Chap. 369.—An ACT to authorize and empower the board of supervisors of any
county adjoining any city within or without this State having a population of
more than 125,000, according to the last preceding United States Census, to
construct, reconstruct, maintain, alter, improve, add to and operate water supply
systems; to acquire by gift, condemnation, purchase, lease or otherwise, water
supply system or systems ; to furnish water from any such system to any sanitary
district, village, town, community, individuals, firm, corporation or partnership ;
to make such charge for the supply of water herein authorized as the board may
from time to time determine upon; to lay a levy for the purpose of raising funds
for the construction, maintenance, operation, improvement and reconstruction of
any such water system or systems or to appropriate from the general county
fund for such purposes; to contract for a loan and to issue bonds for the purpose
of construction, acquisition, reconstruction, improvement, maintenance and
operation of any such water system on the credit of the county provided that
such borrowing power shall not exist, and the loan shall not be contracted for
or bonds issued unless and until the action of the board of supervisors determin-
ing to construct, maintain and operate or acquire, reconstruct, improve such
water system shall be certified to the judge of the circuit court of said county
and petitioning the said judge to call an election for the purpose of obtaining the
approval of such loan and bond issue by the qualified voters of the county, and
prescribing the duties of the judge of the said circuit court of said county; pre-
scribing the duties of the regular election officers, and prescribing the duties and
powers of the board of supervisors ; and to repeal Chapter 141 of the Acts of the
General Assembly of Virginia, 1940, approved March 6, 1940. [H B 424]

Approved April 1, 1942

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, as follows:

Section 1. The board of supervisors of any county adjoining any
city within or without this State having a population of more than one
hundred and twenty-five thousand, according to the last preceding United
States census, shall be and it hereby is authorized and empowered to con-
struct, reconstruct, maintain, alter, improve, add to and operate water
supply systems in said county. |

Section 2. Said boards shall have the following additional powers
and duties subject to the conditions and limitations hereinafter prescribed.

(a) To acquire by gift, condemnation, purchase, lease or other-
wise water supply system or systems.

(b) To furnish water from any such system to any sanitary district,
village, town, community, individual, firm, corporation or partnership,
and to make such charge for such supply of water as the board may from
time to time determine upon.

(c) To lay a levy for the purpose of raising funds for the construc-
tion, maintenance, operation, improvement, acquisition and reconstruction
of any such water systems or in lieu thereof to appropriate from the gen-
eral county fund for such purposes. 7

(d) To contract for a loan or loans and to issue bonds of said coun-
ty to an amount in the aggregate of not exceeding eighteen per centum
of the assessed value of all real estate in the said county subject to local
taxation, for the purpose of construction, acquisition, reconstruction, im-
provement, maintenance and operation of any such water system or sys-
tems on the credit of the county, provided that such borrowing power shall
not exist and the loan shall not be contracted for nor bonds issued unless
and until the action of the board of supervisors determining to construct,
maintain and operate, acquire, reconstruct and/or improve such watet
system or systems shall be certified to the judge of the circuit court of said
county petitioning the said judge to call an election for the purpose of ob-
taining the approval of such loan and bond issue by the qualified voters
of the county. After receipt of the petition of the board of supervisors
above referred to, the judge of the circuit court of said county, in term
time or in vacation, shall make an order requiring the judges of election
to open a poll not less than thirty days from the date of such order, which
date shall be designated therein, and take the sense of the qualified voters
of the said county on the question whether the board of supervisors shall
issue bonds for said purpose and/or purposes. The clerk of the county
shall cause a notice of such election to be published in some newspaper,
published or having a general circulation in the county, once a week for
three consecutive weeks, and shall post a copy of such notice at the door
of the court house of the said county. The regular election officials of the
county, at the time designated herein, shall open the polls at the various
voting places in the county and conduct the election in such manner as is
provided by law for other elections, in so far as the same is applicable.
The election shall be by single ballot, which shall be prepared by the
electoral board and distributed to the various election precincts as in other
elections. There shall be printed on the ballot in separate lines the follow-
ing :

Shall the board of supervisors issue bonds for the purpose of
Sse OS ENE in een ena Rn a water system or systems in the
So 6 Sk) Ser

[_] For Bond Issue

[|] Against Bond Issue

The squares to be printed in such ballot shall not be less than one
quarter nor more than one-half inch in size.

