CHAPTER 79

An Act to amend and reenact § 18, as amended, of Chapter 440 of the
Acts of Assembly of 1889-90, approved March 8, 1890, which pro-
vided a new charter for the town of Liberty, extended its limits, and
changed the name to Bedford City, the section relating to certain
powers of the town council.

[H 270]

Approved February 27, 1954
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 18, as amended, of Chapter 440 of the Acts of Assembly of
1889-90, approved March 3, 1890, be amended and reenacted as follows:
§ 13. In addition to the powers conferred by the general statutes,
the council of the town shall have power to lay off streets, alleys or walks,
to take care, supervision, and control of streets, alleys, walks, squares and
commons, and to close, extend, widen, narrow, lay out, pave, graduate,
improve and otherwise alter the streets, alleys or walks in said town; have
the streets or alleys properly lighted and kept in good order; make or
construct sewers or public ducts through the same, or 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 prevent the cumbering of
streets, alleys, walks, public squares, lanes or bridges in any manner
whatever.

And in the event of the closing of any street or alley, or any part of
such street or alley in said town, to sell and convey to any person, firm or
corporation all of the town’s right, title and interest in and to such street
or alley or any part thereof which has heretofore or which may hereafter
be closed by the council. Such conveyances shall be made by the mayor or by
an officer designated by the council of said town, and the corporate seal of
the town shall be affixed thereto, and attested by the clerk of the council.
Such sale and conveyance shall, however, be made subject to the right of
any abutting lot owners whose lots are situated on said street or alley,
who have built or purchased such property on said street or alley in the
reliance of the perpetual public easement in said street or alley, to com-
pensation for any damages they may sustain by reason of the closing of
such street or alley, or any part thereof, or the sale and conveyance

ereof.

Said council shall also have the power to lay off public grounds and
provide all buildings for the. town; to provide a prison house and work-
house, and employ managers, physicians, nurses and servants for the same,
prescribe regulations for their government, and discipline, and for persons
therein; to prescribe the time for holding markets and regulate the same;
to prevent injury or annoyance from anything dangerous, offensive or
unhealthy, and cause any nuisance to be abated; to regulate the keeping
of gunpowder or other combustibles, and provide magazines for the same;
to provide places for the interment of the dead near the town; * acquire or
otherwise obtain control of or establish, maintain, operate, extend and
enlarge a water supply, water works, gas works, electric plants, and
other public utilities within or without the limits of the town, for the
purpose of supplying the town for public use, its inhabitants and cus-
tomers with water and for the purpose of supplying the consumers in the
town of Bedford and without the town in the county of Bedford with * gas,
lights, power, et cetera, and for the public use and for such other purposes
as are permitted by the laws of the State; and to contract with any public
service corporation for the purpose aforesaid; to acquire within or without
the limits of the town by purchase, condemnation or otherwise whatever
land may be necessary including any public or private cemetery, graveyard
or burial ground and lands to which to remove the bodies and monuments
or other structures from such public or private cemetery, graveyard or
burial ground for acquiring, locating, establishing, maintaining, operating,
extending, or enlarging said water supply, water works, gas works, electric
plants and other public utilities, and the rights of ways, rails, pipes, poles,
conduits or wires connected therewith, or any of the fixtures or appurten-
ances thereof; to keep on hand, sell and supply to customers of its electric
plant and water works, without profit to the town, meters, lamps, electric
fixtures, heating devices and other materials or supplies used by con-
sumers of electric power or water; to lease or own, operate or maintain,
rock quarries for the purpose of obtaining material for use upon the
public places or works of the town; to prevent the pollution of water and
injuries to water works, for which purpose its jurisdiction shall extend to
five miles above the same; and to protect from injury, by ordinances pre-
scribing adequate penalties and by prosecutions in the State courts, the
pipes, poles, wires, fixtures, land or other things used in connection with
the water works, electric plant or other public utility; to make, erect and
construct, within or without said town, drains, sewers and public ducts,
and to acquire within or without said town by purchase, condemnation or
otherwise, so much land as may be necessary to make, erect, construct,
operate and maintain the same; to make regulations concerning the build-
ing of houses in the town, and in its discretion to establish and maintain
parks, playgrounds and boulevards, and cause the same to be laid out,
equipped or beautified, and in particular districts, or along particular
streets, to prescribe and establish building lines, or to require property
owners in certain localities or districts to leave a certain percentage of
lots free from buildings, and to regulate the height of buildings; to make
regulations for the purpose of guarding against danger from accidents by
fire, and, on the petition of the owners of not less than two-thirds of the
ground included in any square, to prohibit the erection in such square of
any building, or an addition to any building more than ten feet high, unless
the outer walls thereof be made of brick and mortar, or stone and mortar,
and provide for the removal of any building or addition. erected contrary
to such prohibition; to provide for the weighing or measuring of hay,
coal, or any other articles for sale and regulate the transportation thereof
through the streets; protect the property of the town and its inhabitants,
and preserve peace and good order therein. The council of the town may, at
its discretion, authorize or require the fire department thereof to render
aid in cases of fire occurring beyond its limits, and may prescribe the con-
ditions of which such aid may be rendered. For carrying into effect these
and its other powers, it may make ordinances and by-laws, and prescribe
fines or other punishment for violation thereof, keep a town guard, main-
tain a chain-gang, appoint a collector of its taxes and levies, and such
other officers as it may deem proper, define their powers, prescribe their
duties and compensation, and take from any of them a bond, with
sureties, in such penalty as to the council may seem fit, payable to the
town by its corporate name, and with condition for the faithful discharge
of the said duties.

The council may make appropriations of public funds, of personal
property, or of any real estate, to any charitable institution or association,
located within the limits of the town; provided such institution or as-
sociation is not controlled in whole or in part by any church or sectarian
society. But the words “sectarian society” shall not be construed to mean
a nondenominational young men’s Christian association, or a nondenom-
inational women’s Christian association.

All fees, penalties and imprisonments shall be recovered or enforced
under the judgment of the mayor, or the person exercising his functions,
for the benefit of the town, and in the case of failure to pay any fine or
costs imposed by such judgment, the offender may, in the discretion of the
mayor or other officer, be required to work the same out upon the public
works of the town.

* *

2. An emergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.