FREDERICKSBURG, VA.:
PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL
1899
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An Act entitled "An Act for Incorporating the Town of Fredericksburg, in the County of Spotsylvania."--Passed Session, 1781.
Be it enacted, That it shall be lawful for the freeholders and housekeepers, who shall have been resident in the said town three months next preceding such election, to meet in some convenient place, in the said town, annually. on the third Monday in March, and then and there nominate and elect, by ballot, twelve fit and able men, being freeholders and inhabitants of the town, to serve as Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen and Common Councilmen for the same, and the persons so elected shall within one week after their election, proceed to choose, by ballot, out of their own body, one Mayor, one Recorder, and four Aldermen, and the remaining six shall be Common Councilmen, whose several authorities as Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen and Common Councilmen, shall continue until the third Monday in March, in the year succeeding, and until others shall be qualified in their stead and no longer, unless where elected. That the Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen and Councilmen, so elected, and their successors, shall and are hereby made a body corporate and politic, by the name of Mayor and Commonalty of the Town of Fredericksburg, and by that name to have perpetual succession, with capacity to purchase, receive and possess lands and tenements, goods and chattels, either in fee or any lesser estate therein, and the same to rive, grant, let, sell or assign again, and to plea and be impleaded, prosecute and defend all causes and complaints, actions, real and personal and mixt, to have one common seal and perpetual succession. That the person who shall be first elected Mayor of the said town shall, within one week after his election, take an oath or make solemn affirmation before a justice of the quorum in the commission of the peace for the
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said County of Spotsylvania, for the due and faithful execution of his office; and every succeeding Mayor shall be qualified to his office before the Mayor for the time being; and every Recorder, Alderman and Common Councilman shall take the like oath, or make the like affirmation, with respect to their office, before the Mayor for the time being; but no person shall hold the office of Mayor for more than one year in any two years: Provided, nevertheless, Where a vacancy shall have happened in the office of Mayor within the year. the person elected for the remainder of that year, may be elected again at the next general election, and until another shall be elected and qualified in his stead.
And be it enacted, That the Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen for the time being, are hereby declared and constituted Justices of the Peace within the limits of the said town; which limits shall extend to low-water mark on the northwest side of Rappahannock river, and half a mile without and around the other limits of the said town, and have the like jurisdiction in all cases whatsoever originating within the limits aforesaid, as the Justices of the County Courts now have. That the Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen, or any four of them, (the Mayor or Recorder being one), shall have power to hold a Court of Hustings on the third Monday in every month, and hold pleas in all cases whatsoever originating within the limits before described, in the same manner as the County Courts may do; to have the sole power of licensing tavern-keepers, and settling their rates; to appoint a sergeant, who shall have the power of a sheriff, constable, and other necessary officers of Court, and Surveyors of the streets and highways, and to settle and allow reasonable fees allowed the like officers in the County Courts: Provided, That the said officers shall take an oath of office before the said Court of Hustings, before they shall be allowed to act; and that the Sergeant shall moreover give bond and security for the due performance of his office, which bond shall be made payable to the Mayor for the time being, and his successors, and may be put in suit by the party grieved, in like manner as sheriff's bonds; and provided always, that in civil cases the Court of Hustings shall not have jurisdiction where the demand shall exceed one thousand pounds of crop tobacco, or the value thereof in money at the time of entering the action, unless both parties shall be inhabitants of the town at the time of suing out the first process in the suit.
And be it further enacted, That the Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen and Common Councilmen shall have power to erect work-houses, houses of correction, prisons and other public buildings for the benefit of the town, and to make by-laws and ordinances for the regulation and good government of the said town, and
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to assess the inhabitants and all property within the actual bounds of the said town for the charges of repairing the streets:
Provided, That such by laws and ordinances shall not be repugnant to, or inconsistent with, the laws and Constitution of the Commonwealth; and the Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen and Common Councilmen shall have power to hold, and keep within the said town, two market days, (the one on Wednesday, the other on Saturday), in every week, and, from time to time, appoint a clerk of the market, who shall have assize of bread, wine, wood and other things, and generally to do and perform all things belonging to the office of the clerk of the market within the said town. And every person to be elected to any office as aforedirected, and refusing to undertake and execute the same, shall pay the fines following, that is to say: the Mayor, fifty pounds; Recorder, forty pounds; Aldermen, thirty pounds: Common Councilmen. twenty five pounds; Sergeant, one hundred pounds; Constable, fifty pounds; Clerk of the Hustings Court and Clerk of the Market, each, fifty pounds; Surveyors of the streets or roads, thirty pounds, each, to be imposed by the judgment of the said Court of Hustings for the use of the town, and levied by execution against the goods and chattels of the offender. And in case of misconduct in the office of Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen and Common Councilmen, or either of them, the others, being seven at least, shall have power to remove the offender; and, as to all other officers, the power first appointing shall or may at pleasure, revoke. And in case of vacancy in the office of Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen and Common Councilmen, the vacancy shall be filled up in the following manner: the Recorder shall succeed the Mayor; the eldest Alderman the Recorder, and so on, according to priority, to be reckoned by the number of votes at the last election; and if a vacancy shall happen among the Common Councilmen, his place shall be filled from the body of the freeholders within the town, by ballot of the Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen and Common Councilmen.
And be it further enacted, That the Mayor, Recorder, and two of the Aldermen shall have power, so often as they find occasion to summon a council of the said town, which shall consist of the Mayor, Recorder, two Aldermen and four Common Councilmen at least; that no law, order or regulation shall be binding and valid, nor shall the same be revoked or altered, or fine imposed for a breach thereof, unless seven members concur therein.
And be it further enacted, That all the property, real and personal, now held and possessed by the Trustees of the said Town of Fredericksburg, in law or equity, or in trust, for the
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use and benefit of the inhabitants thereof. and particularly the charitable donation of Archibald McPherson, deceased, now vested in the Trustees of the said town, in trust, for the education of poor children, shall be and the same are hereby, transferred and vested in the Mayor and Commonalty of the said town, to and for the same uses, intents and purposes, as the Trustees for the said town now hold the same, any former law, or clause or devise in the said Archibald McPherson's will to the contrary notwithstanding. And in all courts of law and equity, this Act shall be construed, taken and held most beneficially and favorably for the said Corporation.
AN AMENDATORY ACT --Passed Session, 1782.
And be it further enacted, That the jurisdiction of the Court of Hustings, in the town of Fredericksburg shall extend one mile without and around the former limits of the said town, on the south side of Rappahannock river, mid shall have power to hold pleas in all cases originating within the limits before described, in like manner, and under such limitations, as are directed and prescribed by the Act for incorporating the said town. That the Court of Hustings, in the said Town of Fredericksburg, shall be, and is hereby constituted, a Court of Record, and as such, to receive probate of wills and deeds, and grant administrations in as full and ample manner as the county courts, by law, can or may do: Provided always, and be it further enacted, That no will shall be admitted to proof or record in the said court, nor shall the said court grant administration unless the testator or intestate, as the case may be, was resident within the limits of the jurisdiction of the said court at the time of his or her death; nor shall any deed, whereby lands are conveyed, be admitted to proof or record in the said court, unless such lands lie within the limits as aforesaid. The said court shall have power to appoint a person, skilled in the law, to prosecute therein, for the Commonwealth, and to allow him a reasonable salary for his services, to be levied, annually, by the Corporation, on the inhabitants within the limits of the said town, and that the said inhabitants shall hereafter be exempted from contributing towards paying any part of the salary of the attorney for the Commonwealth in the court of the said County of Spotsylvania.
An Act concerning the Election of Members of the Court of Hustings, and Common Hall of Fredericksburg.--Passed December 24, 1806.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That on the day appointed by law for the next annual election of members of
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the Common Hall of the Town of Fredericksburg, the persons qualified to vote by law for the same, shall assemble and elect, by ballot, eight persons to act as Justices of the Peace for the said town, who shall continue in office during good behavior, any three of whom shall have power to hold a Court of Hustings at the same time and under the same regulations as is now prescribed by law, except in cases of courts for the examination or trial of free persons or slaves charged with felonies, in which cases five of the Justices aforesaid shall be requisite to constitute a court. The said court to have the same powers and jurisdiction as heretofore, and the said Justices to have the same rights and powers as were heretofore granted by law to the Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen of the said town; with this exception, however, that they shall not act as members of the Common Hall, nor be authorized to lay any tax for the support of a watch.
And be it further enacted, That on the day aforesaid, and on the same day in every year thereafter, the persons qualified To vote as before mentioned, shall elect, in manner aforesaid, twelve persons to act as Common Councilmen of the said town, who may continue in office until the next annual election of Common Councilmen, and until others shall be qualified in their stead, and shall have and exercise all the powers and duties heretofore granted to, and exercised by, the Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen and Common Councilmen of the said town, in Common Hall assembled.
The Common Council of the said town, in Common Hall assembled, shall elect one of its members to act as Mayor and another as Recorder. The Mayor shall preside at its meetings, and sign the proceedings thereof; and when from any cause he shall be absent, the Recorder shall preside in his stead.
The Mayor, or in his absence, the Recorder, or any two members of the Common Hall, shall have power, so often as they find occasion, to summon a Common Hall of the said town. In future, seven members shall be sufficient to hold a meeting of the Common Hall.
Vacancies which may happen in the court of the said town shall be supplied in the same manner that such vacancies in the county courts are supplied; and vacancies which may happen in the Common Hall shall be supplied as heretofore. The qualifications which entitle persons to vote for, or be elected members of, the Court of Hustings or Common Hall, shall remain unaltered by this Act.
This Act shall be in force from and after the first day of March next.
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An Act to amend the Charter of the Corporation of Fredericksburg.--Passed March 5, 1821.
WHEREAS, it appears there are great defects and imperfections in the original Act, incorporating the Town of Fredericksburg, and the several Acts amendatory thereof, for remedy whereof-
Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That the Mayor of the said town shall annually be appointed in the mode now prescribed by law, except that he may be chosen either from the Council, or from the, body of the citizens; and when he shall be taken from the Council, the vacancy occasioned thereby shall be filled by the Council. The said Mayor shall be re-eligible from year to year without limitation, and shall keep an office in the said town for the transaction of business, and shall be the keeper of the Seal of the Corporation; he shall, at all times, when the Hustings Court shall not be in session, perform the duties of Justice of the Peace; those duties may, nevertheless, be discharged by any other justice of the said Corporation. The said Mayor shall, moreover, have the superintendence and control of the officers of police and the night watch, according to the laws and ordinances now in force, or which may hereafter be enacted by the Council.
Be it further enacted, That if the person who may be appointed Mayor, pursuant to the foregoing section, shall omit or fail, from any cause, to qualify to his appointment for the space of ten days after his election; or if, after his election, he shall die or resign, them, and in all such events, the said Council may, and it is hereby declared to be their duty, as soon thereafter as they may see fit, to elect some other person in his stead, and may proceed to make a new election from time to time, whenever, for the causes aforesaid, or any of them, it shall become necessary.
And be it further enacted, That when, from sickness or other cause, the said Mayor shall be unable to perform the duties of his office, or in case of his unavoidable absence front town, his duties shall devolve upon, and be discharged by, the Recorder, who shall, in such cases, possess and exercise all the powers and the authority of the Mayor.
And be it further enacted, That the Mayor shall henceforth receive for his services a compensation, to be fixed by the Common Council, which shall not be increased or diminished during the time for which he shall be elected to office, which shall be paid out of the funds of the Corporation, in aid of which a tax may be imposed on his official acts.
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Be it further enacted, That the Court of Hustings of the said Corporation shall remain as it is now constituted by law, except that the said Mayor shall preside in the said Court, and in his absence, the Recorder. The said court shall have complete jurisdiction to high-water mark on the opposite side of the Rappahannock river; and in all respects the jurisdiction shall remain as heretofore.
And be it further enacted, That the citizens of the said town shall hereafter be exempted from the payment of levies to the County of Spotsylvania.
And be it farther enacted, That the Mayor, Recorder and Common Council shall have full power, and they are hereby authorized, to assess a tax on the inhabitants and property within the actual limits of the said town, for the purpose of repairing streets, and such other expenses and charges as to them may seem necessary and proper, and for the improvement, convenience and well-being of the town.
And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the said Mayor, Recorder and Common Council, and they are hereby authorized and empowered, to provide a sufficient night-watch for the protection and safety of the said town; and for the better execution of this duty, the power and authority now exercised by field officers of the militia, concerning patrols, shall hereafter be vested in, and exercised by, the said Mayor, Recorder and Common Council, over the militia of the said town, who shall hereafter be exempt from patrol duty beyond the limits of the Corporation. And,
WHEREAS, the true location of the streets of the said town has become uncertain, from want of the permanent marks ascertaining the boundary thereof-
Be it therefore enacted, That John W. Green, John Mundell, George Cox, Silas Wood and David Briggs be appointed commissioners, any three of whom may act, for the purpose of surveying and locating the streets of the said town, according existing laws, and such authentic ancient surveys as may have been made pursuant to law.
It shall be the duty of said commissioners to ascertain and locate the said streets by metes and bounds, making such alterations therein as they may find expedient, with the assent of the proprietors of lots and lands, which may be affected by such alteration, but not otherwise: and to mark the boundaries or the streets by stones, or other permanent limits; and to report a plan thereof, and of the town, with the lots properly numbered, with explanatory notes, to the Mayor, Recorder and Common Council of the said town; which, if approved by them, shall forever thenceforth be taken as the authentic plan of the said town, and be binding on all persons whatsoever;
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but if, in making such survey, it shall be found that any house has been built, wholly or in part, on any street, such house shall not be considered as a nuisance or illegal obstruction of such street; but if such house shall, at any time, perish or be destroyed, it shall not be again rebuilt so as to encroach upon or obstruct such street.
And be it further enacted, That all Acts, and parts of Acts, coming within the purview of this Act, shall be, and the same are hereby, repealed,
This Act shall commence and be in force from and after the passage thereof.
An Act concerning the Corporation of Fredericksburg.--Passed February 11, 1829.
Be it enacted, That hereafter it shall be lawful for the Mayor and Recorder of the said town to take the oath of office before any Judge of the General Court, or Justice of the Peace, who shall certify the same to the Hustings Court of Fredericksburg, to be entered upon the proceedings thereof.
This Act shall be in force from and after the passing thereof,
An Act extending the Corporate Limits of the Town of Fredericksburg.-Passed March 28, 1851.
1. The corporate limits of the Town of Fredericksburg, in the County of Spotsylvania, as heretofore established by law, shall be, and the same are hereby, extended and enlarged, so as to include, within the same, so much land as lies within the boundary line, described and proposed by the report of Joseph Sanford, John Minor and John Pritchard, a committee appointed by the Common Council of the Corporation of Fredericksburg, to inquire into the expediency of extending the limits of said town, which report was adopted by said Council, but, for greater certainty, more particularly set out and described by metes and bounds, bearings and distances, in a survey and plat made by William Slaughter, dated the tenth day of December, eighteen hundred and fifty, and returned with said report, By the said plat the said town, as enlarged by the Act of seventeen hundred and fifty-nine, is described by the letters E, F, G, H. The line hereby adopted and made the boundary of said town by this Act, is described by the letters A, B, C, D. The said plat is to be filed in the Clerk's Office of the Corporation Court of Fredericksburg, and shall be held as evidence of the boundary of said town
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as hereby extended and enlarged. And the said land so taken into the limits, and included within the boundaries of said town, shall be, and the same is hereby, made a part of the Town of Fredericksburg, and subject to the same by-laws, rules and regulations, as if the same had been included within the original limits thereof, and shall be subject to the provisions and enactments of all such Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia as have, from time to time, been passed for or concerning the said town and its inhabitants since the same was established as a town.
2. That the proprietors of the lands and lots hereby added to the Town of Fredericksburg, and the persons now or after residing upon or occupying the same, and all persons now or hereafter living within the limits hereby established, shall be entitled to and enjoy all the rights and privileges, and be subject to the same by-laws, rules and regulations, and to the same or like fines, penalties and forfeitures and taxes in relation to the aforesaid lands and lots, and also in relation to their persons and personal property, as persons residing upon or owning or occupying lauds and lots, and other property, or residing within the original or former limits of said town of Fredericksburg: Provided, however, That such liability shall not extend to slaves or other personal property usually employed in farming operations without the limits of said town, though found within the same.
3. That so soon after the taking effect of the above section of this Act as practical, Hugh S. Scott, William S. Barton, John James Chew, Joseph Sanford and John Pritchard, who are hereby appointed commissioners for the purpose, any three or more of whom may act, shall locate and lay out streets as they may deem proper, through and around the land hereby annexed to the original limits of the Town of Fredericksburg, determining the width thereof; and the said commissioners shall return a report of their said action; together with a plat or plats of the streets so located and laid out by them, to the Common Council of the Town of Fredericksburg, which report and plat or plats, together with a copy of the survey of the limits of the Town of Fredericksburg hereby established, shall be delivered by the Common Council of said town, attested by the Recorder, to the Clerk of the Corporation Court of Fredericksburg, to be, by him, preserved and kept among the records of his office; Provided, nevertheless, That none of the streets so laid out shall be actually opened unless the Common Council of said Town of Fredericksburg shall judge it expedient that they should be opened. In, the event of its being considered expedient by the said Common Council to open any of the said streets so located, unless the owner or owners
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of the land through which said street or streets pass shall relinquish his or her or their claim for damages, the Common Council of said town shall pay to such owner or owners such damages as may be adjudged to him or her or them, by three disinterested freeholders of the County of Spotsylvania, thereto appointed and commissioned by the County Court of Spotsylvania, who shall be first duly sworn faithfully to execute the duty required of them: Provided, however, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the owners of land within the corporate limits of said town from opening such streets as they may deem proper upon their own lands,
Be it further enacted, That hereafter it shall not be necessary that either the Mayor or Recorder of the Corporation of Fredericksburg shall preside in the Corporation Court thereof, in order to form a Court, but that it shall be lawful for any three of the Justices to hold a Court for said Corporation, except in cases of Courts for the examination of a trial of free persons or slaves, charged with felonies, in which case any five of the Justices of said Corporation shall be requisite to constitute a court.
This Act shall be in force from its passage.
An Act amending an Act, entitled "An Act extending the Corporate Limits of the Town of Fredericksburg," passed March 28th, 1851, so as to Define with more Certainty the Extended Boundaries thereof.--Passed May 7, 1852.
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That the first section of the Act, entitled "An Act extending the corporate limits of the Town of Fredericksburg," passed March the twenty eighth, eighteen hundred and fifty-one, shall be, and the same is hereby, repealed, and the following substituted therefore:
2. The corporate limits of the Town of Fredericksburg, in the County of Spotsylvania, as heretofore established by law shall be, and the same are hereby, extended and enlarged, as to include within the same so much land as lies within the boundary line particularly set out and described by metes and bounds, bearings and distances, in a survey and plat made by William Slaughter, dated the tenth day of December, eighteen hundred and fifty, and heretofore deposited in the Clerk's Office of the Corporation Court of said town. By the same plat the said town, as enlarged by the Act of seventeen hundred and fifty-nine, is described by the letters E, F, G, H, the line hereby adopted and made the boundary line of said town by this Act, is described by the letters A, B, C, D. The said plat is to be filed in the Clerk's Office of the Corporation
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Court of Fredericksburg, and shall be held as evidence of the boundary of said town as hereby extended and enlarged. And the said land, so taken into the limits, and included within the boundaries of said town, shall be, and the same is hereby, made a part of the Town of Fredericksburg, and subject to the same laws, rules and regulations, as if the same had been included within the original limits thereof, and shall be subject to the provisions and enactments of all such Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia, as have, from time to time been passed for and concerning the said town and its inhabitants since the same was established as a town.
3. This Act shall be in force from its passage.
An Act authorizing the Collection of Corporation Taxes on Real Estate, in the Town of Fredericksburg. --Passed January 30, 1858.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That the Council of the Town of Fredericksburg shall have authority to require to be sold all real estate, within the Corporation, returned delinquent, for the non-payment of taxes and interest, on which shall not have been paid before the day of sale, and may make such regulations for effecting such sale, and collecting such taxes, interest and charges of sale, as to them may seen expedient. If, however, no such sale be authorized or required, the taxes assessed upon such real estate, for the benefit of said city, shall remain a lien thereon, bearing interest at the rate of ten per centum per annum, from and after the expiration of thirty days from the time when the same shall have been collectable until the same be fully paid.
In all cases in which any tax assessed upon real estate for the benefit of said city, shall be paid, in whole or in part, by the tenant, or out of his or her property, he or she shall be entitled to deduct the same out of the accruing rent, or to recover the amount, so paid, from the owner of real estate, unless it shall otherwise be specially agreed.
In every case of non-residents, where the real property, subject to the tax levied, shall be vacant, and the proprietor thereof shall have no property within the Corporation subject to distress, and sufficient to raise the tax due, it shall be lawful for the officer appointed to collect such tax, in the name of the Corporation, to recover the amount of the tax due from such person or persons, by motion, in a summary way, before any court within this Commonwealth, ten days' notice of such motion being given to the person or persons chargeable with the amount of such tax.
This Act shall be in force from its passage.
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An Act extending the Corporate Limits of the Town of Fredericksburg. --Passed March 15, 1861.
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That the corporate limits of the Town of Fredericksburg, in the County of Spotsylvania, as heretofore established by law, shall be, and they are hereby, extended and enlarged, so as to include within the same so much land belonging to the Fredericksburg Water Power Company, as lies within the following boundaries, viz-
Beginning at a point 67 feet N.64½°E. from the northeast corner-stone of the present boundary of said town; and running thence up the Rappahannock river 1250 feet to a stone; thence S.58½°W. 466 feet to a stone; thence S.13¼°W. 377 feet to a stone; thence S.35½°E. 608 feet to a stone; thence S.38¾°W. 285 feet to a stone; thence S.25½°E. 144 feet to a stone in a line with the present corporation line; thence with said line N. 64½°E. 680 feet to the point of beginning, and particularly set out and described in a survey and plat made by Carter M. Braxton, dated the twenty third day of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, and deposited in the Clerk's Office of the Corporation Court of said town. And the said land so taken into the limits of said town shall be, and the same is hereby, made a part of the Town of Fredericksburg, and subject to the same by-laws, rules and regulations as if the same had been included within the original limits thereof; and shall be subject to the provisions and enactments of all such Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia as have from time to time been passed for and concerning the said town and its inhabitants, since the same was established as a town.
2. This Act shall be in force from its passage.
An Act amending the Charter of the Town of Fredericksburg. Passed January 8, 1862.
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That the police officers of the Town of Fredericksburg shall be conservators or the peace in said town; and in all criminal cases shall have the same powers, perform the same duties, be entitled to the same fees, and be subject to the same penalties that are prescribed by law to constables.
2. This Act shall be in force from its passage.
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An Act to amend the Charter of the Town of Fredericksburg. Approved March 23, 1871.
l. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That for the better government and well-ordering of the Town of Fredericksburg, it shall be lawful for the residents thereof, qualified to vote for all officers, elective by the people, under the Constitution of this Commonwealth, to elect by ballot, on the fourth Thursday in May, preceding the expiration of their term of office, the following officers: that is to say, one Mayor, who shall hold his office for two years, twelve Councilmen, who shall hold their offices for one year; one City Sergeant, who shall hold his office for two years; one Commissioner of the Revenue, who shall hold his office for two years, and one City Treasurer, who shall hold his office for three years, from the first day of July succeeding their election. Each of the said officers shall have the qualifications required by the Constitution of this State for any elective office therein, and shall, when elected and qualified, as hereinafter provided, have the powers, perform the duties, and be subject to the liabilities and responsibilities prescribed by the general laws of this State, by this Act, and the by-laws and ordinances of said town.
2. The persons so elected shall, before they enter upon the duties of their offices, respectively, take an oath, or make solemn affirmation, as prescribed by law, before some one Authorized to administer oaths, well and truly, faithfully and impartially to do, execute and perform the duties of their several offices, according to the best of their skill and judgment and file a certificate thereof with the Clerk of the Council: Provided, That said oath may be taken, and the fact recorded, before the Council at any meeting, and may be administered by the Mayor or other officer then presiding.
3. That should it so happen that an election of officers as above named, be not made at the time prescribed for an election, then such an election may be ordered by the Corporation Court, upon the petition of fifteen or more of the qualified voters of said town, ten days' public notice of the time and place of election being given: and, provided, the list of registered voters, residing within the said town, shall be previously revised, as prescribed by law. All officers elected or appointed, under the provisions of this Act, shall hold and perform the duties of their respective offices until their successors, or a legal quorum thereof, are elected and qualified.
4. The Mayor shall preside at the meetings of the Council or in his absence, the Recorder, or, in the absence of both,
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one of the Councilmen chosen by a majority of the Councilmen then present. The Mayor shall, in case of tie, give the casting vote upon all questions to be determined by the Council. He shall be the chief executive officer of the town; shall be clothed with all the powers and authority of a justice of the peace in civil as well as criminal matters arising within the corporate limits; shall take care that the by-laws and ordinances of the town are faithfully executed, and shall exercise all the powers and duties now vested, or which may be hereafter vested, in Mayors of towns of five thousand inhabitants or less. He shall have control of the police of the town, and may appoint special police officers whenever he deems it necessary; shall have power to issue process, hear and determine all prosecutions, cases and controversies arising under any by-laws and ordinances of the town; to impose fines when authorized by said by-laws and ordinances, and issue executions for their collection, saving to the parties the right to appeal to the Corporation Court, which appeal, if the fine or other matter or thing shall exceed the sum of ten dollars, shall be taken in the same time and manner, and upon the same terms, that appeals are now taken by law from judgments of a single Justice of the Peace.
