Chap. 183.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 38, as amended, of an act
entitled “An act to provide a new charter for the city of Lynchburg, Vir-
ginia”, approved March 21, 1928, relating to the powers of the council of
the said city, so as to authorize the prohibition of lotteries and raffles therein,
the fixing of certain penalties for violation of city ordinances, and prescribing
the manner in which certain city ordinances shall be published. [H B 259]

Approved March 18, 1938

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tion thirty-eight of an act entitled an act to provide a new charter for
the city of Lynchburg, Virginia, approved March twenty-first, nineteen
hundred and twenty-eight, as heretofore amended, be amended and re-
enacted so as to read as follows: , ,

Section 38. The council shall have all the general powers vested
in it by the Constitution and laws of the State, and it shall have power
to enact ordinances providing for the exercise within its jurisdiction
of all police powers which the State itself may exercise under the
Constitution, except such as may be specially denied cities by act of
the General Assembly ; and shall further have power : , ,

First. To control and manage the fiscal and municipal affairs of
the city, and all property, real and personal, belonging to the city,
and make such ordinances, orders and by-laws, relating to the same
as it may deem proper and necessary; and to provide for group, life,
health, and accident insurance on the lives and persons of the weekly
payroll or salaried employees of the city on such terms as it may deem
proper, and to make appropriation out of the city treasury to cover
such portion of the cost of such insurance as it may deem wise and
proper.

Second. To purchase, hold, sell and convey all real and personal
property necessary for its uses and purposes.

Third. To establish markets in the city and regulate the same,
and to enforce such regulations in regard to the keeping and sale
of fresh meat, vegetables, eggs, and other green groceries, and the
trade of hucksters and junk dealers, as may be deemed advisable.

Fourth. To erect in or near the city limits suitable workhouses,
houses of correction or reformation, and houses for the reception and
maintenance of the poor and destitute. It shall possess and exercise
exclusive authority over all persons within the limits of the city re-
ceiving the benefits of the poor law; appoint officers and other persons
connected with any institution or house which it may establish, and
regulate pauperism within the limits of the city, and the council, through
a board of overseers of the poor, or such other agencies as it may
appoint for the direction and management of the poor of the city,
shall exercise the powers and perform the duties vested by law in over-
seers of the poor.

Fitth. To erect and keep in order all necessary public buildings;
to establish and regulate public squares, airports, playgrounds, and
parks in or near the city, and to acquire by purchase, condemnation, or
otherwise, the land it may deem necessary for such uses, and to con-
struct in such public squares, playgrounds or parks, as it may maintain,
or upon any city property, stadiums, swimming pools, and recreation
or amusement buildings, structures, or inclosures of every character,
refreshment stands, restaurants, et cetera; to charge for admissions,
and use of the same, and to rent out or lease the privileges of con-
struction or using such swimming pools, recreation or amusement build-
ing, structures or inclosures of every character, refreshment stands or
restaurants, et cetera.

Sixth. To establish, maintain and enlarge water works or gas
works within or without said city; to contract with the owners of land,
water and riparian rights, for the use or purchase thereof, or to have
the same condemned for the location or enlargement of said works,
or the pipes and fixtures thereof, and to acquire by purchase or con-
demnation such quantity of the watershed land adjacent to the intake
or source of supply, as in the judgment of the said council may be
necessary to insure a sufficient supply of water for said city, and to
protect the same from pollution; to acquire by purchase or condemna-
tion from lower riparian owners the right to divert streams into
the present or any future reservoir; to prevent the throwing of the
filth or offensive matter in James river within six miles of the city
limits, and to protect said water supply, works, pipes, ‘reservoirs and
fixtures, whether within or without the city, against injury and pollu-
tion, by appropriate ordinances and penalties, to be enforced as are
other ordinances of said city.

Seventh. To establish or acquire by purchase and to maintain and
operate within or without the corporate limits suitable works for the
generation of electricity for illumination or other purposes, and to
supply the same to consumers in or near the city at such price and
on such terms as it may prescribe, and to that end may contract with
owners of land and water power for the use thereof, or may have
the same condemned.

