Editor’s note:
Chapter 252, Private Laws 1903, as amended and herein set out, includes section headings and bracketed words supplied by the editors.
Sections have been edited as to capitalization and punctuation for the sake of uniformity, and amendatory acts have been inserted in the sections thereby amended, as indicated by historical citations following amended sections.
The General Assembly of North Carolina does enact:
Sec. 2. Town incorporated; name, laws gov- erning. That the Town of Lillington, in the County Harnett, be and the same is hereby incorporated by the name of the Town of Lillington, and shall be subject to all provisions of the law now in force or hereafter enacted relating to incorporated towns and cities, except as herein provided. The town shall operate under the Council-Manager form of government in accordance with Part 2 of Article 7 of G.S. Ch. 160A and any Charter provisions not in conflict therewith.
(Ord. passed 12-10-1985)
Sec. 3. Boundaries. That the boundaries and corporate limits of said Town of Lillington shall be as follows, to wit: Beginning at a point in the center of the intersection of Main and Front Streets, in said town, a line to be surveyed running north seventy-two degrees west forty chains, to the beginning point in the western boundary; thence south eighteen degrees west forty chains, thence south seventy-two degrees east eighty chains; thence north eighteen degrees east to the Cape Fear River; thence up the Cape Fear River to a point where the extension of the first boundary line would touch the bank of said river; thence south eighteen degrees west to the beginning, or western terminus of said town.
(Priv. Laws. 1937, Ch. 166, § 1)
Editor’s note:
For current boundaries of the town, see official town map which is on file in the office of the Town Clerk.
Sec. 4. Officers. That the officers of said town shall consist of a Mayor, five Commissioners, a Chief of Police, a Treasurer, and a Clerk to the Lillington Town Board, and the following named persons shall fill said offices until the first Monday of May, 1903, to wit: A.C. Holloway as Mayor: A. P. McPherson, A. F. Johnson, J. A. Rogers, J. E. Caviness and U. H. Parker as Commissioners; J. B. Lanier as Chief of Police and Allan M. Shaw as Clerk.
Sec. 5. Election of Mayor and Commissioners. That on the first Monday of May, 1903, and every two years thereafter, there shall be held at the courthouse in Lillington an election, at which the successors to said Mayor and Commissioners shall be chosen, which election shall be governed in all respects by the rules, regulations and laws governing municipal elections throughout the state, as provided by the general laws of the state.
Editor’s note:
The term of office of Mayor and Commissioners is now four years, and the Commissioners serve overlapping terms. See Sess. L. 1959, Ch. 901, which is set out in the local laws which follow the Charter. Election date repealed by Section 835 of the 1971 Session Laws.
Sec. 6. Selection of Marshall, Treasurer and Clerk. That the Lillington Town Board chosen at any election held as above provided for, shall at their first meeting held after such election, choose by ballot or otherwise, as they may determine, a Marshall, a Treasurer and a Clerk, who shall serve for two years, or until their successors be elected.
Editor’s note:
The Marshal is now the Chief of Police.
Sec. 7. Bond of Treasurer and Marshall. That the Treasurer and the Marshall shall each enter into a bond in such sum as the Lillington Town Board may direct, with good and sufficient surety, to be approved by the said Lillington Town Board, payable to the State of North Carolina, conditioned for the faithful performance of their respective duties.
Sec. 8. Powers of Lillington Town Board. That the said Commissioners shall have power to pass all bylaws and regulations for the good government of said town, as shall not be inconsistent with the laws of the state and of the United States, and may levy a tax on all objects of state taxation, not to exceed thirty-three and one-third cents on each one hundred dollars worth of taxable property located within the boundary limits of said town, and shall likewise have the right to levy a reasonable tax upon trades and professions, where a levy of the same is not prohibited by the laws of the state.
Sec. 9. Oath of town officers. That it shall be the duty of the officers appointed by this Act, within ten days after its ratification, to appear before the Clerk of the Superior Court of Harnett County, or other officer in said county authorized to administer oaths, and take the oath of office prescribed by law for such officers.
Editor’s note:
For oath of office as required by state constitution, see Const., Art. VI, § 7. For statutory oath of mayor, see G.S. § 160A-61. As to Commissioners, see G.S. § 160A.
