Chap. 346.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 2854 of the Code of Virginia,
as heretofore amended, which section is in chapter 115 of the said 5a e on
courthouses, clerk’s offices, jails and jailers. [H B 276]

Approved March 20, 1924.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
twenty-eight hundred and fifty-four of the Code of Virginia, as hereto-
fore amended, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 2854. Courthouse, clerk’s affice and jail to be provided by
supervisors and council; offices for certain other officers may be provided;
vacant rooms may be let for offices and provisions made for public
entertainments; buildings may be leased for private purposes, or used
for market houses or other public purposes.—There shall be provided by
the board of supervisors for every county and the council for every city
a courthouse, clerk’s office and jail, the cost thereof, and of the land
on which they may be, and of keeping the same in good order, shall be
chargeable to the county or city; the fee simple of the lands shall be in
the county or city, and the supervisors of the county or the council of
the city, may purchase so much land, as, with what it has, will make two
acres, whereof what may be necessary for the purpose, shall be occupied
with the courthouse, clerk’s office and jail and the residue planted with
trees and kept as a place for the people of the county or city to meet
and confer together. And the board of supervisors of any county may,
if they deem it expedient, acquire, in addition to the two acres afore-
mentioned, as much as ten acres of land, at any point within their county
to be used for county purposes; and the board of supervisors of each
county, or the council of each city shall, if there be offices in the court-
houses of the respective counties and cities, available for such purposes,
provide offices for the treasurer, Commonwealth’s attorney, sheriff, com-
missioner of the revenue, commissioner of accounts and division super-
intendent of schools for such county or city, and if such offices are not
available in the courthouse, same may be provided by said board of
supervisors or council, if they deem it proper, elsewhere than in the
courthouse of said county or city; and with the approval of the judge of
the circuit or corporation court, any vacant rooms in the courthouse,
after furnishing offices to the said officers, may be rented for a term of
not exceeding one year to other parties for office purposes, and any public
room or hall in the building may be hired for compensation for the pur-
pose of giving public entertainments, and all moneys received by the
counties or cities under this section, shall constitute a fund to maintain
and care for such building. Furthermore, where the board of super-
visors of any county or the council or other governing body of any city,
in providing land for the courthouse, clerk’s office, and jail purposes,
has purchased land, a part of which had valuable buildings thereon
when purchased and that portion of the land so occupied by such build-
ings is, in the discretion of such board, council, or other governing body,
not required for said purposes, such board, council, or other governing
body, if deemed proper by it, may either lease such building or buildings
for private purposes, or remodel and use the same for a markethouse
or for other public purposes, or both, although such lease or use may
reduce the total to less than two acres, and although as much as two
acres may never have been acquired, but such lease or use shall be first
approved by the judge of the circuit court of the county, or of the cor-
poration court of the city, as the case may be, and such lease or use
shall be terminated when, in the opinion of such judge such building or
buildings or the land occupied by same, is needed for the purposes of a
courthouse, clerk’s office or jail.

2. Anemergency existing, this act shall be in force from its passage.