Chap. 284.—An ACT to provide for the issuance of county bonds for construct-
ing and operating water supply systems in the magisterial districts of certain
counties of the State; to provide for the payment of the interest thereon and
the principal thereof at maturity, and to provide for the construction and
operation of such water supply systems. [S B 120]

Approved March 24, 1926.

1. Beit enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That bonds
may be issued by any county of this State having more than three
hundred inhabitants per square mile as shown by the last preceding
United States census, for the purpose of constructing and operating a
public water supply system in any magisterial district or districts in
the said county, upon the conditions hereinafter provided.

Section 1. The circuit court of the county, or the judge thereof
in vacation, upon the petition of a majority of the board of super-
visors of said county, or upon petition of fifty qualified voters of said
district, or districts, shall make an order requiring the judges of
election, at the next election of county officers or at any other time
not less than thirty days from the date of such order, which shall be
designated therein, to open a poll and take the sense of the qualified
voters of the district or districts on the question whether the board of
supervisors shall issue bonds for said purposes.

Section 2. The regular election officers of said county in and for
the said district, or districts, at the time designated in the order
authorizing the vote, shall open polls at the various voting places in
the said district or districts, and shall conduct such election and close
the polls in such manner as is provided by law in other elections. At
the said election there shall{be printed on each ballot in separate lines
the following:
For bond issue
Against bond issue

Voters desiring to vote in favor of the issuance of said bonds shall
strike out the words ‘‘against bond issue,’ and voters desiring to vote
against bond issue shall strike out thc words “for bond issue.’”’ Voters
striking out or erasing the word “for” or ‘“‘against’’ shall be deemed
to have stricken out or erased the entire line. The judges of election
at the several voting places shall immediately after the closing of the
polls at each of the said places count the ballots deposited, and shall,
within two days after the said election, make return thereof as is pro-
vided in other elections. Said ballots shall be printed and furnished
by the regular election officers.

Section 3. The commissioners of election of said county shall,
within two days after the judges of election have made return of the
poll books and ballots as aforesaid, meet at the office of said clerk, and,
having taken an oath before him faithfully to discharge their duties,
canvass the returns and certify the results thereof to the circuit court.

Section 4. If it shall appear by the report of the commissioners
that a majority of the qualified voters of the district or districts voting
on the question, are in favor of issuing the bonds for the purposes
aforesaid, the circuit court, or the judge thereof in vacation, shall, at
its next term, enter of record an order requiring the supervisors of the
county to proceed at their next meeting to carry out the wishes of the
voters as expressed at the said election.

Section 5, Whenever the sense of the qualified voters of any
district or districts shall be taken on the question, the board of super-
visors of the said county shall issue bonds for the purposes aforesaid,
the said election and returns shall be subject to the inquiry, deter-
mination and judgment of the circuit court of the county in which
said election was held, upon the written complaint of twenty-five
or more of the qualified voters of such county, of an undue election
or false returns, two of whom shall take an oath that facts set forth
in such complaint are true to the best of their knowledge and belief,
and the court shall in judging of such election and returns, proceed
upon the merits thereof and determine concerning the same according
to the Constitution or laws of this State, but such complaint shall not
be valid unless it shall have been filed within thirty days after said
election in the clerk’s office of the said circuit court. The board of
supervisors of such county shall be made a defendant by summons
or notice to its chairman of the filing of the complaint, and after such
service of notice on the chairman of the board of supervisors, either
party, upon reasonable notice of the other, shall be at liberty to take
depositions to sustain or invalidate each election. Service of notice
on any three of the complainants shall be sufficient. The court shall
proceed at its next term after such service of summons or notice to
determine the contest without a jury on the evidence oral or written,
unless good cause be shown for a continuance, and shall make a proper
record of its judgment. If the judgment be that the election was a
valid one in favor of the issuing of bonds in said district or districts,
the courts shall make an order in conformity with the preceding
election.

