Chap. 407.—An ACT to improve the main thoroughfares of the county of
Orange.

Approved February 24, 1896.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the
board of supervisors of Orange county are hereby authorized to levy
a tax of not exceeding fifteen cents on the hundred dollars of real
and personal property of said county, to be collected as other taxes
are now collected, said tax to be in addition to the district or
any special tax now authorized by the general road law, and said
tax to be kept by the treasurer of said county as a separate fund,
and to be expended in the improvement of not exceeding two hun-
dred miles of the main thoroughfares of Orange county, and the
amount to be expended upon each mile of said thoroughfares shall
not exceed the sum of twenty dollars per mile, and the said tho-
roughfares to be selected in the manner hereinafter provided.

2. Three disinterested freeholders of Orange county, one being
skilled in road-making or improvement in roads, with the county
surveyor, shall be appointed by the board of supervisors of said
county on or before the first day of December, eighteen hundred and
ninety-six, the said three disinterested freeholders to be residents of
said county and living in different townships of said county. The
said three disinterested freeholders shall select the said two hundred
miles of main thoroughfares which are to be improved. Fifty miles
of said two hundred miles shall be in Madison township, fifty miles
in Barbour township, fifty miles in Taylor township, and fifty miles
in Gordon township, and shall divide the said two hundred miles
into sections not exceeding ten miles in Jength, and they shall let
the said sections to the lowest bidder, after having advertised the
terms, time, and place of letting for thirty days in some newspaper
circulating in the said county, or by hand-bills, as to them may seem
best. They shall have the power to reject any or all bids, and the
person, or persons, to whom the contract, or contracts, for improving
any of the said sections of the main thoroughfares may be awarded
shall execute bond, with good security, in the penalty of at least the
amount of his bid, and conditioned for the faithful performance of
his duty in improving said thoroughfares. Upon the completion of
the section, or sections, for which any person may have taken the
contract, the said disinterested freeholders, if satisfied that the con-
tract of said bidder has been fully complied with and the road
improved in accordance with the written contract and specifications
(as presented by said board of freeholders), shall give a warrant for
the amount due to said contractor on account of the improvement of
said main thoroughfares, directed to the treasurer of Orange county,
who shall duly honor the same when signed by the board of road
commissioners and approved by the board of supervisors.

3. The said three disinterested freeholders shall be known as the
board of road commissioners of Orange county, and all contracts
made with them upon this designation shall be lawful and binding ;
and under such designation they shall have the power to sue and be
sued, to make contracts and to discharge all duties appertaining to
them in the improvement of said two hundred miles of main tho-
roughfares of Orange county.

4. The said board of road commissioners of Orange county shall
select one of their members as chairman and one as clerk, who shall
keep a record of all their proceedings, which record, when all of
their duties shall have been discharged and ended under this act,
shall be returned to and filed in the county clerk’s office of Orange
county, and be then received and filed in said office, open to the
inspection of the public.

5. The said board of road commissioners of Orange county shall,
for their services under this act, receive for every day’s actual service
in the discharge of their duty as said road commissioners the sum of
two dollars each. The sum, however, received by said commissioners
shall not in any one year exceed the sum of fifty dollars each. None
of the board of road commissioners hereinbefore named shall in any
wise be directly or indirectly interested in any contract for the im-
provement of said sections of main thoroughfares or any portion or
portions thereof.

6. The first tax levied under this act shall be for one year, com-
mencing on the first day of February, eighteen hundred and ninety-
seven, and a tax shall likewise be levied at the rate of fifteen cents
on the hundred dollars’ worth of property as set forth in the first
section of this act, for the year commencing on the first day of Feb-
ruary, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, after which there shall be
no further levy of any tax under this act for the improvement of
said main thoroughfares of said county.

7. The said two hundred miles of road to be improved under the
authority of this act shall be divided into two parts, working one-
half of the said two hundred miles during the year commencing on
the first day of February, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, equally
divided among the four townships, and working the second one-half
during the year commencing on the first day of February, eighteen
hundred and ninety-nine, divided as above stated ; and the said road
commissioners shall have the power to designate which of the said two
hundred miles of road shall be improved during the said years here-
inbefore mentioned.

