Chap. 333.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 2 and section 47 of an act
entitled, an act to provide a new charter for the city of Roanoke and to
repeal the existing charter of said city and the several acts amendatory
thereof and all other acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act so far as
they relate to the city of Roanoke, approved March 22, 1924, subsection 10
of section two of which as amended, and subsection 11 of section two of
which, as amended. , {S B 244]

Approved March 21, 1928

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
two and section forty-seven of an act entitled, an act to provide a
new charter for the city of Roanoke, and to repeal the existing charter
of said city, and the several acts amendatory thereof and all other acts
or parts of acts inconsistent with this act so far as they relate to the
city of Roanoke, approved March twenty-second, nineteen hundred
and twenty-four, subsection ten of section two of which, as amended,
and, subsection eleven of section two of which, as amended, be amended
and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 2. Powers of the city—In addition to the powers mentioned
in the preceding section the said city shall have power:

One. To raise annually by taxes and assessments in said city such
sums of money as the council hereinafter provided for shall deem nec-
essary for the purposes of said city, and in such manner as said
council shall deem expedient, in accordance with the Constitution and
laws of this State and of the United States; provided, however, that
it shall impose no tax on the bonds of said city; provided, further,
that said tax shall not exceed the sum of two dollars and twenty-five
cents ($2.25) on the one hundred dollars of assessed value of real
and personal property in this city.

Second. To impose special or local assessments for local improve-
ments and enforce payment thereof; provided, however, that such as-
sessments for improvements to that part of the street which constitutes
the roadway, shall be made only with the consent in writing of a
majority of the owners of the property affected, subject, however,
to such limitations prescribed by the Constitution of Virginia as may
be in force at the time of the imposition of such special or local
assessments.

Three. Subject to the provision of the Constitution of Virginia and
of sections forty-seven, forty-eight and forty-nine of this charter, to
contract debts, borrow money and make and issue evidence of in-
debtedness.

Fourth. To expend the money of the city for all lawful purposes.

Fifth. To acquire by purchase, gift, devise, condemnation or other-
wise, property, real or personal, or any estate or interest therein,
within or without the city or State and for any of the purposes of the
city; and to hold, improve, sell, lease, mortgage, pledge or otherwise
dispose of the same or any other part thereof.

Sixth. To acquire, in any lawful manner, for the purpose of en-
couraging commerce and manufacture, lands within and without the
city not exceeding at any one time five thousand acres in the aggre-
gate, and from time to time to sell or lease the same or any part thereof
for industrial or commercial uses and purposes.

Seventh. To make and maintain public improvements of all kinds,
including municipal and other public buildings, armories, markets,
comfort stations or rest rooms and all buildings and structures neces-
sary or appropriate for the use of the departments of fire and police;
and to acquire by condemnation or otherwise all lands, riparian and
other rights and easements necessary for such improvements, or any
of them.

Eighth. To furnish all local public service; to purchase, hire, con-
struct, own, lease, maintain and operate local public utilities, to acquire
by condemnation or otherwise, within or without the corporate limits,
land and property necessary for any such purposes.
Ninth. To acquire in any lawful manner in any county of the State,
or without the State, such water lands, and lands under water as the
council of said city may deem necessary for the purpose of providing
an adequate water supply for said city and of piping or conducting the
same; to lay all necessary mains; to erect and maintain all necessary
dams, pumping stations and other works in connection therewith; to
make reasonable rules and regulations for promoting the purity of its
said water supply and for protecting the same from pollution; and
for this purpose to exercise full police powers and sanitary patrol over
all lands comprised within the limits of the watershed tributary to
any such water supply wherever such lands may be located in this
State; to impose and enforce adequate penalties for the violation of
any such rules and regulations; and to prevent by injunction any pol-
lution or threatened pollution of such water supply and any and all
acts likely to impair the purity thereof; and to acquire lands or ma-
terial for any such use. For any of the purposes aforesaid said city
may, if the council shall so determine, acquire by condemnation, pur-
chase or otherwise, any estate or interest in such lands or any of them,
or any right or easement therein, or may acquire such lands or any
of them in fee, reserving to the owner or owners thereof. such rights
or easements therein as may be prescribed in the ordinance providing
for such condemnation or purchase. The said city may sell or supply
to persons, firms or industries residing or located outside of the city
limits any surplus of water it may have over and above the amount
required to supply its own inhabitants.