5. The Council shall have power and authority, within the said town, to establish markets, and regulate the same; to alter or improve streets, alleys, walks and bridges, and keep the same in order; to provide for the lighting of the streets, and the protection and repair of street lamps and lamp posts; to provide against and prevent accidents by fire; and for this purpose, to establish and organize fire companies, purchase engines, and provide such wells or cisterns as may be necessary, to supply the same with water for the purpose of extinguishing fires, to prevent and punish, by reasonable fines, the practice of discharging firearms, and running horses in said town; to license and regulate shows and other exhibitions, and the same to tax, in such reasonable extent and manner, as may be expedient and lawful; to lay off public grounds, and provide and take care of public buildings, grounds and cemeteries, and to establish proper regulations for the management of such cemeteries, and charges for the use or sale of lots therein, for the purpose of providing for the decent maintenance of the same; to conduct and distribute water into and through said town; to adopt rules for its own government, and the transaction of its business; to define the powers, prescribe the duties, and fix the term of service and compensation of its appointees, necessary for conducting the affairs of said town, not otherwise provided for by this Act; to fix the salary
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of the Mayor, and all other officers, but no compensation shall be allowed to any member of the Council, except he be acting as Clerk for the Council; and, finally, to make all such by-laws and regulations (not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the State or of the United States,) as they may deem necessary and proper for the good government of said town, and the same to enforce, by reasonable fines and penalties not exceeding, for any one offence, the sum of ten dollars, to be recovered, with costs, in the name of the Corporation of Fredericksburg, under the judgment and order of the Mayor, saving appeal, as herein provided, to the Corporation Court, or in default of payment of such fines, the offender may be imprisoned in the town jail not more than thirty days.
6. The Council shall have power to provide a revenue for the town, and appropriate the same, and for that purpose the Commissioner of the Revenue shall make an annual assessment of taxable persons and property within the town, such as is, or may hereafter be, subject to taxation by the revenue laws of this Commonwealth; and also on dogs and other animals running at large.
7. Whenever anything for which a State license is required, is to be done in said town, the Council may require a town license therefor, and may impose a tax thereon for the use of the town. The Council may require, from the person so licensed, a bond, with sureties, payable to said town, in such penalties, and with such conditions as it may think proper and reasonable, and may revoke such license at any time if the condition of said bond be broken.
8. All fines, penalties and amercements, and other money received and raised by virtue of this Act, and not otherwise directed to be applied, shall be at the disposal of the Council, for the use and benefit of said town.
9. That in all suits or prosecutions arising under any by-law, rule or regulation, made by the Council of the said town in manner aforesaid, when the constitutionality or validity of such by-law, rule or regulation shall be contested, appeals shall be from the judgment of the Corporation Court of said town to the Supreme Court of Appeals.
10. That anything in the existing Act for incorporating the Town of Fredericksburg, and the Acts amendatory thereof, in conflict with this Act, be, and the same is hereby, repealed.
11. This Act shall be in force from its passage.
(2)
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An Act to amend and re-enact Section Six of an Act, approved March 23, 1871, to amend the Charter of Fredericksburg. Approved March 15, 1872.
SEC. 6. The Council shall have power to provide a revenue for the town, and appropriate the same and for that purpose the Commissioner of the Revenue shall make an annual assessment of taxable persons and property within the town, such as is or may hereafter be subject to taxation by the revenue laws of this Commonwealth, and, also, on dogs and other animals.
An Act to authorize the City of Fredericksburg to provide for supplying the city with Water.--Approved March, 28, 1879.
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That notwithstanding any prohibition against the increase of the debt of the City of Fredericksburg contained in the charter of said city, which is to be voted upon at the election in May next, or in any other Act of Assembly, it shall be lawful for said City of Fredericksburg to provide for supplying said city, or the inhabitants thereof, with a suitable and adequate supply of water, by leasing, or the purchase and enlargement or improvement of suitable water-works, or the erection of the same; and to that end to borrow money and issue and negotiate the bonds of said city for the same to the extent of thirty thousand dollars.
2. Said bonds shall be known and designated as Fredericksburg water bonds; they shall be registered, or coupon bonds, as may be determined by the City Council of said city; shall be issued in such denominations, and bear such rate of interest, not exceeding seven per centum per annum, as may be determined by said Council. The principal of said bonds shall be payable thirty years after the first day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, or upon the call of said city at any time after ten years from said date, and the interest shall be, payable semi-annually; they shall bear the corporate seal of said city, shall be signed by the Mayor thereof and countersigned by the Clerk of said Council, and shall have printed on the face or back thereof the statement that they are issued
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 19
pursuant to the provisions of this Act and the ratification of the voters of said city as prescribed herein. Said bonds shall be negotiated or sold in such manner as may be prescribed by said Council, and they may be so negotiated or sold at less than par: Provided, That only so much money shall be borrowed hereunder, and such amount of said bonds issued therefor, as may be necessary for the purposes herein declared; and no money shall be borrowed, nor any of said bonds issued therefor, unless and until a plan or scheme for supplying said city with water shall be agreed upon and adopted by the Council thereof and ratified by the vote of the qualified voters of said city as hereinafter provided.
3. The control and management of such water-works shall be under the direction of said Council, to be exercised by itself or through such committees or agencies as it may adopt. And said Council shall prescribe and regulate the rates of rents to be paid for the use of water furnished by the city; may impose fines and penalties for the injury or abuse of said works or property connected therewith, or for the misuse or abuse of the water privileges furnished by said city; and may enforce and collect such fines and penalties and the water rents, by distress or otherwise, as said Council may determine.
4. The revenues derived from the water rents, and the fines and penalties collected pursuant to the third section hereof shall, after paying the running expenses of said water-works, be appropriated towards the payment, first, of the interest on the bonds herein authorized to be issued, next to providing a sinking fund for the liquidation of said bonds, and then to such objects as said Council may determine. But to provide for keeping up and running said works, and the payment of the interest and principal of said bonds, said Council shall, in aid and supplement to said revenues, levy and collect taxes on any or all subjects which it is now or may hereafter be authorized to tax; and said Council may also secure the payment of the principal and interest of said bonds by a mortgage or deed of trust upon all the works, rights and properties which may be erected, built, or acquired under this Act. The sinking fund to be provided for the liquidation of said bonds shall not be less that one per centum per annum upon the amount of said bonds outstanding.
5. For the purpose of erecting, building, enlarging or improving water-works as aforesaid, and laying the pipes there-from, said city may acquire by purchase or otherwise, and hold such real or personal property within or without said city as may be necessary therefor; and may have such lands within or without the said city necessary for such purposes condemned by proceeding before the proper tribunal having jurisdiction
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over the same, in the manner prescribed by the general laws of the State for condemning lands for other works of internal improvement.
6. After said Council shall have matured and adopted a scheme or plan for supplying said city with water as aforesaid it shall submit such scheme or plan to the qualified voters of said city, at such time and in such manner as said Council may prescribe, for their ratification or rejection. At least ten days' notice of the time and manner of such election shall be given by publication in newspapers published in said city, and handbills posted therein; and the result thereof shall be ascertained and declared in the manner to be prescribed by saw Council, and shall be proclaimed by the Mayor by publication. If at such election, three-fifths of the qualified voters of said city, who shall vote on said scheme or plan, embracing a majority of the freeholders of said city so voting thereon, shall appear to be in favor of such scheme or plan, it shall be declared ratified, otherwise it shall be declared rejected, and this Act shall be void; and such vote shall be taken within twelve months from the date of the approval of this Act, and not thereafter.
7. This Act shall be in force from its passage.
An Act to amend and re-enact the Sixth Section of an Act entitled "An Act to authorize the City of Fredericksburg to provide for supplying the city with Water, approved March 28, 1879." --Approved March 3, 1880.
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the sixth section of an Act, approved March twenty-eight eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, entitled An Act to authorize the City of Fredericksburg to provide for supplying the city with water, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:
§6. After the said Council shall have matured and adopted a scheme or plan for supplying said city with water aforesaid, it shall submit such scheme or plan to the qualified voters of said city at such time, and in such manner, as said Council may prescribe for their satisfaction or rejection. At least ten days' notice of the time and manner of such election shall be given by publication in newspapers published in said city, and handbills posted therein; and the result thereof shall be ascertained and declared in the manner to be prescribed by said Council, and shall be proclaimed by the Mayor by publication. If at such election a majority of the freeholders of said city so voting thereon shall appear to be in favor of such
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 21
scheme or plan, it shall be declared ratified, otherwise it shall be declared rejected, and this Act shall be void; and such vote shall be taken within two years from the date of the approval of this Act.
2. This Act shall be in force from its passage.
An Act to authorize the City of Fredericksburg to Issue and Negotiate Bonds to the extent of $60,000, for the purpose of supplying said city with a suitable and adequate supply of Water. --Approved February 25, 1884.
WHEREAS, pursuant to Act of Assembly, approved March twenty-eight, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, as amended by an Act approved March third, eighteen hundred and eighty, and by an Act approved April twenty-second, eighteen hundred and eighty-two, the City of Fredericksburg was authorized and empowered to provide for supplying said city with a suitable and adequate supply of water, and to that end to borrow money and issue and negotiate the bonds of said city for the same, to the extent of thirty thousand dollars; Provided, That a majority of the qualified voters, freeholders of said city, voting upon the scheme or plan submitted by the Council of said city, at an election submitting the question to them, should ratify and approve the same; and
WHEREAS, it appears that on the twenty-fourth day of May, eighteen hundred and eighty-three, at an election duly held in said city, upon the question of such scheme or plan proposed by said Council, and the appropriation and borrowing of a sum not exceeding sixty thousand dollars, and issuing the bonds of said city for the purpose to such an extent was duly submitted to, voted upon, and ratified by a majority of the freeholders of said city voting thereon; therefore,
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the said City of Fredericksburg be, and it is hereby, authorized and empowered to borrow money, and issue and negotiate the bonds of said city to the extent of sixty thousand dollars for the purposes, and in the manner prescribed, and set forth in said Act of Assembly, approved March twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, from the sections one to five, inclusive.
2. This Act shall be in force from its passage.
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An Act to amend and re-enact an Act approved March 3, 1882, entitled "An Act to authorize the Corporation of Fredericksburg to establish a Poor-House and Grounds outside of the corporation limits." --Approved January 16, 1886.
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the Act approved March three, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-two, entitled An Act to authorize the Corporation of Fredericksburg to establish a Poor-House and Ground outside of its corporate limits, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:
§1. That the Corporation of Fredericksburg be, and is hereby, authorized and empowered to establish a poor-house and grounds outside of its corporate limits, in the County of Spotsylvania, and to acquire from time to time, and hold for this purpose, such quantity of land (not exceeding fifty acres) as may be needful.
§2. Offenses committed upon said land may be prosecuted, tried and punished before the courts, justices and officials of and within said corporation as if committed within the limits of the same.
2. This Act shall be in force from its passage.
An Act to amend the Charter of the City of Fredericksburg. Approved March 1, 1886.
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the City of Fredericksburg be, and it is hereby, for all election purposes, divided into two wards as follows, to-wit: All of said city lying to the northwest of George street shall constitute and be known as the upper ward, and all of said city lying to the southeast of said George street shall constitute and be known as the lower ward.
2. There shall be elected, on the fourth Thursday in May, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, and every two years there after, six Councilmen from each ward, who shall hold their office for the term of two years from the first day of July next ensuing their election, unless sooner removed by death, resignation or other cause.
3. Vacancies in the office of Councilmen shall be filled by appointment of the Council of said city, from the qualified residents of the wards in which such vacancies occur; and the
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 23
appointees to such vacancies shall hold office for the unexpired term of the parties whose terms they fill, unless sooner removed by death, resignation, or other cause.
4. All Acts or parts of Acts in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed.
5. This Act shall be in force from its passage.
An Act to extend and declare the criminal and police jurisdiction of the Corporation Court and the Authorities of the City of Fredericksburg. --Approved March 1, 1886.
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the Corporation Court of the City of Fredericksburg shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the County Courts of the Counties of Spotsylvania and Stafford, of all offences against the Commonwealth, committed within one mile of the corporate limits of said city, as now declared or hereafter established in said respective counties.
2. The State and municipal authorities and officers of and for said city, shall have jurisdiction and authority to arrest and punish those violating the laws of the State, or ordinances of the corporation within the limits aforesaid, in like manner as if such violations occurred within the corporate limits of said city.
3. This Act shall be in force from its passage.
An Act to amend the Charter of the City of Fredericksburg. Approved March 31, 1887.
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That section two of chapter two hundred and ninety, Session Acts of eighteen hundred and eighty-five-six, entitled An Act to amend the Charter of the City of Fredericksburg, approved March the first, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, be amended and re-enacted, so as to read as follows:
§2. There shall be elected on the fourth Thursday in May, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, and every two years there after, six Councilmen and four Magistrates from each of said wards, who shall hold their office for the term of two years from the first day of July next ensuing their election, unless sooner removed by death, resignation or other cause, and the Magistrates now in office shall hold their office until their successors, who shall be elected at such general election so to be held in May, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, shall assume their duties on July first, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight.
2. This Act shall be in force from its passage.
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An Act to authorize the City of Fredericksburg to build and operate a Bridge across the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg. --Approved January 10, 1890.
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That it shall be the duty of the Mayor and Common Council of Fredericksburg, when petitioned by fifty voters of the city, one half of whom shall be freeholders, to cause a vote of said city to be taken at the next election for any of the city officers, or upon notice not to exceed thirty days, advertised by hand-bills and by publication once a week in the Fredericksburg Star and the Free Lance, upon the question of authorizing the Common Council of said city to build a bridge across the Rappahannock river at some point between Fauquier and Prussia streets of said city, with authority to condemn or purchase any rights and sites necessary therefor on either side of said river, the entire cost of building said bridge not to exceed twenty-five thousand dollars; such vote to be taken at the usual voting places in the upper and lower wards of Fredericksburg, pursuant to section twelve hundred and forty-four of the code of Virginia of eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, except that on the ballots used shall be printed or written "For the Bridge" or "Against the Bridge," instead of "For the Subscription," and "Against the Subscription," as provided by said section. If it shall appear that a majority of the qualified voters voting at the election, which shall include a majority of the freeholders so voting, are in favor of building the said bridge, then the Common Council of Fredericksburg is authorized to proceed at once to the completion of the work, and to the purchase or condemnation of the rights and sites aforesaid in the manner provided for by chapter forty-three, code of eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, for establishing roads and landings.
2. The Mayor and Common Council of Fredericksburg are authorized to issue coupon and registered bonds, and to execute a deed of trust to secure the same, and to create a loan in the name of and binding the city of Fredericksburg, for the purposes mentioned in the first section of this Act, to an amount not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars, bearing interest at a rate not to exceed six per centum per annum, redeemable in ten years and payable in thirty years, and to negotiate said bonds at a rate not lower than par and face value, said bonds to be secured by a deed of trust on said bridge and all the rights pertaining thereto; and said Common Council is hereby directed to levy an annual tax on the real and personal property of said city of Fredericksburg, not to exceed fifteen cents
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 25
on the one hundred dollars, to pay interest on the said bonds, to provide for the expense incident to operating said bridge, and to create a special sinking fund of five hundred dollars per annum to pay said bonds at maturity.
3. Said Mayor and Common Council are authorized to operate said bridge; to make said bridge a free bridge, or to charge toll at a rate not to exceed two cents each way for one foot passenger, four cents each way for every man on horseback, and two cents a wheel each way for every carriage, cart, wagon or vehicle; two cents for each horse and one cent for each head of cattle, and one and one-half cents per head for each head of sheep and hogs; or it may be made free to the citizens of Fredericksburg only; or to any portions of Stafford or King George counties upon the payment of a specific sum of money annually to the Treasurer of Fredericksburg, said sum to be agreed upon by said Common Council and by authorized parties of said portions of said counties; and said Mayor and Common Council are authorized to condemn or purchase all necessary landings on either side of said Rappahannock river rights of way over any lands or lots to any street or public road.
4. The title to said bridge and all rights in this Act mentioned shall be in the City Of Fredericksburg.
5. This Act shall be in force from its passage, and all Acts inconsistent with this Act are hereby repealed.
An Act to allow the City of Fredericksburg to supply Gas for the use of said city, and to issue Bonds of the city to effect said purpose.-- Approved March 4, 1890.
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That it shall be lawful for the City of Fredericksburg to provide for supplying said city and the inhabitants thereof with a suitable and adequate supply of gas, by leasing or by the purchase and enlargement or improvement of suitable gas works, or the erection of new gas works, for supplying the city and its inhabitants with gas, and to that end to borrow money and to issue and negotiate bonds of said city for the same to the extent of twenty-five thousand dollars.
2. Said bonds shall be known and designated as Fredericksburg gas bonds; they shall be registered or coupon bonds, as may be determined by the Common Council of said city; shall be issued in such denominations and bear such rate of interest not exceeding six per centum per annum, as may be determined by said Council. The principal of said bonds shall be payable thirty years after the first day of January, eighteen
26 ACTS OF INCORPORATION OF THE
hundred and ninety, or upon the call of said Council at any time after ten years from said date; said bonds shall bear the corporate seal of said city, shall be signed by the Mayor thereof, and countersigned by the Clerk of said Council, and shall have printed on the face or back thereof the statement that they were issued pursuant to the provisions of this Act, and the ratification by the voters of said city as prescribed herein. They shall be negotiated or sold in such manner as may be prescribed by said Council, and they may be so negotiated or sold at not less than par: Provided, That only so much money shall be borrowed hereunder, and such amount of said bonds issued therefor as may be necessary for the purposes herein declared; and no money shall be borrowed, nor any of said bonds issued therefor unless and until a plan or scheme for supplying said city with gas shall be agreed upon and adopted by the Council thereof, and ratified by the vote of the qualified voters of said city, as hereinafter provided.
3. The control and management of said gas works shall be under the direction of said Council, to be exercised by itself or through such committees or agencies as it may adopt; and said Council shall prescribe and regulate the rates of charges to be paid for the use of gas furnished by the city; may impose fines and penalties for the injury or abuse of said works, or property connected therewith, or for the abuse or waste of the gas or lights furnished by the city, and may enforce and collect such fines and penalties and the charge for gas by distress or otherwise, as said Council may determine.
4. The revenues derived from the charges for gas and the fines and penalties collected pursuant to the third section thereof, shall, after paying the running expenses of said works, be appropriated towards the payment--first, of interest on the bonds herein authorized to be issued; next, to provide a sinking fund for the liquidation of said bonds, and then to such objects as the Council may determine. But to provide for keeping up and running said works, and the payment of the interest and principal of said bonds, said Council shall, in aid and supplement of said revenues, levy and collect taxes on any or all subjects which it is now or may hereafter be authorized to tax; and said Council may also secure the payment of the principal and interest of said bonds by a mortgage or deed of trust upon all the works, rights, and properties which may be erected, built, or acquired under this Act. The sinking fund to be provided for the liquidation of said bonds shall not be less than one per centum per annum upon the amount of bonds outstanding.
5. For the purpose of erecting, building, enlarging, or improving gas works as aforesaid, and laying pipes there from,
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 27
said city may acquire, by purchase or otherwise, and hold such real and personal property within or without said city as may be necessary therefor, and may have such lands within or without said city necessary for such purposes condemned by proceedings before the proper tribunal having jurisdiction over the same in the manner prescribed by the general laws of the State for condemning lands for other works of internal improvement.
6. After said Council shall have matured and adopted a plan or scheme for supplying said city with gas as aforesaid, it shall submit such plan or scheme to the qualified voters of said city at such time and in such manner as said Council may prescribe, consistent with this Act, for their ratification or rejection; at least ten days' notice of the time and manner of such election shall be given by publication in newspapers published in said city and by hand bills posted therein; and the result thereof shall be ascertained and declared in the manner prescribed by said Council, and shall be proclaimed by the Mayor by publication. If at such election one-half of the qualified voters of said city, who shall vote on said plan or scheme embracing a majority of the freeholders of said city so voting thereon, shall appear to be in favor of said plan or scheme it shall be declared ratified, or otherwise it shall be declared rejected and this Act shall be void, and such vote shall be taken within three years from the date of the approval of this Act and not thereafter.
7. This Act shall be in force from its passage.
An Act to authorize the City Council of Fredericksburg to issue its Coupon or Registered Bonds for the purpose of constructing and improving Streets and for other purposes of Internal Improvements and benefit to the city.-- Approved February 1, 1896.
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That it shall be lawful for the Council of the City of Fredericksburg, in order to establish a system of sewerage for the said city, and for the purpose of grading, paving, curbing, macadamizing, blocking, or otherwise improving the streets of said city, and for other internal improvements, and for the purpose of assisting such enterprises within the city of a public and beneficial nature to the city as the citizens may approve, or for any one or more of said purposes, to issue coupon or registered
28 ACTS OF INCORPORATION OF THE
bonds in sums not less than one hundred dollars, to an amount not to exceed the par value of fifty thousand dollars to bear interest at a rate not to exceed five per centum per annum, payable semiannually, said bonds payable thirty years after the date of their issue, and any, or all, of said bonds shall be redeemable at the option of the City Council at any time after ten years from the date of their issue. The said bonds shall be signed by the Mayor and the City Treasurer, and attested by the Clerk of the Council, with the corporate seal of the city affixed thereto, and the coupons shall each bear the name of the City Treasurer signed thereto. The said bonds shall be exempt from any and all taxation by the said City of Fredericksburg or the City Council, and shall not be sold for less than their par value.
2. That the City Council shall not issue any bonds provided for in this Act until said Council shall have taken the sense of the qualified voters of said city as hereinafter provided for: and said Council shall not order any election under this Act until a majority of the Council have voted in favor of some definite measure or subscription, as the case may be, for the improvement of said city as contemplated by this Act, and has ascertained the proximate cost thereof, and, if the same shall relate to sewerage or street improvement, they shall also ascertain and designate the streets and squares of said city to which such improvements are to apply, and shall publish all such information, at least once a week for two weeks, before any election held under this Act, in one or more newspaper of said city for the information of the voters; and said Council may hold such election in relation to any of the object stated in the first section of this Act, as often as a majority thereof may deem the same advisable, and until the issue of the bonds herein authorized has been exhausted; provided that no improvement subscription or measure proposed by the Council which has once been rejected, at an election held under this Act, shall again be submitted to the voters of the city for their approval or rejection.
3. That when the Council has complied with the second section of this Act and made a record of the same upon its minutes, it is authorized to make an order requiring the Sergeant and the Judges of Election at such time, not less than thirty days from the date of said order, which time shall be designated therein, to open a poll and take the sense of the qualified voters of said city, whether the said Council shall make such improvement or subscription, as the case may be, as has received the approval of a majority of said Council as aforesaid. The Judges of Election, after taking an oath to faithfully perform the duties assigned them, shall open polls at the
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 29
voting places in said city, and shall conduct said election and close said polls as required by law in other elections. At said election each qualified voter, who shall approve said improvement or subscription, as the case may be, shall deposit a ballot on which is written or printed "For improvement" or "For subscription." And each voter opposed to said improvement or subscription shall deposit a ballot on which is written or printed "Against improvement" or "Against subscription," and each ballot shall be endorsed with the name of the voter, or the same shall not be valid. The Judges of Election, at the several voting places, shall immediately after the closing of the polls at each of said places count the ballots deposited, and shall, within two days after said election, make return to the Mayor or other presiding officer of said Council of the number of votes cast for the said improvement or subscription and the number of votes cast against the said improvement or subscription, as the case may be, and shall return to and deposit with the Clerk of the Corporation Court of Fredericksburg in separate sealed packages the ballots for and against the improvement or subscription; and the Council shall appoint four citizens of said city, two from each ward, who, with the Clerk of the Corporation Court, shall constitute a Board of Commissioners whose duty it shall be, within two days thereafter, to meet and, after taking an oath to faithfully perform their duty, open said packages of ballots, count the same; correct the returns, if necessary, and ascertain and report to the Council how many of said ballots were cast by freeholders, and how many by non-freeholders for and against said improvement or subscription, respectively, which said report, signed by a majority of said board, shall be entered upon the minute book of said Council,
4. If it appear by the report of the Board of Commissioners that three-fifths of the qualified voters of said city, voting upon the question, are in favor of said improvement or subscription, as the case maybe, and that said three-fifths includes a majority of the votes cast by freeholders at such election, and a majority of the registered voters of said city, the City Council of Fredericksburg is hereby authorized to enact such ordinances as may be necessary or appropriate to carry out and effectuate the provisions, and the full intent and meaning of this Act; and to issue and dispose of so many of said bonds, as may be authorized by the vote taken and reported as herein before provided.
5. That the City Council be authorized annually to levy and collect taxes sufficient to pay the interest on all bonds issued under this Act; and said Council shall provide for the payment of the principal of said bonds when the same shall
30 ACTS OF INCORPORATION OF THE
mature or become payable, and in their discretion may create a sinking fund to be applied to the redemption and payment of said bonds.
6. The funds derived from the sale of any bonds issued under this Act shall be deposited in the city treasury as a separate and special fund, and no part of the same shall be used or applied to any other purpose than that for which the same was authorized by the voters of said city as herein provided.
