Chap. 175.—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 one hundred twenty-five thousand, 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, pur-
chase, lease or otherwise, water supply and water supply system or systems;
to furnish water from any such system to any sanitary district, village, town,
community, individual, firm, corporation or partnership; to make 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, main-
tenance, operation, improvement, reconstruction and extension of any such water
supply 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, extension
and operation of any such water supply system on the credit of the county
and/or on the basis of net returns from sale of water from such systems and
without the credit of the county being pledged, 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 determining to construct,
maintain and operate or acquire, reconstruct, improve or extend such water
supply system shall be certified to the Judge of the Circuit Court of said coun-
ty and petitioning the said Judge to call an election for the purpose of obtaining
the sense of the qualified voters of the county on the question of such loan and
bond issue, and prescribing the duties of the Judge of the said Circuit Court
of said county; prescribing the duties of the County Electoral Board and the
Judges of Election and other election officials and other public officers, and
prescribing the duties and powers of the board of supervisors; exempting cer-
tain incorporated towns from the operation of this act; and to repeal Chapter
369 of the Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia of 1942, approved April 1,
1942. [fH B 327]

Approved March 12, 1946

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

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

Section 2. Said boards shall have the following additional powers

duties subject to the conditions and limitations hereinafter pre-
bed.

(a) To acquire by gift, condemnation, purchase, lease or other-
> water supply and water supply system or systems, provided that
right of condemnation granted herein shall be subject to the same
visions as are provided in section thirty-eight hundred thirty-two
he Code of Virginia concerning the condemnation of any property be-
xing to a corporation possessing the power of eminent domain by
ther public service corporation.

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

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

(d) To contract for a loan or loans and to issue bonds of said
ntv on the credit of the county and/or bonds of the said county, the
ment of which the net revenue from the sale of water from any such
er supply system or systems shall be obligated and appropriated and
which the credit of any such county shall not be obligated, to an
punt in the aggregate of not exceeding eighteen per centum of the
essed value ofall real estate in the said county subject to local taxation,
for the purpose of construction, acquisition, reconstruction, improve-
ment, maintenance, operation and extension of any such water supply
system or systems, 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, extend and/or improve such water
supply system or systems and specifying the character of bonds 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 taking the sense of the
qualified voters of the county on such loan and bond issue. 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 said court 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 con-
secutive weeks, shall post a copy of such notice at the door of the court
house of said county and shall certify a copy of the order requiring the
judges of election to open a poll to the county electoral board. The
county electoral board shall cause the polls at the various voting places
in the county to be open on the day designated in the said order and the
judges of election shall conduct the election in the manner provided in
section one hundred ninety-seven-a of the Code of Virginia. The ballots
shall be furnished by the county electoral board and shall be prepared,
printed and voted in accordance with the provisions of section one hun-
dred ninety-seven-a of the Code of Virginia, 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 elec-
tion 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
voters of such 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 deter-
mine concerning the same according to the Constitution and laws of this
State, but such complaint shall not be valid unless it shall have been fled
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 de-
fendant by summons or notice to its chairman of the filing of the com-
plaint, and after such service 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 complaints shall be sufficient. The court shall pro-
ceed at its next term after such service of summons or notice to deter-
mine 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
tavor of the issuing of bonds in said county, the court shall make an
order in conformity with the preceding section.

Section 4. After the approval of any such loan and bond issue by
the qualified voters of the county, the board of supervisors shall deter-
mine what amount of bonds shall be issued for the construction, main-
tenance, operation, acquisition, reconstruction, extension and/or im-
provements of said system or systems in said county and in event they
do not direct the present issuing of all of the said bonds, they may there-
after. 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
aiter ten days notice to the chairman of the board, for cause shown, issue
an order directing the board 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. The board 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 sold shall be paid for
in lawful 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 if the bonds
authorized to be issued be bonds the payment of which the full faith and
credit of the county is pledged, there shall be written or printed in ink
thereon the following sentences: “These bonds are issued for the con-
struction and operation of a public water supply system in the County
ee , Virginia, and the full faith and credit of the
said county 1s hereby pledged for their payment”. And if the bonds au-
thorized to be issued be bonds the payment of which the net revenue from
the sale of water from any such water supply system or systems shall be
obligated and appropriated and for which the credit of any such county
shall not be obligated, there shall be written or printed in ink on the
face of the bonds the following sentences: “These bonds are issued for
the construction and operation of a public water supply system in the
County Of 20.0.0... eee eeeeeeeeeees , Virginia, and the net revenue from the
sale of water from said public water supply system is hereby pledged for
their payment, and the credit of the county is not pledged.”

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
authorized 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 re-
issued 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
accumulations of money to the credit of said sinking fund 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 supervisors with any bank or banks, or when invested in any real
estate security as provided herein, but the board of supervisors may re-
quire 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, if the bonds be those the payment of which the
credit of the county is pledged.

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
supervisors, give notice of its readiness to do so to the holder in per-
son or by publication thereof once a week for two successive weeks in
a newspaper published in said county or nearest thereto. It shall be suf-
ficient in the notice 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, interest 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 supply system or sys-
tems, and in the exercise of such power is hereby vested with all of the
authority to exercise such power as is given to the State Highway Com-
missioner of Virginia by chapter four hundred eleven of the Acts of the
General Assembly of Virginia of nineteen hundred forty-two, approved
April four, nineteen hundred forty-two.
Section 7a. Any incorporated town operating its own water sup-
ply system shall be exempt from the operation of this act and from any
obligation for the payment of bonds or loans made under authority of
this act, and no election had under authority of this act shall be held in
any such town.

Section 8. If any: section, or part of section, of this act is here-
after held by any court of competent jurisdiction to be unconstitutional,
such decision shall in no wise affect or render void the remainder of such
section or this act.

2. And be it further enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia,
that chapter three hundred sixty-nine of the Acts of the General As-
sembly of Virginia of nineteen hundred forty-two, approved April first,
nineteen hundred forty-two, be, and the same 1s hereby repealed.