Chap. 788.—An ACT to provide for a bond issue in the city of Staunton for
a water supply when approved by a vote of the people.

Approved March 6, 1900.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the
city council of Staunton be, and they are hereby, authorized to issue
bonds of the said city to an extent not exceeding two hundred thou-
sand dollars ($200,000), and to sell the same for the purpose of raising
funds to be used exclusively in procuring and establishing a supply
of freestone water for the said city on a gravity system: provided, never-
theless, that no bonds shall be issued under this act unless and until
such issue shall be authorized by three-fifths majority of the qualified
voters of the city of Staunton voting at an election to be held for the
purpose, which shall be directed by an order of the corporation court
of the said city, prescribing the time and place for holding such election,
notice of the same to be published in two or more of the newspapers of
the city of Staunton at least once a week for at least four successive
weeks, and by hand bills posted at ten or more public places in the city
of Staunton; the officers for the conduct of said election to be appointed
and their duties and obligations as such, as well as the method of con-
ducting the said election, making returns of the same and ascertaining
and declaring the result thereof to be prescribed by the aforesaid court;
all the necessary cost attending the said election and ascertaining and
declaring the result thereof to be paid by the city council out of any
funds of the city not otherwise appropriated. Should there be more
than one election under this act, no two elections are to be held with
an interval of less than one year between them. No such election shall
be ordered by the court unless the city council, by a majority vote,
requests that it be done.

2. No bonds issued under authority of this act shall be estimated in
the general bonded indebtedness of the city as the same is now limited
by law; but the authority to issue bonds under this act shall be in addi-
tion to the authority now existing in said city council to issue bonds of
the said city for general purposes, and which by law is now limited to
fifteen per centum of the assessed value of personal property and seven-
teen per centum of the assessed value of real estate within the said
city.

3. No bonds issued under authority of this act shall be sold for less
than their par value; the said bonds shall be numbered consecutively,
and shall bear interest at a rate not greater than five per centum per
annum, and the said city council may, at the time of or Vefore the issu-
ing of the said bonds (but not otherwise) exempt them in whole or in
part from city taxation; any bond issued under authority of this act
may be paid in full by the said city, at its option, at the end of ten
years from the date of the issuing of said bonds, or at the end of any
period of six months from the expiration of said ten years, by paying
the holder the face value of the bond and the unpaid accrued interest
thereon. When the city shall desire to so anticipate the payment of
any bond authorized under this act, the council shall, by ordinance duly
passed, issue a call for such of the bonds issued under this act as the
city may desire to anticipate the payment of, designating the same by
number, and specifying the time and place where the payment will be
made; such call shall be published in one of the Staunton newspapers
once a week for four consecutive weeks before the date fixed in the call
for payment, and no bond included in such call shall bear any interest
after the date of payment so fixed in said call.

4, All bonds issued under authority of this act shall be known and
designated, in the finances and accounts of said city, “Staunton city
new water bonds,” and no part of the proceeds of any bonds issued under
authority of this act shall be used for any other purpose than for the
purpose of procuring, establishing, and maintaining a supply of free-
stone water for the city of Staunton and its inhabitants by a gravity

stem.

"5. The entire proceeds of the water tax derived from the new water
system to be constructed under this act, or which may be collected by
the said city after the date of the issue of any bonds under this act,
shall be applied first to the payment of the interest on such bonds, as
the same shall become due; and secondly, to the pavment of one per
centum per annum of the principal of such outstanding bonds into a
special sinking fund to be established and accumulated for the retire-
ment of such bonds after they shall have become redeemable by the
city; and thirdly, the residue of such water tax shall be paid into the
general fund of the city: provided, that if in any year or years the water
tax levied and collected by the city from said source shall not he suffi-
cient to pay the current interest on the bonds issued under this act,
together with the said one per centum of the principal of such out-
standing bonds into the said special sinking fund, to be provided for
their retirement, then and in that event the deficiency shall be made
up by the city out of its general funds.