7. That should a system of sewerage, whether general or partial, be authorized at an election under the provisions of this Act, then the Council shall have power within the limit of the money voted for such purpose to introduce such system in the city and in the streets and alleys of said city, and to establish, build, construct and own sewers for the drainage of said city; to adopt and establish such rules and ordinances regulating the drainage and sewerage of said city, its streets and alleys, and as to the use of the same, as the City Council may deem necessary and expedient, and to enforce such rules or ordinances by the imposition of reasonable fines and penalties to be collected as other fines and penalties are collected under its charter; to make and collect reasonable charge against all persons for tapping or opening any sewer or sewers owned or controlled by said Council; and to collect and enforce the payment thereof as taxes and levies are collected and enforced by said city. and when the carrying out of the provisions of this section shall, in the judgment of the Council, require the use of any lot or part thereof, the Council is authorized to institute condemnation proceedings in the event that they shall fail to agree with the owner as to the proper compensation therefor.
8. This Act shall be in force from its passage.
An Act to authorize the Collector of City Taxes and Levies for the City of Fredericksburg to furnish a List of Real Estate delinquent for the non-payment of such taxes to the City Treasurer for sale for such taxes, and to authorize such Collector to otherwise enforce the collection of city taxes and levies in the same manner as the collection of State taxes is enforced by the Treasurer of said city. --Approved February 11, 1896.
WHEREAS, the Council of the City of Fredericksburg was authorized by an Act of the General Assembly of Virginia entitled "An Act to authorize the collection of corporation taxes on real estate in the Town of Fredericksburg," passed January thirtieth, eighteen hundred and fifty-eight, to require
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 31
the sale of all real estate within the said corporation returned delinquent for the non-payment of taxes and interest thereon, which shall not have been paid before the day of sale, and said Council was thereby authorized to make such regulations for effecting such sale and collecting such taxes, interest, and charges of sale as to them may seem expedient; and said Act declared further that if no such sale be authorized or required by said Council, the taxes assessed upon such real estate for the benefit of said city shall remain a lien thereon, bearing interest at the rate of ten per centum per annum from and after the expiration of thirty days from the time when the same shall have been collectible, until the same be fully paid; and
WHEREAS, a considerable amount of real estate within the corporation of Fredericksburg has been delinquent for the non-payment of city taxes ever since eighteen hundred and seventy-six, and no sale has been authorized or required by the Council of said city since the war; and the said taxes assessed upon said real estate for the benefit of said city still constituting a lien upon said real estate, under and by virtue of the before-mentioned Act of January thirtieth, eighteen hundred and fifty-eight:
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the City Collector of Fredericksburg, after ascertaining which of the city taxes and levies assessed on real estate in his city cannot be collected, shall, as soon as practicable in each year after the fifteenth day of June, make out a list of all real estate which is delinquent for the non-payment of the city taxes and levies thereon, and in the first list made out under this Act such City Collector shall embrace and include all real estate in the city upon which there are any unpaid taxes or levies since January first, eighteen hundred and seventy-six.
2. That such City Collector in making out the list, mentioned in the preceding section, shall conform to the requirements of section six hundred and six of the code of eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, and shall make and subscribe the Oath which the Treasurer is required to subscribe under that section.
3. That such City Collector shall deliver such list to the Treasurer of said city so soon as the same is made out and verified as required by the preceding sections of this Act, who shall receipt to said collector for such list.
4. That so soon as said list is received by the City Treasurer all the provisions of law applicable to the "second" list required by section six hundred and five of the code to be made out by the said Treasurer of said city shall apply to said list, except section six hundred and nine of the code.
32 ACTS OF INCORPORATION OF THE
5. That said list shall be embraced in the list, a copy of which is required by section six hundred and thirty-seven of the code to be delivered by the Clerk of the Corporation Court to the Treasurer of said city, for sale for the non-payment of taxes and levies thereon.
6. That for the enforcement of the collection of the city taxes and levies of said city, otherwise than by sale of real estate, the city collector is clothed with all the powers which pertain to the City Treasurer for the collection of State taxes.
7. This Act shall be in force from its passage.
An Act to add independent sections to an Act entitled "An Act to amend the Charter of the Town of Fredericksburg, approved March 23, 1871." -Approved March 3, 1896.
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the following independent sections be, and the same are, added to and made a part of an Act entitled "An Act to amend the charter of the Town of Fredericksburg, approved March twenty third, eighteen hundred and seventy-one."
(a.) The Common Council of the City of Fredericksburg shall have power to forbid any merchant, tradesman or the keeper of an inn, ordinary, bar-room or saloon, within the corporate limits of said city, from selling, bartering, giving or furnishing by themselves, or by any persons, in their employment or at their request, any spirituous or intoxicating or malt liquors to a minor without first obtaining the written authority therefor of his parent or guardian, and to impose fines and imprisonments in the city jail for the violations of such ordinances as may be made by said Council in relation thereto, additional to those prescribed by the State laws for such offences, such fines to be not less than twenty dollars nor more than two hundred dollars, and such imprisonment to be for not less than ten days nor over two months for each offence: and to require the offender upon conviction of such offence to enter into a recognizance with surety in a penalty of three hundred dollars to be of good behavior for one year.
(b.) The said Council shall have the power to forbid the opening of any bar-room, saloon, or other place for the sale of intoxicating or malt liquors, within the corporate limits of said city, and to forbid the selling, bartering, giving or furnishing any intoxicating or malt liquors in any bar-room, saloon or other place within said corporate limits, between twelve o'clock on any Saturday night and sunrise of the succeeding Monday morning, and to impose fines and imprisonment in the city jail for the violation of such ordinances as
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 33
may be made by said Council in relation thereto, additional to those prescribed by the State laws for such offences, such fines to be not less than twenty dollars nor more than two hundred dollars, and such imprisonment to be not less than ten days nor over two months for each offence, and to require the offender upon conviction of such offence to enter into a recognizance with surety in the penalty of three hundred dollars to be of good behavior for one year.
(c) The right of appeal to the Corporation Court of said city is given to any person convicted by the judgment of the Mayor of said city of offences under the provisions of the above sections a and b.
(d.) In every case of conviction under the ordinances of said Common Council made in relation to the offences mentioned the above sections a and b, the Mayor shall certify the said convictions to the Judge of said Corporation Court with the names of the witnesses who testified in each case.
(e.) This Act shall be in force from its passage.
An Act authorizing the City of Fredericksburg to issue Bonds to redeem what are known as her Gas and Bridge Bonds. Approved February 18, 1898.
WHEREAS the City of Fredericksburg did, under and by virtue of an Act entitled "An Act entitled an Act to allow the City of Fredericksburg to supply gas for the use of said city, and to issue bonds of the city to effect said purpose, approved March fourth, eighteen hundred and ninety," issue bonds to the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars, known as "gas bonds;" and
WHEREAS said city did, under and by virtue of an Act entitled "An Act to authorize the City of Fredericksburg to build and operate a bridge across the Rappahannock river at Fredericksburg, approved January tenth, eighteen hundred and ninety," issue bonds to the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars, known as "bridge bonds;" and
WHEREAS the aforesaid Acts authorized said city to redeem said bonds in ten years, and the time is approaching for the exercise of said power of redemption; therefore,
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Fredericksburg shall be, and they are hereby, clothed with the power to issue bonds of said city to an amount not to exceed fifty thousand dollars, bearing interest not exceeding six per centum per annum, and payable at such periods as the said Council may elect, said bonds to be registered or coupon bonds, convertible
(3)
34 ACTS OF INCORPORATION OF THE
as said Council may elect. The said Council shall use the bonds so issued for the purpose of redeeming the aforesaid gas and bridge bonds of said city, and for no other purpose, and may negotiate said bonds at a price not lower than their par value.
2. The Mayor and Common Council of said city may secure the payment of the principal and interest of said bonds issued to redeem the gas bonds by a mortgage or deed of trust upon all the works, rights and properties acquired under the aforesaid Act, approved March fourth, eighteen hundred and ninety: and they may secure the payment of the principal and interest of said bonds issued to redeem the bridge bonds by a mortgage or deed of trust upon all said bridge property and rights.
3. All the provisions in the aforesaid Acts, approved March fourth, eighteen hundred and ninety, and January tenth, eighteen hundred and ninety, respectively, in relation to taxation and the creation of a sinking fund for the payment the bonds therein authorized, shall apply to the bonds issued under this Act for their redemption.
4. This Act shall be in force from its passage.
An Act to protect the Public Health of the City of Fredericksburg. --Approved February 18, 1898.
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the City Council of Fredericksburg shall have power to make such ordinances, by-laws and regulations as they may deem proper to promote and protect the health of the city; and to that end, if any ground in the said city or within one mile of its corporate limits, shall be subject to be covered by stagnant water, or if the owner or owners, occupier or occupiers, thereof shall permit any offensive or unwholesome or stagnant water or substances to remain or accumulate therein or thereon, the Council may cause such ground to be filled up, raised or drained, or may cause such substance to be covered or to be removed therefrom, and may collect the expense of so doing from the said owner or owners, occupier or occupiers, or any of them by distress and sale in the same manner in which taxes levied upon real estate for the benefit of said city are authorized to be collected: provided, that reasonable notice shall be first given to the said owners or their agents or the occupiers of said ground. In case of non-resident: owners who have no agents in the said city or on the said land, or in case the owners are unknown, such notice may be given by publication for not less than four weeks in any newspaper printed in said city.
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 35
And the aforesaid expense incurred under this Act may also be recovered by suit or by motion, in the manner provided in section three thousand two hundred and eleven of the code, against the owners and occupiers of said ground or any one or more of them.
2. This Act shall be in force from its passage.
An Act to amend the Charter of the City of Fredericksburg, in relation to Justices of the Peace, Police Justice, Constables, and the Police of said city, and in relation to the office of Mayor. --Approved February 18, 1898.
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That there shall be elected on the fourth Thursday in May, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and every two years thereafter, eight Justices of the Peace for the City of Fredericksburg, four of such Justices from each of the two wards of said city, by the qualified voters of their respective wards: said Justices shall be residents of the ward for which they are chosen, and shall hold their office for the term of two years from the first day of July next ensuing their election, unless sooner removed by death, resignation, or other cause; and any vacancies in said office shall be filled for the unexpired term by the Council from residents of the ward in which such vacancies occur.
2. There may be elected by the Council of said city, if at any time the Council shall deem the same expedient, a Police Justice whose term of office shall not exceed four years, and said Council may fix his compensation, and he may be removed from office at the pleasure of the Council.
3. The Justices of the Peace, and the Police Justice, if the Council shall appoint one, shall, in addition to the powers conferred on Justices of the Peace and on Police Justices of cities by the law, have power to issue process, hear and determine all prosecutions, cases, and controversies arising under ordinances and by-laws of the city; to impose fines when authorized by said ordinances and by-laws, and issue execution for their collection, saving to the parties the right of appeal to the Corporation Court, which appeal, if the fine or other matter or thing shall exceed the sum of ten dollars, shall be taken in the same time and manner and upon the same terms that appeals are now taken by law from the judgments of a single Justice of the Peace.
4. The said Council of said city may from time to time appoint one or more Constables; and said Council may also appoint as many Police Officers as it may deem necessary,
36 ACTS OF INCORPORATION OF THE
prescribe the duties and fix compensation of said Police Officers, and any of said officers maybe removed from office at the pleasure of the Council.
5. The said Policemen shall generally have power to do whatever may be necessary to preserve the good order and peace of the said city, and to secure its inhabitants from personal violence and their property from loss and injury, and they shall in criminal cases have the same powers and duties, and be subject to the same penalties that are prescribed by law as to Constables; and that are prescribed by section three thousand nine hundred and twenty-seven of the code as to Police.
6. The Mayor of said city shall enter upon the duties of his office on the first day of July next, ensuing the May election at which he is elected; and if said Mayor shall fail to qualify before said last-mentioned date, or if after his election he shall die or resign or become otherwise disqualified to discharge the duties of said office, then in all such events the Council of said city may, and is hereby, declared to be their duty as soon thereafter as they may see fit, to elect some other person in his stead to fill the unexpired term of such Mayor.
7. This Act shall be in force from its passage.
An Act to provide the method of electing the Council of the City of Fredericksburg, and to confirm the Elections of said Council heretofore had, and their acts and doings. --Approved February 18, 1898.
WHEREAS by an Act entitled "An Act to amend the charter of the Town of Fredericksburg, approved March the twenty-third, eighteen hundred and seventy-one," it was provided that "it shall be lawful for the residents of said town qualified to vote for all officers elective by the people under the Constitution of this Commonwealth to elect by ballot" twelve councilmen; and
WHEREAS by an Act entitled "An Act to amend the charter of the City of Fredericksburg, approved March the first eighteen hundred and eighty-six," it was provided that the City of Fredericksburg be, and is hereby, for all election purposes divided into two wards, and that there shall be elected on the fourth Thursday in May, eighteen hundred and eighty six, and every two years thereafter, six Councilmen from each of said wards, who shall hold their office for the term of two years from the first day of July next ensuing their election, unless sooner removed by death, resignation, or other cause, but said Act did not alter the provision of the aforesaid Act of March twenty third, eighteen hundred and seventy-one, in
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 37
relation to its requirement that all twelve Councilmen should be elected by the qualified voters of said city; and
WHEREAS by Section one thousand and Sixteen of the code eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, chapter forty-four, it as provided that the Councilmen and Justices of each ward a city Shall be chosen by the qualified voters of Such ward; but
WHEREAS by Section one thousand and forty-eight of said code, chapter forty-four, it is provided that "nothing contained in this chapter in conflict with any provision of the charter of any city or town, except sections one thousand and forty and one thousand and forty-one, shall be construed to repeal such provision"; and hence said section one thousand and Sixteen of the code did not repeal the provision of the charter of the City of Fredericksburg requiring the election of the twelve Councilmen by the qualified voters of the city and not of each ward; and
WHEREAS ever since the enactment of the aforesaid Act of March first, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, the Councilmen each ward have been chosen by the qualified voters of their respective wards and not by the qualified voters of said city, and thereupon, believing said elections to be legal and governed by section one thousand and sixteen of the code, the Councils thus elected have done all acts which legally elected Councils were by the charter of said city authorized to do: therefore,
l. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the present Council of said City of Fredericksburg and all Councils elected since the Act of March first, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, aforesaid by the qualified voters of the respective wards, and not by the qualified voters of said city as aforesaid are hereby declared legal Councils of said city, and that all the acts and doings of said respective Councils, in so far as the validity of the same is affected by the aforesaid method adopted of choosing said Councilmen be declared legal and of full force and virtue.
2. There Shall be elected on the fourth Thursday in May, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and every two years thereafter six Councilmen from each of the two wards of the City of Fredericksburg, who shall be chosen by the qualified voters of their respective wards, and who shall hold their office for the term of two years from the first day of July next ensuing their election, unless sooner removed by death, resignation or other cause.
The Councilmen chosen shall at the time of their election and during their continuance in office be residents of the ward for which they are chosen.
38 ACTS OF INCORPORATION CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA.
3. Vacancies in the office of Councilman shall be filled by appointment of the Council of said city from the qualified residents of the ward in which such vacancies occur, and the appointees to such vacancies shall hold office for the unexpired term of the parties whose vacancies they fill, unless sooner removed by death, resignation or other cause.
4. All Acts or parts of Acts in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed.
5. This Act shall be in force from its passage.
WHEREAS, It is expedient that the Ordinances of the Corporation of the City of Fredericksburg should be reduced to system and order for the convenience of its citizens and the guidance of its officers, and that the whole should be compressed in one General Ordinance, arranged in appropriate chapters and sections; therefore
Be it ordained by the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Fredericksburg, in the manner following, that is to say:
1. Time of meeting and quorum.
2. Resolutions shall be in writing.
3. Special business to have priority.
4. Limit of debate.
5. Previous question.
6. Division of the question.
7. Yeas and nays shall be entered.
8. Appointments to be by ballot.
9. Committees.
10. Notice to members to attend
11. Debate to be pertinent to question.
12. Appeals from presiding officer
13. Applications shall be in writing.
14. Duty of the clerk.
15. Spectators remain without the bar.
16. Amending ordinances.
17. Ordinances embrace but one object.
18. Members must vote.
19. Members remain until adjournment.
20. Reading of minutes.
21. Reconsideration of lost motions.
22. Ordinances in force from passage.
23. Unfinished business.
24. Suspending the rules.
25. Repealed ordinances.
26. Order of business.
27. Amendments lie over.
28. Special meetings for special action.
1. The Council shall meet on the third Thursday in every month, at 8 o'clock in the evening, except when otherwise ordered, and also meet at any other time to which it may adjourn, or be regularly called or convened. If seven members fail to attend within half an hour after the time appointed for a meeting, the Clerk shall enter on the journal the names of those attending, and the adjournment for want of a quorum.
2. Every resolution or proposition moved shall be in writing, and shall be seconded before the question is taken; and, if carried, the name of the mover shall be entered on the journal.
40 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
3. If the Council direct any matter to be the special business of a future meeting, the Mayor or presiding officer shall, at such future meeting, so soon as the proceedings are read and signed, announce such special business, and it shall have priority over all other business.
4. A member shall rise and address himself to the Mayor or presiding officer, and be recognized by him as entitled to speak before he proceeds. After being so recognized, the member (except when called to order by the presiding officer or
other member) shall not be interrupted during the time allowed him. No member shall speak more than ten minutes at any one time without permission of the Council, unless he be a Chairman of a Committee, in explanation of a report or ordinance, when, he shall be allowed, if he desires it, fifteen minutes; nor shall any member speak more than twice upon the same question, without such permission.
5. Every question, first made and seconded, shall be decided before a second is received, unless disposed of by the previous question; the previous question may be called at any time three members concurring.
6. Any member may call for a division of the question when the same will admit thereof.
7. On the decision of any question, the yeas and nays shall be entered on the journal, if required by any member.
8. All appointments to places of profit or trust, to which any compensation or salary is annexed, shall be made by ballot, the persons intending to be ballotted for being first put in nomination.
9. The officer presiding at the Council shall have the nomination of the members of all committees; and his nomination shall be conclusive, unless objection is made by some member present, in which case the Council, if it so determine by vote shall make said nomination.
10. All notices to members to attend Council, either by adjournment or regular call, shall be delivered to the member himself, or be left in writing at his dwelling-house or place business by the police officers.
11. All debate shall be regular, decent, and without altercation or personal invective; it must also be pertinent to the question.
12. The presiding officer shall not allow any one to speak longer or more frequently than these rules permit. He shall in this and all other matters, preserve order, and decide an question raised concerning it; but any member may appeal from his decision to the Council, which may affirm or reverse such decision.
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 41
13. All applications to the Council shall be in writing, except where otherwise allowed, and be delivered to the Mayor previous to the time of meeting, or communicated through one the members.
14. It shall be the duty of the Clerk, at each meeting of the Council to lay before the Council a list of the unfinished business; and it shall be the duty of the person presiding to call over the same before any new business is entered upon.
15. All spectators are to remain without the bar, where they are to conduct themselves in a quiet and orderly manner.
16. No ordinance shall be amended, suspended or repealed, except by ordinance regularly introduced and passed.
17. No ordinance shall embrace more than one object; nor shall any ordinance be revised or amended by reference to its title or object, but in all cases the ordinance revised or the sections amended shall be re-enacted and published at length.
18. Every member present when a question is put to the vote shall, unless interested, or excused from voting by the Council, vote on one side or the other of such question.
19. After a member has, at any meeting, been entered as present, he shall not, without leave of the Council, absent himself from such meeting until its adjournment.
20. The proceedings of the last meeting of the Council shall be read at the opening of the next session; and after the errors appearing therein (if any) are corrected, the same shall be signed by the person presiding at such meeting.
21. No question, decided by the Council, shall be again brought forward during the year for which the Council was elected, unless on a motion for reconsideration, there be in favor of such reconsideration votes equal to or greater than the majority of the members present when the question was before decided. No motion for the reconsideration of an ordinance which has taken effect prior to such motion shall be considered.
22. Every ordinance shall be in force from the day of its passage, unless otherwise specially provided.
23. All business unfinished at the expiration of the term for which the Council was elected, shall be considered as laid on the table, and may be acted on thereafter, at the pleasure of the Council.
24. Any rule herein adopted may, at any particular time, be suspended for a special purpose, by a vote of two-thirds of the members present at that time.
25. When an ordinance which may have repealed another shall itself be repealed, the previous ordinance shall not be revived.
42 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
26. The order of business at its regular meeting shall be as follows:
(1) Reading the minutes of the last meeting.
(2) Reports of committees.
(3) Unfinished business.
(4) New business.
27. No new ordinance or amendment to an existing ordinance shall be considered until the next regular meeting, after such
ordinance or amendment may have been introduced.
28. No business shall be transacted at any special meeting of the Council, except such as is designated in the summons convening the Council in said special meeting.
1. Of the officers.
2. Which and when appointed.
3. Council to fix salaries.
4. Not to act before qualification.
5. Penalty.
1. There shall be for the Corporation of Fredericksburg the following officers, viz.: a Clerk of the Council, a Treasurer, a Commissioner of the Revenue, a Collector of Taxes, a Surveyor, a Clerk of the Market, a Weigher and Measurer of Coal, Salt and Grain, who shall also be Measurer and Inspector of Lumber, a Superintendent of Alms-house, a Superintendent of Water-Works, a Superintendent of Gas-Works, two City Scavengers, and, at least, four Police Officers.
2. Such officers, except Treasurer and Commissioner of the Revenue, who are elected under the Constitution and laws of the State of Virginia, shall be appointed by the Council, in the month of July in every year, and oftener, if the Council deem proper, and shall hold their offices at the pleasure of the Council, except that the Collector of Taxes may be elected in the month of July or August, and the Superintendents of the Water-Works and Gas-Works shall be elected in December of each year who shall go into office on the first of January following, and shall hold their offices for one year or until their successors are elected and qualified.
3. Their compensation shall be fixed by the Council, and shall not be diminished during their continuance in office; but the Police Officers shall not be entitled to any compensation for their services, until the Mayor by his warrant shall, at the
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 43
end of each month, order the same to be paid by the Treasurer; and the Mayor and Council hereby reserve the right to withhold all compensation from the Police Officers for neglect of duty.
4. No person, except the Treasurer and the Commissioner of the Revenue, shall act as an officer of this Corporation, under the Mayor and Council, until he shall take an oath, or make affirmation before the Mayor or Recorder, that he will faithfully perform his duty to the best of his knowledge and judgment. And in addition to such oath, the Collector of Taxes shall give a bond to the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Fredericksburg, for the sum of ten thousand dollars, with sureties, to be approved by the Council, with condition for the faithful discharge of the duties of his office; which bond shall be delivered to the Mayor, and be, by him, deposited in one of the banks of the city for safe keeping. If such bond is not given within thirty days from the time of the appointment of Collector such appointment shall be void.
5. If any person or officer, except the Treasurer and Commissioner of the Revenue, shall act in any of the offices mentioned in the first section of this chapter, before he shall take an oath, or make affirmation as aforesaid, he shall forfeit and pay to the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Fredericksburg fifty dollars.
1. Shall attend all meetings of Council.
2. To index minutes of proceedings
3. Duties in respect of committees.
4. Duties in respect to appropriations.
5. General duties.
1. It shall be the duty of the Clerk of the Council to attend the meetings of the Common Council, enter correctly all its proceedings and countersign the same, draft all ordinances, attend to the publication thereof, and, in a book to be kept for the purpose, record all ordinances of the Corporation. The books of such proceedings, and the Book of Ordinances, shall, at all times, be open to the inspection of the public.
2. He shall index the minutes of the proceedings and the ordinances as soon as they are adopted; and file and preserve all books, documents, and papers which may come into his bands as Clerk, and at the expiration of his term of office he shall turn them over to his successor; also, to make copies of, or extracts from, anything in said books when and as often as
44 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
he may be requested so to do by the Mayor or Councilman, or chairman of a committee thereof.
3. Whenever any petition, communication, or other paper, is referred to any committee of the Council, it shall be the duty of the Clerk, immediately on adjournment, to deliver a copy of such paper, with the names of the committee, to the chairman of the committee.
4. He shall, after each meeting, furnish to the City Treasurer a statement of all allowances made by the Council on account of the expenses of the city, and upon whose order the same shall be paid out.
5. He shall, after each meeting of the Council, furnish a Police Officer, to be designated by the Mayor, with twenty-five printed copies of all ordinances passed at such meeting; and shall do and perform all such other duties as properly appertain to his office.
1. His bond.
2. Amount of money retained in hand.
3. To deposit and how drawn.
4. When to report.
5. To report expenses of ensuing year
6. How moneys are disbursed
7. Wages; money when withheld.
8. General duties.
1. The Treasurer of the City of Fredericksburg shall, at the June term of the Corporation Court succeeding his election, or if appointed by the Judge to fill the vacancy, at the time of his qualification before such Judge or said Court, give bond with approved security, payable to the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Fredericksburg, and conditioned for the faithful performance of his duties as City Treasurer, and especially those duties provided by the Charter and Ordinances the City of Fredericksburg, said bond to be in the penalty of ten thousand dollars.
2. It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to receive all moneys payable to the Corporation for public uses, and he shall demand and receive, from the Collector of Taxes, all moneys collected or received for its use. All moneys so received by the Treasurer shall be deposited in one or more of the banks of the city aforesaid, to the credit of the Corporation of Fredericksburg, except that for the payment of demands against the Corporation of small amounts he may keep in his office a sum not exceeding two hundred dollars at any one time.
