CHAPTER 266

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 provided
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 360]

Approved March 8, 1956

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:

§ 18. 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 compensation 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 thereof.

Said council shall also have the power to lay off public grounds and
rovide all buildings for the town; to provide a prison house and work-
ouse, 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, oper-
ate, 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
customers 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
824 ACTS OF ASSEMBLY [vA., 1956

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, main-
taining, 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 appurtenances 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 consumers 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 pollu-
tion of water and injuries to water works, for which purpose its juris-
diction shall extend to five miles above the same; and to protect from
injury, by ordinances prescribing 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 regula-
tions concerning the building 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 prop-
erty of the town and its inhabitants, and preserve peace and good order
therein; to exercise full police powers and establish and maintain a depart-
ment or division of police; and to appoint one or more justices of the peace
whose jurisdiction shall be confined to the territorial limits of the town
and whose power and authority shall be limited to the issuance of attach-
ments, warrants and subpoenas, and to the granting of bail in any case
in which justices of the peace are authorized to grant bail and to receive
their fees therefor. All such attachments, warrants and subpoenas shall
be returnable before the mayor, or other trial officer having jurisdiction
in the town for action thereon. Nothing herein shall be construed ae pro-
hibiting the appointment of any person who may, at the time of such
appointment, be serving in the capacity of a justice of the peace for the
county of Bedford, or any magisterial district thereof. 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 conditions 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, maintain 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
CHS. 266, 267, 268] ACTS OF ASSEMBLY 325

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 asso-
ciation 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 nondenomi-
national women’s Christian association.

All fees, penalties and imprisonment 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. |