Tenth. To establish and enforce water rates and rates and charges
for public utilities, or other service, products, or conveniences, operated,
rendered or furnished by the city; to employ necessary competent in-
spectors to inspect the reservoirs, watersheds, filtering plants, pumps,
and pumping machinery and all other equipment of and all sources of
water supply of every water company furnishing such water for
domestic purposes, or use in the homes, of the inhabitants of the
city; to compel any such water company which owns or operates
such reservoirs, watersheds, filtering plants, pumps and pumping
machinery or other equipment or source or sources of said water supply
to pay the reasonable cost of such inspectors; to give reasonable notice
to any such water company of any condition disclosed by any such
inspection which, in the opinion of said inspector and of a majority
of the city council renders, or unless remedied probably will render
the said water or water supply of the city or its inhabitants or any
part thereof dangerous or unfit to be used for drinking purposes or
general domestic purposes and to require any such water company to
remedy any such condition within a reasonable time to be stated in said
notice; to specify in said notice the particular acts or things which
are required to be done by any such water company to remedy or
prevent any such condition of said water or water supply; and if
said condition be not remedied by said water company and the acts
and things specified in said notice to said water company to be done
by it, be not done within the time specified in said notice, and if a
majority of said city council shall by resolution, at a meeting of said
council, at which said water company has had reasonable notice and
opportunity to produce evidence and be heard, declared that an emer-
gency exists requiring the doing of said acts or things, so specified
in said notice of any part of them, to remedy or prevent such unfit
or improper water or water supply being provided for or furnished to
the inhabitants of the city, or any of them, then the city council is
hereby empowered and it shall be its duty immediately to do the acts
or things so specified in said notice to said water company, and in
said emergency resolution, and said city council shall have the power
and it shall be its duty, either by withholding the water rentals which
may thereafter become due from the city to said water company, to
reimburse the city for any amount expended in the doing of said
acts or things, or to recover said amount from said water company by
any appropriate action at law or suit in equity; provided, however,
that the maximum amount which the said city may so expend in any
calendar half-year period, between January first and June thirtieth,
or between July first and December thirty-first, shall not exceed the sum
of seven thousand and five hundred dollars; and provided further,
that any such water company shall have the right by proper legal pro-
ceedings to have determined whether or not any such expenditure
which may have been so made by said city was made through abuse of
discretion or without probable cause to believe said expenditure a
necessary one for the protection of the city’s water supply; and if
in any such proceeding it shall be finally determined that said expendi-
ture was one not necessary for said purpose, said water company shall
recover from the city any water rentals which may have been retained
as a reimbursement for said expenditure; and provided further, that
if said expenditure be found not a necessary one the city shall be
entitled to receive from said water company by reason of said expendi-
ure only such amount as under a quantum meruit it may be determined
he said water company has received actual benefit of and in justice
yught to pay value received for. Permitting the growth of algae in an
mount which materially affects the purity, taste or smell of such
vater, so as to render the same unfit for drinking purposes or general
lomestic use, in the reservoirs or sources of water supply is hereby
leclared a condition which it is the duty of the city council to prevent
ir remedy under the powers granted in this subsection. Nothing
lerein contained shall be construed as in any wise limiting, altering,
ffecting or impairing the existing duties, jurisdiction or powers of the
state corporation commission or of the State board of health or
ny other agency of the State over water companies in the city of
‘oanoke or elsewhere, but any existing powers, duties or jurisdiction
t the State corporation commission, State board of health or other
gency of the State which are hereby conterred or imposed upon the
ity council, shall be deemed to be concurrent.
Eleven. To acquire in the manner provided by law any existing
water, gas or electric plant, works or system, or any part thereof.

Twelve. To establish, open, widen, extend, grade, improve, con-
struct, maintain, light, sprinkle and clean, public highways, streets,
alleys, boulevards and parkways, and to alter, or close the same; to
establish and maintain parks, playgrounds and other public grounds;
to construct, maintain and operate bridges, viaducts, subways, tunnels,
sewers and drains, and to regulate the use of all such highways, parks,
public grounds and works; to plant and maintain shade trees along the
streets and upon such public grounds; to prevent the obstruction of
such streets and highways, abolish and prevent grade crossings over
the same by railroads in the manner provided by law; regulate the
operation and speed of all cars and vehicles using the same, as well
as the operation and speed of all engines, cars and trains on railroads
within the city; to regulate the services to be rendered and rates to
be charged by busses, motor cars, cabs and other vehicles for the
carrying of passengers and by vehicles for the transfer of baggage;
require all telephone and telegraph wires and all wires and cables
carrying electricity to be placed in conduits under ground and prescribe
rules and regulations for the construction and use of such conduits;
and to do all other things whatsoever adapted to make said streets
and highways safe, convenient and attractive.

Thirteen. To construct and maintain, or aid in constructing and
maintaining, public roads, boulevards, parkways, and bridges beyond
the limits of the city, in order to facilitate public travel to and from
said city and its suburbs and to and from said city and any property
owned by said city and situated beyond the corporate limits thereof,
and to acquire land necessary for such purpose by condemnation or
otherwise.

