Chap. 12. An ACT to amend an act entitled “An act to incorporate the town
of Independence, in the county of Grayson, Virginia,’ approved March 27,
1934, by adding thereto a new section numbered Section 19, providing
for the establishment of a water commission for the said town and pre-
scribing the powers and duties of the said commission; requiring the said
commission under certain conditions, to construct, operate and maintain
water or sewerage systems, or both in the said town; and fixing the powers
and duties of the council with respect to the construction, maintenance and
operation of such system or systems. [S B 17]

Approved January 13, 1937

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That an
act entitled an act to incorporate the town of Independence, in the
county of Grayson, Virginia, approved March twenty-seventh, nine-
teen hundred and thirty-four, be amended by adding thereto a new
section numbered section nineteen, which new section shall read as
follows:

Section 19. For the purpose of constructing, maintaining and oper-
ating any system of publicly owned water works or sewerage in the
town of Independence, there shall be established a board composed
of three citizens, which board shall be known as the water commission
for the town of Independence.

The said water commission shall have power:

(a) To acquire by purchase, lease or condemnation such real
and personal property as may be necessary for carrying out the pro-
visions of this section.

(b) To establish rules and regulations governing the operation
of such system or systems.

(c) With the approval of the council, and for the purpose of
carrying out the provisions of this section, to borrow an amount or
amounts not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars for which the
said water commission shall issue its obligations payable out of the
funds to be derived as provided for herein; and, with the approval
E. s. 1936-7] ACTS OF ASSEMBLY , 47

of the council, to pledge as security for such loan or loans such of
the receipts to be derived from the use of such system or systems as
may be agreed upon between the lender or lenders and the water
commission and council, and in addition thereto to give as security
for such loan or loans a deed of trust or other encumbrance on any
such system or systems or any part thereof.

(d) To provide for the disbursement and accounting of all moneys
received by it from any source whatever.

Vacancies in the membership of the said commission shall be filled
by the council. The said commission shall make a full report of its
activities to the town council within sixty days after the close of every
fiscal year.

Whenever not less than sixty per centum of the citizens of the
town of Independence (which citizens shall represent not less than
sixty per centum of the assessed valuation of all real estate in said
town) shall by signed petition, properly acknowledged before a notary
public, or other officer authorized to take acknowledgments, request
the town council to establish a water or sewer system, or both, within
the said town, the said water commission shall be charged with the
duty of constructing, maintaining and operating such system or systems
as may in the judgment of the said water commission be desirable and
necessary, provided that all funds required for the construction, main-
tenance and operation of such system or systems be furnished by the
citizens of the town to be served by it, or be otherwise provided, without
obligation or liability upon citizens, taxpayers, and property owners
not benefited thereby.

The town council is hereby authorized and empowered, in so far
as not prohibited by the Constitution of the State to make and assess
charges and rentals for the use of such water or sewerage systems, or
both, to make assessments for the use of such water or sewerage
svstems or both a lien on the real estate served thereby, and provide
for the collection of such charges and rentals and turning over of the
same to the water commission. The council may require each of
the members of the water commission to give a bond in such penalty
and with such security as may be fixed by the council, conditioned upon
the faithful performance of his duties. ,

The following citizens and taxpayers of the town of Independence
shall be and are hereby made members of the said water commission,
namely: Dr. E. Scott Elliott, D. T. Painter and T. E. Brannock,
who shall serve respectively to January first, nineteen hundred and
thirty-eight, January first, nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, and Janu-
ary first, nineteen hundred and forty, or until their successors are
duly elected and qualified. In October of each year prior to the expira-
tion of the term of any member of said water commission, the town
council shall elect as a successor to such member a citizen and taxpayer
of the said town, and the person so elected shall serve for a period
of three years from January first succeeding, or until his successor
is elected and qualified. .

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

passage.
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to acquire water works systems. [S B 20]

Approved January 13, 1937

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That section
thirty hundred and forty-two of the Code of Virginia, as heretofore
amended, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 3042. For the purpose of making provision for an adequate
water supply, or of acquiring, maintaining or enlarging a water works
system, the council of every city having, by the last United States
census, a population of more than twenty-five thousand and the board
of supervisors of every county having a population of more than five
hundred per square mile, according to the last general United States
census, in addition to other powers conferred by law, shall have the
power to acquire, within or without, or partly within and partly
without, the limits of said city, or county by purchase, condemnation,
lease or otherwise the property, in whole or in part, whensoever
acquired, of any private or public service corporations operating a
water works system, or chartered for the purpose of acquiring or
operating such a system, including its lands, plants, works, buildings,
machinery, pipes, mains, wells, basins, reservoirs, and all appurtenances
thereto, its contracts, easements, rights and franchises, including its
franchise to be a corporation, whether said property, or any part
thereof, is essential to the purposes of said corporation or not; pro-
vided, however, that any city or county condemning property here-
under shall rest under the same obligations, in respect of furnishing
water to such customers of any water company whose property is
condemned as may be cut off from a supply of water by. such con-
demnation, as those under which the said water company rested before
said proceedings were taken and had. |

