lect such tax to take reasonable distress of any personal property in said city belonging to said delinquent, or which he or she shal! have any right or interest and sell such property, right or interest at public auction in said city, having given ten days' notice of the time and place of sale by advertisement posted in some public place in the city, and published or posted in such other manner as may be prescribed by ordinance of said city, if the commission shall by ordinance, require any other or more ample advertisement, and out of the proceeds of such sale, after defraying all proper expenses, to pay to said city the said tax or so much thereof as shall be delinquent, and return the remainder, if any, to the owner of the property so levied on and sold.

Sec. 77. All taxes assessed upon real estate for the benefit of said city shall remain a lien thereon, bearing interest at the rate of six per cent per annum until the same be fully paid. Such lien may be enforced by the leasing or sale of such real estate, under the order of any court having equity jurisdiction in Ohio county. Where the amount involved exceeds fifty dollars, suit is to be brought in the circuit court of Ohio county. If the amount involved is less than fifty dollars, suit may be brought before any justice of the peace of Ohio county, and the judgment obtained enforced by a suit in equity in the circuit court of Ohio county.

Sec. 78. Water rates shall be distrained for and collected in the same manner in which the collection of taxes owing to the city may be enforced. The collection of water rents shall also be enforced by shutting off the supply of water from delinquents, and the refusal thereafter to furnish water to delinquents until all arrearages are paid.

Sec. 79. In addition to all other means for the collection thereof, all taxes and water rates, as well as all other demands due to the city, may be recovered by an appropriate suit or proceeding, in the name of the city, before any justice of Ohio county, if the amount be within his jurisdiction, or in the circuit court of said county.

Sec. 80. Neither the auditor nor the treasurer nor any other disbursing officer of the city shall issue any order or check for the payment of money for any indebtedness contracted by the commission or any officer of the city, which shall have been contracted wholly, or in part, in excess of the amount which shall have been previously set by ordinance or resolution as the limit of expenses of the department within which indebtedness is sought to be created. The foregoing provision of this section is ordained as a restraining provision

as

only, and it is further declared that no act of such auditor, treasurer or other disbursing officer shall be in anywise held to render valid any debt contracted by or on behalf of the city in violation of the constitution and laws of the state. If any such officer of the city, is mentioned in the first sentence of this section, shall violate the provisions thereof, he shall be disabled from holding such office, and shall forfeit and pay therefor, to the city, a fine of not less than twenty dollars nor more than one hundred dollars, or be imprisoned for a term not exceeding one year, or both.

Sec. 81. No debts, other than those authorized by this act, shall be contracted by or on behalf of the city in any manner, unless all questions connected with the incurring of such indebtedness shall have first been submitted to a vote of the people and have received three-fifths of all the votes cast for and against the same; nor shall any debt be contracted by the city without at the same time providing for the collection of a direct annual tax, sufficient to pay annually the interest on said debt and the principal thereof within thirtyfour years. No debt shall be incurred, even with the consent of the voters, to an amount including existing indebtedness, in the aggregate exceeding two and one-half per centum of the value of the taxable property in the city, as ascertained by the last previous assessment for state and county taxes.

Sec. 82. An act of the legislature of West Virginia "authorizing municipal corporations to issue bonds," passed December second, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, is intended to remain applicable to the city of Wheeling, except so far as this act is inconsistent therewith. The commission shall provide that city bonds. be signed by the mayor and commissioner of finance of the city.

Deposits of City Funds.

Sec. 83. The commission shall provide by ordinance for the deposit of all public moneys coming into the hands of the treasurer, in such bank or banks, situated within the city, as offer, at competitive bidding, the highest rate of interest and give a good and sufficient bond issued by a surety company authorized to do business in the state, or furnish good and sufficient surety, or secure said moneys by a deposit of bonds or other interest bearing obligations of the United State or those for the payment of principal and interest of which the faith of the United States is pledged, including bonds of the District of Columbia, bonds of the state of West Virginia or of any

other state of the United States, legally issued bonds of any city, town, village, county, or other political sub-division of this or any other state or territory of the United States and as to which there has been no default of principal, interest or coupons, and which in the opinion of the treasurer are good and collectable, providing the issuing body politic has not defaulted at any time since the year one thousand nine hundred, in the payment of the principal and interest of any of its bonds, said security to be subject to the approval of the commission, in a sum not less than ten per cent in excess of the maximum amount at any time to be deposited; but there shall not be deposited in any one bank an amount in excess of the paid in capital stock and surplus of such bank, and not in any event to exceed one million dollars.