Fourteen. Subject to the provisions of the Constitution of Virginia
to grant franchises for public utilities.

Fifteen. To collect and dispose of sewage, offal, ashes, garbage,
carcasses of dead animals and other refuse, and to acquire and operate
reduction or other plants for the utilization: or destruction of such
materials, or any of them; or to contract for and regulate the collection
and disposal thereof.

Sixteen. To compel the abatement and removal of all nuisances
within the city, or upon property owned by the city, beyond its limits;
to require all lands, lots and other premises within the city to be kept
clean, sanitary and free from weeds; to regulate or prevent slaughter
houses or other noisome or offensive business within said city, the keep-
ing of animals, poultry or other fowls therein, or the exercise of any
dangerous or unwholesome business, trade or employment therein; to
regulate the transportation of all articles through the streets of the city;
to compel the abatement of smoke and dust, and prevent unnecessary
noise therein; to regulate the location of stables and the manner in
which they shall be kept and constructed, and generally to define,
prohibit, abate, suppress and prevent all things detrimental to the
health, morals, comfort, safety, convenience and welfare of the in-
habitants of the city.

’ Seventeen. If any ground in the said city shall be subject to be
covered by stagnant water or if the owner or occupant thereof shall
permit any offensive or unwholesome substance to remain or accumu-
late thereon, the said council may cause such ground to be filled up,
raised or drained, or may cause such substances to be covered or
removed therefrom, provided, that reasonable notice shall be first
given to the said owner or occupant or his agent. In case of nonresi-
dent owners who have no agent in said city, such notice may be given
by publication for not less than ten days, in any newspaper published
in said city.

Eighteen. To direct the location of all buildings for storing gun-
powder or other explosive or combustible substances, to regulate or
prohibit the sale and use of dynamite, gunpowder, firecrackers, kerosene
oil, gasoline, nitro-glycerine, camphene, burning fluid, and all explosive
or combustible materials, the exhibition of fireworks; the discharge
of firearms, the use of candles and light in barns, stables and other
buildings, the making of bonfires and the carrying of concealed weapons.

Nineteen. To prevent the running at large in said city of all animals
and fowls, and to regulate the keeping or raising of same within said
city, and to subject the same to such levies, regulations and taxes as it
may deem proper.

Twenty. To restrain and punish drunkards, vagrants, mendicants
and street beggars.

Twenty-one. To prevent vice and immorality; to preserve public
peace and good order, to prevent and quell riots, disturbances and dis-
orderly assemblages; to suppress houses of ill-fame, gambling houses
and gambling devices of all kinds, to prevent lewd, indecent or dis-
orderly conduct or exhibitions in the city, and to expel from said city
persons guilty of such conduct.

Twenty-two. To inspect, test, measure and weigh any commodity
or article of consumption or use within the city, and to establish, regu-
late, license and inspect weights, meters, measures and scales.

Twenty-three. To extinguish and prevent fires and to compel citt-
zens to render assistance to the fire department in case of need, and
to establish, regulate and control a fire department or division; to regu-
late the size, materials and construction of buildings, fences, and
other structures hereafter erected in such manner as the public safety
and convenience may require; to remove, or require to be removed,
any building, structure or addition thereto which by reason of dilapi-
dation, defect of structure, or other causes, may have become danger-
ous to life or property, or which may be erected, contrary to law; to
establish and designate from time to time fire limits within which
limits wooden building shall not be constructed, removed, added to or
enlarged, and to direct that any or all future buildings within such
limits shall be constructed of stone, natural or artificial, concrete,
brick, iron or other fireproof material.
Twenty-four. To provide for the care, support and maintenance
of children and of sick, aged, insane or poor persons and paupers.

Twenty-five. To establish, organize and administer public schools
and libraries subject to the general laws establishing a standard of
education for the State.

Twenty-six. To provide and maintain, either within or without the
city, charitable, recreative, curative, corrective, detentive, or penal
institutions.

Twenty-seven. To prevent persons having no visible means of sup-
port, paupers and persons who may be dangerous to the peace and
safety of the city from coming to said city from without the same;
and for this purpose to require any railroad company, or the owners
of any conveyance bringing such person to the city, to take such person
back to the place whence he was brought, or enter into bond with
satisfactory surety that such person shall not become a charge upon
said city within one year from the date of his arrival, and to expel
therefrom any such person who has been in said city less than ninety
days.