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 45
3. All moneys to be paid by the Corporation shall be paid by the Treasurer out of what is kept in his office, or deposited in bank. What is deposited in bank shall only be drawn there from by the check of the Treasurer, or by check of some other person thereto authorized by the Council.
4. He shall keep in a book, to he provided for that purpose by the Council, a true and faithful account of all moneys received by him for the use of the Corporation, and of the manner in which the same shall have been applied; and shall, on or before the Saturday preceding the first day of July, in every year, or oftener if thereto required, lay before the Council, or before their Committee of Finance, an account of all his receipts and disbursements, with vouchers to support the same.
5. The fiscal year of the Corporation of Fredericksburg shall begin on the first day of July, and end on the thirtieth day of June ensuing; and annually on or before the thirtieth day of June, the Treasurer shall render to the Council, or to its Committee on Finance, a statement of the probable expenditures for the year, and a statement of the debt of the Corporation.
6. He shall pay out the funds of the Corporation, which shall have been appropriated by the Council, upon orders as follows:
For repairs to public property. and gas used in public buildings and in the park, on an order of a majority of the Committee on Public Property.
For repairing and improving streets, and other expenses incurred by the Street Committee, upon an order of a majority of the Street Committee.
For repairs to pumps, reservoirs, etc., and expenses incurred by the Water Committee, on an order of a majority of the Water Committee.
For light, and expenses connected therewith, not otherwise provided for, on an order of a majority of the Committee on Light.
For the expenses of the alms-house, and the city's poor, upon orders signed by a majority of tile Committee on Alms and Alms-House.
For appropriations to public free schools, on an order of the Board of School Trustees.
The salaries of the Judge of the Corporation Court, of the Mayor, Commonwealth's Attorney, and Clerk of Council, quarterly, upon their own receipts.
The salary of the Clerk of the Corporation Court, and the salary and compensation of the Sergeant and Jailor, upon order of the Corporation Court; and the compensation of the Grand Jurors and Petit Jurors, upon orders of the Corporation
46 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
Court, or a certificate of the Clerk's thereof of their services.
The interest and principal of the debt of this Corporation as it may become due and payable.
All other expenses of the Corporation, upon orders of the Council.
His own salary, as Treasurer, he shall be allowed to draw quarterly, upon filing a receipt among his vouchers for the same.
All claims against the Corporation, not authorized by the different committees, shall be referred to the Finance Committee for approval before being submitted to the Council.
7. The Treasurer shall not pay the wages to any officer of the city, or any money to any other person, who may be indebted to the city, unless the amount of indebtedness shall be less than the amount of wages or money due, in which case he may pay over the excess.
8. He shall do and perform all such other things and duties required of him by the city Charter, or Acts amendatory thereof, or as may be required of him by the Council.
1. Enforces laws and ordinances.
2. Reports negligence of officers.
3. Quarterly reports regarding police
4. Convenes Council.
5. Presides; signs minutes.
6. Suggests alteration in ordinances
7. Reviews streets and police officers
8. Office hours.
9. Monthly statements.
10. Receives all fines.
It shall be the duty of the Mayor:
1. To see that the Laws, and Ordinances of the Corporation. be faithfully executed.
2. To report to the Council the negligence or misconduct of any of the officers of the Corporation.
3. To report, quarterly, in writing, to the Council, the manner in which the several Police Officers, in his opinion, have discharged their duties for the preceding three months.
4. To convene the Common Council whenever, in his opinion it is necessary or expedient to do so.
5. To preside and preserve order in the meetings of the Council, and sign the minutes of the proceedings.
6. To lay before the Council, from time to time, in writing, such alterations in the Ordinances of the Corporation as he shall deem necessary and proper.
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 47
7. To review the streets of the city, at least, once in every month, as well as to see that the Police Officers do their duty, as to suggest such improvements or alterations as may, in his opinion, be necessary for the comfort and the preservation of the health of the citizens of the city.
8. To remain in the Mayor's office of the city every day Sundays excepted), from nine o'clock until ten o'clock A.M., and as much longer as the business brought before him may require for its transaction, and to perform, as a Justice of the Peace, such duties as may lawfully be required of him by the Council; and, also, to keep the Seal of the Corporation, and render annually, to the Council a just account of the fees received for affixing the same.
9. He shall render, each month to the Council, a written statement of the amount of every fine imposed by him for violations of the city's ordinances; the time when, and the name of the person against whom it was assessed, together with the and whether the same have been paid. And, in all cases where a fine has been imposed by him for violation of the city's ordinances, he may, in his discretion, take approved security for the payment of such fine and the costs, such payment to be made within thirty days from the date of trial. And the statement of fines thus rendered to the Council by
the Mayor shall be transmitted by the Clerk of the Council to the City Treasurer.
10. The Mayor shall receive all fines paid on account of violations of the city's ordinances, and shall, monthly, pay the same, and all other city's money collected by him, to the Treasurer, and shall take the Treasurer's receipt therefor.
1. When to begin-contents of book.
2. To note land sold for taxes.
3. Clerk to furnish list of transfers.
4. When tax year begins.
5 What he shall assess, and how.
6. Penalty for refusing to furnish lists.
7. When he shall make lists.
8. Personal property book-contents.
9. Affidavit to books.
10. When books to be delivered.
11. Omissions; how supplied.
12. Fee for transferring license.
13. To report unlicensed business.
1. The Commissioner of the Revenue shall begin, annually, as soon as the tax bill is laid, and proceed, without delay, to make out a correct list of all the improved lots and parts of lots in the city, with the names of the several owners thereof, opposite thereto, and enter the same in a book to be called the
48 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
Land Book, in which he shall set forth, opposite the names of the owners, in as many columns as may be necessary, the number of each lot, agreeable to the plan of the city, the value of each lot, with its improvements, and the amount of tax, a the legal rate, and a note of the source of title, in case of transfer. In ascertaining the value, he shall be governed generally by the value as it appears on his Land Book of the next preceding year. But he shall add the value of any addition to, or improvement on, an old building, and of any new building whenever there is such upon any lot, in his book, and shall, in respect to any land or building, supply any omission in his Land Book.
2. When real estate is sold for taxes, if it be purchased by an individual, the said Commissioner shall note on his Land Book the quantity of land sold, and to whom, but shall continue the land or lot upon his said book in the name of the former owner, until the purchaser obtains a deed therefor.
3. The Clerk of the Corporation Court of Fredericksburg shall, annually, be allowed a reasonable compensation for furnishing the Commissioner of the Revenue with such a list as is mentioned in the four hundred and sixty-first section of the Code of Virginia, so far as may relate to lands in the Corporation.
4. The year, for which taxes on real estate are assessed or imposed by the Mayor and Common Council of this Corporation, shall be deemed to commence on the first day of February and there shall, from that day, be a lien on real estate for the taxes assessed thereon within the year so commencing.
5. The Commissioner shall begin, annually, as soon as may be, after his appointment, and proceed, without delay, to ascertain the persons and personal property, and other subject liable to taxation by the Corporation. To ascertain the same he shall call upon every person in the city having such property in his possession or care, for a list thereof, and upon every person therein chargeable with taxes, for a list of the subjects on account of which he is chargeable, or which is liable to taxation, and he shall endeavor, by asking proper questions to have in such lists a correct and true statement of the persons, personal property, and other subjects liable to taxation, which were in the possession or care of each person on the first day of February preceding. The answers to the Commissioner's questions shall always be on oath.
6. If any person shall, when applied to by the Commissioner of the Revenue, refuse to furnish a list, or the means of making out a list, or refuse to swear, or answer untrully, any question lawfully asked of him by the Commissioner in relation to his property or subjects of taxation in his possession
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 49
care, such person shall, for every such offence, pay a fine of not less than ten dollars.
7. When the Commissioner, in consequence of the absence refusal of any person to do what is required of him, is unable to obtain such list, the Commissioner shall proceed to make it out from the best information he can obtain.
8. The Commissioner of the Revenue shall, annually, make a book, (to be called the Book of Personal Property), in which shall be entered the names of the owners of property, or other subjects liable to taxation, and the names of all the males residing in the town, above twenty one years of age, the number of horses, carriages, buggies, or other vehicles owned by such person, and their value, and, in all other respects, it shall conform to the book prescribed by the First Auditor of the State for the Commissioners of the Revenue for this Commonwealth so far as the same may be applicable to this Corporation. Opposite the name of each person shall be extended the whole amount of Corporation tax due from him or her,
9. The Commissioner, after completing this Land Book, and Book of Personal Property, shall make two fair copies. At the foot of each copy he shall make and subscribe the follow oath: " I, A. B., Commissioner of the Revenue for the Corporation of Fredericksburg, do swear that, in making out the foregoing book, I have, to the best of my skill and judgment, faithfully pursued the Ordinances of the Corporation prescribing the duties of the Commissioner of the Revenue." And the Justice, before whom the oath is taken, shall annex thereto a certificate in the following form: "Sworn to before me, C. D,, a Justice of the Peace for the Corporation of Fredericksburg, on the _____ day of_____;" which certificate shall be subscribed by the Justice. The original of each book shall be retained by the Commissioner so long as he continues in office, and then to be delivered to his successor.
10. The two copies of each book, sworn to as aforesaid, shall be delivered by the Commissioner, on or before the fifteenth day of September in each year, to the Treasurer, who shall keep a copy of each book in his office, and deliver the others immediately to the Collector of Corporation Taxes, and, upon the Commissioner producing the receipt of the Treasurer therefor, the Council may order the whole stipend or compensation of such Commissioner to be paid by the Treasurer.
11. If, after the delivery of the books aforesaid, the Commissioner ascertain that any merchant or other person, by reason of his beginning business after the usual period of assessment, or from any other cause, is liable for Corporation taxes or licenses, which could not be, or were not, entered on the books, he shall furnish the Treasurer and Collector with a
(4)
50 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
statement showing the name of the person liable for such taxes or licenses, the amount thereof, on what account.
12. Any person having a license issued or transferred shall pay the same fees to the Commissioner of the Revenue for the Corporation's license as for a State license.
13. The Commissioner of the Revenue shall report regularly each month to the Mayor any person doing business without having paid in full his or her Corporation license.
1. When to commence and give notice.
2. Settlement, and insolvent list.
3. When he may distrain.
4. Duties in connection with lists.
5. Faithful performance.
1. The Collector shall, in every year, so soon as he receives a copy of the Land and Personal Property Books from the Treasurer of the city, give notice for two weeks, in two of the newspapers published in the city aforesaid, where he can be found after the first day of October, to receive Corporation levies. Whereupon any person may discharge the levy against him on the said books, by paying to the Collector the amount of such levy, in conformity with the ordinance levying the same, and all levies received by him in the month of October, shall be paid to the Treasurer every day, and all received by him after said month, shall be paid weekly.
2. On the second Monday in November, in every year, the Collector shall begin to collect the levies assessed on the Commissioner's books, which are not previously paid, and, from time to time, pay over to the Treasurer all moneys and levies collected by him for the use of the Corporation, and finally settle his account of collections on or before the thirtieth day of June in each and every year. In such settlement the said Collector shall not have credit for any list of insolvents or absentees, but upon the oath of the Collector that such list is correct and true.
3. The levies on real estate and personal property, and on all other subjects, (except the tax on drays, carts, and wagons, which shall be paid annually, on the thirtieth day of April), shall become due and payable on the second Monday in November in every year, and may be distrained for on and after that date.
4. The Collector, after ascertaining which of the taxes and levies assessed in said Corporation cannot be collected, shall,
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 51
not later than June twentieth, in each year, make out and deliver to the City Treasurer lists of two classes, to-wit: First, list of property on the Commissioner's Land Book improperly placed thereon, or not ascertainable, with the amount of levies charged on such property: second, a list of other real estate which is delinquent for the non-payment of levies thereon. In making out the said lists the Collector shall conform to the requirements of section six hundred and six, Code of Virginia, in all respects.
5. The Collector shall, faithfully perform all the duties imposed upon him by the Charter of the city and all Acts amendatory thereof; and all other duties imposed upon him by Ordinances of the Council.
1. Executive head of police force.
2. Regular and special police.
3. Designated officer for Council room.
4. Copies of Ordinances given officer.
5. Alternate duty; time division.
6. Police patrols; restriction.
7. Call responses; assistance.
8. Supervision on beats.
9. Reports.
10. Suspension.
1. The Mayor of the city for the time being shall be the head of the Police, and subject to such provisions as the Council may prescribe; shall have full control over them, and may for cause suspend any member of the force. And, in case of any such suspension, he shall report the same in writing to the next meeting of the Council, with his reasons therefor.
2. The regular police force shall consist of four officers, two from each ward, to be elected by the Council, and, in case of emergency the Mayor may appoint as many special policemen the public safety may require; provided, he shall report said appointment to the next meeting of the Council for its confirmation or disapproval; and, provided further, that the services of such special officers shall be promptly dispensed with when the emergency ceases. The compensation of such special officers shall not exceed one dollar per day, and shall be paid only upon order of the Council.
3. One officer, to be designated by the Mayor, shall have control of the Council chamber, and keep its keys; he shall attend every meeting, have the doors open and the Council chamber heated and lighted in due season for all meetings of the Council.
52 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
4. One officer, to be designated by the Mayor, shall, after each meeting of the Council, apply to the Clerk of the Council, who shall furnish him with the copies of all ordinances passed at such meeting, as required in Chapter III, one of which copies shall be given to each officer of the city, one left at the Clerk's office of the Corporation Court, and one placed in the drawer of each Councilman's desk in the Council Chamber.
5. The regular police officers of the city shall, from the adoption of this ordinance, do alternate night and day duty, two officers serving as day officers for one month and two as night officers and vice versa, during the year. The special officers appointed in cases of emergency shall perform such duty as is assigned them by the Mayor.
6. It shall be the duty of the police officers to patrol regularly all the streets and alleys of the city within their respective wards, and no member of said police force shall, while on duty, enter any bar-room or other public place unless in the discharge of his duty, and no police officer shall, while on duty, stop on his beat or on the streets to enter into conversation or discussion; but shall at all times and under all circumstances be polite and courteous to all persons seeking information from him.
7. It is expected and required that all members of the police force shall aid and assist each other in the discharge of their respective duties, and shall promptly respond to any call for assistance and help from each other, or from any person on their beats or in the immediate vicinity.
8. The officers shall frequently, during their tours in the night-time, examine all doors and lower windows of dwellings and stores to see that they are properly secured; also, yards and yard-gates of the several houses on their beats.
9. Every policeman shall make, daily, a note of and report at the Mayor's office during office hours : First, all doors of entrances he may find open in the night time; second, all nuisances on his route that should be promptly removed; third, all violations of city ordinances, the names of offenders, witnesses, etc.; fourth, all public lamps found out of order, etc.
10. Any violation of, or refusal to comply with, any or either of these rules shall subject the policeman to immediate suspension by the Mayor, either on sight or report, or by a Councilman who may have personal knowledge of said failure or refusal.
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 53
1. Stalls to be located and rented.
2. Two stalls to be reserved.
3. No unsound marketing allowed.
4. Clerk to examine and reject.
5. How marketing is to be sold.
6. Clerk to examine scales.
7. No refuse to be left in lot.
8. Charges for sale in market.
9. Penalty for refusal to pay.
10. Where fines enure.
11. Must not exchange stalls.
12. No sale on Sunday.
13. Market hours.
14. Alleys leading to market lot.
15. Bad language and fighting.
16. Clerk's presence and duties.
17. Clerk to prosecute offenders.
18. Selling in streets in market hours.
1. The Committee on Public Property shall, annually, before renting out the butchers' stalls in the Market House, fix the distance to which each stall, with blocks, benches, and other fixtures, extend out from the side walls, and also assess the amount of rent for each stall for the year; and, after such assessment, the Collector of Taxes shall, at the Market House, rent out to the highest bidder, each stall for a year, so that each bid be not below the assessment of the Committee, and shall take bond with good security for the rents, payable in national currency of the United States, to the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Fredericksburg, on the first day of March ensuing the renting, and deliver such bonds to the Treasurer for safe keeping, until due, and then receive the same again for collection.
2. There shall be two stalls set apart by the Committee on Public Property for the use of the country people, other than butchers, who may bring things into the Market House for sale.
3. Any butcher or other person who shall sell or offer for sale at market, or anywhere within the city's limits, any unsound meat, fish, fowl, eggs, or other unsound article, or any meat which is distempered, shall pay a fine of not less than five nor more than ten dollars, and forfeit what is so sold or offered.
4. The Clerk of the Market shall examine all meats, fish, and fowls offered at market for sale, and take possession of such as by the preceding section are prohibited from being so offered, and unless on an appeal by the person offering the same, to the Mayor, or a Justice of the Peace, the decision of the Clerk be reversed, the said Clerk shall cause what he so takes possession of to be buried or otherwise destroyed according to its condition.
5. No person selling fruits or vegetables at market, by measure, shall sell the same by any other than dry measure. No person shall buy or sell at market any beef, pork, mutton,
54 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
veal, shoat, lamb, or butter in any other manner than by weight. Every butcher shall keep, in a conspicuous part of his stall, his scales and weights; the scales well balanced and in good order, and the weights correct. Any person violating this section shall pay a fine of not less than one dollar nor more than five dollars.
6. The Clerk of the Market shall, from time to time, examine the scales, balances, weights, and measures used by persons at such market to see whether they are correct, and conform to the preceding section; and, also, examine butter and other articles sold or offered for sale by weight to see that they are not deficient. And if any person shall refuse to have the same weighed, he shall pay a fine of one dollar. Persons having at market incorrect scales, weights, or measures, shall have the same corrected by the Clerk. In every case in which the Clerk of the Market shall have good cause to believe that anything is forfeited under any section of this chapter, he shall seize the same, and summon the person in possession thereof at the time of the seizure to appear before the Mayor, or some other Justice, at some time within twelve hours, to show cause why the said thing should not be adjudged forfeited.
7. If any butcher, or any other person, leave in the market lot, or throw, or cause to be thrown in the market lot, or in any of the streets of the city any part of a slaughtered animal, or of fish, fowl, or game, he shall pay a fine of two dollars.
8. No butcher, or other person, shall rent more than two stalls in any one year, and no butcher or other person, besides those who shall have rented a stall or stalls in the Market House, shall sell or expose for sale, in the Market House or market lot, any meats or fish of the kind hereinafter named, except upon the payment, to the Clerk of the Market, the following rates: For each slaughtered bullock, cow, or steer, or any part thereof, fifty cents; for each veal, mutton, lamb, hog, shoat, or sturgeon, or any part thereof, twenty-five cents.
9. If any person, liable for the payment of the rates aforesaid, shall refuse to pay the same to the Clerk of the Market, upon demand, he or she shall pay a fine of one dollar.
10. All moneys collected for rates under this chapter, shall enure to the Corporation entire, but all moneys collected for fines, under this chapter, shall enure: one-half to the Corporation, and the other half to the Clerk of the Market, who shall keep a regular account thereof, and report and pay over the same weekly to the Mayor, taking his receipt therefor.
11. If any butcher shall use any stalls or benches in the Market House other than those rented by such butcher, he shall forfeit and pay two dollars for every time he shall so use them, or either of them.
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 55
12. No butcher or other person shall sell or offer for sale any meats, vegetables, or other thing or things, in the Market House or market lot on a Sunday. If any person offend against this section he shall forfeit and pay two dollars for every offence.
13. Market hours shall be from daylight to seven o'clock on every day, except Sunday, between the first day of April and the first day of September, and from daylight to eight o'clock on every day, except Sunday, between the first day of September and the first day of April.
14. No horse or vehicle shall be fastened or stand in any of the alleys leading into the market lot, and no person shall withdraw his horse or vehicle from the market, when in the judgment of the Clerk of the Market by doing so would create confusion or unreasonably disturb the horses or vehicles remaining; and any person offending against this section shall pay a fine of one dollar.
15. If a person at market use obscene, profane, or threatening language, or shall fight thereat, he shall be fined not less than one dollar nor more than ten dollars for each offence.
16. It shall be the duty of the Clerk of the Market to have the Market House and market space, or lot, and alleys and steps leading thereto, kept clean, the market scales and weights in good order, to be in market always during market hours, and to weigh all articles bought or sold in market, if desired by the buyer or seller, without fee or reward, and to demand and receive all fees under this chapter; to perform such other duty in relation to his office as may from time to time be required of him by the Mayor and Council.
17. The Clerk of the Market shall prosecute all offenders against this ordinance. To enable him the better to execute his office and preserve order about the market, he shall have the powers of a police officer within two hundred yards around the market in every direction.
18. If the owner, or agent of the owner, of any meat, fish, butter, eggs, vegetables, or other marketing, brought into the town, enter the market with the marketing aforesaid and leave the market until after the expiration of market hours, and shall offer the same for sale or sell any of the said articles upon any of the streets or elsewhere within the limits of the Corporation, during the market hours, he shall forfeit and pay a fine not exceeding two dollars for each offence, provided, that nothing herein shall be so construed as to prevent the sale of any marketing brought into the Market House of the town, subject to existing ordinances regulating the same, and, provided further, that it shall not apply to sales by merchants of articles bought for sale and sold in their stores.
56 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
1. Hay scales in charge City Weigher.
2. Measure and mark.
3. Classification of lumber.
4. Fees for inspecting.
5. Coal weighed before delivery.
6. Duty of Weigher and Measurer.
7. Fees for weighing coal.
8. Fees for measuring salt, wheat, etc.
9. Provender.
1. For the purpose of enabling the City Weigher, Measurer and Inspector the better to perform his duties hereunder, what is known as the "hay scales of the Corporation" shall not be rented out as heretofore, but after the expiration of existing contracts for the same, the said scales shall be located as near the depots as the Public Property Committee may deem expedient, and shall be in charge of the City Weigher, Measurer and Inspector, who shall at all times keep them clean and perfectly balanced.
2. It shall be the duty of the Weigher, Measurer and Inspector, when called upon to do so, to measure, inspect, and mark all lumber, and to inspect and count all shingles that may be brought to this city for sale and delivery at the wharf or elsewhere and to measure all wood, when called upon so to do, brought to the city for sale and delivered at any place therein.
3. He shall divide all plank and scantling into three classes, to be designated first, second, and third quality, and all shingles into two classes, to be designated first and second quality.
4. The Weigher, Measurer and Inspector shall be entitled to have from the person calling him the following fees: For measuring, inspecting, and marking plank and scantling, twenty-five cents for every thousand feet.
For inspecting and counting loose shingles, ten cents for every thousand.
For inspecting and counting bunch shingles, three cents for every thousand; and,
For measuring wood, six cents for every cord.
5. If the owner or consignee of any anthracite or bituminous coal brought to this city, shall sell the same and have it delivered previous to its being deposited in the lot or store house of the owner or consignee, without having such coal weighed by the Coal Weigher of this Corporation, allowing two thousand two hundred and forty (2,240) pounds to the ton, said owner or consignee shall forfeit and pay one dollar for every ton of such coal so sold and delivered.
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 57
6. It shall be the duty of the said Weigher, Measurer and Inspector to weigh, or see weighed, all anthracite or bituminous coal brought to this city for sale, and to weigh, or see weighed, or measure or have measured, when called upon to do so, all wheat, corn, oats, and rye; also, salt and potatoes brought to this city for sale.
7. For his services, as Weigher and Measurer, he shall be entitled to have from the seller of the articles the following fees, viz.:
For weighing anthracite and bituminous coal, eight cents per ton.
8. For measuring, when called upon to do so, all wheat, corn, rye, oats, potatoes, and salt, twenty cents for every hundred bushels; the fee to be paid by the party calling in his services. For weighing, when called upon to do so, any wheat, corn, rye, oats, potatoes, and salt, ten cents for every hundred bushels, to be paid by the party calling in his services.
9. It shall be the duty of the said Weigher, Measurer and Inspector, to weigh, when called upon to do so, all hay, fodder, sheaf oats and shucks brought to the hay scales for that purpose, and give a ticket to the owner or person having such provender in charge, with the signature thereto, expressing the gross weight of the wagon or vehicle, and hay, fodder, sheaf oats, and shucks, weight of the wagon or vehicle, the net weight of the provender, and the date when weighed, for which he shall be entitled to demand and receive from the owner of the provender so weighed by him, three cents for every net hundred pounds thereof.
1. Coal, etc, on streets; time allowed
2. Merchants' use of sidewalks
3. Carpenters' use of streets
4. Dangerous walls, chimneys, trees, etc
5. Fall of brick wall or chimney.
6. Use of streets by blacksmiths, etc.
7. Drays, etc., standing on street.
8. Footways; projection of steps.
9. Vaults under streets.
10. Vaults and Cellars left open.
11. Horse racks in streets.
12. Of camping and feeding in streets.
13. Of removing sand or gravel.
14. Of changing grade.
1. If any person shall place, or permit to be placed, on any street or public alley of the city of Fredericksburg any wood, coal, casks, boxes, merchandise, or lumber, or other thing belonging to or consigned to him, and shall not remove the same within a reasonable time--not to exceed twenty-four hours after such articles or any of them shall have been first
58 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
so placed, or permitted to be placed--he shall forfeit and pay two dollars for every offence, and for every hour such articles shall remain in the streets over and above twenty-four hours, he shall be fined one dollar.
2. It shall not be lawful for any person to display or cause to be displayed any goods, wares, or merchandise, or other property on the sidewalk more than four feet from the wall of his building. Any person violating this ordinance shall be warned by the police upon the first offence, and any subsequent offence may be punished by a fine of not less than one dollar nor more than five dollars.
