Chap. 128.—An ACT to provide for working the roads and repairin
the bridges in the counties of Buckingham, Rockbridge, Smyth, and
Pulaski.

Approved March 5, 1877.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
in the counties of Buckingham, Rockbridge, Smyth, and
Pulaski, the public roads and bridges shall Es repaired and
kept in order as follows: For each magisterial district in
the county, there is hereby established a board, consisting of
the supervisor of the district, who shall be chairman thereof ;
a@ road commissioner, and a justice of the peace, who shall
be clerk of the board, except that in the county of Rock-
bridge a commissioner of the revenue, instead of a justice
of the peace, shall be the third member, and clerk of the
board. The said board shall, and is hereby declared, to be a
body politic and corporate, under the name and style of The
Board of Road Commissioners, for the —— Magisterial Dis-
trict, in the County of ; and by such name may sue
and be sued. The said board shall have the control of all
the roads and bridges within the district, and of the levying
and disbursing of all taxes imposed for repairing the roads
and bridges and keeping the samo in order. If from any
cause either of the members of said board shall be prevented
from attending any meeting thereof, the other members may,
in case of emergency, call in any justice of the peace for the
district, who with them shall constitute the board for the
time being, and they shall have all the powér and authority
di by this act in the board of road commissioners for said

istrict.

2. The justice of the peace constituting a member of the
board, shall be designated in writing by the supervisor and
road commissioner, which writing shall be recorded by the
said board in their minute book. <A road commissioner for
each magisterial district shall be appointed by the county
court as early as practicable after the passage of this act.
He may at once qualify and enter upon the performance of
his duties, and shall hold office until his successor is appointed
and qualified. His term of office, after the first appointment,
shall be two years, and shall commence on the first day of
July succeeding his appointment. Road commissioners shall
be appointed by the county court at its May term in eighteen
hundred and seventy-nine, and in every second year there-
after. Any person, after being road commissioner for two
years, may give up his office if the roads and bridges in his
district be in good order, and shall not, withingtwo years
thereafter, be re-appointed without his consent.

3. The road precincts shall remain as now laid out and
described by metes and bounds, in the several magisterial
districts, until changed by the board of road commissioners.
The said board shall have power, and it shall be their duty,
to make such changes therein as may be proper. The sur-
veyors in charge of said precincts when this act goes into
effect, shall continue in the performance of their duties, until
the overseers hereinafter provided for shall be appointed and
qualified.

4. The board of road commissioners shall, as soon as they
shall be organized, proceed to appoint one overseer of roads
for each precinct established by them, not exceeding three,
in the counties of Buckingham, Rockbridge and Pulaski, and
five in the county of Smyth, for each magisterial district.

5. The duty of the overseer of roads shall be to sce that
the roads in his precinct are kept in good repair; that the
bridges and crossings for foot-passengers are in safe condi-
tion; that the roads are of necessary width, well-drained,
and free from obstructions; that all dead trees near the roads
are cut down, and all loose stones removed from the roads;
that neat sign-boards are kept at all forks and crossings of
public roads, plainly indicating the most noted place to which
each road leads, and the distance thereto; and he shall con-
tract for all tools and implements necessary for working of
roads, subject to the approval of the board of road commis-
sioners, and shall have custody of the same. He shall per-
form such other duties as may be prescribed by law.

6. The overseer of roads shall receive a compeusution of
one dollar a day for every day he is actually engaged in
summoning hands: provided, he shall have summoned not
less than ten bands each day; and one dollar and fifty cents
a day for every day he is actually engaged in working on the
roads (less the two days required of him by law): provided,
he shall have employed not less than ten hands each day.
But in any case in which it shall appear to the board that
through the failure of those summoned to attend as required,
there have been less than ten hands employed, but necessary
and valuable work has been done, they may allow a reason-
able compensation, not exceeding fifteen cents for each hand
so employed. The overseer of roads shall not for any other
services rendered by him, receive any further or other com-
pensation.

7. The overseer of roads and the sureties on his official
bond, in addition to their liability for all property, tickets,
and money which may come into his hands as overseer, and
for which he shall fail to account when required, shall be lia-
ble for any failure or neglect to keep his roads and bridges in
good order, or to perform any other duty required by law ;
the amount of such liability may be recovered by the board
by suit in court, or upon the warrant of a justice, as the case
may be.