Twenty-eight. To provide for the preservation of the general health
of the inhabitants of said city, make regulations to secure the same,
inspect all food and foodstuffs and prevent the introduction and sale
in said city of any article or thing intended for human consumption,
which is adulterated, impure or otherwise dangerous to health, and to
condemn, seize and destroy or otherwise dispose of any such article or
thing without lability to the owner thereof; prevent the introduction
or spread of contagious or infectious diseases, and prevent and suppress
diseases generally; to provide and regulate hospitals within or without
the city limits, and to enforce the removal of persons afflicted with
contagious or infectious diseases to hospitals provided for them, to pro-
vide for the organization of a department of health, to have the powers
of a board of health, for said city, with the authority necessary for
the prompt and efficient performance of its duties, with power to
invest any or all the officials or employees of such department of health
with such powers as the police officers of the city have; to establish
a quarantine ground within or without the city limits, and such quaran-
tine regulations against infectious and contagious disease as the said
council may see fit, subject to the laws of the State and the United
States; to provide and keep records of vital statistics and compel the
return of all births, deaths and other information necessary thereto.

Twenty-nine. To acquire by purchase, gift, devise, condemnation,
or otherwise, lands, either within or without the city, to be used, kept
and improved as a place for the interment of the dead, and to make
and enforce all necessary rules and regulations for the protection and
use thereof; and generally to regulate the burial and disposition of the
dead.

Thirty. To exercise full police powers, and establish and maintain
a department or division of police.

Thirty-one. To do all things whatsoever necessary or expedient
for promoting or maintaining the general welfare, comfort, education,
inorals, peace, government, health, trade, commerce or industries of the
city or its inhabitants.

_ Thirty-two. To make and enforce all ordinances, rules and regula-
tions necessary or expedient for the purpose of carrying into effect
the powers conferred by this charter or by any general law, and to
provide and impose suitable penalties for the violation of such ordi-
nances, rules and regulations, or any of them, by fine not exceeding
five hundred dollars or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or
both, the city may maintain a suit to restrain by injunction the viola-
tion of any ordinance notwithstanding such ordinance may provide
punishment for its violation. The enumeration of particular powers
in this charter shall not be deemed or held to be exclusive, but in addi-
tion to the powers enumerated herein implied thereby, or appropriate
to the exercise thereof, the said city shall have and may exercise all
other powers which are now or may hereafter. be possessed or enjoyed
by cities under the Constitution and general laws of this State.

Section 47. Bond issues.—The council may, in the name and for the
use of the city, cause to be issued certificates of debt or bonds for
making any manner of public improvement, and for the purchase and
acquisition of land or other property for public school purposes, and
for public school buildings and the equipment thereof, and also for
fire houses and for purchasing and acquiring fire engines, fire alarm
system and other apparatus for use in extinguishing fires, and for the
erection of necessary buildings, the construction of bridges and
viaducts, street, drains, sewers, and the purchase of land for parks and
other recreational purposes, provided, that no such certificates of debt
or bonds shall be issued except by ordinance adopted by a majority
vote of all members of the council and endorsed by a majority of the
freehold voters of the city voting on the question at an election for
such purpose to be called, held and conducted in accordance with an
ordinance adopted by the council of the city of Roanoke providing
for such elections, but such certificates or debt or bonds shall not be
irredeemable for a period greater than thirty-four years; provided,
further, that if a separate levy be made for school purposes, then and
in that event the school board of the city of Roanoke shall semi-annually
pay into the city treasury such amounts from said levy as may be
necessary to pay the interest and sinking fund on and for all out-
standing bonds of the city of Roanoke which have been or may have
been or may hereafter be issued for school purposes, in the event that
no special levy should be made for school purposes, then the school
board shall render to the city council a statement at the end of each
month, showing the collections and disbursements made by said board.
And provided further that in no case shall the aggregate debt of the
city at any one time exceed eighteen per centum of the assessed value
of the real estate within the city limits, subject to taxation, as shown
by the last preceding’ assessment for taxes except where bonds are
issued for a supply of water to said city and its inhabitants, or for
other specific undertaking, from which the city of Roanoke may derive
a revenue, as provided in section one hundred and twenty-seven of the
Constitution of Virginia and chapter three hundred and fifty-eight of
the acts of assembly of nineteen hundred and eighteen.

Provided further, that the said council shall not endorse the bonds
of any company whatsoever without the same authority.

Ail bonds issued under the provisions of this section shall be signed
by the president of the council and the treasurer, and the seal of the
city shall be affixed and attested by the city clerk. The said bonds
shall be sold by resolution of the council and the proceeds used under
its direction. Every bond issued by the council shall state on its face
for what purpose or purposes it is issued, and the proceeds shall be
applied exclusively to the purpose or purposes for which such bonds
are issued.