Chap. 302.—An ACT to provide for working and altering roads, and
building and repairing bridges in the county of Mecklenburg.

Approved March 1, 1888.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
it shall be lawful for the public roads and bridges in the
county of Mecklenburg to be worked and built, located,
opened, changed, and repaired as follows:

2. The public roads in said county shall be kept cleared of
* rocks, stumps, roots, and other obstructions of at least twenty

feet dn width; well drained and otherwise in good order, and
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secure from the falling of dead timber therein; and across
streams thereon, whereit is necessary and practicable, benches
or logs shall be kept for the accommodation of foot passen-
gers. All pole causeways laid on any public road shall be
twelve feet in width and be kept well covered with earth.
When necessary for proper draining of the road, ditches
may be cut across any lands adjacent thereto.

3. The judge of the county court of said county shall,
annually, at its March term, appoint one road commissioner |
for each magisterial district of said county, who shall be a
resident of the district for which he is appointed, and his
removal from said district shall make a vacancy in said office,
and who shall enter upon the discharge of his duties on the
first day of May following his appoint. Each of the commis-
sioners so appointed shall, within thirty days after his ap-
pointment, qualify before said judge, in term or vacation, by
taking the oath of office, and executing bond, with security
approved by said judge, in the penalty of not less than two
hundred dollars, payable to said county and conditioned
for the faithful discharge of the duties of his office, which
oath and bond shall be filed with the clerk of said court.
The said judge shall fill all vacancies which shall occur in
the office of road commissioner, and the appointee to any
vacancy shall qualify as other road commissioners.

4. It shall be the duty of the several road commissioners.
as soon as practicable after the first day of May, in the year
eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, to lay off the public
roads in their respective districts into sections, to number
and designate the same by boundaries, and assign hands geo-
graphically or by plantation, to each of said sections, and
make report to said court at the June term thereot, in the
year eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, which report shall
be filed in the clerk’s office aforesaid. All male persons in ‘
said county shall be compelled to work two days in each
year on some public road in the district in which they reside,
to which they may be assigned, except ministers of the gos-
pel, and persons under eightcen and above fifty-five years of
age, and persons who reside in a town that keeps it streets
in order, persons who have lost a leg or an arm, or otherwise
disabled, who may be exempted by order of county court.
The judge of said court may for good cause, at the June
term thereof in any year, amend, alter, or correct said re-
ports; such amendment, alteration, or correction to take effect
on the first day of September in the year when made. Each
road commissioner shall annually on the first Monday in:
August, after twenty days’ notice of the time and place shall |
have been posted at two or more public places in his district,
let to contract by sections, to the lowest bidder, the working
and keeping in good repair, as prescribed by section two, of
the several road sections in his district, tor the period of one
year from the first day of September following. But should
said road commissioner be of opinion .that the interest of
said district would be promoted by the letting of any section
or sections for a period not to exceed three years, he may
make such letting, subject, however, to the confirmation of
the county court. He shall take from the contractor for
every section, bond in the penalty of the amount of his bid,
with good security, payable to said county, and conditioned
for the faithful performance of his contract, and make an-
nual report to said court at the August term thereof, stating
in said report which of said bids should be accepted or re-
jected. For good cause the court may reject such report as
to any or all the sections mentioned, and the bid of the con-
tractor therefor, and order the road commissioners to re-let
the working and repairing of the sections so rejected; such
re-letting to be for the period to elapse between the time of
re-letting and the first day of September following; and said
road commissioner shall make report of such re-letting to
said court, which said report of re-letting, and the bids of
contractor, as well as any subsequent re-letting, may, for
good cause, be rejected by the court: provided, that in any
case where a satisfactory bid has not been obtained for the
working and keeping in repair of any section or sections,
the court may appoint a surveyor for said section or sections
to be worked and kept in order by said surveyor as provided
by an act of assembly passed March the twentieth, cighteen
hundred and seventy-five; said surveyors to be liable for any
failure to discharge the duties imposed upon them, as provi-
ded by said last-named act.