Eighth. ‘To establish, or acquire by purchase, such other public
utilities, abattoirs and other enterprises, either within or without the
city, as may in its judgment be in the public interest, and to that end
may contract with owners of land, with or without buildings, for the
use or the purchase thereof, or may have the same condemned.

Ninth. To take care, supervision and control of streets, squares
and commons, and to close, vacate, abandon, extend, widen, narrow,
lay out, pave, graduate, improve and otherwise alter the streets in
said city; have the streets properly lighted and kept in good order;
make or construct sewers or public ducts through the same wherever
else they may deem expedient; build bridges in or culverts under said
streets or alleys, prevent or remove obstructions or encroachments
over, under or in the same; plant shade trees along the same, and pre-
vent the cumbering of streets, alleys, walks, public squares, lanes or
bridges in any manner whatever.

Tenth. To permit railroads to be built and to determine and desig-
nate the route and grade thereof; to permit poles for electrical, tele-
phone, or telegraph purposes to be erected, gas and steam pipes and
conduits for wires to be laid in the streets, and to prescribe an annual
license charge for the privileges granted hereunder; and to levy an
annual inspection charge upon all such poles, pipes and conduits; to
regulate the speed of. engines and cars upon the railroads within the
city, and to wholly exclude the same where the welfare of the city may
demand it.:

Eleventh. To provide for the weighing of hay, fodder, oats and
shucks or other long forage, ice, coal and live stock, and the measur-
ing of wood and lumber.

Twelith. To require every merchant or trader in property of
any description which is sold by measure or weight, to have his
weights and measures sealed by the city sealer, or other officer desig-
nated to perform such duties. |

Thirteenth. To provide for aid in the support or maintenance
of public free schools; to appoint the school board for the city, and
to designate the age of pupils to be admitted into the public schools
and the grade of such schools. _

Fourteenth. To grant aid to military companies snl to contribute
to the support of a band maintained within the city, to associations
for the advancement of agriculture or the mechanic arts, to scientific,
literary, educational or benevolent organizations or institutions and
to public libraries, provided such action is not prohibited by the Con-
stitution of the State, and that all such societies, organizations or in-
stitutions be located in or near the city, and provided further that
no appropriation for any such purposes shall be made, nor shall aid
be otherwise granted through exemption from charge for use of water
or light facilities or otherwise, either with or without charge beyond
the city limits, unless two-thirds of all the members elected to the
council vote therefor.

Fifteenth. To secure the inhabitants from contagious, infectious
or other dangerous diseases; to establish a quarantine ground; to pro-
vide and maintain hospitals ; to compel the removal of patients to same;
to appoint and organize a board of health or a department of public
welfare; to define its duties, and grant to it the necessary authority
effectually to discharge them.

Sixteenth. To provide for the registration of births in the city,
and to that end may require physicians, midwives, or parents to
report the same to the board of health or department of public wel-
fare under such regulations as it may deem proper.

Seventeenth. To provide in or near the city lands to be used as
burial places for the dead, to improve and care for the same and the
approaches thereto, and to charge for and regulate the use of ground
therein; to prohibit the burial of dead within the city and to regulate
public cemeteries, and to require the return of bills of mortality by
the keepers of all cemeteries in or near the city.

Eighteenth. To compel the abatement and removal of all nuisances
within the city, or upon property owned by the city beyond its limits,
at the expense of the person or persons causing the same, or of the
owner or occupant of the ground or premises whereon the same
may be; to require all lands, lots and other premises within the city
to be kept clean, sanitary and free from weeds or to make them so
at the expense of the owners or occupants thereof; to regulate or
prevent slaughter houses or other noisome or offensive business within
the said city; the keeping of animals, poultry or other fowl 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; to prevent unnecessary noise therein; to regulate the location
of stables and the manner in which shall be kept and constructed;
to provide means for and to regulate the cleaning of all dry closets
and to assess against the owner or occupant of the premises on which
the same is located a reasonable charge therefor, which shall be col-
lectible as any other city taxes, and generally to define, prohibit, abate,
suppress and prevent all things detrimental to the health, morals, safety,
comfort, convenience and welfare of the inhabitants of the city.
Nineteenth. To authorize and regulate the erection of party walls
and fences, and to prescribe how the cost thereof shall be borne by
co-terminous owners.