Section 6. The board of supervisors at their meeting or as soon
thereafter as practicable, shall determine what amount of bonds shall
be issued for constructing and operating a public water supply system
in said district or districts, but the maximum amount of bonds issued
shall in no case exceed an amount in excess of fifteen (15) per centum
‘of the total taxable value, not including intangible personalty, at the
time in the magisterial district or districts in which each public water
system is constructed, and in event they do not at said meeting direct
the present issuing of all the said bonds, they may thereafter, from
time to time, direct the residue thereof to be issued to carry out the
wishes of the voters, so far as necessary, as expressed in such election,
and in event the board, for any reason, fails or refuses to issue the
bonds so authorized to be issued, the circuit court of the county may,
upon the complaint of ten qualified voters of the county and after
ten day’s notice to the chairman of the board, for cause known, issue
an order directing them to issue the said bonds or any unissued
residue thereof, or such portion thereof as the court may, from time
to time, deem proper to be issued in order to carry out the wishes of
the voters as expressed in said election. They shall have the power
to appoint agent or agents to sell said bonds (and to pay said agent
or agents a commission for negotiating said sale not to exceed three
per centum of the amount of bonds sold by them, or to pay such sum
to the purchaser of such bonds, provided that said bonds shall be sold
to be paid for in lawful money only, and shall not be sold at less than
-_par value). When such a sale of bonds has been negotiated, the board
of supervisors shall issue the same. Such bonds may be either
registered or with coupons attached, as said board of supervisors may
prescribe, and shall have written or printed in ink the following
sentences: ‘‘These bonds are issued for the construction and opera-
tion of a public water supply system in magisterial district, but the
full faith and credit of the entire county (0) 5
hereby pledged for their payment.’’ Such bonds shall be signed by
the chairman and countersigned by the clerk thereof under the seal of
the board; shall be in denomination of one hundred dollars or some
multiple thereof; shall bear interest at a rate not exceeding six per
centum per annum, payable semi-annually, both principal and interest
to be payable at such place or places as may be determined by the
board of supervisors, and shall be payable not exceeding thirty-four
vears from the date thereof at said office, but may, in the discretion
of the said board, be made redeemable at such time or times within
such period or periods and upon such notice as the said board may
prescribe and stipulate upon the face of the bonds when issued.
The board shall deliver them to the treasurer of the county, who shall
deliver said bonds to the purchasers thereof, or their order, upon the
payment of the price thereof. The said treasurer and his sureties
shall be liable for the amount received for said bonds as though it were
a county levy, and said funds shall be expended for the purposes and
in the magisterial district or districts for which it was intended, and
none other. The said treasurer shall receive as compensation for his
services hereunder one-eighth of one per centum of the amount thus
coming into his hands, and also the reasonable cost to him giving
surety on such additional bond or bonds as may be required of him,
if any, on account of his receipts heretofore or hereafter of said funds,
and the board of supervisors of such county may direct the treasurer
to deposit the proceeds of said bond issue in such bank or banks as it
may approve, to the credit of the said treasurer, to be paid out on his
checks therefor, and at the rate of interest to be specified, and all
interest accrued therefrom shall be accounted for by the said treasurer
and be expended for the purposes for which the bonds were issued,
and in so far as not necessary therefor, shall be used for the payment
of the interest on the bonds, or shall be paid into the sinking fund to
redeem the principal thereof at maturity.

Section 7. The board of supervisors of the said county shall have
authority to construct, maintain and operate for and on behalf of the
said district or districts public water supply system in accordance
with such rules and regulations as may be adopted by the said board,
and to fix the rates at which water shall be supplied or furnished to
consumers. The net revenues derived from the operation of such
water supply systems shall be set apart by the said board to pay the
interest on the bonds so issued or to be issued, and to create a sinking
fund to redeem the principal thereof at maturity. The board of
supervisors is hereby authorized and empowered to apply any part
or all of said sinking fund to the payment, if redeemable by their
terms, or to the purchase of any of said bonds, at any time, and all
bonds so paid off or purchased by said board of supervisors shall be
immediately cancelled, and shall be reissued, and the board of super-
visors is authorized and empowered to lend out, upon real estate
security, the loan not to exceed fifty per centum of the assessed value
of such real estate, or deposit in bank at interest all accumulations of
money to the credit of said sinking fund and to collect and reinvest
the same and the interest accruing thereon from time to time, so often
as may be necessary or expedient, until such bonds become subject to
call; provided, that no money to credit of said sinking fund shall be
loaned out or deposited or invested by the said board of supervisors,
unless said loan, deposit or investment shall be first approved by the
circuit court of said county, or the judge thereof in vacation, and the
form of the security be examined and approved by the Common-
wealth’s attorney of said county, which approval shall be entered of
record in the order book of said court.

The treasurer shall not be liable for any funds herein provided for
that shall be lost while on deposit made by order of the board of super-
visors with any bank or banks, or when invested in any real estate
security as provided herein, but the board of supervisors may require
of any such bank a bond, with corporate or other surety, to secure
such deposit.
Section 8. When the said county wishes to redeem any of its out-
standing bonds subject to call, issued under the provisions of this act,
it may, through the chairman of the board of supervisors, give notice
of its readiness to do so to the holder in person or by publication
thereof once a week for two successive weeks in a newspaper published
in said county or nearest thereto. It shall be sufficient in the notice
to give the number and amount of such bond, and fix a day for its
presentation for payment, which shall not be less than ten days from
the date of personal service of notice, or the completion of the publica-
tion thereof, as the case may be.

If the bond be not presented on the day fixed for its redemption,
interest thereon shall cease from that day.

Section 9. The said board of supervisors shall have full power
and authority to negotiate and contract for and in behalf of the said
magisterial district or districts with the commissioners of the District
of Columbia or the proper authorities of the United States or any
department or agency thereof with regard to connection with any
water supply system owned, operated or controlled by the United
States or the District of Columbia and with regard to any other matter
necessary in obtaining a water supply.

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