3. Any person engaged or about to be engaged in building, repairing, excavating, or making any improvements on a house, or lot on which materials are to be used, or from which they are to be removed, may deposit materials in that part of the street or public alley in front of his premises, on so much of the carriage way as does not exceed one-half of the width thereof, so that the use of the gutter be not obstructed. But where two persons are building or making other improvements hereby authorized, opposite each other on the same street, each shall occupy but one-fourth of the street. And no such deposit of materials shall be made in a street so as to obstruct improvements which the Corporation is making in said street, or for a longer time than is necessary for the work. And a person engaged in repairing a roof, wall, or chimney of a house on a street or public alley, shall place barriers sufficient to warn a foot passenger against passing such roof, wall, or chimney. If he fail to place the same he shall pay a fine of five dollars, and every day on which the failure continues shall be a distinct offence. In no case shall a sidewalk or paved gutter be obstructed under this section, unless it be actually necessary for placing such barriers, or for the execution of the work.
4. When it shall be alleged by any two residents, upon complaint to the Mayor, that any building, chimney, or wall of any kind, or any tree, has become dangerous to citizens or to adjoining property by delapidation or otherwise, the Mayor shall have the owner thereof summoned before him and upon proof that the said building, chimney, or wall or any part thereof, or tree, is dangerous as aforesaid, the Mayor shall order the owner or his agent to remove or repair the same, or so much thereof as is dangerous. And if said order be not obeyed in a reasonable time, to be fixed by the Mayor in his order, he shall direct the Chairman of the Street Committee to cause such removal or repair to be made forthwith at the expense of the city, but the costs thereof shall be repaid to the city by the owner of said property together with twenty per centum for damages, said costs and damages to be enforced
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 59
and collected as fines and taxes are authorized to be enforced and collected.
5. If a brick wall or brick chimney on any lot in this city fall into any of the streets in the city, it shall be the duty of the owner of the bricks of which such wall or chimney was composed, to have the same forthwith removed from the streets, and if such owner fail to do so within forty-eight hours from the time such wall or chimney shall have so fallen, he shall forfeit and pay five dollars, and for every day he shall let such bricks or any part of them remain in the streets after the first forty-eight hours as aforesaid, he shall forfeit and pay five dollars, and if the person who owned such wall or chimney disclaim ownership of the bricks, the same shall be removed by the police officers as soon as practicable, or sold by them for ready money, to be removed immediately, and accounted for, by them, to the Treasurer.
6. If a wheelwright, carpenter, blacksmith, or other person shall use any part of the public streets or footways of the city for the purpose of shoeing horses, hooping wheels, making or mending carts, wagons, drays, carriages, or other vehicles, or in any way occupying the streets or footways in their respective trades or occupations, without the leave of the Council first had and obtained, he shall forfeit and pay for every offence five dollars.
7. If any person or persons shall suffer his or their dray, cart, wagon, carriage or other vehicle, when not in use, to remain in any street longer than four hours, he or they shall forfeit and pay two dollars for every offence.
8. The sidewalks of the city shall not extend into the streets more than ten feet from the line of the streets, except before the churches and the public buildings, where they may be twelve feet wide. Nor shall any steps, or cellar-doors, or cellar-ways hereafter constructed, extend into the sidewalks more than four feet from the house. And all cellar-doors hereafter constructed on the sidewalks shall be strongly built and on a level with the sidewalk. If any person violate this section in putting up steps, cellar-doors or cellar-ways, he shall forfeit and pay ten dollars; and shall forfeit and pay five dollars for every day that he shall permit any such steps, cellar-doors or cellar-ways attached to or adjoining his house to remain in conflict with this section.
9. The Committee of Streets, when a vault is desired under a street may, by writing, grant permission to a person to have the same made; and the person obtaining the permission shall file the same with the Committee of Streets. Such person shall have it made with a substantial brick or stone arch, which shall extend in the street from the front wall of the
60 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
house before which the vault is, no further than two feet six inches from where the inner edge of the curbstone is, or will be when laid down. The openings to the vault shall not be more than eighteen inches in diameter, and shall be near the said line, unless, in the opinion of the Committee of Streets, that it is impracticable. It shall be level with the sidewalk, as it then is, but may afterwards be removed, if necessary, when the grade of the street is established or changed. It shall be secured with. a cast-iron covering, fixed in solid frame of stone or iron, so laid that the upper part of the frame shall be as nearly level with the pavement as it can be, consistently with the turning the water from the opening; and it shall be secured with such bolt or weight as the Committee of Streets may direct; and the person obtaining permission to make a vault shall have the same completed, under the direction of the Committee of Streets, within thirty days, unless further time is allowed by the Committee of Streets.
10. If any cellar or vault, heretofore, made, conform neither with this ordinance nor with the ordinances in force at the time of the passage hereof, or, if hereafter, when a cellar or vault is made or repaired, the same be not such as is required by this ordinance, the owner of the house to which the cellar or vault is attached, shall pay a fine of not less than five nor more than ten dollars; and every day that the cellar or vault shall not be as hereby required, shall be a distinct offence. And if the occupier of a house to which a vault is attached suffer the same to be open or unfastened at any time, other than when it is opened for putting something therein, or shall then suffer it to be open or unfastened longer than is absolutely necessary for that purpose, or if the owner or occupier of a house, to which a vault or cellar is attached, shall fail, in any respect, to keep in safe and proper order the opening to such vault, or the doors to such cellar, (whether made heretofore or hereafter,) he shall pay a like fine. The suffering a vault to be opened or unfastened as aforesaid, or the failure to keep in safe and proper order such opening or doors, shall be deemed a distinct offence each day or night thereof.
11. If any person shall put up a horse-rack, awning, shed, or sign, in any of the streets of the city without first obtaining permission of the Street Committee, he shall be fined two dollars, and it shall be the duty of the police officers to remove the same immediately.
12. It shall not be lawful for any wagoner, cartman or other person to camp at night, or feed their horses, mules or oxen by day or night, in any of the streets of the city; and if any person shall offend herein after being warned by a police officer or citizen, that it is not lawful so to do, he shall be fined for
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 61
every offence not less than one nor more than five dollars, in the discretion of the Mayor or Justice of the Peace before whom the offender is tried.
13. No person shall take any sand, gravel or dirt from any of the streets or alleys of the city without permission of the Street Committee. If any person shall offend against this section, he shall be fined one dollar for every offence.
14. Hereafter it shall not be lawful for the owner or occupier of any tenement or lot in the city to raise or in any manner change or alter the graduation of the footway before his or her tenement, without the permission of the Committee of Streets, or a majority of the Street Committee of the Council. Any person offending against this section shall forfeit and pay ten dollars, and shall be moreover liable to a fine of one dollar for every day said footway shall remain so raised, changed or altered, so that the same shall be considered by said Committee an impediment to foot-passengers, or any injury or inconvenience to the owner or occupier of the adjoining tenement.
1. Driving faster than a trot.
2. Runaway in the streets.
3. Fast driving.
4. Holding reins-straining horses.
5. Breaking horse to dray.
6. Driving on footways.
7. Stopping vehicles on footways.
8. Wheelbarrows on footways.
9. Keep to right in passing.
l0. Locking wheels on streets.
11. Police may order vehicles
12. Of marketing on streets.
13. Balloon ascensions.
14. Kite flying.
15. Playing on sidewalks, etc.
16. Indecent figures, etc.
17. Throwing missiles.
18. Fire on streets, etc.
19. Hogs at large.
20. Hogs in pens.
21. Animals turned loose.
22. Tying animals.
23. Bells on Bicycles.
24. Trash in streets, etc.
25. Filthy water.
26. Crowds on sidewalks.
27. Loafing on streets.
28. Cellar doors.
29. Snow on sidewalks.
30. Gates open on thoroughfares.
31. The bridge.
32. Bicycles on bridge.
1. No person shall drive any horse or horses, when attached to any dray, cart or wagon, within the limits of this city, faster than six miles an hour. Every person violating this section shall forfeit and pay one dollar for every offence.
2. If any horse or horses, attached to any vehicle shall run away in any street of this city, in-consequence of the want of due care and caution on the part of the driver of such horse or horses, such driver shall forfeit and pay five dollars.
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3. If any person shall drive, or cause to be driven, any horse or horses attached to any carriage, buggy, carryall or other like vehicle, faster than an ordinary traveling gait, he shall be fined not less than one or more than five dollars, at the discretion of the Justice before whom the offence is tried.
4. If any person shall strain any horse or horses in the city, or ride or drive any horse or horses in said city without holding in his hands the bridle or reins, he shall be fined for each offence not less than two nor more than ten dollars.
5. If any person or persons shall put, or cause to be put, any horse or horses to a dray, cart, wagon, or carriage of any kind within the limits of this city, for the purpose of breaking such horses to work, he or they so offending shall forfeit and pay five dollars for every such offence.
6. If any person shall willfully drive any horse, horses, mules, or oxen, or ride or lead any horse or mule on any sidewalks of the city aforesaid, he shall forfeit and pay one dollar for every such offence.
7. If any person shall stop any horse, or dray, cart, wagon, carriage, buggy, or other vehicle on any of the footways of this city, where the streets intersect each other, he shall in the discretion of the Mayor forfeit and pay one dollar.
8. If any person shall roll any hand-cart, hand-wagon, or wheel barrow, or ride any bicycle on the sidewalks of the city, or any part of them, he shall forfeit and pay not less than fifty cents nor more than five dollars.
9. Any driver of a vehicle meeting another vehicle in a street shall reasonably drive to the right hand, so that each may pass the other without interference. And when in a street a vehicle is overtaken by another vehicle, the driver of the former shall bear to the right, and the driver of the latter shall bear to the left until the latter shall have passed. In no instance shall a driver of a carriage, wagon, dray, cart, or other vehicle stop the same in the middle of the street, or opposite to an intersecting street, but he shall always stop the same as near to the sidewalk as he can without being on it or in the gutter. A driver violating this section in any respect, shall pay a fine of not less than one dollar nor more than five dollars.
10. If any driver of a wagon shall, in any street of the city, except on that part of William street or on that part of George street, which lies between Princess Ann and Caroline streets, drive such wagon with a wheel locked after being forbidden so to do by any citizen or police officer, or if any driver of a wagon, dray, or cart, whether licensed or not, shall wantonly crack his whip in the streets, to the annoyance of others, such driver shall pay a fine of one dollar.
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11. Any police officer of the city may order any vehicle standing on a street to be removed as may seem to him most convenient for persons passing by. If a driver fail to obey such order, he shall pay a fine of two dollars.
12. If a driver of a cart, wagon or vehicle containing marketing for sale, shall remain with the same and expose said marketing for sale in any of the streets or at the corners of the streets of the city, and fail to remove after due notice to do so, he shall forfeit and pay not less than one nor more than five dollars for each offence.
13. It shall not be lawful for any person or persons to raise or cause to ascend any balloon or balloons from any lot or street within the limits of this city, without the consent of the Mayor, in writing, first had and obtained. Every person offending against this section shall forfeit and pay for every offence five dollars.
14. It shall not be lawful for any person to raise or fly any kite in any of the streets of the city. Every person offending against this section shall forfeit and pay two dollars for every offence.
15. It shall not be lawful for any persons to assemble in any street of the city and play at any game which shall annoy the citizens near them, or impede persons in their passage along the streets or sidewalks, under the penalty of one dollar for each person so assembled and engaged.
16. If any person shall draw any indecent figure, or write any vulgar or obscene words upon any house, railing or paling in the city aforesaid, he shall forfeit and pay two dollars for every offence.
17. It shall not be lawful for any person to throw any stone or other missile, or use any sling-shot, air-gun, etc., in any of the streets of the city. Any person offending against this section shall forfeit and pay not less than one nor more than five dollars for every offence.
18. If any person shall carry fire about in the streets of the city without having the same secured under cover, or shall fire on the streets any paper, straw, or other thing, or shall make a fire in the market house or market lot, he shall, in the discretion of the Mayor, forfeit and pay for every offence one dollar.
19. It shall not be lawful for hogs, shoats, or pigs, to go at large in the streets of the city, and all hogs, shoats, or pigs found going at large shall be caught by the police officers, and when so caught shall be forfeited to the Corporation, and shall be sold by the police officer in front of the Mayor's office to the highest bidder for cash, one moiety whereof shall go to the officer who caught and sold the animal, and the other moiety
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shall be paid over to the Treasurer for the use of this Corporation.
20. It shall not be lawful hereafter for any hogs, shoats, or pigs to be kept in pens or houses, in this city, during the months of June, July, August, and September. If any person offend against this section, he shall forfeit and pay two dollars; and every day that a hog, shoat, or pig, shall be confined as aforesaid, in the months aforesaid, shall be a distinct offence.
21. It shall not be lawful for any person to turn loose in the streets of the city any horse, mare, cow, calf, mule, bull, goat, sheep, geese, or ducks, or suffer or permit the same to run at large in the streets of the city. Any person offending against this section shall forfeit and pay one dollar for every offence; and every such animal found going at large shall be presumed to be going at large by the permission or sufferance of its owner.
22. No person or persons shall tie animals to any tree or lamp post along the side walks of the city. For any violation of this ordinance the offender shall be fined not less than twenty-five cents for each offence.
23. It shall be unlawful for anyone to ride a bicycle through the streets of the city except such vehicle has an alarm bell attached, and at night there shall be attached to the bicycle in addition to the bell, a lamp which shall be kept burning. And no bicycle shall be ridden on the streets of the city at a greater speed than ten miles per hour. Any person violating this ordinance shall be fined one dollar.
24. Every person who shall cast, place, or lay any rubbish, oyster-shells, glass, filth, dirt, shavings, stable manure, or offal of any trade, business or occupation; or any rubbish from buildings, cellars or back yards, or any refuse or dirt from coal or firewood, or ashes, or any obnoxious or offensive matter, substance, or thing whatsoever into, or in any public square, place, street, lane or alley in the city; or cause the same to be done, except when the same may have been removed from his, her or their premises for immediate removal, the same to be removed within twenty-four hours, shall forfeit and pay the sum of one dollar for every such offence; and after due notice, the further sum of one dollar for each and every day the same shall remain in such place.
25. If the owner or occupier of any lot in the city shall let any soap-suds, dye-water, dish-water, fish-brine, or other dirty water run from his or her lot into any of the streets or gutters; or shall throw or cause to be thrown any soap-suds, dye-water, slops, or any dirty water whatever into any of the streets or gutters, he or she shall forfeit and pay not less than one nor more than five dollars for every such offence after due notice thereof.
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26. It shall not be lawful for any persons to congregate on any sidewalk or crossing in such a manner as to hinder or obstruct any person walking along the same, and it shall be the duty of the police to keep the crossings clear and the sidewalks open for the passage of persons using the same. Any person violating this ordinance shall, on conviction, be fined not exceeding five dollars. This ordinance, at the discretion of the Mayor, may be suspended on public occasions.
27. It shall not be lawful for any person to loaf or loiter on any street, pavement or sidewalk of the city to the annoyance of the occupant of any property along the same, or to the annoyance of persons passing on the same. Any person found so loafing or loitering shall, upon the complaint of any person so annoyed, be arrested by the police, and upon conviction before the Mayor be fined not more than five dollars for each offence.
28. No person using or occupying any cellar the door of which is in any street or sidewalk in the city shall allow such door to remain open unless the same is properly guarded by a railing or grating covering the whole opening in such street or sidewalk, and every violation of this ordinance shall be punished by a fine of not less than one dollar nor more than five dollars for each offence.
29. All owners or occupants of property within the limits of the Corporation shall, when requested thereto by the Mayor, be required to remove or cause to be removed the snow from their sidewalks within twelve hours after snow has ceased to fall: provided, however, that if the snow fall during the night or on Sunday it shall be removed within four hours after sunrise of the following day. A fine of not less than one dollar nor more than five dollars shall be imposed for each and every time the snow is suffered to remain beyond the time prescribed by the ordinance, and the Street Committee shall remove the same at the cost of the city.
30. All gates opening on any of the streets or alleys of the city shall open inside enclosures, except those that are hung on hinges which will not stand open, and those which are shut with springs.
31. It shall not be lawful for any person to ride or drive on the Fredericksburg bridge over the Rappahannock river faster than a walk, and any one who shall be convicted of willfully riding or driving over this bridge faster than a walk shall pay a fine of five dollars for the first offence, and ten dollars for each subsequent offence.
32. It shall not be lawful for any person to ride a bicycle on the Fredericksburg bridge over the Rappahannock river at a speed to exceed five miles an hour. Such persons shall be
(5)
66 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
required to use whistles or bells on said bicycles during the day, and lamps or headlights at night. Any one violating this ordinance shall be subject to a fine of not less than two dollars nor more than five dollars.
1. Carcasses removed by owner.
2. Decayed matter.
3. Stagnant water.
4. Offensive lots, hog and cow-pens, etc.
5. Hog pens-distance from neighbors.
6. Complaints; abatement of pens.
7. Cleaning fish, etc., at hydrants, etc.
8. Water at pumps, etc.
9. Soap or candle factories.
10. Slaughter houses.
11. Offensive matter in canals.
12. Shooting in city.
1. If any horse, dog, cow, or other animal die within the limits of the city, and the owner of such animal, at the time of its death, shall not immediately remove it one mile beyond the limits of the city, or bury it two feet below the surface of the ground, he shall forfeit and pay five dollars.
2. If any person shall keep in his storehouse, warehouse, cellar, lot, or other place, any fish, beef, pork or any animal or vegetable substance, after it has become putrid or offensive, he shall forfeit and pay two dollars, and shall moreover forfeit and pay two dollars for every day such things shall be kept, after having been required by a police officer to remove the same.
3. If any lot or ground in the city or within one mile of its corporate limits shall be covered with stagnant water, or shall be subject to be covered with stagnant water, or if the owner or owners, occupier or occupiers thereof, shall permit any offensive or unwholesome or stagnant water or substance to remain therein or thereon, the Mayor shall summon such owner or owners, occupier or occupiers, before him for a hearing and, the fact being found, shall order such owner or owners, occupier or occupiers to fill up, raise or drain such lot or ground or cover or remove such substance there from within five days after such order. And for every day after the expiration of said five days that said owner or owners, occupier or occupiers, neglects to fill up, raise, or drain such lot or ground, or cover or remove such substance, such owner or owners, occupier or occupiers, shall be fined not less than one dollar nor more than ten dollars, and the Mayor, acting for the Council., shall cause such ground to be filled up, raised or drained, or such substance covered or removed, and shall collect the expense of so
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 67
doing from said owner or owners, occupier or occupiers by distress or sale in the same manner in which taxes levied upon real estate for the benefit of said city are collected. In case of non-resident owners, who have no agents in the city or on the said land, or in case the owners are unknown, the notice required by this section shall be given by publication for four weeks in any newspaper printed in the city. And, in addition to the remedies of distress or sale, the expense incurred under this section may also be recovered by suit or motion in the manner prescribed in section three thousand two hundred and eleven of Code of Virginia.
4. If the owner or occupier of any lot in this city shall suffer a necessary, hog-pen, stable, or cow-house, on the lot so owned or occupied by him, or shall suffer the lot itself, or any part of, it to become offensive to the occupiers of a dwelling on an adjacent or neighboring lot, or to persons passing along the streets and sidewalks of the city, such owner or occupier shall forfeit and pay a fine of not less than one dollar nor more than five dollars, and after notice to remove or cleanse the same, every day such necessary, hog-pen, stable, or cow-house shall remain offensive shall be a distinct offence.
5. If any person shall erect or maintain on any lot in this city a necessary, hog-pen, or cow-house, within twenty feet of a dwelling-house on an adjacent or neighboring lot, or within ten feet of a street, such necessary, hog-pen, or cow-house are hereby declared to be nuisances, and he or she shall forfeit not less than one nor more than ten dollars for every day after notice to remove the same that such necessary, hog-pen, or cow-house shall stand in such position.
6. Upon its being alleged by any citizen or any police officer, to the Mayor of the city, or any other Justice, that a necessary, hog-pen, or cow-house is placed in such a situation as to be offensive to the occupiers of a dwelling-house on an adjacent or neighboring lot, the said Mayor or Justice shall cause the owner of the lot on which such necessary, hog-pen or cow-house is, to be summoned to appear before him, and upon proof of the allegation, shall order such necessary, hog-pen, or cow-house to be removed. And unless such removal be effected within forty-eight hours, the Mayor or some other Justice shall, from time to time, cause the said owner to be summoned to appear before him, and shall fine him not less than one nor more than ten dollars for every forty-eight hours, after the first, that there may be a failure to effect such removal.
7. If any person shall clean any fish or vegetables, or wash any clothes at any of the pumps, public hydrants, or springs, of the city, he or she shall pay a fine of fifty cents.
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8. If any person shall throw any water at and around any of the public pumps, except in the drain leading from the pump, he shall forfeit and pay one dollar.
9. If any person or persons shall use any building in this city for a soap or candle factory, other than those now occupied for such purposes, without first obtaining permission of the Council, he or they shall forfeit and pay ten dollars, and shall moreover forfeit and pay ten dollars for every day such building shall be so used after the first offence.
10. If any person shall erect, have or keep any slaughter-house in this city without permission of the Council, he shall, on proof thereof, be held guilty of a nuisance, and be fined not less than ten dollars for each day the said nuisance shall continue.
11. If any person shall place, or cause to be placed in any of the canals in the city or west of the city or in the basin or reservoirs, or in or on any street, alley, sidewalk, or lot within the city limits the carcass of any animal, or any other thing, or matter offensive to any citizens, or to the public, or shall suffer any such nuisance to remain on any such lot owned or held by him, he shall be fined not less than one dollar nor more than ten dollars for such offence, and not less than one dollar nor more than ten dollars additional for every twenty-four hours such nuisance or offensive matter may remain.
12. If any person shall fire a cannon, musket, gun, pistol or other firearm in the city, unless in the execution of some law, or by a soldier in a military parade in celebration of some festival, or cause an explosion of gunpowder in the streets, he shall forfeit and pay two dollars.
1. Street walkers.
2. Adultery.
3. Houses of ill fame.
4. Cruelty to animals.
5. Indecent language
6. Saloons, when closed.
7. Liquors furnished minors.
8. Work on Sunday.
9. Business places open, etc.
10. Cigarettes, pistols, etc., to minors.
11. Disturbing religious worship.
12. Bathing, etc.
13. Exhibition of stallions, etc.
14. Cursing; disorderly conduct.
15. Disorderly houses, etc.
16. Interfering with officers, etc.
1. Professional street walkers shall be fined not less than one dollar nor more than ten dollars, or imprisoned in jail not exceeding thirty days, or both in the discretion of the Mayor or Justice.
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2. If any person commit adultery or fornication he shall be fined not less than ten dollars.
3. If any person keep a house of ill fame, resorted to for the purpose of prostitution or lewdness, he or she shall be fined not less than five dollars, or confined in jail not less than thirty days, or both in the discretion of the Mayor or Justice.
4. If any person cruelly beat, torture, or abuse any horse or other animal, whether his own or that of another, he shall be fined not less that one nor more than ten dollars; and it shall be the duty of the police officers to see that this ordinance is strictly enforced.
5. Any person convicted of the use of indecent or insulting language to another person, or of making any indecent, insulting, or immoral proposal to any female shall be punished by a fine of not less than two dollars and fifty cents, or imprisonment in the city jail not less than ten days, or both in the discretion of the Mayor or Justice.
6. No bar-room, saloon or other place for the sale of intoxicating liquors shall be opened, and no intoxicating bitters or other drink shall be sold in any bar-room, restaurant, saloon, store, or other place, between twelve o'clock on any Saturday night and day break of the succeeding Monday morning; and any person violating the provisions of this ordinance shall be punished by fine of not less than ten dollars.
7. If any merchant, or tradesman, or the keeper of any inn, bar-room, ordinary or saloon, sell, barter. give or furnish, or cause to be sold, bartered, given, or furnished, or permit any person in his or their employment to sell, barter, give, or furnish any spirituous, intoxicating or malt liquor of any kind to a minor, having good reason to believe him to be such, without first obtaining the written authority of the said minor's parent or guardian he shall be fined not less than ten dollars, and required to give bond in the penalty of two hundred and fifty dollars for good behavior for one year; and any subsequent violation of this section shall be a forfeiture of said bond.
8. If any person on a Sunday be found laboring at any trade or calling, or employ his agents, apprentices or servants in labor or any other business, except in household, or other work of necessity or charity, or if any person bring into or carry about this city on a Sunday, any fowls, chickens, eggs, fruit, vegetables, meat, or any other thing whatever, for sale or barter, such person shall pay a fine of not less than one nor more than five dollars
9. If any person, not being an apothecary, livery stable keeper, keeper of an ice house or keeper of an ordinary shall
7O GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
keep his or her store, shop or place of business open on Sunday, at any time of the day, such person shall forfeit and pay five dollars for every offence.
10. If any person sell, barter, give, or furnish, or cause to be sold, bartered, given or furnished to any minor under sixteen years of age, cigarettes or tobacco in any form, or pistols, or dirks, or bowie-knives, having good cause to believe him or her to be a minor under sixteen years of age, said person shall be fined not less than two dollars and fifty cents.
11. Any person who shall willfully disturb any assembly of persons met for the worship of God, whether he be in or outside of said assembly, shall be fined for every such offence not less than one dollar nor more than ten dollars, or confined in jail not less than five nor more than thirty days, or both in the discretion of the Mayor or Justice.