Any person voting at such election shall place a check (\/) or across
mark (-+- or X) or a line (—) in the square before the appropriate
word indicating how he desires to vote on the question submitted.

The ballots shall be counted, returns made and canvassed as in other
elections and the results certified by the commissioners of election to the
circuit court of the county or the judge thereof in vacation. The said court,
or the judge thereof, in vacation, shall thereupon enter of record the re-
sults of such election. If it shall appear by the report of the commissioner
that a majority of the qualified voters of the county voting on the question,
are in favor of issuing bonds for the purpose or purposes aforesaid, the
circuit court, or the judge thereof in vacation, shall enter of record an
order certifying the wishes of the voters as expressed at the said election.
And the board of supervisors, if they deem it expedient, shall proceed
to carry out the wishes of the voters as soon as practicable.

Section 3. Whenever the sense of the qualified voters of the county
shall be taken on the question whether the board of supervisors of the
said county shall issue bonds for the purposes aforesaid, the said election
and returns shall be subject to the inquiry, determination 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 vatere af ect,
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 and laws of this State, but such com-
plaint 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 to the other, shall be at liberty to take depositions to
sustain or invalidate such 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 county, the court shall make an order in conformity with the
preceding section.

Section 4. The board of supervisors shall determine what amount of
bonds shall be issued for said system or systems in said county, but the
maximum amount of bonds issued shall in no case exceed the maximum
amount prescribed in section two of this act, 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 two hundred qualified voters of such county
and after ten days’ notice to the chairman of the board, for cause shown,
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
an 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 law-
ful 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 construc-
tion and operation of a public.................... system in the.........2-....222eeeeeeeee
county, and the full faith and credit of the said county is 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
denominations of one hundred dollars or some multiple thereof ; shall bear
interest to be payable at such place or places as may be determined by the
562 ACTS OF ASSEMBLY - [va., 1942

board of supervisors, and shall be payable not exceeding thirty-four years
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 county for which it was intended, and none
other. The said treasurer shall receive the reasonable cost to him of giv-
ing 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. The
proceeds of said bond issue shall be deposited, paid out and disbursed as
provided by section three hundred and fifty of the Tax Code of Virginia,
as amended. All interest that shall accrue from said funds shall be ac-
counted 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 5. The net revenue derived from the operation of such

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 au-
thorized 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 not be reissued
and the board of supervisors 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 ac-
cumulations 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, un-
less 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 Commonwealth’s Attorney of
said county, which approval shall be entered of record in the order book of
this 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.

The said board of supervisors shall, if necessary for the payment of
interest on the said bonds or to increase the sinking fund provided for
hereunder, levy an annual tax upon all the real property in such county
subject to local taxation to pay such interest and to make payments into
the said sinking fund. :

Section 6. When the board of supervisors of the county wishes to
redeem any of the outstanding bonds subject to call, issued under the
provisions of this act, it may, through the chairman of the board of super-
visors, 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 no-
tice 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 publication
thereof, as the case may be.

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

Section 7. The board of supervisors of any such county is hereby
vested with the power of eminent domain insofar as may be necessary for
the acquisition, construction, reconstruction, alteration, additions to,
maintenance, and repair of any part of such water system, and in the exer-
cise of such power is hereby vested with all of the authority to exercise
such power as is given to the State Highway Commissioner of Virginia by
Chapter three hundred and eighty of the Acts of the General Assembly
of Virginia of nineteen hundred and forty, approved April first, nineteen
hundred and forty.

2, And be it further enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia,
That Chapter one hundred and forty-one of the Acts of the General As-
sembly of Virginia of nineteen hundred and forty, approved March sixth,
nineteen hundred and forty, be and the same is hereby, repealed.