Chap. 483.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Sections 2 and 47, as heretofore
amended, and Sections 29 and 48 of Chapter 473 of the Acts of the General
Assembly of 1924, approved March 22, 1924, the said chapter providing a new
charter for the City of Roanoke, and the said sections relating to the powers of
the city, the issuing justice, and the issuance of bonds therein, [H B 544]

Approved April 7, 1942

I. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tions two and forty-seven, as heretofore amended, and sections twenty-
nine and forty-eight of chapter four hundred and seventy-three of the
Acts of the General Assembly of nineteen hundred and twenty-four,
approved March twenty-second, nineteen hundred and twenty-four, be
amended and re-enacted, as follows: |

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

First. To raise annually by taxes and assessments in said city such
sums of money as the council hereinafter provided for shall deem neces-
ary for the purposes of said city, and in such manner as said council
shall deem expedient, in accordance with the Constitution and laws of
his State and of the United States; provided, however, that it shall
mpose no tax on the bonds of said city; and provided, further, that
aid tax rate shall not exceed the sum of two dollars and fifty cente
H. 483] ACTS OF ASSEMBLY JIF

$2.50) on the one hundred dollars of assessed value of real and personal.
yroperty in this city except for providing for the payment of the prin-
ipal and interest on any non-revenue bonds hereafter issued and ap-
sroved by a vote of the freeholders, or for any bonds issued to refund
he same. The maximum rate of two dollars and fifty cents ($2.50):
hall be construed to include any and all levies which might otherwise be
evied under the provisions of sections two hundred and ninety-three,
wo hundred and ninety-four and two hundred and ninety-five of the
[Tax Code of Virginia; and the authority to exceed the two dollars and
ifty cents ($2.50) maximum rate shall not be construed to authorize the
‘ouncil to exceed the same to pay principal or interest on non-revenue
bonds or on any refunding bonds issued to refund bonds originally
issued prior to January first, nineteen hundred and forty-two. :

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 limita+
tions prescribed by the Constitution of Virginia as may be in force at
the time of the imposition of such special or local assessments.

Third. Subject to the provisions 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 indebted-
ness.

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, withir
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 cit)
not exceeding at any one time five thousand acres in the aggregate, anc
from time to time to sell or lease the same or any part thereof for in
dustrial or commercial uses and purposes.

Seventh. To make and maintain public improvements of all kinds
including municipal and other public buildings, armories, markets, com
fort stations or rest rooms and all buildings and structures necessary 0
appropriate for the use of the departments of fire and police; and te
establish a market or markets in and for said city, and to appoint prope
officers therefor; to prescribe the time and place for holding the same
to provide suitable buildings and grounds therefor and to make an
enforce such rules and regulations as shall be necessary to restrain an
prevent huckstering, forestalling and regrating, and for the purpose 0
regulating and controlling the sale of fresh meats, fresh fish, farm an
domestic products in said city the council shall have authority to confin
the sale of such articles or products to the public markets and publi
squares provided by the city for that purpose, and shall have, full powe
and authority to use such streets, avenues or alleys in the city around th
public market and public squares as may be necessary to provide for ve
960 ACTS; OF ASSEMBLY, [va., 1942

hicles from which farm and domestic products are offered for sale, anc
may by resolution or ordinance designate the streets or other public
places on or in which all licensed peddlers may sell or offer for sale thei:
goods, wares or merchandise, and shall have authority to levy and collect
a license tax for the sale of fresh meats and fresh fish, and may impose
a curbage tax for each wagon, cart or other vehicle containing farm
and domestic products brought into said city and sold or offered for
sale on the market and to acquire by condemnation or otherwise all
lands, riparian and other rights and éasements necessary for such im-
provements, 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,
lands 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 regutations 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 pollution or threatened
pollution of such water supply and any and all acts likely to impair the
purity thereof; and to acquire lands or material for any such use. For
any of the purposes aforesaid said city may, if the council shall so
determine, acquire by condemnation, purchase 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, water-
sheds, filtering plants, pumps and pumping machinery or other equip-
nent or source or sources of said water supply to pay the reasonable
cost of such inspectors; to give reasonable notice to any such water com-
pany of any condition disclosed by any such inspection which, in the
opinion of said inspector and 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 reason-
able time to be stated in said notice; to specify in said notice the par-
ticular 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 the
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 or 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 be-
come 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 proceedings 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 expenditure 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
expenditure only such amount as under a quantum meruit it may be
determined the said water company has received actual benefit of and
in justice ought to pay value received for. Permitting the growth of
algae in an amount which materially affects the purity, taste or smell
of such water, so as to render the same unfit for drinking purposes or
general domestic use, in the reservoirs or sources of water supply is
hereby declared a condition which it is the duty of the city council to
prevent or remedy under the powers granted in this subsection. Nothing
herein contained shall be construed as 1n anywise limiting, altering, affect-
ing or impairing the existing duties, jurisdiction or powers of the State
Corporation Commission or of the State Board of Health or any other
agency of the State over water companies in the City of Roanoke or
elsewhere, but any existing powers, duties or jurisdiction of the State
Corporation Commission, State Board of Health or other agency of the
State which are hereby conferred or imposed upon the city council,
shall be deemed to be concurrent.