12. Hereafter it shall not be lawful for any person to strip and bathe in the river opposite to the city before dark, or to bathe whether stripped or not in that portion of the canal or race west of the city at any time. Any person offending against this ordinance shall, on conviction, be fined not less than one dollar nor more than five dollars for each offence; one-half of the fines imposed and collected tinder this section, shall entire to the Corporation, and the other half to the officer furnishing the information.
13. If any person shall hereafter put, or cause to be put, any stallion or jackass to a mare or jennet, within the limits of the Corporation of Fredericksburg, or shall exhibit either in the streets of the city, he shall forfeit and pay for every offence not less than one dollar nor more than ten dollars.
14. If any person shall curse and swear, use abusive language, or behave in a violent or disorderly manner in any public place in the city, such person shall forfeit and pay not less than one dollar nor more than ten dollars for each offence.
15. If any person shall keep a noisy or disorderly house, or shall be guilty of noisy, disorderly, riotous or indecent conduct not otherwise provided for, he shall be fined not less than one dollar nor more than ten dollars.
16. Any person willfully interfering with a police or other Corporation officer in the discharge of his duty shall be fined not less than one nor more than ten dollars, and in the discretion of the Mayor or Justice, confined in jail not less than five days.
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1. Tramps found within corporate limits.
2. Chain gang.
3. Who deemed vagrants.
1. It shall be the duty of the police officers of Fredericksburg to arrest all tramps and vagrants who may be found from time to time within the corporate limits of Fredericksburg, and take them before the Mayor of said city, or Justice acting in his stead for a hearing; if said person or persons be found guilty of being tramps or vagrants the said Mayor or Justice shall impose a fine of not less than one nor more than ten dollars and costs for each offence, and in default in the payment of said fine and costs the said Mayor or Justice shall commit the said person or persons to the city jail for not more than twenty days and sentence him or them to hard work in the city chain gang during that term.
2. All persons sentenced under the provisions of this ordinance to hard work in the city chain gang shall be committed to the custody of the Jailor of said city and shall be worked by the Street Committee in accordance with the provisions of the city ordinance governing the chain gang, and the Mayor or Justice aforesaid shall give the said Street Committee due notice of the conviction and sentence of said tramps or vagrants in default in the payment of the said fine as provided for in the chain gang ordinance aforesaid.
3. Any person who wanders about without any visible occupation, means of support, or place of abode; who lodges in out-houses, railroad cars, market places, or other public buildings or places, or in the open air, or who goes around begging from door to door, shall be deemed a tramp or vagrant within the meaning of this ordinance.
1. Must obtain license.
2. Penalty for violation.
3. Mayor to issue license.
1. It shall not be lawful hereafter for any person to carry from place to place, within the limits of this Corporation, any goods, wares or merchandise, and offer to sell or barter the
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same, or actually sell or barter the same without first obtaining a license therefor. Any person or persons so found offering to sell or barter, or actually selling or bartering the same, shall forfeit and pay not less than the license tax for each offence, to be recovered by law. The police officers shall see to the execution of this chapter, and they shall be allowed one-half of all fines recovered under and in virtue hereof.
2. In case of failure to pay the fines for violation of section first of this chapter, the person or persons convicted shall be imprisoned and held in custody for thirty days.
3. The Mayor is authorized to grant the license under this chapter, upon the exhibition of evidence of authority to sell or barter under the laws of the State of Virginia, and of the receipt of the Treasurer of the payment of the license.
1. Disorder at public gatherings.
2. Exhibitors to employ police.
1. Any person who shall, at any public meeting of the citizens of the city, or at any lawful exhibition or show held within the limits of this city, interrupt or annoy the people there assembled, by loud talking, whistling or Singing, or exclude others from participating in the enjoyment of such representations and exhibitions by standing up amongst the people there assembled, or in any other way disturb the harmony and good order of such assemblages, shall pay a fine of not less than one nor more than five dollars, at the discretion of the Mayor or Justice before whom the offence is tried. And it shall be the duty of the police officers to attend such meetings and shows, and to suppress all riotous conduct tending to a violation of this chapter, or a breach of the peace; and they are hereby required to take the offender or offenders before a Justice of the Peace, that he or they may be dealt with according to law.
2. Every exhibitor of a public show, or exhibition of any kind, held in this city for pay, shall employ at least two police officers of the Corporation to keep order, and pay them one dollar each for their services for each exhibition; and on failure of any exhibitor so to employ such police officers, and to pay them as aforesaid, he shall forfeit and pay the sum of ten dollars. But this section shall not apply to any show, exhibition or performance in a room for which a license by the year is taken out, as provided in chapter twenty-four, section one.
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1. Not to obstruct way to station.
2. Loud outcry or clamor at station.
3. Not to go into cars soliciting custom.
4. Duty of Mayor, etc.
5. Penalty for violation.
1. It shall be unlawful for any agent or porter of any hotel or boarding house, or for any owner, agent, or driver of any hack or other vehicle, or for any other person at any station of any railroad in this Corporation, to throng or obstruct the way to such station so as to hinder or prevent the free and unimpeded access to or departure from such station by passengers carried or to be carried on the cars of said railroads, or of those attending or receiving them at said stations.
2. It shall be unlawful for any person at any such stations to make any unnecessarily loud outcry or clamor, or to solicit custom or employment in a tone louder than a conversational one, or to take hold of any passenger, person, clothing, baggage or property, unless previously requested by such passenger to do so.
3. No such porter, agent, owner or driver of any hack or other vehicles, or other person, shall go into or upon any such car for the purpose of soliciting custom or employment, unless previously authorized to do so by the proper person having charge of same.
4. It shall be the duty of the Mayor to designate the limits, not less than ten feet from every such railroad station, within which it shall not be lawful for any such hotel or other porter, or agent, or owner, or driver of any hack or other vehicle, to come for the purpose of soliciting custom or employment for five minutes after the departure of any such train; and the policemen are specially charged to enforce this ordinance.
5. Any person violating any of the provisions of this ordinance, and the employer of any such person so violating the same, if the keeper of a hotel or boarding house, or owner of a hack or other vehicles, shall, on conviction before the Mayor or any Justice of the Peace of this Corporation, be fined not less than one nor more than five dollars.
74 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
1. Depredating on pumps.
2. Injuring trees.
3. Pruning and removing trees.
4. Injuring springs.
5. Watering streets from pumps.
6. Who may suspend use of pumps.
7. Injuring lamp-posts and lamps.
1. If any person shall willfully break or move from its place the handle of any pump in the city, or choke any pump or public spring by conveying into it any brick, stone, or other substance, or remove the cap from any pump in the city, or in any manner injure any one of them, or any public spring, he shall, for every offence, forfeit and pay five dollars, and shall be moreover liable to this Corporation for the expense incurred in repairing the same.
2. if any person shall willfully break, bark, belt, or otherwise injure any tree or trees, shrubbery, or flowers, now set in the streets of the city, or in any cemetery, or public place, or grounds of any association, corporation or individual, he shall pay a fine of not less than two nor more than ten dollars or be confined in jail not less than five nor more than thirty days.
3. The Committee on Streets shall have the authority to prune and trim any and all trees now planted or set out in the streets or on the sidewalks of the city, or that may be hereafter planted or set out, and to cut down or remove any such tree whose removal or cutting is deemed by them necessary or advantageous or that may be, by them, regarded dangerous or an obstruction to the public, and no tree shall hereafter be set out in the streets of the city without the permission of said Committee first; obtained.
4. If any person shall willfully throw any stone or filth of any kind into or within fifteen feet of any spring or well within this Corporation, or in any way deface or injure the wall around any such spring or well, he shall forfeit and pay a fine of five dollars, and be liable to the Corporation for the expense incurred in repairing the same.
5. It shall not be lawful for any of the pumps of the city, to be used for the purpose of watering the streets, unless the person or persons so using them, shall keep the same in proper repair or order during such usage. Any person violating this section shall forfeit and pay not less than one dollar nor more than two dollars for each offence.
6. If the Mayor shall deem it necessary he may, at any time, suspend the use of pumps for the purpose named in the fifth section of this chapter.
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 75
7. If any person or persons shall willfully or negligently injure or destroy any lamp-post, pillars, or lamps, or any electric light, or telephone or telegraph pole, lamp, wire, or glass, in this city, he or they shall forfeit and pay a fine of not less than five dollars nor more than ten dollars; and, in any event, shall pay the expense of renewing or repairing the same; and it shall be the duty of the Mayor to collect the said amount of repairs by warrant or otherwise.
1. Must get license-penalty.
2. Must apply first of October.
3. Obtaining a dog-apply in ten days.
4. Stray dogs on lots
5. Mayor to report taxes and fines.
6. When muzzled
7. Mayor to keep a book.
8. Forging license.
9. When dogs to be killed.
10. Vicious dogs.
1. It shall be the duty of the Mayor on the first day of September, in every year, to give public notice for thirty days, by hand bills, printed and posted, that all persons owning or intending to keep any animal of the dog or canine species, to come forward and take out a license for the same from him. After the expiration of the time in said notice mentioned, all persons found with a dog or dogs, or harboring one or more dogs on his, her or their premises, without the required license, shall be fined five dollars for every dog so owned, kept or harbored, one-half of which fine shall go to the informer, and in case of the refusal to pay said fine, the offender shall be committed to the jail or chain gang for not less than ten nor more than thirty days.
2. Every resident of the city owning or in the possession of a dog or dogs shall apply to the Mayor, within thirty days from the first day of September in each year, for a license to keep said dog or dogs, and it shall be the duty of the Mayor, upon such application and the payment of the annual tax imposed by law upon the particular kind of dog for which a license is asked, to issue and deliver to the applicant said license to expire on the thirtieth day of September next succeeding its date.
3. It shall be the duty of every resident of the city who shall come into the possession of a dog or dogs, within ten days after coming into such possession, to apply to the Mayor and obtain from him a license to keep such dog or dogs, which license shall be granted to him in the same manner, upon the
76 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
same terms, and to expire at the same time as prescribed in the foregoing section.
4. Every resident of the city who shall knowingly permit any dog to remain on his or her premises for fifteen consecutive days, shall be considered the owner or possessor of said dog within the meaning of this chapter.
5. It shall be the duty of the Mayor on or before the first day of January, April, July, and October, in each year to pay to the Treasurer all taxes and fines received by him by virtue hereof, and to take his receipt therefor, and it shall be his duty to lay before the Council at the October meeting in each year an account of said taxes and fines, showing when, and from whom, and how much received by him during the year.
6. At any time, at his discretion, the Mayor may, by proclamation, declare that all of said animals as above licensed shall be properly and securely muzzled, and if any such animal of the dog kind shall be found running at large during the continuance of such proclamation. without the required muzzle, the owner thereof shall be tined one dollar, and failing to pay the fine and to muzzle the animal, it shall be killed.
7. The Mayor shall keep a book in which shall be entered the names and residence of the owner of each dog so licensed and the amount of tax paid by each and the date of payment, which book shall be open for the inspection of the public.
8. Any person or persons who shall forge, counterfeit, imitate or falsely use any license or certificate issued by the Mayor for the purposes of this chapter, shall be fined not less than ten dollars, one-half of which shall go to the informer.
9. All animals of the dog kind which shall be found running at large in the city upon which the license tax has not been paid, shall be seized by any police officer and killed; and one dollar shall be allowed said officer in each such case.
10. If the Mayor shall have sufficient proof that any dog in the city has bitten any person, or any dog has annoyed any person or persons by running after them in the street in a vicious manner, he shall order such dog to be immediately killed by a police officer, whether the license has been paid on said dog or not; and if the owner of such dog shall conceal it, or cause it to be concealed, so that the order of the Mayor cannot be executed, such owner shall forfeit and pay two dollars for every day such dog shall be kept concealed, and failing to pay said fines such person shall be sent to jail or the chain gang for a term of not less than thirty nor more than sixty days.
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 77
1. Establishing a chain gang.
2. In charge of Street Committee.
3. Armed foreman or guard.
4. Balls-and-chains provided.
5. Hours of labor.
6. Mayor to notify.
7. Prisoners receipted for
8. Punishment.
1. In pursuance of the powers conferred on the Council by law, a Chain Gang is hereby established in and for the City of Fredericksburg for the purpose of working on the streets and public property therein and on works for the public welfare thereof.
2. The said Chain Gang shall be under the direction and control of the Street Committee of this city, who shall cause to work in said Chain Gang on the streets and public property of the city, and on works for the public welfare and convenience of the city, all male persons now or hereafter confined in the city jail, who, by section three thousand nine hundred and thirty-two of the Code of Virginia, may be required to work in said Chain Gang, and all other persons who are now or who may hereafter be declared by law liable to work in Chain Gangs.
3. The Street Committee shall from time to time designate a reliable and competent foreman or guard to take charge of, and work the Chain Gang, who shall be armed, and shall be responsible for their safe keeping.
4. The Street Committee shall provide balls and chains adequate to prevent the escape of such persons as are in the Chain Gang and shall have the same attached securely to those they may deem liable to make their escape.
5. The Chain Gang shall work during such hours and for such length of time each day as other labor employed by the Street Committee is accustomed to work; and when not engaged in work they shall be returned to jail.
6. The Mayor is hereby required to notify the Street Committee whenever there are any persons as aforesaid liable to work in the Chain Gang; and he shall order any person confined in jail in this city, liable to work in the Chain Gang, who is convicted in his Court or before a Justice of the Peace, to be delivered by the Jailor to the person or persons authorized by the Street Committee to take charge of and work the Chain Gang, which order shall specify the length of time such person is required to work in the Chain Gang, and where the person is to labor for the nonpayment of a fine imposed upon him, the order shall state the amount of fine and costs, and the number of days' labor required to discharge the same.
78 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
The said order shall be in duplicate, one copy thereof to the Jailor, and one for the Street Committee, or person designated by them to have the custody of said person.
7. The Jailor shall take a receipt from the Street Committee, or from the person designated by said Committee to have charge of and work the Chain Gang, for every prisoner delivered by him under said order, which shall discharge him from all liability for the escape of such prisoner so long as he is not in his custody, but the duplicate copy of the Mayor's order sent to the Street Committee when received by the Jailor from the Street Committee, or person designated by them, shall be sufficient receipt under this section.
8. But the Mayor in his aforesaid orders shall direct such persons to be confined in jail when not engaged at work. If any person ordered to, or in the Chain Gang, shall refuse to work, or shall make an effort to escape there from, the foreman or guard in charge shall report the fact to the Street Committee who shall notify the Mayor, and the Mayor on proof of same may cause said person to be punished by stripes to be administered by the Jailor, or by solitary confinement and fed on bread and water for such time as the Mayor may order; the stripes not to exceed twenty and the confinement not to exceed twenty days for each offence, and such confinement shall be in addition to the original sentence.
1. Powder stored in magazine.
2. Amount allowed in store.
3. Mayor to examine on report.
4. Keeper of magazine--fees.
1. All powder brought within the limits of this Corporation shall be stored in the public magazine, unless within five hours it be carried beyond the limits of the city: Provided, the quantity thus brought in shall exceed the weight of thirty pounds; and that for any violation of the provisions of this section, the owner of the powder in question, or the person who shall receive or take charge of it when brought in, shall be liable to a penalty of five dollars for each twenty-five pounds of powder so brought into the city, to be recovered by warrant before any Justice of the Peace of this Corporation, with costs for the use of the Corporation.
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 79
2. No person or persons shall keep, in any house, any quantity of powder exceeding thirty pounds at any one time, under the penalty of five dollars for every pound above that quantity.
3. The Mayor, or any Justice of the Peace, is hereby authorized, as often as he shall be informed, upon oath, of probable cause to suspect any person or persons of concealing or keeping within the Corporation, any quantity of powder over and above thirty pounds as aforesaid, to issue a search warrant, to examine into the truth of such allegation or suspicion, and to search any place whatever therein.
4. A fee of twenty-five cents shall be paid to the keeper of the magazine for each keg or part of a keg of powder therein deposited, and he shall have the right to refuse the delivery thereof until the said fee shall be paid.
1. Speed of four miles per hour.
2. Stopping trains on streets.
3. Of obstructing streets or water.
4. When to ring bell.
5. Jumping on trains.
6. Police to arrest offenders.
7. Hurkamp railroad.
1. If the officers, agents, or employees of any railroad company shall cause any locomotive to be propelled upon any railroad or rail track in any street of this city, or shall cause any car, carriage or other vehicle to be drawn across any of the streets of this city at a rate greater than four miles per hour, such company shall forfeit and pay ten dollars.
2. If the officers, agents, or employees of any railroad company shall stop, or caused to be stopped, any locomotive, car, or other vehicle used on railroads, in any street in the city, such company shall forfeit and pay five dollars, and shall also forfeit and pay five dollars for every hour such locomotive, car, or vehicle shall remain in any of the streets of the city.
3. If any railroad company shall, in constructing or altering the track of any railroad in the streets of this city, obstruct the free use of the streets for wagons, drays, carts, carriages, or other vehicles, or obstruct the free passage of water through the gutters of the streets, such company shall pay a fine of ten dollars, and shall also pay a fine of five dollars for every day the railroad or the track of the railroad shall remain in such condition.
4. During the passage through or across the city of any locomotive or train of cars, it shall be the duty of the company
80 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
owning the railroad on which such locomotive or cars are running to cause a bell attached to such locomotive or cars to be rung, and have stationed at the railroad crossing, on Princess Anne, Main, and Sophia streets a suitable person with a flag, which he shall waive upon the entrance of every train into the city, and who shall have authority to stop the passage of all vehicles during the passage of the trains across the said streets; and for every failure so to do, such company shall forfeit and pay ten dollars.
5. It shall be unlawful for any person to climb or get, or attempt to climb or get, upon any railroad car or machinery while in motion within the limits of this Corporation, and any person who shall be convicted of violating this section shall be fined not less than one nor more than ten dollars.
6. It shall be the special duty of every policeman who shall at any time be in any street where railroad cars shall be in motion, to vigilantly observe them, and to arrest any person who may violate section five of this chapter, and promptly report such violation to the Mayor.
(Hurkamp Railroad --Passed May, 1896.)
7. Whereas, The John G. Hurkamp Company, for the purpose of developing their business, propose to build a track leading from some point on the R., F. & P. R. R., between Princess Anne and Caroline or Main streets northwesterly across Princess Anne street and the National Boulevard, thence along or adjacent to the raceway of C. H. Pettit and across Prince Edward, Charlotte, and Hanover streets and Commerce street extended to the factory of the John G. Hurkamp Company, to be operated by steam locomotives; and
Whereas, It is regarded to the interest of the City of Fredericksburg that such track shall be constructed and such operation encouraged:
Be it ordained, That permission is granted and authority given the said John G. Hurkamp Company to construct such track within the limits of the city upon the route described, crossing the streets named within the jurisdiction of said city at grade with such reasonable modifications of the surface of such streets as may be necessary to operate the same with steam locomotives of the ordinary type, or of special type, at the option of said John G. Hurkamp Company, for drawing trains of construction cars, freight cars, or such other cars as may be necessary for the purpose of the said Company.
This permission is given for the period of twenty years from the passage of this ordinance and thereafter, until by vote of two (2) successive Councils of the City of Fredericksburg the use of said track shall be prohibited.
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 81
The said Company shall be required to plank every street crossing and keep the same in good order; also, all other places necessary. The speed over such track shall be the same as is now allowed the R., F. & P. R. R. Company in crossing the streets of Fredericksburg, Virginia. The said track may be abandoned by said Company, or any company operating it under the said Company, at any time, in which case it shall be the duty of said Company to restore the streets at points of crossing to the condition as good as at the present time.
1. Licenses for performances, etc.
2. Mayor may grant license.
3. May suspend license.
4. Penalty for violation.
1. No person or persons shall, within the limits of this city, exhibit, play or perform any theatrical or dramatical performance, entertainment, or show, or public exhibition for gain, without a license for the purpose from the Mayor, for which the Mayor may demand a fee of fifty cents. And the amount tax shall be paid to the Treasurer of this Corporation in accordance with the ordinance levying taxes for that year. But no tax shall be required on a performance from a lecturer on a literary or scientific subject; or from a mechanic or artist exhibiting a work of painting or sculpture, or a work of production of his own invention or art, or a model illustrating such invention or art. And the Mayor, in his discretion, may dispense with the tax in the case of a performance, exhibition, or show for a. religious or charitable purpose; and he may, in his discretion, refuse license, or revoke the license of any improper theatrical or dramatical performance, entertainment, exhibition or show.
2. When, in any case mentioned in the preceding section, the tax shall have been so paid or dispensed with, the Mayor may grant a license to exercise the privilege for which the tax is so paid or dispensed with. Such license shall state what amount of tax (if any) is paid, to whom the license is granted, what privilege may be exercised under it, in what house, room, or place, and for what time.
3. In any case, the Mayor may defer issuing, or after issuing, may suspend a license for any performance, exhibition or show until the house or room in which the same is to be is
(6)
82 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
examined by three freeholders of the city, appointed for the purpose by his warrant, and until he is satisfied by their report, in writing, that such house or room has doors and openings of such number and so arranged, as in case of fire, to afford facilities for escape, and that the same is sufficiently strong and safe. Every such report shall be filed by the Mayor in the Treasurer's office.
4. If any person shall engage in or permit anything for which a tax or license is required by this ordinance, without paying such tax, and obtaining the Treasurer's receipt therefor, or without having a license therefor, he shall pay a fine of not less than ten dollars for every such offence, and if the tax shall not have been paid, be liable also for the same, which shall be recoverable forthwith. One-half of such fine shall go to the informer, the other half to the Treasurer for the use of this Corporation.
1. New buildings; duty of surveyor.
2. Fees of surveyor.
3. Building without survey; penalty.
4. Permit to build, etc.
5. Stove pipes and chimneys.
6. Burning chimneys.
7. Removing combustible materials.
1. If any person intending to erect a new building or place any old one on the line of any street, or enclose any unimproved lot or square in the city of Fredericksburg, and shall give reasonable notice thereof to the Surveyor of the Corporation, specifying the time and place, when and where such building is about to be erected or placed, or enclosure put up, it shall be the duty of the Surveyor to attend at such time and place, and ascertain and distinctly mark the line or lines of the lot or lots, and the range of the street or streets where such building is to be erected or old one placed, or enclosure to be put up.
2. For such services he shall be entitled to demand and have from the person calling on him for them the following fees: For ascertaining the range of one street and marking the line thereof, two dollars; for two streets, three dollars; for three streets, four dollars; and for four streets, four dollars and fifty cents, provided, such services are required to be done at the same time and for the same person and at the same square; otherwise two dollars for every line surveyed and marked by him shall be charged.
AN ORDINANCE
An Ordinance to Amend and Re-enact Section 4 of Chapter 25 of the General Ordinances of the City of Fredericksburg,
Approved May 19, 1899.
BE IT ORDAINED by the Common Council of the City of Fredericksburg that Section 4 of Chapter 25 of the General Ordinances of the City of Fredericksburg, approved May 19, 1899, be Amended and Re-enacted so as to read as follows:
4. It shall be unlawful for any person to erect within the corporate limits of Fredericksburg any building or to remove any building from its place to another, or to enlarge or add to the height of any building, until the owner thereof, or the contractor or builder or some person for them shall have first made application therefor to the City Commissioner of Fredericksburg, stating the name of the owner and filing the said application with plans and specifications of said building so proposed to be erected or removed or enlarged or added to, and the location and probable cost thereof; or the building to be removed and the place at which the same is to be located; and obtained from the City Commissioner a permit in writing authorizing the same. The City Commissioner, in conjunction with the Street Committee of the Common Council shall promptly Consider all such applications, and shall grant or withhold said permit as to him may seem just and proper, and in the event any person desiring to do so may deem himself aggrieved by any action of the City Commissioner acting in conjunction with the Street Committee in reference hereto, the said party shall indicate to the City Commissioner his desire to appeal from said decision, and action thereon shall be suspended and the whole matter shall be certified by the City Commissioner to the next meeting of the Council for action thereon. Any person violating the provisions of this section shall, on conviction thereof, be liable to a fine not exceeding $100.00, and the City Commissioner may order such building removed or torn down and may recover the costs thereof from the party offending.
This Ordinance shall be in force from and after its passage.
J. GARNETT KING.
J. W. MASTERS.
W. S. EMBREY.
Passed January 16, 1913.
Approved by the Mayor January 20, 1913
J. P. ROWE, Mayor.
[unnumbered page bound with 1899 ordinances]
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 83
3. If any person shall hereafter attempt to erect any new building, or place any old one, or cause the same to be done, or cause any enclosure to be put within twenty inches of the line of any street or streets of the city, without having the line of such street or streets ascertained and marked off by the Surveyor of the Corporation, such person shall forfeit and pay fifty dollars. And it shall be the duty of the Surveyor, if he have notice thereof, to mark and designate the line or lines of the streets where such buildings are about to be erected or placed, or enclosure put up, and he shall be entitled to demand and have the same fees from the party so building, placing and enclosing as if he had been called upon by him or them to perform such services; and in making such survey, if he shall find any street or streets encroached upon, he shall report the same to the Mayor without delay, in order that such buildings or enclosure may be removed as an obstruction in the streets. But this section shall not be construed to render it necessary for a person to call upon the Surveyor when putting up an enclosure or repairing an old one, if the corners of the lot or square bad been previously built on and are distinctly marked.