8. The ragd commissioner shall have general supervision
of all the roads and bridges in his district, including bridges
built jointly by his county and any adjoining county across
streams which constitute the boundary between euch coun-
ties. ‘The overseers of roads in his district shall be under bis
authority and subject to his orders. Upon complaint by him
to the board that any overscer neglects or refuses to perform
his duties, the board may, if satisfied of the correctness of
such complaint, remove said overseer and appoint another in
his place; and if any overseer shall neglect or refuse, after
notice in writing from the road commissioner to perform any
duty required of him, it shall be the duty of the road commis-
sioner to cause the required work to be done. It shall also
be the duty of the road commissioner to superintend the
changing of any road, opening of any new road, or building
of any bridge which may be required of him by the county
court. He shail perform such other duties as may be pre-
scribed by law. .

9. If any road commissioner shall neglect or refuse to per-
form the duties required of him by law, he shall be liable, on
presentment of a grand jury, to pay a fine of not more than
thirty dollars for each offence. Butif it shall appear to the
court that such prosecution was frivolous and vexatious, the
court may, upon acquittal of the road commissioner, require
the prosecutor to pay the costs.

10. Every petition to alter, change, or discontinue a public
road, to open a new road, or build a bridge, or establish a
ferry, must hereafter be first referred to the board of road
commissioners for the district to which the petitioners belong,
who shall endorse thereon their approval or disapproval of
the same, and the reasons therefor. The petition, with said
endorsement, shall then be presented to the county court,
and there proceeded with as prescribed by the general statutes
in such cases made and provided. But the board of road
commissioners may order any cuange ina road which does
not involve the condemnation of land or payment of damages;
as where the land owner consents.
11. When the location of any road now is, or hereafte
may be on a line dividing two magisterial districts, the road
commissioners of the adjoining districts shall equitably divide
the expense of said road between such districts; or upon
their failure to agree, the county court shall divide the same,
and direct what part of said road shall be kept in repair by
each magisterial district.

12. The board of road commissioners for each magisterial
district, at its annual meeting in July, shall assess and levy
au tax upon the property, real and personal, of the district
assessed for state revenue, sufficient, with the labor contrib-
uted under the nineteenth section of this act, to pay the ex-
pense of keeping all the public roads and bridges in the dis-
trict in good repair, and for all other purposes provided for
in this act: provided that the assessment on property shall
not be more in any one year than seven and a half cents on
the hundred dollars. The tax levied on each precinct shall,
as far as practicable, be expended therein. Land lying partly
in one district, or precinct, and partly in another, shall be
assessed in the district or precinct in which the greater part
thereof lies. ;

13. The board of road commissioners shall annually, by
the first day of August, through their clerk, furnish to each
overseer, a statement of the taxes assessed against each per-
son in his precinct, and the aggregate amount of such tax,
which tax the overseer shall collect in money, or labor, or
partly in money and partly in labor, as the board may pre-
scribe; and so much of said tax as he shall be unable to col-
lect, he shall, at such time as may be designated by the board,
turn over, with ten per centum added for costs of collection,
to the county treasurer; or, if the board so order, to a con-
stable, taking his receipt for the same. The treasurer, or
constable, receiving such tax account, shall proceed to collect
the same as other taxes are collected, and after deducting the
commission of ten per centum above provided, pay over the
net proceeds to the clerk of the board of road commission-
ers. The overseer shall expend so much of the money com-
ing into his hands under the preceding section as may be
necessary iff connection with the labor provided for in the
nineteenth section, to keep his roads and bridges in order,
and to pay for tools and implements, and shall pay to the
clerk of the board of road commissioners, on the second
Saturday in June of each year, any surplus remaining in his
hands, after deducting such compensation for himself as shall
be allowed by the board.

14, The board of road commissioners for each magisterial
district shall fix a schedule of prices for labor, hire of teams,
and other services upon roads in their district: provided, that
a day’s work under this act shall be ten hours. The said
board shall annually, on the second Saturday in June, audit
all claims arising under this act, including the accounts of
the commissioner and oversecrs of roads; which accounts
shall be verificd by affidavits. They shall enter all claims
allowed by them in a book to be kept for the purpose, and
paid for out of the fund provided for in section twelve of this
act, and shall pay said claims out of any moneys in the hands
of the clerk ot the board.