8. Should any controversy arise between said road commissioners
and any contractor for the improvement of any of the said thorough-
fares, the matters in controversy shall be referred without pleadings
to the board of supervisors, who shall weigh the whole matter in con-
troversy and decide all differences; and should the road commis-
sioners or contractor be dissatisfied or aggrieved by the decision of
the said board of supervisors, they shall be entitled to an appeal to
the county court of Orange county, who shall hear and decide the
matters in controversy without formal pleadings, and the decision in
the county court in the matter shall be final, from which there shall
be no appeal.

9. The said road commissioners shall have supervision over the
im provement of said roads, and observe the manner in which the con-
tractors carry on their improvement of said main thoroughfares; and
they shall watch the progress of the work and see that it is performed
In accordance with the written contract and specifications which
may have been entered into in regard to the same by the contractor
or contractors, copies of said contracts to be delivered to the board
of road commissioners, the board of supervisors, and the contractor.

10. The said road commissioners shall, on or before the first day
of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, select and desig-
nate by stones, stakes, or otherwise, the said two hundred miles of
road which are to be improved, the said two hundred miles which
are to be improved having been carefully surveyed by the county
surveyor in his official capacity, under the supervision of said road
commissioners; and they shall publish in some paper circulating in
the county of Orange, by a general description, the said two hundred
miles of road which are to be improved; and they shall advertise
for proposals to improve said roads on or before the first day of
February, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, giving in their adver-
tisment for said proposals, specifications of the character of the
work to be done by the contractors for ‘the improvement of said
road. And the said road commissioners shall use their best judg-
ment and discretion in making out the specifications for the im-
provement of said roads, having regard to the character of said
roads and the amount to be expended in the improvement of the
same.

11. In construing the amount of not more than twenty dollars to
be expended upon each mile of said thoroughfares it is hereby
declared to be the intent of this act that the average for each section
shall not exceed twenty dollars per mile; and on any mile of said
section a greater or lesser sum than twenty dollars may be expended
as the character of the roads may indicate, the total average not to
be greater than twenty dollars per mile for any section.

12. The bonds executed by the contractors for the faithful per-
formance of their duties for the improvement of said sections shall
be payable to the board of supervisors of Orange county, and in case
of default action thereupon shall be had in the circuit court of
Orange county; and in all other differences between the said board
of road commissioners of Orange county and said contractors, ex-
cept default as herein mentioned, jurisdiction for the determination
of the same shall be as hereinbefore provided, in the board of super-
visors with appeal to the county court.

13. The contracts for the improvements of the first one-half of the
said two hundred miles of main thoroughfares shall be let on or
before the first day of March, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight,
and for the second one-half of said two hundred miles of main
thoroughfares the contracts shall be let on or before the first day of
March, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, and the contractors shall
be required to complete their contracts for the improvement of said
sections for which they have contracted within nine months from
the aret day of March of the year in which the contracts may have
een let.

14. It shall be the duty of the commissioner of the revenue for
Orange county to extend the special tax provided for in this act
upon their books; and the said special tax shall be collected by the
treasurer of Orange county, who shall add the same to the tax bills
for said county and collect the said special tax at the same time
that the other taxes for the said county are collected; and for his
services in collecting the said special road tax he shall receive one
per centum of the amount of road levy collected as his commission
for collecting said special road levy in said county. All expenses
incurred in the execution of this act shall be paid out of the special
road levy herein provided for.

15. The sense of the qualified voters of Orange county on the
adoption or rejection of this act shall be taken at the election to be
held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, eighteen
hundred and ninety-six ; and to this end there shall be provided at
the several voting precincts in the said county a special ballot box,
in which shall be deposited the ballots of the qualified voters of said
county, upon which said ballots there shall be written or printed the
following words: “For the special road tax levy,” “Against the
special road tax levy,” and in case a majority of the qualified voters
of said county shall vote for the special road levy, this act shall be
in force and virtue from and after the ratification of the same by
the qualified voters of said county; and in case a majority of the
qualified voters of said county vote to reject this act, it shall be of
no effect.

16. All moneys raised by this special tax remaining over and
unexpended after the completion of all contracts for the completion
of the two hundred miles of main throughfares of Orange county
shall be expended by the said board of road commissioners in the
same rate in the various townships, and in the same manner and
subject to the same conditions as in sections nine, ten and eleven of
this act as the said road commissioners may elect, until the entire
amount so collected by this special act shall have been expended on
the main thoroughfares of the county.

17. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby
repealed; but this special act is not intended to interfere in any way
with the law governing the working of the roads in Orange county,
but is intended merely to provide for the improvement of the two
hundred miles of the main thoroughfares herein mentioned.