Section 1-15 GENERAL PENALTY.

A. Whenever a provision in this Code or other ordinance of the town prescribes punishment by stating that the act or offense or the failure to do any act is a misdemeanor or unlawful, and no specific penalty is provided therefore, the act or offense or failure to do any act shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500.00) or by imprisonment in jail for a period of not exceeding twelve (12) months, either or both, except that acts or offenses or the failure to do any act considered Class II Misdemeanors in any similar statute of the Commonwealth of Virginia shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1000.00), or confinement in jail for not more than six (6) months, either or both, and that acts or offenses or the failure to do any act considered Class III Misdemeanors in any similar statute of the Commonwealth of Virginia shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500.00), and that acts or offenses or the failure to do any act considered Class IV Misdemeanors in any similar statute of the Commonwealth of Virginia shall be punished by a fine of not more than two hundred fifty dollars ($250.00).

B. In no case shall the penalty of any town ordinance exceed the penalty imposed in a similar statute of the Commonwealth of Virginia. In the event that any town ordinance should provide a penalty exceeding that imposed in a similar statute of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the town penalty shall be considered null and void, and said penalty provision shall be severed from the ordinance, and the lesser penalty of the similar statute of the Commonwealth of Virginia shall be thereupon incorporated by reference, to be employed in lieu of the severed penalty provision of the town ordinance.

C. All acts, offenses or the failure to do any acts punishable under Section 17-28* of the Town Code (since repealed) shall be punishable under the provisions of this section. All references to "Section 17-28* of the Town Code" shall be taken as references to this section.