Provided, however, that any city situated on the Elizabeth river,
or any branch thereof, which shall acquire, maintain, or enlarge a
water works system, under the provisions of this act, and which shall
undertake to supply water on the east and west sides of the said
river, shall establish and maintain the same rates of charges for water,
under similar conditions and circumstances, and furnish the same
quality and pressure of water, all conditions considered, to all con-
sumers of the same class in any city on the east and west sides of
said river, or on the west side of said river within two miles of the
corporate limits thereof as they now exist or may be hereafter ex-
tended, and shall not, directly or indirectly, charge more for water to
consumers of the same class, under similar conditions and circumstances,
in any city on the west side of said river, or, on the west side
of said river, within two miles of the corporate limits thereof as they
now exist or may hereafter be extended, than it charges to such con-
sumers on the east side thereof; and in the event that any city shall
acquire under this act, by purchase, lease, condemnation, or otherwise,
the property, rights and franchises of any private or public service
corporation operating a water works system, or chartered for the
purpose of acquiring or operating such a system, which is engaged
in furnishing or is under contract to furnish water to any other city
than the city so acquiring the said property, rights and franchises
of such corporation, the acquiring city shall, in consideration of the
use of the streets and alleys of such other city for the purposes of dis-
tributing its water, and so long as such other city shall not impose,
demand, collect, or receive any license or property tax upon the business
or property of said acquiring city in connection. with its water system
in said city, furnish to such other city, free of charge, for fire hydrants,
flushing sewers, public buildings, and for all other city uses, a sufficient
supply of water of the same quality and pressure, all: conditions con-
sidered, that it furnishes to itself, the city to which said water is fur-
nished to erect and maintain, at its own cost, its fire hydrants, the
number and location of such hydrants, to be determined by its city
council; provided the same shall not be less than one city block apart ;
and the city furnishing such water to establish and maintain, at its
own cost, all necessary pipe lines and mains for furnishing such water ;
except that the city furnishing the water shall not be required to extend
its pipes or mains for any purpose unless there shall be an average of
one water consumer to every fifty feet of main.so to be extended;
and in case there is not such a number of consumers, the city in which
the mains are to be extended, may lay the same, and they shall then
become the pr6perty of the city furnishing the water, and shall be
taken over by the said city so soon as there shall be said average of
one consumer for each fifty feet of pipe so laid, at their physical
valuation at the time of taking them over.

Provided, further that if any city shall acquire by purchase, lease,
condemnation, or otherwise, the property, rights, and franchises of
any private or public service corporation operating a water works sys-
tem, whose plant is located within one mile of the corporate limits
of any city, and whose mains and pipes are laid in the streets of such
city, and shall thereby prevent the said city from procuring water
from the plant of said company, it shall be the duty of the city so
acquiring such property to establish and maintain the same rates
of charges for water under similar conditions and circumstances, and
furnish the same quality and pressure of water, all conditions considered,
to all consumers of the same class in the city so located as is furnished
to consumers in the city so acquiring property.

Nothing in this act shall be construed as preventing the acquiring
city or county or any other city in the State from contracting with each
other for the acquisition of a water supply, or for the use and manage-
ment of the water supply of either city, in any manner, and upon any
terms that to said cities may seem fit.

Any city situated within five miles of a city having by the last United
States census a population of more than fifty thousand, shall have all
the powers vested in said last mentioned city under this act.

In condemnation proceedings had hereunder, the provisions of an
act entitled, an act concerning the exercise of the power of eminent
domain, approved January eighteenth, nineteen hundred and four, as
amended, so far as applicable shall govern; except that the provisions
of section fifty-two of chapter five of an act entitled an act concerning
corporations, which became a law on May twenty-first, nineteen hundred
and three, shall not apply. The proper court of the city or county
wherein the property proposed to be condemned, or any part thereof,
is located, shall have jurisdiction of the condemnation proceedings.
It shall not be necessary to file with the petition for the condemnation
of an existing water works system, in its entirety, a minute inventory
and description of the property sought to be condemned, provided said
property is described therein generally and with reasonable particularity
and in such manner as to disclose the intention of the petitioner that
such existing water works system be condemned in its entirety; and
the court having jurisdiction of the condemnation proceedings shall,
as the occasion arises and prior to the filing of the report of the com-
missioners appointed to ascertain a just compensation for the property
sought to be condemned in its entirety, take such steps as may be neces-
sary and proper to cause to be included in an inventory of the property
sought to be condemned full descriptions of any and all such property
whenever the exigencies of the case or the ends of justice will be
promoted thereby, which said inventory shall be made a part of the
record in the proceedings and referred to said commissioners.

2. All acts or parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

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