Twentieth. To direct the location of all buildings for storing ex-
plosives or combustible substances; to regulate the sale and use of
gun-powder, nitro-glycerine, fireworks, kerosene oil or other like
materials; to regulate the exhibition of fireworks, the discharge of
firearms and the making of bonfires in the streets and yards.

Twenty-first. To prevent fowls and animals being kept in or run-
ning at large in the city, and to subject the same to such taxes, regu-
lations and confiscations as 1t may think proper.

Twenty-second. To prevent the riding or driving of horses or
other animals at improper speed; to regulate the use of automobiles
and other automotive vehicles upon the streets in accordance with
law; to prevent the flying of kites, throwing of stones, or engaging
in any sort of employment in the public streets which is dangerous or
annoying to passersby, and to prohibit and punish the abuse of ani-
mals. :

Twenty-third. To restrain and punish drunkards, vagrants and
mendicants.

Twenty-fourth. To prevent vice and immorality; to preserve pub-
lic peace and good order; to prevent and quell riots, disturbances
and disorderly assemblages; to suppress houses of ill-fame and gam-
ing houses and gambling devices of all kinds; to prevent the carrying
on of lotteries of all kinds and the conducting of raffles; to prevent
lewd, indecent and disorderly conduct or exhibitions in the city, and
to expel therefrom persons guilty of such conduct who have resided
therein less than one year.

Twenty-fifth. To prevent the coming into the city of persons
having no ostensible means of support, or of persons who may be
dangerous to the peace and safety of the city, and for this purpose may
require any railroad company bringing such passengers into the city
to enter into bond, with approved security, that such persons shall
not become chargeable to the city for one year, or may compel such
company to take them back from whence they came, or compel such
persons to leave the city if they have been in the city more than six
months before the order is given.

Twenty-sixth. To regulate and control auction sales, livery stables,
garages, gasoline filling stations, slaughter houses, theatrical perform-
ances or other public shows or exhibitions, the hiring or use for pay
of carriages, carts, wagons and drays, automobiles and other auto-
motive vehicles, and the business of hawkers, peddlers, persons sell-
ing goods by sample, persons keeping billiard tables, tenpin alleys
and pistol galleries for profit, and all other similar businesses and
occupations and employments, and as to such trades, occupations and
employments, and any other of a like nature, may grant or refuse
license as it may deem proper.
Twenty-seventh.: ‘To compel persons sentenced to confinément in the
jail of the city for petty larceny or other misdemeanor or other vio-
lations of the city ordinances to work on the public streets, parks: or
other public works of. the city or on the city farm, or be sent to the
poorhouse, there to perform such labor as the overseers of the poor
or officer having charge of such department may direct; and on the
requisition of the judge of the municipal court it shall be the duty
of the sergeant. of the city to deliver such person to the duly authorized
agent of the city for such purposes from day to day as he may be
required. , |

Twenty-eighth. To divide the administrative work of the city into
such departments as the council, in its judgment, may deem proper
and to appoint a city engineer, city surveyor, city electrician, a col-
lector of city taxes, a city attorney and an auditor, and such other
officers and employees as it may deem proper and necessary, and to
prescribe their respective powers and duties, terms of office and com-
pensation; and all such officers may have such assistants and clerks
as the council may approve. Any office which the council has the
power to fill by appointment or election it may abolish or declare va-
cant at any time whether the term of office of the incumbent has
expired or not; and it may likewise at any time consolidate any such
office with any other of the offices that the council has the power to
fill by election or appointment, or it may consolidate any such office
with any office to which the incumbent is elected by the voters of
the city, provided that the fire and police departments shall not be
abolished. When a vacancy occurs in any office to which the incum-
bent is elected by the council, the council is empowered to fill the
vacancy, and when such vacancy occurs otherwise than by the regular
expiration of the term of the incumbent the election shall be only for
the unexpired term.

Twenty-ninth. To change the boundaries of wards and increase
the number thereof.

Thirtieth. To give names to or alter the names of streets.

