Chap. 242.—An ACT to authorize the city council of Staunton, Virginia, to issue
and sell bonds not exceeding $125,000, for the purpose of raising funds for the
purchasing of existing street railways and electric and gas plants, or to erect
and operate other electric and gas plants and street railways, and providing
that the same be submitted to the vote ot the people.

Approved March 17, 1902.

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 one hundred and twenty-five
thousand dollars, and to sell the same for the purpose of raising funds tc
be used exclusively in purchasing the existing gas, electric light, and
street railway plants located in said city, or to erect and operate other
gas, electric light, power, and street railway plants in said city: provided
nevertheless, that no bonds shall be issued under this act unless and until
such issue shall be authorized by three-fifths of the qualified voters of the
city of Staunton, which shall be directed by an order of the corporation
court of the said city prescribing the time and place for holding such elec-
tion: provided, however, that said election shall be held prior to Septem-
ber first, nineteen hundred and two, but not within ten days of any general
election, notice of 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. 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.

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 an-
num ; and the said city council may at the time of or before the issuing
of the said bonds (but not otherwise) exempt them in whole or in part
from city taxation; and 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 the 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 antici-
pate the payment of, designating the same by number and specifying the
time and place where the payment will be made. Such call shall be pub-
lished in one of the Staunton newspapers once a week for four consecu-
tive weeks before the date fixed in the call for payment, and no bond in-
cluded 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 gas,
electric light, and street railway 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 purchasing and operating by the said
city the existing gas, electric light, and street railway plants located in
the said city, or to erect and operate other gas, electric light, power, and
street railway plants in said city.

5. The entire revenue derived from the operation by the city of
Staunton of the several plants to be either purchased or constructed un-
der this act, or which may be received by the said city after the date of
the issue of any bonds under this act, shall be applied first to the pay-
ment of the interest on such bonds as the same shall become due; and,
secondly, to the payment 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 retirement of such bonds after they shall become
redeemable by the city; and, thirdly, the residue of such revenue shall be
used exclusively in maintaining and operating in an efficient but econom-
ical manner the several plants purchased or constructed under the pro-
visions of this act: provided, that if in any year or vears the revenue col-
lected by the city from said source shall not be sufficient to pay the cur-
rent interest on the bonds issued under this act, together with the said one
per centum of the principal of such outstanding 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. And it shall be obligatory upon all councils of the said city to keep
a separate account of all receipts and disbursements arising from the
operation by the city of such gas, electric light, power, and street railway
plants, and to keep the price of gas, electric light, and power down to the
actual cost of producing the same, maintaining the several plants, and
providing for the interest on the bonds issued under this act, together
with the sinking fund requirement, as provided for in the preceding
section.

%. Should said city of Staunton elect to acquire the existing gas, elec-
tric light, or ‘street railway plants, its said city council shall have the
right to acquire same by contract of purchase, or by condemnation, ac-
cording to law as is provided for condemnation of land in chapter forty-
six of the Code of Virginia, edition of eighteen hundred and eighty-seven.

8. 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.

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