CHAP. 283.—An ACT to authorize the voters of Botetourt county
to vote upon the removal of the court-house of said couuty.

Approved February 16, 1892.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia,
That it shall be the duty of the judge of the circuit court
of Botetourt county, Virginia, upon the petition of one
hundred voters of the said county, to order a special elec-
tion in said county, to be held on the fourth Thursday in
May, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, for the purpose of
taking the sense of the qualified voters of the said county
whether the county site of the said county shall be re-
moved from its present site at Fincastle to the site at or
near Buchanan, in said county, hereinafter designated.

2. Upon the presentation to said judge of said petition,
accompanied by a certificate of the cashier of some na-
tional bank in the state of Virginia, that there has been
deposited with said bank twenty thousand dollars in cur-
rent money of the United States, payable upon the order
of the board of trustees hereinafter named, it shall be the
duty of said judge, without unnecessary delay, to enter an
order, either in court or in vacation, ordering such special
election to be held in the said county of Botetourt at the
time above specified, which order shall be entered not less
than thirty days prior to said election. The said order
shall be certified by the said judge to the clerk of the cir-
cuit court of said county, to be by him entered on the
order book of the said court; and it shall be the duty of
the said clerk forthwith to furnish to the sheriff of the
said county a copy of the said order; and it shall be the
duty of the sheriff of the said county to give notice of the
time of holding said election by publication once a week
for four successive weeks prior thereto in each newspaper
published in the said county.

Google
3. The said judge of the circuit court shall be the cus-
todian of the said certificate of deposit, and after the said
election he shal] deliver the said certificate of deposit to
the board of trustees hereinafter named, in case the result
of the election shall be for the removal of the court-house,
which said board, a majority of them acting, shall have
authority to endorse and collect the said certificate of
deposit and apply the money arising therefrom to the con-
struction of the buildings provided for in this act; but in
case the result of the election shall be against the removal
of the court-house, then the said judge shal! return the said
certificate of deposit to the cashier of the bank that is-
sued it.

4. Said election shall be superintended and held, re-
turns made and certified, votes canvassed, results ascer-
tained and made known, under the same renalties and
subject to the same regulations as prescribed for general
and special elections in chapter ten of the code of Vir-
ginia, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, except that the
result of said election shall be certified to the judge of the
circuit court of the said county. The electors voting at said
election who shall favor the removal of said county site
from the town of Fincastle to the site to be provided
as hereinafter specified, at or near Buchanan, shall de-
posit with the judge of election of the respective voting
precincts a ballot, upon which is written or printed the
words, “For removal of the court-house ;” and such elect-
ors as are opposed to such removal shall, in like manner,
deposit a ballot upon which is written or printed the
words, “ Against removal of the court-house.” Each bal-
lot which shall have written or printed thereon, “ For
removal of the court-house” shall be counted as a vote
for the removal of the location of the said court-house
from Fincastle to the site specified and described in this
act for the new court-house at or near Buchanan. Each
ballot which shall have written or printed thereon,
‘“‘ Against the removal of the court-house,” shall be counted
as a vote against said change of location.

5. It shall be the duty of the said judge of the circuit
court of said county upon the receipt of the said certifi-
cate of the result of said election, to have the same,
either in term time or in vacation, entered in the order
book of the circuit court of the said county. And should
a majority of the votes cast at said election be for the re-
moval of the court-house, two acres of that block of land
designated on the map of a portion of the property of
the Central Jand company, of Buchanan, recorded in deed
book fifty-one, page two hundred and forty-two, of the
records of said county, as block number ninety-eight, and
bounded by Boulevard, Raleigh, Twenty-third street, Din-
widdie avenue and Twenty-fourth street, to be selected and
laid off by the said board of trustees hereinafter named,
shall be the place of holding the courts of said county, and
for conducting the other business of said county usually
transacted at a court-house; so soon as the two acres of the
said block of land selected and laid off as aforesaid by
the said board, shall have been conveyed to the said
county free of cost; by deed approved by the attorney for
the commonwealth, and suitable buildings are erected
thereon free of cost to the said county, and received by the
said board.

6. The following persons, namely: Each of the three su-
pervisors of the said county, the attorney for the common-
wealth of the said county, J. Z. Schultz, J. B. Buhrman
and Jobn C. Paxton, or so many of them as shall then be
residents of the said county, and as shall accept the trust
and duties iniposed on them by this act, shall constitute
a board of trustees, which, having organized by choosing
a chairman and secretary and such other officers and
agents as they may deem necessary, and having been first
sworn to perform their said duties solely with reference to
the best interests of the said county, shall have plans and
specifications prepared for a court-house, clerk’s offices
and other necessary offices, and a jail (the jail to be a sep-
arate building, the court-house and clerk’s offices and
other offices to be separate or combined, as the said board
of trustees shall deem best, a majority of them acting), and
shall approve such plans and specifications as they may
think suitable: provided that such plans and specifica-
tions will insure better county buildings than those now
at Fincastle, the board of trustees, a majority of them act-
ing, shall take immediate steps for the erection of the
buildings in substantial accordance with the plans and
specifications agreed upon, and to contract for the erection
of the said buildings, as aforesaid, and so soon as the aaid
buildings have been so erected and eompleted they shall
receive the same on the behalf of the county, and the re-
cord of their action shall be filed in the office of the clerk
of the circuit court of said county. A majority of the
said trustees who shall accept the trusts and duties im-
posed on them by this act, shall constitute a quorum and
be authorized to discharge the duties imposed by this act.

7. As soon as said buildings shall have been completed
and erected, and received by the board of trustees, and the
record of their action filed as aforesaid, a majority of them
acting, the chairman of the said board of trustees shall
forthwith inform the judge of the said circuit court of
the said county of the said action of the said board of
trustees in receiving the said buildings for the said coun-
ty ; and thereupon it shall be the duty of the said judge of
the circuit court of the said county to enter an order forth-
with, either in term time or vacation, directing the clerk
»f the courts of the said county forthwith to have removed
thereto all of the records of said county, and thereaf-
ter the same shall be the place of holding the courts
of said county and for conducting the other business
of said county usually transacted at a court-house.
Express authority is hereby given to the judge of the
circuit court of the said county, either in term time
or vacation, to order the removal of all the public records
of the said county from the present clerk’s office at Fin-
castle to the court-house and clerks’ offices to be erected
under this action the site herein provided. And the said
judge shall have under this act power and authority to
order the removal as aforesaid of all the deed-books, will-
books, and all other public records of the said county to the
new court-house and clerk’s office specified herein, and as
soon as the said judge enters the said order directing the
removal of all the public records of the said county, it
shall be the duty of the clerk of the county and circuit
courts of the said county to have removed at once all of
the public records of the said county to the new court-house
and clerk’s office, on the site aforesaid, provided for in this
act. And after the order of the said judge of the circuit
court of the said county is made directing the removal
aforesaid of all the public records aforesaid to the new
court-house and clerk’s office aforesaid, it shall not be
lawful to hold any -court of record of -the said county at
the present court-house in Fincastle.

8. The buildings provided for in this act shall be built
of brick, of good quality, with metal roof.

9. All the buildings provided for in this act shall be
erected and conveyed to the said county free of costs to
the said county.

10. This act shall be in force from the date of its
passage.