real estate in said town shall be and the same is
hereby declared to be subject toa lien for town taxes, and
the council may order and require real estate in said town
delinquent for the non-payment of town taxes, to be sold by
the treasurer at public auction for the arrears with interest
thereon, and with such additional per centum as the council
may prescribe for charges, and the surplus shall be paid to
the owner of said real estate; and the council may prescribe
and regulate the manner and terms upon which the said
delinquent real estate shall be sold and redeemed: provided
that a list of said delinquent lands, with the arrearages of
taxes due thereon, shall be published for at least once a week
for four successive weeks in some newspaper published in
said town, and posted at the front door of the courthouse of
Nansemond county on some county court day: and provided
also, that such lien-and gale shall be subject to the lien for
all taxes and levies that may be due to the state of Virginia
and county of Nansemond.

§26. The treasurer shall receive from the sergeant all fines
collected by him, and it shall be the duty of the treasurer to
collect all taxes, levies, and other moneys due to the corpora-
tion, and within one month after he shall have received the
books of the commissioner of the revenue, he shall have the
power to enforce the collection and payment of such levies,
taxes, and dues by distress and sale, and by all such other
legal remedies as are now by law vested in county treasurers
with reference to state and county taxes. The treasurer shall
disburse the funds of the corporation, except that to the
credit of the public schools, according to the rules and regu-
lations prescribed by the council, and as the council shall
have appropriated and ordered the same to be disbursed and
not otherwise.

§28. And if the sergeant shall fail to pay over the fines
collected by him according to the condition of his bond, it
shall be lawful for the council to recover the same by notion
in the corporate name of the town, before any court of record
of said county of Nansemond, against the said sergeant and
his sureties, or any or either of them, his or their executors
or administrators, on giving ten days’ notice of the same.

2. This act shall be in force from and after the first day of
August, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight.