CHAP. 241.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 20, 24, 25, 28
and 29 of an act approved February 28, 1890, entitled an act to
amend the charter of the town of Big Stone Gap, and to legalize
certain acts of the town council.

Approved February 16, 1892.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia,
That sections twenty, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-
eight and twenty-nine of an act approved February twenty-
eight, eighteen hundred and ninety, entitled an act to
amend the charter of the town of Big Stone Gap, and to
legalize certain acts of the town council, be amended and
re-enacted so as to read as follows:
§ 20. It shall be the duty of the present council to fix the
compensation of the members of the council who are to
go into office on July first, eighteen hundred and ninety,
and thereafter each council shall fix the compensation of the
members of the succeeding council ; but-no council shall ever
increase the compensation of its own members.

§ 24. In order to open, grade, pave, macadamize, or oth-
erwise improve any street, sidewalk or alley, the council is
authorized to make an assessment of such sum as may be
necessary to complete such work, to be charged on the pro-
perty abutting on such street, sidewalk or alley, and to be
apportioned according to the number of feet abutting
thereon. And to effectually carry out the powers thus
conferred the council may take and enforce all needful
and proper by-laws and ordinances.

§ 25. Licenses to sell vinous, spirituous or malt liquors,
shall be granted only by the town council, and only when
the applicant shall have been first licensed by the county
court of Wise county, or by the circuit court on appeal from
the county court, as provided by law; but the fact that any
applicant has been licensed by the said county court, or by
the said circuit court on appeal from the county court, shall not
make it incumbent on the council to grant him a license.
No license to sell liquor shall be granted by the council
unless and until it be made to appear to the satisfaction
of the said council that the applicant isa fit and proper per-
son, of good moral character, and also that the situation in
which the applicant is to conduct the business of selling
liquor is a fit and proper place for such purpose, and until
the applicant shall have furnished a bond, payable to said
town, with security to be approved by the council, condi-
tioned upon the observance, by said applicant, his part-
ners, agents or employees, of all the ordinances, resolu-
tions or by-laws of said town in force when said license is
granted, or which may be passed thereafter.

§ 28. For the purpose of street improvement, drainage,
sewerage, building bridges, erecting a town hall, a jail,
public school-houses, market-houses, supplying the town
with light and water, and for all such public purposes, the
town council is authorized to issue and sell the registered
bonds of the town, payable in not more than fifty years
from the date of issue, to bear interest ata rate not greater
than siz per centum per annum; provided, however, that
no such issue of bonds shal] be made unless and until, at
an election to be ordered held, for such purpose by the
council, a majority of the votes cast at such election shal]
be in favor of the issue. No such election shall be held
until after twenty days’ notice thereof shall have been
given by publication or posting, which notice shall show
what amount of bonds is proposed to be issued, within
what period or periods they are to become due, what rate
of interest they are to bear, what proportion or proportions
of the principal is to be collected and pard into the sinking fund
for each year, or period of years, until the whole amount shall
have become due and payable, and to what purpose or pur-
poses the proceeds of the sale of said bonds are to be ap-
plied. At such election all residents of said town qualli-
fied to vote for members of the general assembly may
vote. And the town council is hereby authorized, by pro-
per ordinances, to regulate and direct the manner and de-
tails of holding such elections and of ascertaining the re-
sult thereof. A vote entered on the town minutes by ayes
and nays, showing two-thirds of the trustees of said town
in favor of holding such election, shall be had before such
election can be legally held.

§ 29. If such an election be held, and a majority of the
votes legally cast be found in favor of an issue of bonds,
it shall be the duty of the town council to elect four com-
petent and suitable residents of said town, who, together
with the mayor of the town, shall compose a board to be
known as the board of sinking fund commissioners. The
mayor of the town (ex-officio a member) shal! be the pres-
ident of said board. AJ] the members of said board shall
give bond before entering on their duties, in such sum and
with such security as the council may prescribe, and no
trustee of the town shall be a memberof said board. The
members of the said board shall hold office until the fif-
teenth day of July succeeding their election, unless soon-
er removed by the council, and until their successors are
duly elected and qualified: provided, however, that the
mayor (member ex-officio) shall, on the first day of July
following the assumption by him of the office of president
of said board, be succeeded in said office by his successor
in the office of mayor. Between July first and July fif-
teenth succeeding the election of the first board, and an-
nually thereafter between said dates, the council shall
elect four members of said board, to hold office for one
year and until their successors are duly elected and quali-
fied, unless sooner removed by the council. When any
member of said board shall die, resign, or become inca-
pacitated, the council shall forthwith elect a successor
in office. Whenever an issue of bonds shall have been
made, it shal] be the duty of the town council to levy and
have collected a sufficient sum each year after such issue
to pay the interest on said bonds which will have accrued
up to the time such collection can be made and disbursed,
and also sufficient to pay into the sinking fund the proportton
of the principal, which shall be required to be paid each year
by the act of the council and the vote taken thereon author-
izing the assue. And if the entire issue cannot be dis-
posed of at once, or if for any.reason the council may deem
it advisable not to sell the entire issue at once, tt. may sell
and dispose of any portion, or portions, of such issue, from
lime to time, as it may deem most advisable, and shall have
levied and collected, and pay into the sinking fund each year
only so much as may be necessary to pay the interest on, and
such proportion of, the sum so sold and disposed of as shall have
heen specified in the notice calling the election ; provided, how-
ever, that any portion of such issue which shall remain unsold
at the expiration of two years from the date of the vote taken
thereon shall be cancelled and remain void. The sums col-
lected shall be turned over to the board of sinking fund
commissioners, who shall, when it is due, pay the accrued
interest on all of said bonds, and the balance of the
money thus placed in their bands shall be by said board
invested in interest-bearing or dividend-paying securities,
which, in their judgment, are safe and not liable to fluctu-
ate in value. And the fund thus collected shal}, until the
discharge of the bonds of the issue to secure which it is
collected, be applied to no other purpose whatever. The
council shall make and pass all necessary by-laws and
ordinances necessary to carry out the provisions above as
to the creation, investment, preservation and application
of such sinking fund.
2. This act shall be in force from its passage.