Eleventh. To acquire in the manner provided by the general laws
any existing water, gas or electric plant, works or system, or any part
thereof.

Twelfth. 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 tele-
graph wires and all wires and cables carrying electricity to be placed in
conduits under ground and prescribe rules and regulations for the con-
struction and use of such conduits; and to do all other things whatsoever
adapted to make said streets and highways safe, convenient and attrac-
tive. |

Thirteenth. 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.

Fourteenth. Subject to the provisions of the Constitution of Vir-
ginia to grant franchises for public utilities.

Fifteenth. 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 ma-
terials, or any of them; or to contract for and regulate the collection
and disposal thereof.

Sixteenth. 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
keeping 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 unneces-
sary noise therein; to regulate the location of stables and the manner in
which they shall be kept and constructed, and generally to define, pro-
hibit, abate, suppress and prevent all things detrimental to the health,
morals, comfort, safety, convenience and welfare of the inhabitants of
the city.

Seventeenth. 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 accumulate
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 there-
from, provided, that reasonable notice shall be first given to the said
Owner or occupant or his agent. In case of non-resident 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.

Kighteenth. To direct the location of all buildings for storing gun-
powder or other explosive or combustible substances, to regulate or pro-
hibit the sale and use of dynamite, gunpowder, fire crackers, 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 build-
ings, the making of bonfires and the carrying of concealed weapons.

Nineteenth. To prevent the running at large in said city of all ani-
mals 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.

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

Twenty-first. 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 disorderly
conduct or exhibitions in the city, and to expel from said city persons
guilty of such conduct.

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

Twenty-third. To extinguish and prevent fires and compel citizens
to render assistance to the fire department in case of need, and to estab-
lish, regulate and control a fire department or division; to regulate the
size, materials and construction of buildings, fences, and other struc-
tures hereafter erected in such manner as the public safety and con-
venience may require; to remove, or require to be removed, any build-
ing, structure or addition thereto which by reason of dilapidation, defect
of structure, or other causes, may have become dangerous 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 build-
964 ACTS OF ASSEMBLY [va., 1942

ing 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-fourth. To provide for the care, support and maintenance
of children and of sick, aged, insane, or poor persons and paupers.

Twenty-fifth. To establish, organize and administer public schools
and libraries subject to the general laws establishing a standard of educa-
tion for the State. |

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

Twenty-seventh. To prevent persons having no visible means of
support, 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-eighth. 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 liability 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 con-
tagious or infectious disease to hospitals provided for them, to provide
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 quarantine 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-ninth. 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.

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

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

Thirty-second. To make and enforce all ordinances, rules and
regulations necessary or expedient for the purpose of carrying into effect
the powers conferred by this charter or by any general law, and to pro-
vide and impose suitable penalties for the violation of such ordinances,
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 violation of any ordinance
notwithstanding such ordinance may provide punishment for its viola-
tion. The enumeration of particular powers in this charter shall not be
deemed or held to be exclusive, but in addition 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 29. Issuing justice-——There shall be one justice of the
peace for the City of Roanoke, who shall be styled issuing justice. The
issuing justice shall be elected at the time, in the manner and for the term
provided in section eighteen of this charter. Said issuing justice shall
receive no fees for his services as such, but shall be paid such salary as
shall be fixed by council, and he shall receive no other compensation or
emolument whatever. He shall be a conservator of the peace within
the limits of the City of Roanoke, and one mile beyond, and shall have
the same powers and duties within said limits as is prescribed by law for
justices of the peace, and also the powers and duties of a trial justice
with respect to the issuance of warrants and other writs in civil cases,
except that said justice shall not have the power to try civil cases, nor
any of the powers granted to the civil and police justice of said city, nor
shall he have the right to issue any garnishment process, or execution,
except in cases of unlawful detainer. All warrants and process issued
by the issuing justice shall be returnable before the civil and police
justice, except stich as may by law be returnable elsewhere.