6. The said city of Staunton, acting by and through its said city
council, and its proper officers, shall have the right to acquire by con-
tract of purchase or by condemnation according to law, any and all
lands, water rights, easements, and property rights and right of way for
laying line or lines of pipes from its water-works to said city that may
be necessary or desirable for the establishment and maintenance of aa
large a supply of freestone water for the said city and its inhabitants as
the said city council may from time to time determine; and, for the
purpose of locating, establishing, constructing, inspecting, repairing,
and maintaining such water supply, and the works connected therewith,
and particularly the line or lines of pipe for the accumulation into any
reservoir or conducting such water to said city, the said city shall have
the right, at all times, through its officers, agents, and employees, to
enter upon, make surveys, and pass through and over, any and all lands,
except the yard or garden attached to any dwelling house, within twenty-
five miles of the said city; but the said city shall pay to the owner or
occupier of such lands any actual damage or injury that it or its ser-
vants may cause to the property of such owner or occupier in so doing,
and for the ascertainment and recovery of such damages, in case the
parties cannot themselves agree upon it, the person claiming the same
may maintain an action against the city according to law. And the said
city shall have the right to construct, maintain, and operate a telephone
line, from its said works, to the said city, and over the said strip of land
where its said pipe line is constructed and located, or along and over
any public highway or highways connecting the termini of such line.

?. The right of acquisition of property and the rights by purchase or
condemnation, hereinbefore conferred upon said city, and the right to
hold, use, and control such property and rights, as provided in this act,
shall extend as well to water rights acquired as to any and all lands that
may be acquired and used in the construction of dams or reservoirs for the
storage of water, but the property or fee simple right to a strip or strips of
land of such breadth as the city council may determine (not to exceed
in any place fifty feet), sufficient for the construction and maintenance
of a pipe line or lines to conduct the water to any reservoir or to the said
city, shall only be acquired by purchase and not by condemnation, which
said pipe line or lines the said city shall have the right to constrict
and maintain across or under any public highway or railroad: provided
only, that in constructing or repairing such pipe line or lines the said
city or its agents shall not obstruct or interfere with travel along such
public highway or railroad. The strip ‘or strips of land above referred
to which may be acquired and held by the said city for the location,
construction, and maintaining of the pipe line or lines aforesaid, may
be acquired by the said city either in fee simple by purchase only or
merely for a right of way by purchase or condemnation for the said pipe
line or lines and appurtenances as the city council may determine.

8. The entire amount of land acquired by the said city for the con-
struction of its water-works, reservoirs, dams, and pipe line or lines,
together with all property of the city thereon, as well as the entire water
shed from which the city’s proposed water supply shall be obtained,
shall be under the police jurisdiction of the said city, so far as may
be necessary to protect its property and to prevent the contamination
or pollution of the citv’s water supply; and the council of the said citv
shall have the authority to enact ordinances imposing penalties in the
nature of fines not exceeding five hundred dollars or imprisonment not
exceeding six months or both, for the violation of such reasonable and
lawful rules and regulation as it may by ordinance prescribe for the pre-
servation of its said land and property in connection with its said water
supply, and for the prevention of the contamination or pollution of its
said water supply; and the mayor, police justice, and the police officers
of the said city, shall have the right to enforce such ordinances by arrest-
ing, trying, and (if convicted) punishing any violation thereof, in the
same manner and to the same extent as they are now or may hereafter by
law be authorized to enforce the punishment of a violation of any other
lawful ordinance of the said city; but nothing in this act contained
shall be regarded as curtailing or affecting the ordinary concurrent
jurisdiction of the county court or peace officers of Augusta county over
any and all territory within the limits of said county: provided, however,
that no conviction for any violation of the state law in the said county
court or before any justice of the peace of said county, shall be pleaded
in bar to a prosecution for the violation of any ordinance of the said
city authorized by this act.

9. Nothing in this act shall be construed as repealing or modifying
any of the provisions of the charter of the said city, as the same shall
now exist, except so far as the same may necessarily be inconsistent
therewith. : ,

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