5. It shall be the duty of every road commissioner, twice
in each year, in the spring and fall thereof, to personally in-
spect all the public roads in his district, and to make a writ-
ten report, under oath, to the county court of said county,
at the May and November terms thereof: first, as to the gen-
eral condition of the public roads in his district; second,
whether or not the contractors for the several sections there-
in, have fully complied with their contracts, and which of
them are entitled to have their respective claims allowed by
the court; third, what public roads, if any, in his opinion,
should be established or altered; and fourth, of any other
matter affecting the condition of the public roads which he
shall deem advisable to report. Upon it fully appearing to
the court that any road contractor has fully complied with
his contract, the court shall allow his claim according to
the contract, and certify the same to the board of supervisors
for payment. It shall also be the duty of every road com-
missioner to cause to be kept at the crossing or fork of every
public road in his district, a well-constructed sign-board, on
which shall be stated in plain letters the most noted place
within fifteen miles to which said road leads.

6. It shall be the duty of every contractor, to whom a con-

‘tract shall be let under the provisions of section four of this
act, to cause the public roads under his management to be
well worked as often as it may be necessary, in order that
they may be kept in good order, as provided by section two
of this act. He shall furnish all teams, tools, materials, and

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implements which shall be necessary to use in keeping his
roads in such order as is required by section two of this act,
except that the road hands shall furnish their own hand-tools
on the days that they are required to work, as hereinafter
provided.

7. The road hands shall work under the orders of the con-
tractor on the public roads of the road section, to which they |
may be assigned, two days in every year, when the contrac-
tor shall notify them, and shall furnish on such days such
hand-tools as they may own and as the contractor may re-
quire. The contractor may accept or reject substitutes offer-
ed for any of his hands. He may excuse hands from work
on the days designated, and permit them to work on the pub-
lic roads at such other times in lieu thereof as he shall deem
advisable. The contractor for the working of any road sec-
tion, shall be empowered to discharge any road hand who/|
shall be disorderly or refuse to obey his orders, and shall |
charge him with the loss of such day or days. Any road
hand who shall be discharged as aforesaid or who shall fail,
without the consent of the contractor, to work on the public
toads of his road section on the days and in the manner
hereinbefore mentioned, shall pay to the contractor for such
road sections, within thirty days thereafter, sixty cents for
each day. If the said sum is not paid within thirty days,
the contractor shall place in the hands of the sheriff or any
constable of said county, who shall receive and receipt for
same, a ticket against such road hand for the sum of eighty-
five cents for each day against such delinquent road hand,
to be collected as taxes are collected by distress or levy upon
any goods which he may own. Such collecting officer shall
pay to the contractor sixty cents of each dollar so eollected,
and retain the residue for his compensation. The collecting
officer in whose hands any such ticket shall be placed for col-
lection, shall account therefor to the contractor within thirty
days after he shall have received such ticket, by paying to
him the amount of sixty cents of each dollar due on each
ticket placed in his hands for collection, unless he shall have
been unable to collect said amount after due diligence, by
reason of said road hand not owning any property out of
which same could have been made by levy and gale. That
the county court may, on motion of said contractor, after ten’
days’ notice, render judgment and execution in favor of said
contractor against any sheriff or constable who shall fail to
account with said contractor for tickets thus placed in his
hands: provided, that said person against whom said ticket
is thus issued, may, after notice to said contractor, apply to
the supervisor of the district or the county court, who, after
hearing the matter, may release or remit said amount.

8. When any person applies to the county court to have a
road or landing therein established or altered, the court shall,
and whenever without such application it sees cause for so
doing, the court shall direct the road commissioner of the
district to view the ground, and report to the court the con-
veniences and inconveniences that will result as well to indi-
viduals as the public, if such road or landing shall be as pro-
posed, and especially whether any yard, garden, orchard, or
any part thereof, will in such case have to be taken.

