Chap. 453.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 28, 38, 40, 41, and 45 of
chapter 273 of the acts of assembly of 1874, entitled an act to provide
a churter for the town of Lexington, approved April 28, 1874. [H B 199]

Approved March 27, 1930

I. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tions twenty-eight, thirty-eight, forty, forty-one, and forty-five of
chapter two hundred and seventy-three of the acts of assembly of
eighteen hundred and seventy-four be amended and re-enacted so as
to read as follows:

Section 28. Every plan of streets and alleys within said town
shall be subject to the approval of the mayor and council, and when-
ever any street, alley, or lane in said town shall have been opened to,
and used by, the public for a period of five years, the same may be
declared by the mayor and council to be a public street, alley or lane,
and said mayor and council shall have the same authority and juris-
diction over and right and interest therein as they may have by law
over the streets, alleys, and lanes laid out by them. And any street
or alley reserved in the division or subdivision into lots, or any por-
tion of the territory within the corporate limits of said town, by a plan
or plat of record, which plan or plat shall have been approved by the
mayor and council as herein above provided, shall be deemed and
held to be dedicated to public use, unless it appears by said record
that the street or alley so reserved is designed for private use.

Section 38. All taxes, general or special, assessed upon any real
estate within said town, under this act, shall become and remain a
lien thereon from the commencement of the year for which they were
assessed and if the sergeant or collector shall not have been able, with
due diligence, to collect the said taxes, in the manner herein directed,
before the first of January of the year following the year in which the
same were assessed, he shall on that day, or at the first meeting of the
mayor and council thereafter, make return upon oath, before some
officer authorized to administer oaths, of the taxes so uncollected
and the lands or lots on which said uncollected taxes were levied;
and thereupon, the said mayor and council shall have power and
authority to decree a sale of such delinquent lot or land, or of so
much thereof as may be necessary to pay such arrears of taxes, and
to defray all proper expenses attending such sale; upon due notice
having been given of such sale by advertisement in some newspaper
published in said town, for four successive weeks, describing the
lands or lots to be sold, the name in which assessed and the amount of
such tax lien; which sale shall take place in front of the courthouse
of Rockbridge county, on a day to be designated by the mayor and
council, between the hours of ten of the morning and four of the
evening, within thirty days following the last publication of such
advertisement. ,

Section 40. All persons liable to taxation, as hereinbefore pro-
vided, and residing in said town on the first day of January shall be
subject to taxation for the then current year.
Section 41. The town treasurer shall qualify before the mayor
and council, and give bond, with surety to be approved by it, in a
penalty at least double the amount that will probably be received by
said treasurer as treasurer of the town. He shall perform all the
duties in regard to town taxes or levies for the town, and be subject
to all the penalties as are prescribed for the county treasurer in respect
to the State revenue and county levies so far as applicable, and not
inconsistent with this act. All levies and taxes not paid to the said
treasurer by the first day of November, in each year, shall be by him
placed in the hands of the town sergeant or collector, with five per
centum on the amount thereof added; and the said treasurer shall take
from said sergeant or collector a receipt for said taxes or levies.
And the sergeant or collector shall, on or before the first day of
January, in each year, pay into the hands of the treasurer, all such
levies and taxes by him collected in such year, after deducting there-
from his commissions, as fixed by ordinance or resolution of the
mayor and council and such list of insolvents as he may produce;
provided, however, that such sergeant or collector shall not have credit
for such insolvents upon his settlement with the treasurer unless the
same be certified and allowed by the mayor and council, and be veri-
fied by the oath or affirmation of such sergeant or collector in the
same manner as is prescribed by State law for collectors of the public
revenue; and provided, moreover, that such sergeant shall not be
allowed to return any list of insolvents, or have any credit therefor,
after three months shall have elapsed from the first day of November
in each year; and provided, further, that the town treasurer, if he shall
deem it necessary, may, at any time before the first day of November,
place in the hands of the town sergeant or collector, for immediate
collection, any taxes or levies as aforesaid.

Section 45. The town of Lexington shall constitute a separate
school district, and the mayor and council shall levy a sufficient tax
for the purpose of supporting the public schools in said town. The
said town shall have charge of all the streets within the corporate
limits of the town, and the mayor and council of the town shall levy
a sufficient tax to keep the same in order. The said town, and the
taxable persons and property therein, shall be exempt from any and all
county and district taxes levied for school and road purposes.