Chap. 405.—An ACT to incorporate Central City.

Approved May 23, 1887.

1. Beit enacted by tho general assembly of Virginia, That
the town of Central, in the county of Montgomery, shall be
and the same is hereby declared to be a town corporate,
under the name and style of Central City, and by that name
shall have and exercise the powers hereinafter granted.

2. The government of said town shall be vested in a
council of seven, to be chosen annually, by ballot, on the
fourth Thursday in May in each year. Any person entitled
to vote in the county of Montgomery, and residing in the
corporate limits of the town of Central City, shall be entitled
to vote at all elections under said act of incorporation.- The
mayor shall appoint two members of the council, who with
the clerk of the council, shall hold said election between the
hours of one in the afternoon and sunset, and they shall de-
cide any contest in reference to the right of any individual,
and shall count the ballots. In case it is impossible to decide,
the seven who have the highest number of votes, by reason
ot a tie, the said clerks shall decide, in the presence of the
two councilmen aforesaid, by lot. Said clerk shall imme-
diately thereafter make out and deliver to each one of the
councilmen elected, a certificate of his election.

3. Said councilmen shall meet in the first week of July fol-
lowing; the mayor to be their president. Said officers shall
bold their respective offices for one year, or until their suc-
cessors are elected and qualified. Said officers shall qualify
by taking the oath of office before the clerk or other person
authorized to administer oaths. They may be removed from
office by the unanimous vote of the council for good cause.
All the officers of the corporation shall serve without com-
pensation, except as hereinafter provided. Said council shall
appoint its own time of meeting.

4. Five members shall constitute a quorum, and any va-
cancy among any of the officers of the corporation shall be
filled by said council. In addition to the above-named offi-
cers, there shall be elected annually by the qualified voters of
said town, a mayor, a clerk, a town sergeant, and treasurer.
The mayor shall be the presiding officer of the council, but
shall have no vote except in case of a tie, and shall bave
jurisdiction and authority of a justice of the peace of Mont-
gomery county within the corporate limits of said town, and
shall be entitled to the same fees. The clerk shall keep a
correct record of all the proceedings of the council; shall
provide the books and stationery therefor, make out certifi-
cates of election, make out a list of the property to be as-
sessed, real and personal, within the corporation, and assess
the same according to the best information obtained by him,
and shall issue tickets for taxes voted by the council, which
tickets he shall deliver to the sergeant when ordered by the
council, and shall have power to administer the oaths of office
to any of the town officers, and for said services he shall be
allowed annually a certain sum to be named by the council,
not to exceed fifty dollars. Whe sergeant shall collect the
taxes voted by the council, for which he shall be allowed a
certain rate per centum for collecting and paying out the
same, the rate to be fixed by the council. He shall have
the power and authority of any constable or collector in
the county of Montgomery, within the corporate limits of
the said town, and shall be entitled to the same fees. He
shall pay out the money in his hands on the warrant of the
mayor and clerk, certifying that it is done by order of the coun-
cil. He sball perform all the dutics of the overseer of roads
and streets in the corporation, in accordance with the laws
of Virginia. No road tax shall be assessed upon the prop-
erty within the corporation, except by the council afore-
said, which said road tax shall be expended upon the roads
and streets of said town by the sergeant aforesaid under the
direction of the council: provided said town supports its own
poor. For his services as overseer of said roads and streets,
he sball be entitled to the same compensation allowed by
law 10 overseers of roads. Said council and sergeant shall
bave all the powers and perform all the duties belonging to
overseers of roads under the general law. The sergeant
shall, before he enters upon the duties of his office, execute a
bond for the faithful performance of his duties, which bond
shall be approved by the council and filed by the clerk. The
council shall have power to regulate and prohibit the running
at large of animals; to provide for order and quiet, and the
observance of the Sabbath within the corporation; to provide
and protect shade trees; to establish fire departments with
suitable necessary conveniences; to regulate with reference
to contagious disases, and to pass ordinances to carry into
effect the objects of this incorporation, and to punish the
violation of the same by fine and imprisonment.

6. The council may annually levy a tax for roads and
corporation purposes, which on no property shall exceed fifty
cents on the hundred dollars valuation, except that on the
petition of two-thirds of the freeholders within the corpora-
tion, the council may levy a corporation tax not to exceed
the amount named in said petition.

7. That any person applying to the county court of Mont-
gomery for license to sell liquor of any kind, either as the

eeper of a bar-room, wholesale or retail dealer, within the
corporate limits of said town of Central City, Montgomery
county, or within one mile of the limits of said corporation,
shall produce before the court of said county a certificate of
the council of said town, signed by each member of the coun-
cil, to the effect that the applicant is a suitable person, and
that no good reason is known to said council why said license
should not be granted, and the court having jurisdiction shall
not grant any license to sell liquor within the limits above
described, until and unless such certificates be given.

8. That for the purpose of maintaining the police regula-
tions of said town under authority of this act, the jurisdic-
tion of the corporate authorities thereof shall be and the
same is hereby made to extend one mile beyond the limits of
said town.

9. The following is hereby declared to be the boundary of
the town of Central City: On west by Connelly’s branch,
north by New river, south and east by three-fourths of a mile
from the brick depot in said town.

10. Walter Roberts, L. Bibb, J. Hoffman, S. Heth, R. Pyle,
E. T. Gill, and F. Collins, are hereby declared and appointed
councilmen; John A. Wilson, clerk; J. C. Porterfield, ser-
geant; A. Robinson, treasurer, and A. J. Lucas, mayor, and
may qualify before any magistrate or notary public in the
county; and thereupon they shall constitute until the first
day of July, eighteen hundred and cighty-seven, the council
of said Central City; and as such they shall perform all the
duties of said council.

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