4. It shall be unlawful for any person to erect within the corporate limits of the City of Fredericksburg any building, or to remove any building from one place to another, or to enlarge, or to add to the height, of any building until the owner thereof, or the contractor or builder, or some person for them shall have first made application to the Street Committee, stating the name of the owner, and the location and probable cost of such building, or the building to be removed and the place to be located, or the nature and cost of such enlargement or addition, and obtaining from said committee a permit in writing for the erection or removal of the same. Any person violating the provisions of this section, shall on conviction thereof be liable to a line of not more than ten dollars, and the Mayor may order such building removed or torn down.
5. All stoves now set up, or which may hereafter be set up in this city, shall have the pipes leading there from, conveyed into a stone or brick chimney, or be otherwise so secured as to be safe from the danger of communicating fire to the building in which it is put up or to any adjacent building. If any person shall offend against this section, he shall forfeit and pay ten dollars, and moreover forfeit and pay five dollars for every day his or her stove shall be used afterwards without being secured and fixed as by this section directed.
6. If any person shall fire his chimney or suffer it to take fire in fair and dry weather, he shall forfeit and pay five dollars.
84 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
7. Every person now building or repairing, or that may hereafter build or repair, any house in this city, shall every day whilst such building or repairing is being carried on, remove, or cause to be removed, to some place of safety, all chips or shavings or other combustible things, before the close of each day, from such building; and every person failing so to do shall forfeit five dollars, and shall also forfeit and pay five dollars for every day such chips, shavings or other combustibles shall remain in such buildings after having been notified by a police officer to remove the same.
1. How fines are recovered.
2. Who are liable for minors.
3. Levy and sales for fines.
4. Trial of minors; notification.
5. Mayor to return fines.
1. All forfeitures, fines and penalties for violation of this ordinance, or any by-law of this Corporation, or for failing to comply with any order of the Mayor or other Justice of this city, given in pursuance of any ordinance or by-law of this Corporation, except in cases where it is otherwise expressly provided, shall be to the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Fredericksburg, and recoverable by prosecution before the said Mayor or any other Justice, with the costs of such prosecution.
2. Minors shall be prosecuted for breaches of this or any ordinance of this Corporation in the same manner and to the same effect as persons of lawful age. In the case of a minor, not an indentured apprentice, the judgment for the forfeiture, fine or penalty may, in the discretion of the Mayor or Justice, who shall try the case, be given either against the minor, father or guardian. And if the offender be an indentured apprentice, the judgment may be either against the master or apprentice, in the discretion of the Justice by whom the offender is tried.
3. When judgment shall be rendered for any forfeiture, fine or penalty under this or any other ordinance or any by law of this Corporation, and the same shall not be immediately paid, with the costs of trial, or security given as hereinbefore provided, the Mayor, or other Justice rendering the same, shall issue execution thereon, to be levied of the goods and chattels of the person against whom such judgment is rendered,
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 85
directed to any Constable of this Corporation, returnable in fifteen days, before the Justice issuing the same. The officer who may levy such execution, shall sell the property thereby taken, at public auction, for cash, before the front door of one of the auction rooms of this city, or before the Mayor's office, after posting a notice of the time and place of sale at the Mayor's office, at least five days before the day of sale, to satisfy said execution and all costs attending the levy and sale thereof.
1. Scavengers; how elected; bond, etc.
2. Duty of Scavengers, etc.
3. Fees; by whom paid.
4. Spilling and leaving; penalty.
5. Night soil, etc.; by whom removed.
1. There shall be elected by the Council; annually, two officers to be known as "City Scavengers" --one for the Lower Ward and the other for the Upper Ward-- whose duties, obligations, responsibilities, and compensation shall be as hereinafter declared and defined. But before the parties so elected shall enter upon the duties of their said offices they shall each enter into bond, with security, to be approved by the Mayor, in the penalty of five hundred dollars, payable to the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Fredericksburg, with condition for the faithful performance of the duties of their respective offices.
2. Said officers Shall be, at all times, under the supervision and direction of the Mayor, to whom they shall promptly report all violations of this ordinance that may come to their knowledge; and they shall, at all times, have the right to enter the lots and premises in the Corporation to inspect the condition of the privies, sinks, etc., in their respective districts. It shall be their duty by themselves or their agents, to cleanse each of the privies, sinks, etc., in their respective districts in this Corporation, and to remove there from the night-soil and other deposits at least once in every month from the first day of December until first day of April, and twice every month from first day of April until thirtieth day of November, except as hereinafter provided; such cleansing and removals to be made during the night between the hours of eleven P.M. and day break--to convey by decent and appropriate method the night-soil, etc. so removed, and deposit the same at such
86 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
place or places as may be approved by the Mayor; to deodorize the privies, sinks, etc., so cleansed, and to keep constantly deodorized and disinfected the night-soil, etc., in the place or places where deposited by them as aforesaid, in such manner as may be approved by the Mayor.
3. Said officers shall have and receive for their services, in addition to the night-soil, etc., so removed by them, the sum of twenty cents per month for the months commencing on first day of December and ending thirty-first day of March, and thirty-three and one third cents per month for the months commencing first day of April and ending the thirtieth day of November, to each privy, etc., used by a family or household of six persons or less, and a proportionate increase of pay for each additional person beyond six. The charges for such work shall be paid for by the occupant of the lot or premises on which the service is rendered, and may be collected by said officers by distress and sale, as taxes for the benefit of the city are authorized to be collected: Provided, that said fees and dues provided to be paid to the City Scavengers shall be paid and collected in monthly installments as herein before set forth for each month.
4. If the said officers or their agents, in removing the night soil, etc., shall spill and leave any of it on the lots or in the streets or alleys of the city, or violate this ordinance in any of its provisions, they shall be liable to a fine of not less than one dollar nor more than ten dollars for each separate offence.
5. From and after the passage of this ordinance it shall not be lawful for anyone, except the City Scavengers or their agents to remove or have removed from any of the lots or premises in the Corporation the night-soil, etc., accumulated in the privies, boxes, etc. But any person desiring to have his privy, box, or sink cleansed of the night-soil, etc., oftener than once every two weeks, may call upon and require the said City Scavenger of his district to cleanse his privy, box, etc., and remove the night-soil there from as often as he may wish, for which additional service he shall pay at the same rate as for the regular service hereinbefore provided, or as may be agreed upon with said officer; and it shall be the duty of said officer to respond promptly to any call so made on him. Any person violating this section shall be fined, not less than one dollar nor more than ten dollars for each separate offence.
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 87
1. All drays, etc., to be licensed.
2. Bonds to be given.
3. When license begins.
4. License transferable.
5. Mayor to keep a register.
6. Drays, etc., must have numbers.
7. Police must be furnished with list.
8. Mayor's fee for license.
9. Rates of drayage.
1. No dray, cart, or wagon shall be used or employed, directly or indirectly, in the City of Fredericksburg, for hire, unless the owner or keeper thereof obtain from the Mayor of this Corporation a license to use the same.
2. Before such license shall be issued, there shall be paid to the Collector of Taxes such tax as may be imposed by the Council of the city on said licenses, and the applicant for such license shall moreover give a bond, payable to the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Fredericksburg, in the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars, with surety, to be approved by said Mayor, and conditioned for the faithful delivery of all articles which may be entrusted to the driver of such dray, cart, or wagon, during the time of such license, on which bond suits may be brought from time to time in the name of the Mayor and Common Council of the city, for the benefit of any person injured by any breach of the condition of such bond, until damages shall be recovered equal to the penalty of the bond.
3. The time for which a license shall be issued, under this chapter, shall be until the first day of April next after the same is issued.
4. A person obtaining such license may transfer the unexpired term thereof, provided, the transfer be evidenced by the endorsement on the license, and, provided, the assignee give such bond as is mentioned in this chapter.
5. The Mayor shall keep a register of all drays, carts, or wagons, and the names of persons obtaining such licenses, and the names of the persons paying the same, and for what. These things shall be stated in the license, where one is required, and the owner of every dray, cart, or wagon so licensed, shall have painted thereon, if it be a wagon, on the side, and if it be a dray or cart, on the shaft, its number and the initials of its owner's name, in large and legible figures and letters, so that the same may be easily read.
6. If the owner of any cart, dray, or wagon shall use or employ the same for hire, or permit the same to be done, without having obtained a license therefor, or shall fail to have painted thereon the number and initials, as required by the
88 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
next preceding section, he shall forfeit and pay for every offence five dollars; and in every instance in which a dray, cart, or wagon shall be used for hire in the city aforesaid, it shall be deemed to have been done with the permission of the owner of such dray, cart or wagon.
7. A copy of the register of drays, carts, and wagons kept by the Mayor, and a copy of the list of those who shall have paid to the Collector of Taxes, the license on the same for the year, shall be delivered by the Mayor, on the second day of June, in every year, to the police officers for the more ready detection of violations of this section.
8. From every person to whom a license is or may be issued under this chapter, the Mayor shall be entitled to a fee of twenty-five cents.
9. The rates of drayage shall be not more than forty cents for a dray or cart and eighty cents per load for a wagon to and from the wharves, until changed or altered by an ordinance of the Council; and if the owner or driver of any dray, cart, or wagon demand and receive more, he shall be fined one dollar for every offence; and if the driver of any cart, dray, or wagon shall refuse to work for any person, when unemployed, he shall forfeit and pay one dollar.
1. Joint owners to pay share; Mayor to appoint three viewers.
1. In every case in which the owner of an improved lot in the city shall be desirous of having a new fence erected between his said lot and any improved lot adjoining thereto, and the owner of the said adjoining improved lot shall not agree to pay his share of erecting such fence, the Mayor shall, on application of the party wishing to have a new fence put up, appoint three discreet freeholders of the city to view the premises, and under their hands to say whether a new fence to divide the lots of such parties is necessary or not, and the decision of the said freeholders, or a majority of them, shall be binding on the parties. And the party desirous of having a new fence put up may proceed to have it erected, and on the completion thereof, shall recover by warrant, from the owner of the adjoining lot, one-half of the cost of such fence, with the cost of such proceeding: Provided, that the cost of the said fence be estimated as a fence formed of good posts and rails, with undressed pailing, and not exceeding six feet high.
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 89
1. Rules for laying pipes.
2. Penalty for violation.
3. Cuts or openings; employee's fine.
1. Any incorporated company or individual who may make use of any street or sidewalk in the City of Fredericksburg, for the purpose of laying down therein, the main pipes or any branches there from, for the distribution of gas or water, or sewer pipes, or for the purpose of removing or repairing the said pipes or branches, shall first obtain permit in writing therefor from the Street Committee, and shall cause the opening so made in the streets or sidewalks to be filled up and well rammed within forty-eight hours after the work has been commenced: Provided, however, that should said company or individual be prevented from completing the aforesaid work in the aforesaid time, by the occurrence of rain, they shall be allowed twenty-four hours for the purpose, after the rain shall have ceased: Provided, that all openings shall be made secure at night against injury to man or beast.
2. Any incorporated company or individual failing to conform to the preceding section, shall pay a fine of not less than five dollars nor more than ten dollars, in the discretion of the Justice by whom the offence is tried.
3. And any cut or opening made in any street or sidewalk in the said city, by or under the direction of any agent, officer, or servant of this corporation, shall be filled up and well rammed within a like time and manner as provided in section one, of this chapter: and any agent, officer, or servant, as aforesaid; failing in the discharge of his said duty shall, in the discretion of the Mayor, be fined not less than one or more than ten dollars.
1. Hurkamp Park-where situated.
2. Dogs in Park-penalty.
3. Defacing benches, etc.
4. Throwing stones, etc.
5. Chasing animals, etc.
6. No spirituous liquors allowed.
7 Swings prohibited.
8. Penalty for climbing trees.
9. No gambling allowed.
10. No fire allowed in Park.
11. Climbing over walls.
12. Trespassing.
13. Burials in public grounds.
14. Fowls, etc.
15. Court House.
1. The square in this city, bounded by George street on the south, Commerce street on the north, Prince Edward street on
90 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
the east, and the old Methodist and Masonic Lodge, No. 63, burial grounds on the west, shall be known and designated as "Hurkamp Park."
2. Dogs are prohibited in the Park, and if any person having a dog with him in the said Park, refuses, when requested, to take him out, such person shall forfeit and pay a fine of one dollar.
3. If any person shall write upon any bench, statuary, ornament or any property in the Park, or in any manner cut, deface or mutilate the same, such person shall forfeit and pay not less than one dollar nor more than five dollars.
4. If any person shall throw any stone or other missile, or any rubbish of any kind into the Park or public burying ground, or other public place, such person shall forfeit and pay not less than one dollar nor more than three dollars for each offence.
5. If any person shall chase, set snares for, or catch any hare, squirrel, bird or other living thing, placed or allowed therein, or shall rob any bird's nest of its eggs or young birds, such person shall forfeit and pay not less than one dollar nor more than ten dollars for each offence.
6. If any person shall introduce any spirituous or malt liquors into the. Park, either for his own use or for sale, and shall use or sell, or furnish to another the same, with or without compensation, such person shall forfeit and pay not less than two dollars.
7. If any person shall attach a swing to any tree within the Park, such person shall forfeit and pay not less than one dollar for each offence.
8. If any person shall climb any tree, or walk upon or injure the grass within the Park, he shall forfeit and pay one dollar for each offence.
9. Gambling and playing at cards in the Park or any public place, are prohibited under a penalty of five dollars, to be forfeited and paid by each of the parties to the game.
10. If any person shall make a fire on the grounds of the Park for any purpose, without authority from the Public Property Committee, he shall forfeit and pay three dollars for each offence.
11. If any person shall climb over, or walk upon the wall west of the Park, he shall forfeit and pay not less than one dollar nor more than three dollars for each offence.
12. It shall not be lawful hereafter for any horses, mules, cows, hogs or other animals, to trespass in the Corporation burying grounds, or the Court House lot, or Hurkamp Park. Any animals so found trespassing shall be seized and held, and the owner or owners shall forfeit and pay two dollars in
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 91
every case for every animal so offending, and one dollar for every two hours such animal shall remain seized and in the possession of the officer or officers so seizing and holding, after due notice to the owner of said seizure. It is made the duty of the police officers to see to the, execution of this chapter, and they shall be allowed one-half of all fines recovered under and in virtue hereof. The fines and costs imposed tinder this section shall be paid within five days, otherwise the animal or animals seized and held be sold at public outcry to satisfy the same, and the residue, if any, shall be paid over to the owner of the animals so sold.
13. It shall not be lawful to make any burial in the Public Burying Ground of this city without written permission of the Mayor. Whoever shall offend herein shall forfeit and pay five dollars.
14. It shall not be lawful for fowls to run in the Park and Court House lot, and the police officers shall strictly enforce this provision within the said Park and Court House lot.
15. Except for such purposes as are authorized by law, the Court House of this Corporation shall not be used by any person or persons, nor shall the Court House bell be rung at any time, by any person, except in cases of fire or on court day, without the permission in writing of the Public Property Committee. Every person violating this section shall be fined not less than one nor more than ten dollars.
1. Contracts to be let to the lowest bidder.
1. All contracts made in pursuance of the ordinances of this Corporation for work, labor, or supplies, amounting to twenty-five dollars or more, by the Council Committees, officers of the Corporation or members of the Committees of the Council, constituted or appointed for the management or control of Corporation affairs, shall be let to the lowest responsible bidder, and every contract made in violation of this ordinance shall be void; and the officers of this Corporation and members of such Council Committees consenting to such violation, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding ten dollars, to be recovered by warrant for the use of the said Corporation: Provided, that nothing herein shall apply to any order passed by the Council.
92 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
1. Chief of department.
2. Strength of force.
3. Police powers given firemen.
4. Chief's report of fires.
5. Employment of labor.
6. Power delegated to dismiss firemen.
1. For the purpose of reorganizing and operating the Fire Department of this city, for extinguishing fires and protecting property from fire, the Council shall annually elect a Chief of the Fire Department who shall be authorized and empowered to take charge and control of all fire apparatus belonging to the city, and the building in which it is kept. He shall hold his office one year, or during the pleasure of the Council, and the holding of any other office or position under the United States, State, or City Government shall not disqualify him from holding the position of Chief of the Fire Department.
2. The Chief of the Fire Department, as soon as he is elected, shall proceed to reorganize the Fire Department, which shall consist of not more than twenty men, and shall proceed to appoint one first assistant chief, one second assistant chief, one third assistant chief, and one fourth assistant chief, and such other officers as he may deem necessary for the efficient working of the Department. And the Department when so reorganized may adopt such rules and regulations for its government as may appear to them needful, the same to be approved by the Chief before they shall be operative.
3. The Chief shall take charge at all fires, give general directions thereat, and do what may be necessary for extinguishing the fire and protecting the property. In the absence of the Chief the first assistant shall take his place, and assume his authorities, duties, and responsibilities; and in his absence the second chief, and so on according to the rank of the several assistants, all of whom when actively engaged in extinguishing or superintending at fires shall be clothed with the power and authority of policemen in preserving order and protecting property, and may arrest and hold in custody any person or persons violating any ordinance of the city or law of the State until he or they can be turned over to the proper authorities.
4. After the occurrence of any fire the Chief shall make full report to the Committee on Fire and Police giving particulars and incidents connected therewith, and shall furnish to said Committee a list of the names of all members who were present, and in their duty as firemen at said fire.
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 93
5. After any fire, and at other times when it may be necessary the Chief may employ some person to clean up, put in good condition and place in the fire-house all apparatus belonging to the Fire Department, upon such terms as he may think reasonable and just, which shall be paid when approved by him and the Committee on Fire and Police.
6. The Chief shall have power and authority for good cause to dismiss any officer or fireman from the Department.
1. Board to provide for the poor.
2. May employ steward, etc.
3. Paupers to be kept at alms-house.
4. Board to prescribe rules
5. Must conform to State laws.
6. Fuel; advertise for bids.
7. Supplies; how paid for.
8. Expense not exceed appropriation.
1. There shall be appointed by the Council, annually, in the month of July or August, one Superintendent of the Alms-house of the Corporation, who shall remain in office until the next annual appointment, unless sooner removed by the Council, who, in conjunction with the Committee on Alms and Alms-House, shall constitute a board, who shall have charge of the Alms-House and poor of the city. The Council shall have power to remove said officer at any time for cause, and appoint his successor.
2. The Committee may employ a steward, physician, and nurses when necessary, who shall receive such compensation for their services as the said Committee may deem reasonable.
3. All paupers of this Corporation shall be kept at the Alms-House, unless for good reasons, in the judgment of the Council, exceptions as to this provision may be made, and such as are able to work, shall be made to do so.
4. The Committee may prescribe rules and regulations for the government of the Alms-House, and the discipline of the persons therein.
5. In respect to all matters not especially provided for in this chapter, the proceedings of the Committee on Alms and Alms-House shall be in accordance with the laws of the State of Virginia.
6. The Committee on Alms and Alms-House shall advertise, as they deem best, for proposals to furnish the Alms-house and poor with fuel, specifying the kind and amount, at least twice a year, and the contract for furnishing the same shall be given to the lowest responsible bidder. The wood so
94 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
contracted for shall be measured by the Corporation Measurer, and the coal shall be weighed at the Corporation Scales.
7. All the expenses of the Alms-house and paupers not otherwise provided for, shall be paid by the Treasurer out of the annual appropriation therefor, upon an order signed by a majority of the Committee on Alms and Alms-House.
8. The sums so paid on account of such expenses within the fiscal year, shall not exceed the amount appropriated for that purpose within said year, unless by a resolution of the Council, an additional sum shall be appropriated.
1. Public Schools--how divided
2. How sustained.
3. How managed.
4. Board of Trustees; how constituted.
5. To elect officers, and adopt rules.
6. Duty of City Treasurer.
1. There shall be inaugurated and maintained within the City of Fredericksburg a system of Public Free Schools, as provided for by the Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth; and in order to put said system in operation, and organize schools there under, the city shall be, and is hereby, divided into two school districts, the centre of George street being the dividing line.
2. Said school shall be maintained and the expense thereof paid by such appropriations as may be annually made by the City Council, the State of Virginia, and such donations as may be made by the friends of education within or without the State, and such further appropriations as may be made from any other source or sources to the Board of School Trustees for said purpose.
3. Said schools shall be managed and conducted by a Board of Trustees, with such principals and teachers as they may deem necessary and shall appoint; the Board reserving the right to dispense with the services of any and all said principals and teachers at any time during the school term.
4. The Board of Trustees shall be elected or appointed in such manner as the State law shall prescribe, and shall consist of six members, three from each district, and shall hold office for a term of three years, provided that it be so arranged that the terms of office of two members thereof, one from each district, shall expire each year, and, provided further, that such members shall always be eligible for re-election.
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 95
5. The Board of Trustees may elect such officers, and adopt such rules and regulations for the organization of said Board, and for the Government of said schools as will, in their judgment, conduce to interest and efficiency thereof, not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of Virginia in reference to Public Free Schools.
6. It shall be the duty of the City Treasurer to take charge of all funds appropriated for or donated to said schools and disburse the same by order of the Board of Trustees.
1. Attending physician's certificate.
2. Attending undertaker's certificate.
3. Clerk to file death certificate.
4. Contagious diseases.
1. Whenever a person shall die in the Corporation of Fredericksburg it shall be the duty of the physician attending such person during his or her last illness (or the Health Officer or Coronor of the Corporation when the case comes under their official cognizance), to furnish free of cost and deliver to the undertaker or other person superintending the burial of the deceased, a certificate duly signed, setting forth, as far as the same may be ascertained, the name, age, color, sex, nativity, (giving state or county), occupation, duration of residence in the city, cause and date and place of death, and duration of last illness of such deceased person.
2. And it shall be the duty of the undertaker, or other person in charge of the burial of such deceased person, to state in said certificate the place and date of burial, and having signed the same to surrender it within twenty-four hours after death of said person to the Clerk of the City Council or, in his absence, to the Mayor or Chairman of the Health Committee, who will furnish him with a burial or transit permit, for which a fee of twenty-five cents will be required, said fee to be waived in case of a pauper. Any person violating this section shall be fined not more than ten dollars for each offence.
3. And the Clerk of the Council shall furnish necessary blank certificates when required, and shall, upon receiving the same from the undertaker or other person in charge of the burial, enter in a bound volume a record thereof, and file the certificate away.
4. When any physician knows that any person whom he is called to visit, in the city, is infected with small-pox; diphtheria,
96 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
scarlet fever, or any other contagious or infections disease, dangerous to the public health, or shall in the practice of his profession discover that any section of the city is peculiarly the seat of preventable disease, such physician shall immediately give notice thereof to the Chairman of the Health Committee. Any person who shall violate the provisions of this section shall pay a fine of not more than ten dollars.
1. Rents levied.
2. Extra taps, etc.
3. Special rents; water meters.
4. Committee authorized to fix rate.
5. Hours for sprinkling
6. Meters for factories, laundries, etc.
7. Curtailment of use by printed notice.
8. City water used on special charge
9. Plumbers' permits.
10. Water waste; plumbing inspected.
11. Injuring property of water-works.
12. Reservoirs, pump house, etc.
13. Against vitiating waters of canal.
14. Duties and bond of Superintendent.
15. Rebates; added rate.
16. Police to enforce provisions.
17. Penalty.
Be it ordained by the Mayor and, Common Council, That to meet the interest on the Water Bonds, to pay the running expenses of the City Water Works, and to create a sinking fend to liquidate the debt incurred in. erecting said City Water Works, there shall be levied and assessed an annual water rent as follows, to he paid semi-annually, on the first of January and July of each year, in advance, whether the water is used by persons occupying or owning such buildings or not:
1. On all dwellings, storehouses, warehouses, business houses and other buildings on the streets where the main pipes are laid, and those not on said streets, if supplied with water, to include fire protection and street sprinkling, $4.00; and said rent shall be a lien on said property until paid. And every building having more than one place of business or occupied by more than one family, shall be considered for each place of business or each family occupying the same, an additional building for the purposes of this ordinance and shall be charged accordingly.
2. And in every case where a hydrant, sprinkler, or other like device, is erected in any lot, lawn; or garden, for the purpose of sprinkling or watering flowers or vegetables; or where an extra tap is made for sprinkler or hydrant on any premises; or where a hydrant or other device for drawing water is erected in or for a stable, cow-house or other out-house on the premises a charge of $4 per annum shall be made on each.
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 97
3. In addition to the rent levied by the preceding section, there shall be levied and collected:
On each and every bath-tub used on any premises $3. On each additional tub used thereon, $2.
On each and every water-closet used on any premises, $3. If the same has more than one seat, $2 for each additional seat.
On each and every automatic pump, $10.
On each and every fountain, the opening not to exceed one-eighth of an inch, restricted to sprinkling hours, $2.
On each and every lawn-spray or sprinkler, the opening not to exceed one-eighth of an inch restricted to sprinkling hours, $2.
On Bar-rooms, $5.
On Restaurants, $5.
On Bakeries, $5.
On Barbershops, $5.
On Slaughterhouses, $5.
On Livery Stables, $10.
On Bottling Beer, $8.
On Wagon Yards, $3.
On Brick Yards, $10.
On Gas Engines, $10.
On Wood-yard Engines, less than ten horse-power, $10.
On Exchange Hotel, $25.
On Dannehl Hotel, $25.
On other Hotels, $10.
On Builders: 1,000 bricks, 10 cents; 100 yards plastering, 25 cents.
Provided, That the Committee-on Water, in its discretion, shall have authority to place meters on any business or places above mentioned, and charge meter rates for water used therefor.