Sec. 10. Condemnation of land for streets, drainage or sewer rights-of-way or easements. When any land or right-of-way shall be required for the purpose of opening or laying out new streets or widening those already opened, or for drainage or sewerage, and the land owner or owners and said Commissioners cannot agree upon the price which the land owner or owners will take and convey the right and easement to the said town, the same shall be taken at the valuation of three freeholders, to be chosen as follows. The Commissioners shall select one, [and] the owner or owners of the land one, within three days after notice in writing to the land owner or owners from the Commissioners of the selection, and the two freeholders thus selected shall select a third man, also a freeholder, and these persons shall assess the damages, if there be any, within five days after notice from the Commissioners to the land owner or owners above mentioned; and if the owner or owners of the land fail to select a man within three days as aforesaid, then the Commissioners shall select two men, and the two thus selected shall select a third man, and the three men thus selected shall assess the damage within the time aforesaid. The said freeholders, when so chosen, shall be first duly sworn by the Mayor or a justice of the peace to do impartial justice, and shall view the premises and the land on which the right and easement is demanded, and in making assessment of the damages shall take into consideration any benefit or advantage such owner or owners may receive from opening or widening of such street or making and maintaining of such drainage or sewerage, and shall ascertain and report to the Commissioners, under their hands and seals, what amount or sum shall be paid to the land owner or owners, which report, on being confirmed by the Lillington Town Board and spread upon the minutes of said town, shall have the force and effect of a judgment in favor of said land owner or owners in said Town of Lillington for the amount of damages assessed; provided, that either party may appeal to the next term of the Superior Court of Harnett County upon the question of damages, and notice of appeal must be served in writing within ten days from the report of the freeholders and notice to the land owner that said report has been filed; but no appeal shall delay the opening or widening of any street or making any drainage or sewerage; provided further, that in case the owner or owners of land on which right-of-way and easement is desired, as herein stated, are infants, lunatics or nonresidents, it shall be the duty of the Commissioners to file a petition before the Clerk of the Superior Court of Harnett County on behalf of the said Town of Lillington, making defendants the parties on whose land the right-of-way and easement is desired, and such petition shall set forth in detail the lands on which said right-of-way and easement will run, and the termini of said street or drainage or sewerage; and such proceeding as to notice from time of hearing shall be governed by the laws governing other special proceedings; and upon the hearing the Clerk shall appoint three disinterested persons, citizens and freeholders of the Town of Lillington, as Commissioners, who shall view the premises and shall ascertain and report to the Clerk, under their hands and seals, what amount or sums shall be paid to the land owner or owners by way of damages; and the order of the Clerk of the Superior Court, if report is confirmed by him, together with the report of the Commissioners, shall be spread upon the minutes of the Town of Lillington, and shall pass the right-of-way or easement in said land to the Town of Lillington, and shall have the force of a judgment in favor of said land owner or owners in said Town of Lillington for the damages assessed; provided, that no title shall vest and no street shall be on lands condemned under this Act until all such damages as are assessed shall be paid into the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court of Harnett County; and any person or persons attempting to open, or opening, such street before such damages as are assessed shall have been paid into said office shall be guilty of a trespass.
(Priv. Laws 1905, Ch. 180, § 1)
For condemnation authority, see G.S. 40A, which repealed all charter provisions.
Sec. 11. Authority of Lillington Town Board to preserve the public health. The Lillington Town Board may take such measures as they may deem necessary and effectual to prevent the entrance into town, or the spreading therein, of any contagious or infectious diseases; may stop, detain and examine for that purpose all things and persons coming from places believed to be infected with such diseases, may cause any person in the town believed to be infected with such contagious diseases, and whose stay might endanger the public health, to be removed to some designated place or places within or without the town limits; may cause to be removed or destroyed such furniture or other article or articles as shall be believed to be tainted or infected with any contagious or infectious disease, or which there shall be reasonable cause to apprehend will propagate disease; and may take all such reasonable steps to preserve the public health as they may deem necessary.
Sec. 12. Street labor for convicted offenders who fail to pay fine. Whenever an offender has been convicted for a violation of a town ordinance and a fine imposed, the Mayor of said town or other officer before whom he shall have been convicted, at the time of entering judgment may order that on failure to pay the fine to the Chief of Police of said town or the officer having him in charge, such offender shall be by such officer put to work on the streets of said town for a time to be fixed by the Mayor or other officer rendering the judgment, not exceeding thirty days, when he shall be discharged.
Editor’s note:
Inasmuch as there is no longer a Mayor’s Court in the town, the district court now exercises jurisdiction over cases involving the violation of town ordinances. See Sess. L. 1967, Ch. 826, which repealed G.S. §§ 160-13 to 160-16 relating to Mayors’ Courts, effective 12-2-1968 in Harnett County.
Sec. 13. Vagrants; generally. Any and all persons who may be able to labor, who shall frequent said town and be found therein without any visible means of support, sauntering about without employment, or who shall be found sleeping at night or spending the night in or upon the piazzas of the stores or the courthouse in said town, shall be deemed vagrants and guilty of a misdemeanor, and punished by a fine not exceeding fifty dollars, or imprisoned not exceeding thirty days, said offense being cognizable before the Mayor, who may cause such person or persons to be farmed out to work on the public streets or other public works of said town.
Editor’s note:
These sections were formerly G.S. §§ 14-338, 14-340 and 14-341, and have been repealed with no replacement.
Sec. 15. Authority to enclose town with fence. That the Commissioners of said Town of Lillington may cause it to be enclosed, or any specified portion of it to be enclosed, with a fence of wood or of metal, or part of wood and part of metal, with gates in same at the crossings or terminals of the several streets of the town reaching to said fence.
Sec. 16. Authority to prevent animals from running at large. That the said Commissioners may make an ordinance prohibiting the running at large within the town limits or within the enclosure surrounded by the fence provided for in the next preceding section, of any horse, mule, cow, hog, sheep, goat or other four-footed animal, under such penalties as said ordinance shall designate, which shall be, however, not inconsistent with the laws of the state; and a violation of such ordinance, if wilfully permitted by the owner of such animal, shall constitute a misdemeanor, cognizable by the Mayor of said town and punishable by a fine not exceeding the sum of ten dollars or imprisonment not exceeding ten days, in the discretion of the Mayor.
Sec. 17. Authority to penalize persons damaging town fence. That the said Commissioners shall also have authority to provide by ordinance for the punishment of any person or persons who shall wilfully remove rails from, tear down or otherwise injure any portion of the fence erected by them (the said Commissioners) or caused to be erected by them, under the authority of Section 15 of this Act, or who shall wilfully remove, injure or leave open any of the gates built in said fence, and a violation of any ordinance made by them prohibiting such acts shall constitute a misdemeanor, cognizable by the Mayor of said town, and shall be punished as said ordinance may specify; provided, [that] such punishment be not inconsistent with the laws of the state.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 4th day of March, 1903.