; 9. The road commissioner acting under the preceding sec-
tion, shall particularly report the thats and circumstances, in
his opinion, useful in enabling the court to determine the
expediency of establishing or altering the road or landing.
He may examine other routes than that proposed for any
road, and report in favor of the one he prefers, with his rea-
sons for the preference. He shall report the names of the
land-owners on such route, and state which of them require
compensation, the probable amount, in the opinion of the
commissioner, to which said party may be entitled, and any
other matter which he may deem pertinent. A map or dia-
gram of such route shall be returned with his report. If the
commissioner be not a surveyor, he shall procure one if neces-
sary.

10. Upon the report, unless the opinion of the court be
against establishing or altering the road or landing, it shall
award process to summon the proprietors or tenants of the
lands on which it will be established, to show cause against

;the same. The summons shall be executed on such of them
as are in the county, and on any agent or attorney of any
proprietor not within the same. And if there be no proprie-
tor, tenant, agent, or attorney of any proprietor known to
the court, residing within this state, or if the true owners or
proprietors of the lands be not known to the court, the judge
thereof may order notice to all whom it may concern, to be
published in some newspaper of general circulation for four
weeks successively, to appear and show cause against the
same, the cost of such publication to be paid by the district,
not to exceed the cost of publication now prescribed by law.
Personal service of said summons on a non-resident of this
state may be made in the mode prescribed by section fifteen
of chapter one hundred and sixty-six of the Code of eigh-
teen hundred and seventy-three.

f 11. Upon the return of the said process so executed, if the

, court has enough before it to fix a just compensation to the
proprietors and tenants, and they are willing to accept what
it deems just, it may determine the matter without further
proceedings.

12. But if any tenant or proprietor desire it, or if the
court see cause for so doing, it shall appoint five disinterested
freeholders of the county, any three of whom may act, for
the purpose of ascertaining a just compensation for the land
to be used for such road or landing. Said commissioners
shall meet on the lands of such proprietors and tenants as
may be named in the order of court ata certain place and
day therein also specified, of which notice shall be given by
the sheriff to such proprietors or tenants, their agents or
attorneys, except that it need not be given to one present at
the time of making the order. Any one or more of said

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commissioners attending on the land as aforesaid, may
adjourn from time to time until the business shall be finished.
The said commissioners, in the discharge of their duties,
shall comply in all respects with the provisions of sections
nine and ten of chapter fifty-six of the Code of eighteen hun-
dred and seventy-three, and forthwith make return of their
report and the certificate of the justice to the county court;
and unless good cause be shown against the report, the same
shall be confirmed. If, however, good cause be shown against
the same, or if the commissioners report their disagreement,
or if they fail to report within a reasonable time, the court
may, as often as it seems proper, appoint other commissions
and the matter proceeded in as before prescribed.

13. When the record shows that the sum allowed by the
commissioners as compensation to any proprietor or tenant is
not more than the court, before making the order appointing
such commissioners, had consented to allow him, such pro-
prietor or tenant shall be adjudged to pay the costs occa-
sioned by such order.

14. Not more than one acre of land shall be condemned for
any landing; and no road or landing shall be established upon
or through any lot in an incorporated town without the con-
sent of the proprietor thereof, or through the lands of any
eemetery, or through the lands of any seminary of learning,
without the consent of the owners thereof or the corporate
authorities.

15. When the road or landing is established or altered, the
district in which it is located, shall be chargeable with the
compensation to the proprietors or tenants, with such costs
asthe court may allow the applicant, and the costs of the
commission, except in the case mentioned in the thirteenth
section.

16. When the court decides against the application of an
individual or individuals to establish or alter a road or land-
ing, he or they shall pay the costs incurred in the case, ex-
cept the compensation of the road commissioner and surveyor,
and except such costs as may be payable by any proprietor
or tenant under the twelfth section; and the court may en-
force payment thereof.

