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The following are such Laws as have been Enacted by the General Assembly and now of Force having reference to the City of Greenville and Municipalities Generally.
TO INCREASE OR DIMINISH LIMITS.
An Act to Define in what Manner Towns and Cities in South Carolina may Increase or Diminish their Corporate Limits.
SECTION 1. Any Town or City Council shall have power to extend the corporate limits of said city or town in the following manner: A petition shall first be submitted to said Council by a majority of the resident freeholders of the territory which it is proposed to annex praying that an election be ordered to see if such territory shall be included in said town. The said Town Council shall order an election after not less than ten days' public advertisement. At such election the qualified electors of the municipality shall vote at the usual voting precincts thereof, and the municipal authorities shall provide one poiling precinct in the territory proposed to be annexed for the qualified electors of the proposed territory to vote. If a majority of the votes at each poll shall be in favor of annexation, the Council shall publish the result of said election and declare the annexed territory a part of said town: Provided, however, That if the property sought to be annexed belongs to a corporation only, it may be annexed on the petition of the stockholders of said corporation. Any town increasing its territory shall file a notice with the Secretary of State describing its new boundaries.
SEC. 2. Any town or city may reduce its corporate limits in the following manner: Whenever a petition is presented to the Town Council signed by a majority of the resident freeholders of said town asking for the reduction of the corporate limits of said town, then said Council shall order an election after not less than ten days public advertisement; such advertisement shall describe the ter-
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ritory that is proposed to be cut off. At said election should a majority of the qualified electors vote in favor of the release of the territory, then said Council shall issue its ordinance, declaring the territory no longer a portion of said town, and shall so notify the Secretary of State, furnishing him at the same time with the new boundaries of said town.
SEC. 3. Any town or city may extend its corporate limits so as to include any or all cemeteries adjoining said town or city, for the purpose only of police and sanitary measures, by the passage of "an ordinance" declaring them to be a portion of said town or city; but the inclusion of said cemeteries does not convey to the city or town the right to tax them in any manner what soever.
(Acts 1896, page 82.)
BOARD OF HEALTH.
AN ACT to Establish Local Boards of Health in the Cities and Towns, etc
SECTION 1. That it shall be of the Mayor or Intendant of every incorporated city, town or village in the State of South Carolina, after the passage of this Act, to appoint, by and with the consent of the City or Town Council of every such city, town or village, five persons, not members of such Council, in cities or towns of five thousand or less population, and in cities exceeding five thousand in population th number may be increased to twenty, as the city may determine, one or more of whom shall be reputable physicians of not less than two years standing in the practice of his profession. The Mayor or Intendant of said city or town shall designate onefifth of the members of the Board to serve one year, one-fifth to serve for twon years, one-fifth to serve for three years, one-fifth to serve for four years, and one fifth to serve for five years, and thereafter one-fifth of the number of said Board shall be appointed annually
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to serve for five years. The members shall serve without compensation; and in case any one of these, after accepting and being duly appointed, shall refues to qualify and serve on the Board, he shall be subject to a fine of twenty five dollars, to be imposed and collected by the Town Council: Provided, however, That in all cases of vacancies on said Board occuring from any cause at any time, said vacancies shall be fill in the manner hereinbefore prescribed, by appointment of the unexpired term or terms as aforesaid. Upon the appointment and organization of such Boards the term of office of the members of Boards heretofore organzied shall end and said Boards shall cease to exist.
(Amendment 1896.)
SEC. 2. That members of the Board shall severally take the oath prescribed for town or city officer, and shall annually organize by the selection of one of their number as President. They shall elect a secretary, who shall keep the minutes of their proceeding and perform such other duties as may be prescribed by the Board, and a Health Officer, who shall execute the orders of the Board, and for that purpose shall have and exercise the powers and authority of a policeman of the town or city. The Secretary and Health Officer shall receive such salary as may be fixed by the Board, ratified by Council, and shall hold their offices at the pleasure of the Board. They shall severally give bond to the town or city in such sums as may be fixed by ordinance for the faithful discharge of their duties, and shall also take and subscribe the oath required by members of the Board All fees which shall be collected or received by the Board or any offier thereof, in his official capacity, shall be paid over to the town or city treasury monthly, together with all penalties which shall be recovered for the violation of any regulations of the Board. The President and Secretary shall have full power to administer oaths or affirmations in any proceedings or investigations touching the regulations of the Board, but shall not be entitles to receive any fee therefor.
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SEC. 3. That the said Board of Health shall have power, and it shall be their duty to make and enforce all needful rules and regulations to prevent the introduction and spread of infectious or contagious diseases by the regulations of intercourse with infected places, by the arrest, separation and treatment of infected persons, and persons who shall have been exposed to any contagious of infectious diseases, and by abating and removing all nuisances which they shall deem prejudicial to the publi health, to enforce vaccination, to mark infected houses or places, to prescribe rules for the construction and maintenance of house drains, waste pipes, soil pipes and cesspools, and make all such other regulations as they shall deem necessary for the prevention of the public health. They shall also have power, with the consent of the Town or City Council, in case of the prevalence of any contagious or infectious diseases within the town on city, to establish one or more hospitals and to make provisions and regualtions and management of the same. The Board may in such cases appoint as many ward or district physicians and other sanitary agents as they may deem necessary, whose salaries shall be fixed by the Town or City Council before their appointment. It shall be the duty of all physicians practicing within the town or city to report to the Secretary of said Board of Health the names and residents of all persons coming under their professional care afflicted with such contagious or infectious diseases, in the manner directed by said Board.
SEC. 4. The said Board of Health shall have power as a body or by commitee, as well as the Health Officer, together with his subordinated, assistants and workmen, under and by order of said Board, to enter at any time upon any premises in the town or city upon which there is suspected to be any contagious or infectious disease or nuisance detrimental to the public health, for the purpose of examining and abating the same; and all written orders for the removal of nusances issues to the said Health Officer by order of said Board, attested by the Secretary, shall be executed by him and his subordinates
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and workmen: Provided, The person or persons refusing to remove such nuisance, and the cost and expenses thereof, shall be recoverable for the owner or owners of the premises from which the nuisance shall be removed or from any person causing or maintaining the same, in the same manner as debts of like amounts are now collected by law.
SEC. 5. The said Board of Health shall have power to create and maintain a complete and accurate system of registration of births and deaths which may occur within the town or city, and to compel obedience to the same upon the part of all physicians and other medical practitioners, clergymen, magistrates, midwives, undertakers, sextons, and all other persons from whom information for such purposes may properly be required.
SEC. 6. The said Board of Health sahll have the power, and it shall be their duty to visit and inspect every month the court house and various offices therein contained, and jail and other prisons located within their respective cities and towns, in regard to the purity of the water supply, the lighting and ventilation and heating of the various offices of the court house and the cells and other rooms occupied by prisoners in the jails; they shall inquire into the efficiency of drainage and plumbing of these public buildings, the disposition of garbage and refuse, the closet accommodations, into the condition of soil pipes, waste pipes and cess-pools, and shall recommend to the county authorities the removal of all nuisances off the premises on which said buildings are located which might prove detrimental to the public health; they shall report the number of prisoners, their diet and treatment, the diseases and number of cases of sickness which occured among the prisoners during the previous three months. And it shall be the duty of every physician who attends in sickness any prisoner in jail to report immediately to the Secretary of the Board of Health the name, sex, age, race and disease of said prisoner.