Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia: 1. That §2, §3, as amended, and §§4 and 8 of Chapter 16 of the Acts of Assembly of 1946 are amended and reenacted as follows: §2. Limits of the town. The boundaries of said town shall be embraced within the limits of one-half mile each way from the center of the courthouse in the said town, extending east, west, north and south, making an area of one square mile or as may hereafter be altered and established by law through boundary adjustments, annexations, or other method. §3. Town officials. (1) The officers of the town shall be a mayor and five
councilmen elected as hereinafter provided, clerk, Each officer of said town shall take the oath prescribed by State law, and execute the required bond, prior to entry upon his duties. The council shall be a continuing body, and no measure pending before such body shall abate or be discontinued by reason of expiration of term of office or removal of any of the members. Vacancies in the council shall be filled for the unexpired term by a majority vote of the remaining members. The present mayor, and council shall continue in office until the expiration of the terms for which they were respectively elected. (2) The council shall appoint a clerk (3) The council shall appoint a (4) The mayor shall preside at all meetings of the council and
perform such other duties as may be prescribed by this charter, and by the
general laws, and such as may be imposed by the council consistent with his
office. He shall be entitled to vote upon measures pending before the council
only in event the other members voting are equally divided for and against such
measure. He shall be ex officio a conservator of the peace within the town, and
within one mile of the corporate limits thereof. (5) The administration and government of the town of Clintwood
shall be vested in the (6) The council shall have one regular monthly meeting §4. Powers of the town council. In addition to the powers enumerated elsewhere in this charter, and the powers conferred by general law and the Constitution, the town council of the Town of Clintwood shall have the following powers: (1) To acquire by purchase, gift, devise, condemnation, or otherwise property, real or personal, or any estate therein within or without the town for any of the legal purposes of the town; and to hold, improve, lease, sell or dispose of the same or any part thereof, including any property now owned by the town. (2) To own, operate and maintain water works, and to acquire in any lawful manner, in any county of the State, such water, lands, property rights, and riparian rights as the council of said town may deem necessary for the purpose of providing an adequate water supply for the said town, and of piping and conducting the same; to lay, erect and maintain all necessary mains and service lines, either within or without the corporate limits of said town, for the distribution of water to its customers and consumers, both within and without the corporate limits of said town, and to charge and collect water rents thereon; to erect and maintain all necessary dams, pumping stations and other works in connection therewith; to make reasonable rules and regulations for promoting the purity of its water supply and for protecting the same from pollution; and for this purpose to exercise full police powers and sanitary control over all land comprised within the limits of the water shed tributary to any such water supply wherever such land 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 liable to impair the purity thereof; and to carry out the powers herein granted, the said town may exercise within the State all powers of eminent domain provided by the laws of this State. (3) To collect and dispose of sewage, offal, ashes, garbage, carcasses of dead animals and other refuse, and to make reasonable charges therefor; to acquire and operate reduction or any other plants for the utilization or destruction of such materials, or any of them; to contract or regulate the collection and disposal thereof and to require and regulate the collecting and disposal thereof. (4) To inspect, test, measure and weigh any commodities or articles of consumption or use within the town; to establish, regulate, license and inspect weights, meters, measures and scales. (5) To license and regulate the holding and location of shows, circuses, public exhibitions, carnivals, or other similar shows or fairs, or prohibit the holding of same, or any of them within the town, or within one mile thereof. (6) To construct, maintain, regulate and operate public improvements of all kinds, including municipal and other buildings, armories, sewage disposal plants, jails, comfort stations, markets and all buildings and structures necessary or appropriate for the use of proper operation of the various departments of the town; and to acquire by condemnation or otherwise all lands, riparian and other rights and easements necessary for such improvements, or any of them; and, either within or without the town, to construct, maintain, or aid therein, roads and bridges to any property owned by the said town, and situated beyond the corporate limits thereof, and to acquire land necessary for the aforesaid uses by condemnation or otherwise. (7) To establish, impose and enforce the collection of water and sewage rates, and rates and charges for public utilities or other service, products or conveniences operated, rented or furnished by the town; and to assess or cause to be assessed, after reasonable notice to the owner or owners, water and sewage rates and charges directly against the owner or owners of the buildings, or against the tenant or tenants, and in event such rates and charges shall be assessed against a tenant, then the council may require of such tenant a deposit of such reasonable amount as it may prescribe before furnishing such service to such tenant. (8) To establish, construct and maintain satisfactory sewers, necessary lines and systems, and to require the abutting property owners to connect therewith, and to establish, construct, maintain and operate sewage disposal plants and to acquire by condemnation, or otherwise, within or without the town, all lands, rights-of-way, riparian or other rights and easements necessary for the purposes aforesaid, and to charge, assess and collect reasonable fees, rentals, easements, or costs of service for connection with and using the same. (9) To grant franchise for public utilities in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and general laws; provided, however the town shall at any time have the power to construct, own, operate, manage, sell, encumber, or otherwise dispose of, whether within or without the town, any and all public utilities for the town, and to sell the services thereof any existing franchises to the contrary notwithstanding. (10) To compel the abatement and removal of nuisances within the town, or upon property owned by the town beyond its limits, at the expense of the person or persons causing the same, or of the owner or occupant of the grounds or premises whereon the same may be, and to collect said expenses by suit or motion, or by distress and sale; to require all lands, lots and other premises within the town to be kept clean and sanitary and free from stagnant water, weeds, filth and unsightly deposits, or to make them so at the expense of the owners and occupants thereof, and to collect said expenses by suit or motion, or by distress and sale; to regulate or prevent slaughter houses, or other noisome or offensive businesses within the said town, the keeping of hogs, or other animals, poultry or fowl 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 town; to compel the abatement of smoke and dust and prevent unnecessary noise; to regulate the location of stables and the manner in which they shall be constructed and kept; to regulate the location, construction, operation and maintenance of billboards, signs, advertising and generally to define, prohibit, abate, suppress and prevent all things detrimental to the health, morals, aesthetic sensibilities, safety, convenience and welfare of the inhabitants of the town; and to require all owners or occupants of property having sidewalks in front thereof to keep the same clean and sanitary and free from all weeds, fifth, unsightly deposits, ice and snow, and any obstruction. (11) To direct the location of all buildings for storing explosives or combustible substances; to regulate the sale and use of gunpowder, nitroglycerine, fireworks, kerosene oil or other like material; and to regulate the exhibition of fireworks, the discharge of firearms and the making of bonfires within the said town. (12) To provide for the preservation of the general health of
the inhabitants of said town (13) To prevent fowls and animals being kept, or running at large, in the town, or any thickly populated portion thereof. (14)
§8. Additional provisions. (1) In addition to the aforementioned powers, the Town of Clintwood shall have all powers conferred upon towns under the Constitution of Virginia and all other laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia. (2) If any clause, sentence, paragraph or part of this act shall for any reason be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, said judgment shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remainder of said act, but shall be confined in its operation to the part of the act directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered. |