17. When any road is altered, it shall be discontinued to
the extent of such alteration, and no further. Any person
may apply to have a county road or landing discontinued,
after posting notice of the intended application on the first
day of a term of the county court at the door of the court-
house of the county, and at two public places in the neigh-
borhood. The county court, at the next term after that at
which notice may have been so published, shall direct the
road commissioner, in whose district such road or landing
may be, to view the same, and report in writing whether, in
his opinion, any, and if any, what inconveniences would re-
sult from discontinuing the same. Upon the said report, and
other evidence, if any, the county court may discontinue such
road or landing, taking care, in every case of an established
post-road, not to discontinue the same until another has been
substituted.

18. Application may be made to the county court to per-
mit gates to be erected across any road therein, and a notice
of such application shall be forthwith posted at the door of
the courthouse, and at two public places near where the gates
are proposed to be erected. If it appears, at the next term
that the notice has been duly posted at least twenty days,
the court may, upon evidence, if any, permit such erection.
But the gates erected shall be discontinued whenever the
court may so direct, after a like notice of twenty days.

19. Ifit be suggested by any citizen of this state to the
county court of this county, that injury or inconvenience
results from any gate across any public road therein, the
court shall cause the owner of such gate to appear at the next
term and show cause why the same should not be discon-
tinued, and upon the return of such process executed, shall
determine whether there ought to be such discontinuance or
not. If the court adjudge that the gate shall be removed,
the road commissioner of the district wherein such gate may
be, shall abate such gate at such time as the court may order:
provided, such person shall have the right of appeal to the
circuit court.

20. The owner or occupier of every dam shall, so far as a
road passes over the same, keep such dam in good order, at
least twelve feet wide at the top, and also keep in good order
a bridge of like width over the pier-head, flood-gates, or any
waste cut through or round the dam; and shall erect and
keep in good order a strong railing on both sides of such
bridge or dam, unless such railing be dispensed with by the

county court. If he fail to comply with this section, he shall
pay a fine for every twenty-four hours’ failure, of two dollars;
but the fine shall not, in any one prosecution exceed fifty dol-
lars. And when a mill dam is carried away or destroyed,
the owner or occupier thereof shall not be thenceforth sub-
ject to such fine until one month after the mill shall have
been put into operation.

/ 21. All damages which may hereafter be awarded land
owners for the establishment or alteration of roads and the
expense of opening the same, as well as the cost of working
and keeping in order of said roads, shall be paid by the dis-
tricts in which they are located.

22. Each road commissioner shall return with his report
to May term, a statement under oath of the number of days
of eight hours each, he has been actually employed in the
discharge of his duties during the year next preceeding the
first day of May. The court shall allow him two dollars per
day for such time thus employed, and seventy-five cents each
for every necessary sign-board made and erected by him in
his district for his services, which shall be his only compensa-
tion for all services rendered during said year as road com-
missioner. .

23. No road commissioner shall during his continuance in

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office be directly or indirectly interested in any contract for |
the working of roads, establishing or alteration of roads, build-
ing or repairing bridges in his district.
“ 24. Any road commissioner or contractor who shall fail to
perform any duty required of him in this act, or any road |
commissioner who shall befound guilty under section twenty-
three of this act, shall pay a fine of not less than twenty nor
more than fifty dollars for every offence, which when col-
lected, shall be paid to the treasurer of said county to be
credited by him to the district for which he was road com-
missioner or contractor. Upon conviction of a road commis-
sioner under this section, he shall be forthwith removed from
office and a successor shall be appointed to fill the vacancy.

25. The board of supervisors of said county shall cause to :
be levied, in each district, a tax sufficient only to meet such |
annual expenditures in each district, upon the real and per-
sonal property of the several districts of the county, to be
collected and accounted for at the times and in the manner
provided for the collection of, and accounting for taxes and
county levies.

26. The county treasurer shall collect the levy so made in|
each district, and shall keep a correct account thereof for
each district, crediting each district by the road tax collected
therein, and charging it with all amounts paid out therefor;
and he shall receive for his compensation the same per cen-
tum of the amounts collected as he now receives for collecting
the county levy. All road claims, when allowed by said
court, shall be certified to the board of supervisors of said
county, stating which district said claims are chargeable to.