15. The clerk of the board of road commissioners shall
qualify and entcr into bond, in a penalty of not less than two
hundred dollars, before the county court, and with security
to, be approved by the court, before the first day of July suc-
ceeding his appointment. It shall be his duty to keep all
papers, books and records of the board, and to receive and
pay out all moneys which they may direct, or the law pre-
scribe.

16. The board of supervisors shall, upon the application of
the board of road commissioners for the respective magiste-
rial districts, cause to be delivered to the clerks of said boards
all papers, books, and documents pertaining to the roads and
bridges in said districts which lately belonged to the corres-
ponding townships; and shall, upon like application, deliver
to the clerka of the respective boards, warrants upon the
county treasurer, for any balance of the moneys of the corres-
ponding townships paid into the county treasury under tho
fifty-sixth section of chapter two hundred and ninety-six of
the Acts of Assembly of eighteen hundred and seventy-four—
five, approved March twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and
seventy-five, which shall remain after payment of the debts
of said townships. The money so paid over to the clerks of
the boards of road commissioners shall constitute a part of
the road fund of the respective districts, and be expended in
improving and keeping the roads and bridges thereof in order.

17. Bach member of the board of road commissioners shall
receive one dollar and fifty cents for every day’s service on
the board, or in the performance of any other duty required
of him by law: provided, that for services on the board, no
member ahall receive more than eight dollars in any year:
and provided further, that the clerk shall, for all other ser-
vices performed by him during the year, receive not more
than twenty dollars additional compensation; and the road
commissioner shall, for all other services performed by him
during the year, receive not more than twenty dollars, except
that for services rendered in superintending the changing or
opening of roads, or building bridges under order of the
county court, be may receive such additional sum, not ex-
ceeding one dollar and fifty cents a day, as thé board of su-
pervisors may allow. All claims for compensation under this
section shall be audited by the board of supervisors, who
Bball issue their warrants upon the county treasury for the
sums allowed them.

18. If the board of road commissioners shall neglect or re-
fuse to perform any duty required of them by this act, the
county court may, upon the application of any party inter-
ested, by mandamus, compel said board to perform such duty.

19. All male persons in each road precinct, except such as
are exempt by law, shall be appointed by the overseer of
roads for that precinct, and compelled to work two days in
each year on some public road therein, as near as may be to
their homes. The two days here required, except in the
county of. Pulaski, shall not include any time such persons
may be required to work in changing or opening a road un-
der the general road law.

20. Every person required to work, shall, either in person
or by a sufficient substitute, attend, when required by the
overseer of roads for his precinct, with proper tools, and
work the roads as required in the preceding section. Every
person failing to so attend, shall, if adult, be liable to pay an
additional road tax of eighty cents for each day he fails to
work; or, if he bea minor, his parent or guardian shall be so
liable, and said tax, if not paid to the overseer in twenty
days thereafter, may be levied for and collected as other dis-
trict road taxes are collected under the thirteenth section of
this act. Any money ao recovered by the overseer, shall be
expended by him in the repair of his roads and bridges.

21. The cost of changing roads, opening new roads, and
building bridges, shall hereafter be borne by the respective
districts in which they are located; and when located partly
in one district and partly in another, the cost shall be ap-
portioned equitably between them by ‘the county court; bat
whenever the road to be changed, or opened, or the bridge
to be built, is of such public and general importance as to
make it proper that the cost thereof shall be borne by the
whole county, the court may so order. The board of super-
visors shall be authorized to make such additional levy, or
assessment, upon any district or districts, not exceeding five
cents in the hundred dollars’ worth of property, real and
personal, in any year, as may be required to defray the ex-
penses incurred under this section.

22. Such provisions of the general road law of the state
as do not conflict with this act, shall continue in force in the
counties named herein, and nothing in this act contained,
shall be so construed as to interfere with existing contracts
for the working of roads in any county to which its provi-
sions apply.

23. This act shall be in force from its passage.