4. For the use of water for any purpose not mentioned above, the Committee on Water are authorized to fix a price.
5. The hours for street and lawn sprinkling shall be from five o'clock to seven o'clock morning and evening, and the nozzle used for sprinkling shall not exceed three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter. Sprinkling means to lay the dust, and more than that is a waste of water and a violation of this ordinance.
6. The Committee on Water are authorized to set meters for water motors, engines, laundries, manufacturing establishments,
(7)
98 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
and any other place where city water is used if they shall think proper to do so, and charge a scaled rate per 1,000 gallons for water used through them, provided the minimum charge therefor shall not be less than $10 per annum. Bills for meter rates shall be made out on the first of the month, and paid by the tenth, and if not so paid the water shall be cut off.
7. The Committee on Water shall have authority when, in their judgment it is necessary for the public good, to curtail or stop the use of water for any and all purposes, other than domestic, by giving notice by printed circulars or through the newspapers, and any one violating said notice shall be liable to a fine.
8. It shall not be lawful for any person to have a bath-tub, water-closet, fountain, or lawn-spray or sprinkler, or any other thing or device on his or her premises, and use city water therein, for which a special charge for the use thereof is made, without reporting the same to the Superintendent. Nor shall any person permit another person who is not charged with a water rent to obtain water from his or her premises for any purpose without the consent of the Superintendent.
9. It shall not be lawful for any plumber of other person to put in any water-closet, or bath-tub on any premises, or connect any pipe with the City Water Works for using water for any purpose for which a special charge is made for the use thereof, without first obtaining permission from the Superintendent to do so; and in putting in water-closets they are restricted to the self-closing tank closet.
10. It shall not be lawful for any person to let his or her hydrant, hose-bibb, or other device for drawing water, leak and waste water. All leakage must be reported at once to the Superintendent that the water may be turned off. And the Superintendent shall have the authority to enter any lot or house wherein city water is used to ascertain if there is any waste of water, and to inspect the plumbing.
11. It shall not be lawful for any person to deface or injure any stop-cock, fire-plug, or public hydrant, or anything connected with the City Water Works, or to throw or deposit any building material, rubbish or other matter, on the stop-box of a service pipe, or fire-plug, or meter, or cover up either with dirt or other material, or to remove or injure any cap or screw of a stop box, fire-plug, or meter, or to injure any fire-plug, stop-box, meter, or hydrant, or open any of them, or in any way molest them, without authority from the Superintendent, except in case of fire or cleaning the fire hose, the firemen are authorized to use the fire-plugs.
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 99
12. It shall not be lawful for any person to deposit or throw anything in either reservoir of the City Water Works, or to break, injure or climb over or through the enclosure of either reservoir, or to, injure, deface or molest anything about the pump or pump-house, or anything thereabouts belonging or pertaining to the City Water Works.
13. It shall not be lawful for any person to throw any filth, offal, dead animal or any offensive substance in the Canal, or to bathe in the Canal, or in any way befoul the water in the Canal between the dam and the pump-house.
14. The City Water Works shall be in charge of a Superintendent, subject to the supervision of the Committee on Water. He shall be elected by the Common Council in the month of December of each year, shall enter into a bond of two thousand dollars for the faithful discharge of his duties, and shall hold his office one year from the first day of the following January. He shall collect all water rents and pay them over to the City Treasurer. If the water rents are not paid in a reasonable time, the Superintendent shall proceed to collect them by warrant in the name of the Mayor and Common Council of the Corporation of Fredericksburg.
15. On all semi-annual water bills, a deduction of five per cent, shall be made, if paid by the 15th of the month in which they are due, but if not so paid five per cent. shall be added, and six per cent. shall be charged thereon until they are paid. On monthly bills made by meter measurement five per cent. shall be deducted if paid by the 10th of the month in which they are due, but if not paid by that time, five per cent. shall be added and six per cent. per annum charged until they are paid.
16. It is hereby made the special duty of the police officers of the city to see that the provisions of this ordinance are enforced, and to promptly report to the. Mayor any violation of them that may come under their observation or which in any way may come to their knowledge.
17. For any violation of the provisions of this chapter a fine of not less than one dollar and not more than ten dollars shall be imposed.
100 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
1. Duty of the Light Committee.
2. Annual reports.
3. Superintendent.
4. Purchases and disbursements.
5. Mains and service pipes.
6. Sale of products, etc.
7. Monthly settlements
8. Applications for gas supply.
9. Committee to make regulations.
10. Defective meters
11. Stop cocks to be placed at curb
12. Employees report injuries to lamps.
13. Control of fixtures and pipes.
14. Default in payment of bills.
15. Service pipes property of the city.
1. The Light Committee shall have control and general management of the City Gas Works, and shall regulate the duties of the Superintendent, and they may authorize the employment of n1en about the works for any and all purposes, and may regulate their wages. They shall prescribe what mains and service pipes be used, what extensions and repairs be made and what the charges are to be for service pipe, fixtures and labor when such work is carried beyond the curb by their order.
2. The Committee shall in June of every year make a report and account to the Council, showing the following
(a) Amount expended in construction, extensions, repairs, improvements, and for interest on the gas bonds;
(b) Amount of current expenses;
(c) Amount received from sales of gas and other products and articles, each separately, and from all sources;
(d) Net gain or loss for the past year, and impart to the Council any information in relation to the works which they may deem important or interesting.
3. The Council shall elect a Superintendent in December of each year, who shall go into office on the first of January following; shall hold his office for one year, and until his successor is elected and qualified, and shall be subject to the orders of the Committee. The Superintendent before acting in office, shall give bond, with approved security, in the penalty of two thousand dollars, for the fulfillment of his duties and for his accounting and paying over to the Treasurer all money that may come into his hands. All money received by him for gas and other products or articles sold by authority of the Committee shall be deposited with the Treasurer at least once in every two weeks, and the Treasurer shall credit all receipts and charge all warrants to the account of the Gas Committee.
4. The Superintendent shall make no purchases or disbursements without authority from the Committee, subject to such
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 101
restrictions as may be imposed. He may purchase materials, tools or other articles proper for carrying on the operations of the works; what may be so purchased shall be taken care of by him and used as required; all bills for same shall be laid before the Committee, and be paid from the gas fund by their warrant on the Treasurer. In December of each year he shall present to the Committee an inventory of materials, tools and other articles on hand, and make any reports in relation to his duties that the Committee may require.
5. The Superintendent shall see to the laying of all mains and service pipes, and shall have supervision of all service pipes from the curb to the meter, although such piping may not be the property of the city. He shall prepare and preserve duplicate maps of the location of the mains, showing their course, distance and size. When there is an extension of the mains, the plan of such extensions, and the size of the pipe, shall be marked on the maps; a like showing of the service pipes shall also be made, as far as may be practicable and expedient. He shall keep a record of the quantity, description and cost of materials used in such extensions or in erecting any fixtures authorized by the Committee, and report the same to them when desired. The Superintendent shall keep account of the time of all employees, giving their names, the kind of service performed, the rate per day, and the amount due each, in pay-roll form, made out so as to show what is chargeable to current expenses and what to construction in its,several branches. He shall present the same to the Committee, who will draw warrants on the Treasurer in his favor, and direct payment to be made; but for payments of the Superintendent and the regular monthly hands separate warrants shall be drawn in each case, which must be endorsed by the payee, and such warrants shall not be negotiable. All extra hands shall be paid when their services are ended, or at the close of the week; the Superintendent and regular hands at the close of each month. He shall, each day, enter in a book provided for that purpose the quantity of coal and other materials used in making gas, and shall keep strict account of the gas passing into the gasometer and out of the gasometer into the mains. At the end of each month he shall make a report to the Committee, showing the quantity of coal and other materials used in making gas, the quantity of gas made, quantity passing into the mains, and quantity sold, as ascertained by taking the state of all the meters, and thus be able to show the loss sustained by evaporation, condensation and leakage.
6. The Superintendent, with the advice and consent of the Committee, shall dispose of all products of the works, collect and deposit the proceeds with the Treasurer, taking his receipt
102 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
for the same in a book prepared for that purpose, and at the close of each month render an account of all sales and collections to the Committee, giving the kind and quantity of each sold, and the names of the purchasers.
7. The income derived from the gas works shall be sufficient, after paying all expenditures, to pay the interest on the bonds issued for their purchase. Payment for gas shall be made monthly by all consumers except those who by the Committee may be required to pay oftener, and gas shall never be furnished without proper charge therefor. For the protection of private consumers against unjust discrimination in charges, and to relieve such consumers from the burden of supporting at their expense the City Gas Works, the City shall pay for all gas consumed in its public buildings, offices and streets the same rates as paid by private consumers, and the charges shall be collected in the same manner, through the proper channels, and deposited with the Treasurer to the credit of the gas fund, and the value of any coke used by the City or contributed by the Council to charitable objects shall be paid for and deposited and credited in like manner.
8. All applications for supply of gas must be made in person or by duly authorized attorney or agent. A book shall be kept by the Superintendent with a caption importing that the owners of the property whose names are undersigned request that gas be introduced into the premises mentioned opposite their respective names upon the terms prescribed by the City Ordinances. No person shall have the use of any gas at any house or other place who is delinquent for gas used by him at any other house or place; and the Superintendent shall return no bills uncollected, unless it be that he can find nothing belonging to delinquents from which to satisfy the claim.
9. The Committee may from time to time make such rates and regulations for furnishing gas to private consumers as they may deem proper, to take effect when approved by the Council, and they or their authorized agents shall have the right of free access to premises at reasonable hours for the purpose of examining the whole gas apparatus or for removal of meter and piping, and they may cut off communication of service pipe if they find it necessary to do so in order to protect the works against abuse or fraud.
10. The tenant of any premises shall give one day's notice when about to remove, that the gas may be stopped, or he shall remain liable for any gas that may pass through the meter until notice be given. The quantity of gas consumed shall be ascertained by the meter, and in case of its being found defective will be removed immediately; if it ceases to register account will be taken by the average of another meter or by the
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 103
amount charged during a previous corresponding period, at the discretion of the Committee, and the Committee may require payment in advance, or security for payment, to protect the works against loss.
11. It shall be the duty of the Superintendent himself, and such other men as may be employed about the works whom he shall from time to time designate, to attend at places where from fire or other cause there is danger of a loss of gas by burning or waste, with a stop-cock key and pliers to shut off the gas, remove meters, or do anything else proper for the safety of the property belonging to the City, connected with the gas works. When deemed necessary, stop-cocks, where the surface pipes connect with the mains and in every instance stop cocks with suitable stop-cock boxes of iron or other material, with an iron cap marked "City Gas," shall be placed at the curb. The Superintendent shall at all times be in readiness to examine apparatus and premises of subscribers free of charge on receiving one day's notice.
12. If any person shall deface or injure any house, wall, lamp, or meter, or any other fixture connected with the gas works, or shall tie to a lamp-post any horse or other animal, or any boat or vessel, or shall without authority climb any lamp post, or light a lamp, or open communication into or remove any pipe, or in any manner waste or consume any gas wantonly, every person so offending shall pay the whole cost of restoring the property; the amount to be assessed by the Committee and Superintendent, and also pay a fine of not less than two dollars nor more than ten dollars; the amount received to go to the credit of the gas fund. If, however, any person shall accidentally injure a street lamp, or other property of the gas works, and shall voluntarily pay damages before being summoned before a magistrate, he shall be exempt from further penalty than paying damages. Employees of the gas works shall report to the Superintendent, or one or more members of the Committee, violations that may come to their knowledge of this or any subsequent ordinance relating to the works, and the Committee shall prosecute all who may violate.
13. The Superintendent, subject to the control of the Committee, shall have charge of all buildings, fixtures and pipes erected or laid down for the gas works, and of the lands on which said buildings are erected. He shall have the works kept in proper operation, and have due regard for the quality of the gas and for its being systematically supplied to the city lamps and buildings and to all persons entitled to its use. When city lamps are to be erected he shall see to the setting of them and to their being kept clean and in good order.
14. The price of city gas shall be one dollar and fifty cents
104 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
per thousand cubic feet, payable monthly. All bills shall be paid by the fifteenth of the month, and to such as remain unpaid after that date five per cent. shall be added, with six per cent. interest until paid. And if said bills are not paid in a reasonable time they shall be collected in the mode and manner prescribed for collecting delinquent taxes, and the Superintendent of Gas Works or other person whom the Council or Committee on Gas may authorize to collect delinquent bills, is hereby clothed with the power and authority for collecting such delinquent bills as the Collector of City Taxes for collecting delinquent city taxes.
15. All service pipes and fixtures leading from the curb to the meter that were formerly distinctly the property of the Citizens' Gas Light Company have, since the twenty-eighth day of May, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, by reason of the City's purchase, become the property of the City of Fredericksburg, and the city authorities reserve the right to remove such pipes and fixtures when they desire to do so; or to charge for them.
1. Duties of collecting officers.
2. Officer's books-to whom opened.
3. Penalty for violation.
1. It shall not be lawful for any Collector, Deputy Collector, or other officer charged with the collection of the public revenues of this Corporation, to convert any moneys received by him into coupons, directly or indirectly, by purchase, exchange or otherwise; but such collecting officers shall account to the Treasurer of the Corporation in money, or by check or draft, for money, for all revenue received by them in money; nor shall it be lawful for any such collecting officers to purchase such coupons for the purpose of sale thereof or to sell the same during their continuance in office.
2. Every such collecting officer shall preserve, upon the books of his office, a statement showing the amounts received by him in such coupons, and the names of the parties from whom received, which shall be open to the inspection of the Mayor, Treasurer, or any member of the Council, and shall accompany every settlement made by him with a sworn statement of the aggregate amount collected in coupons.
3. Any officer violating this chapter, or any of the provisions thereof, shall forfeit his office.
GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE 105
1. Corporation to issue bonds.
2. Bonds used for funding debt.
3. Corporation to pay interest.
4. Sinking fund to be created, etc.
5. Duty of Finance Committee.
6. Coupons receivable for taxes.
1. In pursuance of the provisions of an Act of the General Assembly of Virginia conferring said authority, this Corporation shall issue new bonds, bearing seven per cent. interest payable semi-annually, either coupon or registered, non-taxable by this Corporation, said coupons to be receivable at maturity for all taxes and other dues to said Corporation; said bonds to be issued in denominations of one hundred ($100) dollars, five hundred ($500) dollars, and one thousand ($1000) dollars, to be payable thirty (30) years after date.
2. That the said bonds shall be used for funding the existing debt of this Corporation by exchanging said new bonds for said old existing debt in the proportion of two new bonds of one hundred dollars for three old bonds of like amount, said bonds to be dated on the first of May and first of November.
3. That this Corporation pledges its credit to the payment of the semi-annual interest and coupons to become due on said new bonds and all other bonds of the city promptly at maturity, either in current funds or by retiring the same in payment of taxes.
4. And also that a sinking fund of one per cent. per annum on said new bonds issued and on all other bonds of said city shall be created to retire said new debt at maturity, and that the Mayor and Common Council shall cause to be levied, annually, a tax sufficient to pay said coupons and interest of the new bonds, and to provide said one per cent. for said sinking fund.
5. That the Finance Committee of this Corporation, in conjunction with the Treasurer, be authorized to carry out the provisions of this ordinance.
6. That the Collector of Taxes of this Corporation for each year, in the months of September and October, shall receive said coupons and interest on the new bonds, which may fall due on November first, for all taxes and dues to this Corporation.
106 GENERAL ORDINANCE OF THE
Seal used for authenticity; tax and fee.
The Seal heretofore provided and used shall continue to be the Seal of the Mayor and Common Council of the Corporation of Fredericksburg. Such Seal may be affixed by the Mayor to such of his official acts as may require the Seal of this Corporation to authenticate the same. And for every such attestation a. tax of one dollar shall be paid to the Mayor for the use and benefit of this Corporation, and fifty cents as a fee to the Mayor.
1. Mayor to appoint twelve committees.
2. Finance Committee's duties.
3. Public Property Committee.
4. Committee on Streets.
5. Committee on Water.
6. Committee on Ordinances.
7. Public Interests Committee.
8. Light Committee.
9. Alms and Alms-House Committee.
10. Health and Police Committee.
11. Committee on Schools
12. Fire Department Committee.
13. Auditing and Claims Committee.
1. There shall be appointed by the Mayor in the month of July following his election the following Standing Committees, each to be composed of three members of the Council, viz: Finance, Public Property, Streets, Water, Ordinances, Public Interests, Light, Alms and Alms House, Health and Police, Schools, Fire Department, and Auditing and Claims.
2. To the Finance Committee shall be referred all claims against the city and all matters relating to the city's finance. It shall be the duty of said Committee to report to the Council annually in the month of May an estimate of the debts and necessary expenditures of the city for the following fiscal year with a scale of taxes and levies for meeting the same. They shall also examine the Treasurer's and Collector's accounts of receipts, payments, and disbursements; and the accounts of the various city officers who receive the city's money, and report thereon to the Council at the same meeting at which such accounts are rendered.
CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA. 107
3. To the Committee on Public Property shall be referred all matters relating to public property, such as parks, public buildings, bridges, etc., and all public grounds, except streets, sidewalks or pavements, alleys, gutters, culverts and sewers.
4. To the Committee on Streets shall be referred all matters relating to streets, sidewalks or pavements, alleys, gutters, culverts and sewers, and, also, the erection of buildings in the city by private parties.
5. To the Committee on Water shall be referred all matters relating to the Water Works of the city.
6. To the Committee on Ordinances shall be referred all matters concerning the revision of the ordinances, all amendments of them, or proposed new ordinances. And it shall be the duty of this committee, whenever necessary, to recast any amended section so that the intention of the Council shall find exact expression in its laws and be properly recorded in the minutes.
7. To the Public Interests Committee shall be referred such matters affecting the public interests of the Corporation as do not come within the province of other committees, and all such other matters as the Council may determine.
8. To the Light Committee shall be referred all matters relating to the Gas Works and lighting of the city.
9. To the Alms and Alms-House Committee shall be referred all matters relating to the Alms-House and the poor of the city.
10. To the Health and Police Committee shall be referred all matters relating to the general health of the city, and all matters relating to the city police.
11. To the Committee on Schools shall be referred all matters relating to the schools of the city, and such other matters as the Council may determine.
12. To the Fire Department Committee shall be referred all matters relating to the Fire Department; and it shall be their duty from time to time to examine and report on the condition of the city as to exposure from fire.
13. It shall be the duty of the Auditing and Claims Committee to examine and audit all accounts of city officers just preceding the end of the fiscal year, and endorse on each report submitted to them their approval or such other report as they may deem just and proper.
108 GENERAL ORDINANCE CITY OF FREDERICKSBURG, VA.
1. In the construction of this ordinance, the following rules shall be observed:
First, The word "justice" shall be construed as if the words "of the peace for the Corporation of Fredericksburg" followed it.
Second, The word "corporation" or "city" shall be construed as if the words "of Fredericksburg" followed it.
Third, The words "this corporation or this city" shall be construed to mean "the Corporation or City of Fredericksburg."
Fourth, The words, "this Corporation" shall be construed to mean "the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Fredericksburg,"
Fifth, A word importing the singular number only may extend and be applied to several persons and things as well as one person and thing; and a word importing the masculine gender only shall extend and be applied to females as well as males; and generally the same rules of construction shall be observed as are prescribed for the construction of the Acts of General Assembly by Chapter one of Title two of the Code of eighteen hundred and eighteen-seven.
Sixth, Any violations of an ordinance for which there is no express punishment prescribed by the said ordinance shall be punished by a fine of not less than one dollar nor more than five dollars.
Seventh, All the provisions of the preceding ordinance shall be in full force on and after July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, and all ordinances and parts of ordinances of a general nature in force at the time of the adoption of this ordinance shall be repealed from and after the first of July, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine. Such repeal, however, shall not affect any act or offence committed or done, or any penalty or forfeiture incurred, or any right established, accrued or accruing, or any prosecution or proceeding pending before the passage of this ordinance.
CONTENTS 109
| INDEX TO CHARTER | PAGE | |
| Appeals, concerning By Laws | 17 | |
| from Mayor | 35 | |
| Bonds, Gas | 25, 33 | |
| Water | 21, 33 | |
| Boundaries of Corporation | 10, 11, 12, 14 | |
| Bridge over River | 24 | |
| City Collector, duties of | 31, 32 | |
| Constable | 35 | |
| Corporation Court | 12, 23 | |
| Council, election of | 22, 37 | |
| powers of | 16, 17, 32, 33, 34 | |
| vacancies in, how filled | 22, 38 | |
| Dogs, power to tax | 18 | |
| Fines, when to city | 17 | |
| Gas Works | 25-7 | |
| Health, power to protect | 31 | |
| Internal Improvements | 27-30 | |
| Justice of the Peace | 23, 35 | |
| Jurisdiction of Mayor | 23 | |
| Corporation Court | 23 | |
| Licenses, relating thereto | 16, 17 | |
| Magistrates | 23, 35 | |
| Mayor, appointment of | 36 | |
| duties and powers of | 8, 10, 15, 16, 23, 33 | |
| election of | 36 | |
| Officers of Corporation | 15 | |
| Police, appointment and powers | 35, 36 | |
| Police Justice | 35 | |
| Poor-House | 22 | |
| Public Health | 34 | |
| Recorder | 7, 10, 15 | |
| Sewerage | 27-30 | |
| Sinking Fund | 30, 34 | |
| Streets | 9, 10, 27-30 | |
| Taxes | 13,17 | |
| Vacancies in Council | 38 | |
| in Mayoralty | 36 | |
| Water-works | 18-20, 21 | |
| INDEX TO ORDINANCE | PAGE | |
| Adultery | 69 | |
| Alleys (see streets) | 57 | |
| Alms-House | 93 | |
| Animals at large | 63-64 | |
| cruelty to | 69 | |
| tied to trees, etc | 64 | |
| Appointments by Council | 40 | |
| Balloons | 63 | |
| Battling | 70 | |
| Bicycles | 62, 64, 65, 66 | |
| Bridges, rules governing | 64-66 | |
| Building permits, etc | 82-84 | |
| Burial permits | 95 | |
| Canals, polluting waters in | 68 | |
| Cellars, doors to | 59, 60, 65 | |
| Cemeteries | 89 | |
| Chain Gang | 71, 77 | |
| Chimneys | 58, 59 | |
| Clerk of Council | 41, 43-44 | |
| Clerk of Court | 48 | |
| Clerk of Market | 53-55 | |
| Coal, to be weighed, when | 57 | |
| Collector | 43, 50-51, 53, 104 | |
| Commissioner of Revenue | 47-50 | |
| Committees | 40, 106 | |
| Contracts with City | 91 | |
| Council, rules governing | 39-41 | |
| Cows at large | 64 | |
| Crossings of streets | 65 | |
| Dead animals | 66 | |
| Debt of City | 105 | |
| Disorderly conduct | 70 | |
| Disorderly houses | 70 | |
| Dividing fences | 88 | |
| Dogs | 75-76 | |
| Drays, license to | 87 | |
| Drivers and driving | 62, 63 | |
| Fines, how recovered | 84 | |
| security | 47 | |
| statement of | 47 | |
| Fire Department | 92 | |
| Fiscal year | 45 | |
| Gas Works | 100 | |
| Gates | 65 | |
| General provisions | 108 | |
| Gutters, filth in | 64 | |
| Hogs | 63, 64 | |
| Hurkamp Park | 80, 89 | |
| Hurkamp Railroad | 80 | |
| Indecent figures | 63 | |
| Indecent language | 69 | |
| Interfering with officer | 70 | |
| Kite flying | 63 | |
| Lamp posts, injury to | 74 | |
| Market, rules for | 53-55 | |
| Mayor, duties of | 46-47, 51 | |
| Minors, liquors, etc, to | 69 | |
| Money, how paid out | 45 | |
| New Ordinance, when considered | 42 | |
| Nuisances | 66-68 | |
| Obscene words | 63 | |
| Officers of City, oath, etc | 42, 43 | |
| Ordinances, construction of | 41, 108 | |
| Peddlers | 71, 72 | |
| Pipes in streets | 89 | |
| Poor | 93 | |
| Police | 42, 51-55 | |
| Powder Magazine | 78-79 | |
| Public Meetings | 72 | |
| Pumps | 74 | |
| Quorum, how many | 39 | |
| Railway engines in streets | 79, 80 | |
| Railway stations, hindrances at | 73 | |
| Salaries, how paid | 45-46 | |
| Saloons | 69 | |
| Scavengers | 85 | |
| Schools | 94 | |
| Seal of City | 106 | |
| Shooting in City | 68 | |
| Sidewalks, altering grade of | 61 | |
| bicycles on | 62 | |
| driving on | 62 | |
| loafing on | 65 | |
| obstructions on | 65 | |
| Sidewalks, snow on | 65 | |
| use of | 58 | |
| width of | 59 | |
| Snow, to remove | 65 | |
| Springs | 74 | |
| Streets | 54, 57-65 | |
| Street walkers | 68 | |
| Sunday, work on | 69 | |
| Taxes, lien of | 48 | |
| Theatrical exhibitions | 81, 82 | |
| Treasurer, bond of | 44 | |
| duties of | 45 | |
| to withhold money | 46 | |
| Trees, removal of | 58 | |
| injury to | 74 | |
| Unsound meats, etc | 3 | |
| Vagrants | 71 | |
| Vaults | 59, 60 | |
| Vital statistics | 95 | |
| Water works and rents | 96 | |
| Weighmaster | 56-57 | |