27. The treasurer shall pay out said road tax upon the)
warrant of the board of supervisors of the county, drawn |
upon the respective district funds, and shall annually settle
the several accounts with the several district funds before
the said board, when he settles his accounts with the county
for the county levy.

28. All necessary bridges across streams in said county or |
between counties, shall be built and repaired at the expense
of the county, to be paid for out of the general county levy;
the building or repairing of said bridges to be let to contract
by the road commissioner or commissioners of the district
where the same may be located, under the order of the judge
of the county court in term or vacation, subject to the ratifica-
tion or rejection of said judge.

29. The court of one county may notify the court of.
another, that a road is necessary from the line of the former |
to a place in the latter, or that a bridge or causeway is neces-
sary over a place between two counties. If the court to
which such notification is sent, concur in this opinion, it shall
in the former case, proceed in like manner as when a person
applies to have a road established; and in the latter it shall
fee three commissioners to meet at such place between
the two counties on a certain day, and agree with commis-
sioners of the other court as to the manner and condition of
doing the work; upon this order being communicated to the
former court, it shall make a similar appointment. The per-
son so appointed shall, after such conference, report the
result thereof to the courts by which they are respectively
appointed. Upon such report being made, such of the courts
shall direct the same, or any other commissioners not exceed-
ing three for each court, to unite with commissioners of the
other court, in receiving proposals for doing the work in such
manner and on such conditions as may have been agreed
upon by the commissioners, or in any other manner, or upon
any other conditions that may be concurred in by the two

courts. .

30. At any time, when any county court or county courts
are authorized by the laws now in force to appoint commis-
sioners to receive proposals for building or repairing a bridge
or causeway, such court or courts may, in their discretion,
authorize the commissioners to determine whether any, and
if any, which of the proposals shall be accepted, and to reduce
to writing a contract between the county or counties and
any person whose proposals they may accept, and to take
bond from the contractor with sufficient securities, in a pen-
alty at least double the amount which he is to receive under
the contract, payable to the county or counties, with condi-
tion for the faithful performance of the contract. Such bond
and contract, after being signed by said contractor, shall be
returned by the commissioners to the said county court or
county courts; and if approved and satisfied, the fact shall
be entered of record, and the contract and bond shall, from
the time of such approval and ratification by said court or
courts, be binding upon the county or counties, and such con-
tractor; and the said contract and bond shall remain filed in
the clerk’s office.

; 381. If the court to which such notification is sent, shall
fail to appoint viewers or commissioners, or if either court
shall fail in any respect to do on its part what should be done
towards the work, the remedy by mandamus shall he before
the circuit court of the county whose court is complained of,
on behalf of the court of the other county; and the circuit
court shall compel the court complained of to do what ought
to be done in the matter. If it shall appear from the report
of the commissioners of either county, that it would be equi-
table for the two counties to bear ratably the expense of said
bridge, the county courts of said counties may agree upon an
equitable division of the expense of the bridge. If, however,
the said courts cannot agree, the board of supervisors of either
county may take an appeal from the decision of the county
court of the other county to the circuit court of said last-
named county, which circuit court shall hear evidence and
determine, first, whether the bridge is needed; and, secondly,
in what manner the expense thereof should equitably be
divided between the counties.

. 32. That the attorney for the commonwealth for Mecklen-

burg county, shall appear in the county court, and represent

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the interest of said magisterial districts and the county, in
and about all matters arising under this act.

33. In any case where it shall appear to the court that the’
road commissioner of any district is so situated that it would |
not be proper for said commissioner to act in the particular
case, the court may appoint anotber commissioner to act in
such case. And in all cases where roads are hereafter estab-
lished or altered, the road commissioner of the district
wherein the same may be located, shall divide the said roads
into sections, assign hands, and let the same, under order of
the court, to contract, as provided by section four of this act.

34. In so far as applies to the county of Mecklenburg, all |
laws now in force, and those provided by the new Code of
eighteen hundred and eighty-seven and inconsistent with the
provisions of this act, are hereby repealed.

35. This act shall be in force from the twenty-first day of |
March, in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-eight.