In such ordinance the commission may determine the methods by which such bids shall be received, the authority which shall receive them, and which shall determine the sufficiency of the security offered, the time for the contracts for which deposits of public money may be made, and all details for carrying into effect the authority here given. Proceedings in connection with such competitive bidding and the deposit of money shall be conducted in such manner as to insure full publicity, and shall be open at all times to the inspection of any citizen. As to any deposits made under authority of an ordinance of the commission, pursuant hereof, if the treasurer has exercised due care, neither he nor his bondsmen shall be liable for any loss occasioned thereby.

Miscellaneous.

Sec. 84. All copies purporting to be copies of the ordinances of said city, or extracts from the journal of the commission, which shall be printed by the authority of the commission or which shall be certified to be correct by the mayor of said city under the seal thereof, shall be received by all courts and magistrates of this state as prima facie evidence of the tenor of such ordinances, and of the acts and proceedings of the commission as therein set forth.

Sec. 85. This charter shall not invalidate any legal act done by the council of the city of Wheeling, or any officer of said city now or heretofore in office, and all ordinances, by-laws, and regulations, resolutions and rules of the council shall remain in force until altered, amended or repealed by the commission or by this charter.

Sec. 86. All ward boundaries and divisions of said city are here

by abolished, and the commission is empowered to define and locate voting precincts for elections in said city, which shall conform, so far as practicable, to the territorial areas of the election precincts in said city for state and county elections.

Sec. 87. The commission shall divert into the city treasury all fees paid to an officer or officers of the city by virtue of his or their offices.

Sec. 88. Any person who shall violate any of the provisions of this charter for violation of which no punishment has been provided herein, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

Sec. 89. But this act shall not be effective unless the same shall be first submitted to the voters of said city, at a special election. called for the purpose and adopted by a majority of the votes cast at such election. Said special election shall be held on the fourth Tuesday of the month succeeding the calendar month in which this act is enacted by the legislature of West Virginia.

This act shall be published in full once preceding said special election, in all the daily newspapers published in said city, and if ratified at such election, this act shall go into effect. No special registration of voters shall be required for said special election. The ballots at said special election shall be in the following form: [ ] For the commission government charter.

Against the commission government charter. Sec. 90. It shall be the duty of the mayor, the city council and the auditor in office in said city when this charter takes effect, to comply with all the requirements of this charter relating to elections. to the end that all things may be done necessary to the nomination and election of the officers to be first elected under this charter; and they shall likewise do all things necessary to comply with the provisions of this act with respect to submitting this charter to a vote of the citizens of said city at a special election for that purpose, as prescribed in section eighty-nine.

Sec. 91. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed.

(House Bill No. 31)

CHAPTER 75.

AN ACT to amend and re-enact sections seventy-one and eightyeight, and to amend sections seventy-eight, seventy-nine, eighty, eighty-one, eighty-two, eighty-three and eighty-four of chapter three of the acts of the legislature of West Virginia, passed January twenty-sixth, one thousand nine hundred and nine, relative to street improvements and sewer construction in the city of Huntington, as amended by chapter seventy-eight of the acts of the legislature of West Virginia, passed February twentythird, one thousand nine hundred and eleven, and to consolidate and re-enact said sections seventy-eight to eighty-four inclusive, so amended, into sections seventy-eight, seventy-nine, eighty-one, eighty-three and eighty-four.

(Passed February 3, 1913. In effect from passage. Approved by the Governor February 22, 1913.)

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That sections seventy-one, seventy-eight, seventy-nine, eighty, eighty-one, eighty-two, eighty-three, eighty-four and eighty-eight of chapter three of the acts of the legislature of West Virginia, passed January twenty-sixth, one thousand nine hundred and nine, as amended by chapter seventy-eight of the acts of the legislature of West Virginia, passed February twenty-third, one thousand nine hundred and eleven, be amended, consolidated and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Sidewalks and Shade Trees.

Sec. 71. The board of commissioners are authorized and empowered to cause to be put down a suitable curb of brick, stone or other material along and for the footways and sidewalks of the avenues, streets, roads or alleys of said city, and to order and cause the laying or relaying or repair of sidewalks and gutters of such material and widths as the board may determine, and the planting or replanting of and caring for shade trees along said avenues, streets and roads at such points and in such manner as the board may determine;