Thirty-first. To make such regulations and orders as will pro-
tect its citizens from unsafe houses or walls, and to that end it shall
have power to cause to be condemned and take down any such build-
ing or wall, but no such condemnation shall be made or such house
or wall taken down until the owner thereof, or in case of an infant
or insane person, his guardian or committee, be duly summoned be-
fore the board of officers of the city, or the committee of the council
thereof charged by the ordinances with such duty, and allowed rea-
sonable opportunity to show cause against such action.

Thirty-second. To provide for the regular and safe construction
of houses in the city for future, and to provide a complete building
code for the city and to provide setback lines on the streets beyond
which no building may be constructed.

Thirty-third. To designate and prescribe from time to time the
parts of the city within which no buildings of wood shall be erected,
and.to regulate the construction of buildings in the city so as to pro-
tect it against danger from fire; and to enact an ordinance dividing. the
city into zones under the provisions of the State law; one to —
for a city planning commission and define its powers..

Thirty-fourth. To provide any penalty for the Goletea of any
city ordinance, not exceeding a fine of five hundred dollars, or twelve
months’ confinement in the city jail or on the city farm, or both
such fine and imprisonment. , sa

~Thirty-fifth. To pass all by-laws, rules and ordinances not re-
pugnant to the Constitution and laws of the State which it may deem
necessary for the good order and government of the city, the manage-
ment of its property, the conduct of its affairs, the peace, comfort,
convenience, order, morals, health and protection of its citizens or
their property, and do such other things and pass such other laws as
may be necessary or proper to carry into full effect any power, au-
thority, capacity, or jurisdiction, which is or shall be granted to or
vested in said city, or in the council, court or officers thereof, or which
may be necessarily incident to a municipal corporation.

Thirty-sixth. To provide for the due publication in the news-
papers or otherwise of its ordinances and resolutions.

Thirty-seventh. To contribute funds or other aid to the building
or improvements of permanent public roads leading to the city, or
of bridges on such roads, or to the purchase of bridges on such roads
by an affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of the members elect of
the council, provided that no such appropriation shall be made toward
the building, purchase, or improvement of any road or bridge at a
point more than forty miles beyond the corporate limits of the city
measured along the route of such road.

Thirty-eighth. No ordinance or section of ordinance, hereafter
passed or amended by the council for the violation of which any
penalty is expressly imposed in the ordinance or section of ordinance
as passed shall take effect until the same shall have been published
for five days consecutively in one of the daily newspapers of the said
city to be designated by the city council; provided, however, that
this requirement as to publication shall not apply to an ordinance
merely granting to a person some individual right or privilege, nor
to any ordinance re-ordained or amended in or by a compilation or
codification of said ordinances, nor to the amendment of any ordi-
nance, or section thereof, where no specific penalty for the violation
thereof is provided in the ordinance or section of ordinance as amended
or re-enacted, where the penalty for the violation of such ordinance
or section of ordinance so amended and re-enacted is only the penalty
imposed by the general ordinances of the city for the violation of any
ordinance of the city, or is only the penalty imposed for violation of
any of the provisions of an ordinance, where only one or more of
the sections of said ordinance are so amended or re-enacted; and pro-
vided further, that in cases where the council adopts ordinances or
sections of ordinances which are substantially the same as State stat-
utes or sections thereof, dealing with the same subject, it shall not
be necessary to publish said ordinances or sections thereof, but it
shall be sufficient to publish a notice that certain statutes of the State
or sections thereof, have by ordinance been adopted by the city coun-
cil, said notice to cite the act of the Assembly or sections in the Vir-
ginia Code which have been so paralleled and adopted by the council,
and said notice shall further give a brief description of the subject
matter of the ordinance or section thereof so adopted.

The record or entry made by the clerk of said city, or a copy of
such record or entry duly certified by him, shall be prima facie evi-
dence of the fact and time of such publication; and all laws, regula-
tions and ordinances of the city council may be read in evidence in
all courts of justice and all proceedings before any officer, body or
board in which it shall be necessary to refer thereto, either from a
copy thereof certified by the clerk of said council or from the volume
of ordinances printed by authority of the city council.

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