He shall collect such fees as are prescribed by law for issuing any
civil warrant, and shall pay into the city treasury all sums collected ; such
payments shall be made to the treasurer on Monday of each week, by
pay-in warrant through the auditor’s office. The issuing justice shalf
on a form to be prescribed by the auditor keep an account of all fees
collected by him.

In case of failure of the issuing justice to keep such record and
to make report and pay to the treasurer any fees collected by him, as
herein provided, then the City of Roanoke shall have the right of action
against said issuing justice for the payment of the sums collected by
him, and for his failure to make the reports, and pay the money collected
by him as herein provided, shall upon conviction therefor before the
hustings court of the city be fined not less than ten dollars nor more than
twenty dollars for each offense, and in the discretion of the judge of the
said hustings court be removed from office.

If from any cause said issuing justice is unable to act, the civil and
police justice, or if an assistant civil and police justice has been elected,
ich assistant civil and police justice shall GischalS& te ee
suing justice prescribed herein during such inability.

Section 47. Bond issues.—The council may, in the name and for
1e use of the city, cause to be issued bonds for any one or more of the
slowing purposes, namely; to provide for parks and other recreational
urposes, water supply, water works, electric lights or other lighting
ystem, suitable equipment against fire, or for erecting or improving
ridges, viaducts, school buildings, jails, city halls, fire houses, libraries,
quseums, and other public buildings, incinerators, auditoriums, armories,
irports and equipment and furnishings for same; grading, paving, re-
aving, curbing, or otherwise improving any one or more of the streets
rr alleys, or widening existing ones; or for locating, instituting and
naintaining sewers, drains and culverts, or for any other permanent
yublic improvement ; provided that no such bonds, except such providing
‘or the purchase or acquisition of a supply of water to said city and its
nhabitants, or for other specific undertaking, from which said city may
jerive a revenue, shall be issued except by ordinance adopted by a
majority of all members of the council and approved by the affirmative
vote of the majority of the freehold voters of the city voting on the
question at an election for stich purpose to be called, held and conducted
‘n accordance with an ordinance adopted by the council of the City of
Roanoke providing for such elections and for giving due publicity to the
same, and also providing by whom and how the ballots shall be prepared
and return canvassed, and the result certified ; no such bonds to provide
for the acquisition of a supply of water to said city and its inhabitants,
or for other specific undertaking, from which the city 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, as amended by
chapter two hundred seventeen of the Acts of Assembly of nineteer
hundred and thirty, shall be issued except by ordinance adopted by %
majority of all members of council and approved by the affirmative
vote of the majority of the qualified voters of the city voting on th
question at an election for such purpose to be called, held and conducte:
‘n accordance with an ordinance adopted by the council of the City o
Roanoke providing for such elections and for giving due publicity to th
same, and also providing by whom and how the ballots shall be prepare
and return canvassed, and the result certified; but such bonds shall nc
be irredeemable for a period greater than thirty-five years, provide
further, that if a separate levy be made for school purposes, then an
‘n that event the school board of the City of Roanoke shall semi-annuall
pay into the city treasury such amounts from said levy as may be nece
sary to pay interest and sinking fund on and for all outstanding bon«
of the City of Roanoke which have been or may hereafter be issued {¢
school purposes, in the event that no special levy should be made f
school purposes, then the school board shall render the city council
statement at the end of each month, showing the collections and disburs
ments made by said board. And provided, further, that in no case shi
the aggregate debt of the city at any time exceed eighteen per centum
the assessed value of real estate within the city limits, subject to tax
tion, 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, as amended
by chapter two hundred and seventeen of the Acts of Assembly of nine-
teen hundred and thirty. 7

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

In bond elections, except for specific undertakings from which the
city may derive a revenue, there shall be plainly printed on the face of
the ballots the following, to-wit: “The city council is authorized if neces-
sary to increase the tax rate above two dollars and fifty cents ($2.50)
on the one hundred dollars ($100) of assessed value of real and personal
property to pay the principal and interest of any bonds approved by.
this election”.

All bonds issued under the provisions of this section shall be signed
by the president of 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 direc-
tion. Every bond issued by the council shall state on its face for what
purpose or purposes it 1s issued, and the proceeds shall be applied exclu-
sively to the purpose or purposes for which such bonds are issued.

Section 48. Refunding bonds.—Whenever the council may deem it
desirable to refund and retire at maturity any bonds of the city, the
council shall have the right and authority to issue new bonds for such
purpose, but no refunding bond shall be issued for a greater period than
thirty-five years. Such refunding bonds shall be sold by the council, and
the proceeds from such sale shall be used for the purpose of paying
the maturing bonds, and for’ no other purpose. All bonds issued under
the provisions of this section shall be signed and sealed in the same
manner as other bonds of the city.