Chap. 216.—An ACT to provide for the contraction of the corporate limits of
towns located partially in one county and partially in another. CH B 399]

Approved March 16, 1920.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That when-
ever it is deemed desirable to contract the corporate limits of a town
located partially in one county and partially in another, a majority of
voters qualified to vote at the preceding November general election
residing in that part of the town which it is proposed shall be stricken
off, may petition the circuit court of the county in which that part
of said town is located to amend the charter of said town so as to
exclude from the corporate limits of said town that part of said town
which is located in said county.

Such petition shall be signed by a majority of the voters qualified
to vote at the preceding November regular election residing in that
part of the town which it is proposed shall be stricken off, and shall
be presented to the circuit court of the county in which is located
that part of the town proposed to be stricken off. The petition shall
accurately define the boundary of the territory proposed to be stricken
off, and shall pray that the charter of said town may be amended so as
to exclude from the corporate limits of said town such territory.

The board of supervisors of the county in which is located the
part of said town proposed to be stricken off shall be named as de-
fendants to said petition and a copy thereof served on said board.
Satisfactory proof that said petition has been published in some news-
paper published in said county or town once a week for four succes-
sive weeks, and has been posted at the front door of the courthouse of
said county for a like period shall be filed with said petition. A
statement in the publication to the effect that a certain number of
qualified voters of the territory proposed to be stricken off signed
said petition shall be sufficient in lieu of the names of the signers.

The court shall fix a day on which said petition shall be heard
and shall direct the clerk to cause to be summoned the board of super-
visors of the county and the mayor of the town, who without formal
pleadings shall make such defense against the prayer of said petition
as they may have, and one or more residents or freeholders of the ter-
ritory proposed to be stricken off may appear and set forth reasons
why the same should not be done.

If the court shall be satisfied that it will be to the interest of a
majority of the people of the territory proposed to be stricken off,
and that the general good of the community will not be materially
affected, such court shall by an order entered in its common law order
book, reciting the fact of the due publication of said petition and that
it is to the best interest of a majoritv of the people of that part of
said town proposed to be stricken off, and that the general good of
the community will not be materially affected by the amendment of the
charter, order that the charter of such town by name and style of
“The town of __------------------ ” (naming it) be amended accord-
ingly.

The court in its order may make such disposition of the corporate
property of the said town as may seem to it just and equitable, and
shall also make such provision as to the payment of any debts or
obligations of the said town as between the county and the inhabitants
of the said town as to the court may seem just and equitable.

Any one or more of the petitioners, or the defendants, or any
inhabitants of said town, who may feel themselves aggrieved by the
order amending said charter, or by the refusal to enter such order,
may, at any time within sixty days from the date of said order, upon
giving bond for costs, the amount thereof to be fixed by the court,
apply to the supreme court of appeals for a writ of error and super-
sedeas according to the general law.