Chap. 480.—An ACT to amend the ninth and eleventh sections of an act en-
titled an act to amend and re-enact an act to amend the charter of the town
of Warrenton, passed April 9, 1852. approved January 17, 1871, as amended
by an act approved January 22, 1892.

Approved February 21, 1900.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the ninth
and eleventh sections of an act entitled an act to amend and re-enact
an act to amend the charter of the town of Warrenton, passed April
ninth, eighteen hundred and seventy-one, and amended by an act ap-
proved January twenty-second, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 9. The council of said town of Warrenton shall have power to lay
off streets, walks, or alleys, alter, improve and light the same, and have
them kept in good order; to lay off public grounds, and provide all build-
ings proper for the town; to prescribe the time for holding markets and
regulate the same; to prevent injury or annoyance from anything dan-
gerous, offensive, or unhealthy, and cause any nuisance to be abated;
to reculate the keeping of gunpowder or other combustibles and pro-
vide magazines for the same; to provide, in or near the town, water-
works and places for the interment of the dead; to prevent the pollution
of the water and injury to the water-works, for which purpose their
jurisdiction shall extend a mile above the same; to provide for the regular
building of houses in the town; to make regulations for the purpose of
guarding against danger from accidents by fire; and on the petition of
the owners of not less than two-thirds of the ground included in any
square to prohibit the erection in such square of any building more
than ten feet high, unless the outer walls thereof be made of brick and
mortar or stone and mortar, and provide for the removal of any building
or addition erected contrary to such prohibition; to provide for the
weighing and measuring of hay, coal, or any other article for sale and
regulate the transportation thereof through the streets; to protect the
property of the town and its inhabitants, and preserve peace and good
order therein: to levy an annual tax upon each and every dog, male and
female, found within the corporate limits of the town, and require the sai¢
tax to be paid on the dog or dogs, male or female, to be killed or taken
out of the town unless the tax is paid, in the manner prescribed by the
ordinances of the town. For carrying into effect these and their other
powers, they may make ordinances and by-laws, consistent with the laws
of the state, and prescribe fines or other punishments for violation
thereof, including imprisonment in the county jail of Fauquier county,
for a term not exceeding thirty days, for failure to pay any fine, to which
end the authorities of said town shall have the right to use said jail for
any purpose for which the use of a jail may be needed by them, under
the acts of the council or of the state. From the judgment of any legally
authorized officer of the town, imposing a fine on any offender against the
laws of the commonwealth or the ordinance of said town, no appeal
shall be allowed, unless such fine exclusive of cost, shall be more than
ten dollars, or the punishment of imprisonment be added to said fine;
but this provision is not to conflict with the right of such officer to
commit the offender in default of the payment of any fines imposed as
a means of enforcing the payment of the same, in accordance with the
general laws of the commonwealth, or to be construed as giving an appeal
therefrom. The said council shall have power to keep a town guard,
appoint, or cause to be elected by the voters of said town a sergeant, col-
lector, and such other officers as they may deem necessary, remove them
from office, define their powers, prescribe their duties and compensation,
and take from any of them a bond, with surety in such penalty and
with such conditions as to the council may seem fit, and payable to the
town by its corporate name.

$11. The said council shall annually cause to be made up and en-
tered on its journal an account of all sums lawfully chargeable on the
town which ought to be paid within one year, and order a town
levy of so much as in its opinion is necessary to be raised in that
way, in addition to what may be received for licenses and from other
sources. The levy so ordered may be upon all male persons within the
town over the age of twenty-one years, and on all real and personal estate
in said town which is not expressly exempted from state taxation, and
upon all dogs, male and female, within the corporate limits of the
town, and all such other subjects in said town as may at the time be
assessed with state taxes against persons residing in the town: provided,
that the tax do not exceed fifty cents on every one hundred dollars of
the real and personal property, or fifty cents per head on each taxable
person, or two dollars upon any one dog, male or female: and provided,
that the concurrence of a majority of the whole council shall be neces-
sary to pass any act levying taxes on any subject whatever.

The said council shall have the right to add to all tax bills and licenses
not paid by the first of October in each year a penalty of five per centum
on the amount of the tax bill or license, which shall be collected in like
manner as the taxes and licenses are collected.

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