Chap. 507.—An ACT to provide for opening, building, and keeping in repair the
publie roads and bridges in Car oline county.

Approved April 2, 1902.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the board
of supervisors of Caroline county shall have original jurisdiction to es-
tablish, alter, discontinue, and build all public roads and bridges in said
county, and for this purpose shall have all the powers now vested in the
county court, and the same proceedings shall be had therein as required
in said court, and all laws applicable in said court shall apply to said
hoard: provided, that any one feeling himself aggrieved by an order of
said board establishing, discontinuing, or altering any road or. bridge may
appeal to the county court in the same manner that appeals are now
allowed from the decisions of the said board. The said board of super-
visors shall take charge of and have kept in repair all public roads and
bridges heretofore and hereafter established in said county, and for this
purpose it shall be lawful for said board to hire or buy such teams, tools,
or implements as may be necessary for such work out of funds belonging
to said county, and appropriate to the proper working of the same, the
building of bridges, and paying of hires so much of the general county
levy as they may deem expedient. Said board is further empowered and
authorized to levy a road tax, not exceeding in any one year twenty-five
cents on the one hundred dollars of assessed taxable values in said county,
a tax not to exceed one dollar per capita, and a tax on wheels and hoofs in
such proportions as, in their discretion, shall seem best.

2. The board of supervisors, at their meeting in April, nineteen hun-
dred and two, or at their first meeting after the passage of this act, shall
enter an order fixing the date to commence and close general road work
in the spring and fall of each year, and as soon thereafter as practicable
shall divide the county into two or more road districts, cach containing
one or more magisterial districts, and for each road district appoint one
commissioner of roads at a salary not exceeding two dollars per diem, to
be determined by said board, for time actually employed.

3. The commissioner of roads shall be an experienced road builder. He
shall be a resident and voter of the district from which appointed, if
practicable, and subject to removal at the pleasure of the board of super-
visors; shall hold office for the term of one year from date of his ap-
pointment. He shall, prior to entering upon the discharge of the duties
of his office, take before the county clerk of Caroline the usual oath of
office, and enter into and acknowledge before such clerk a bond, with
surety to be approved by the board of supervisors, in the sum of five hun-
dred dollars, and payable to said board, with condition for the faithful
performance of his duty, and any recovery thereupon shall be for the
benefit of his road district.

4. The duties of the commissioner of roads shall be to cause the roads
in his district to be cleared, free from obstructions and secure from the
falling of dead timber, thirty feet wide, unless otherwise ordered by the
board of supervisors, and in no case less than sixteen feet; and where
practicable to raise the bed of the road in the middle and slope it gradu-
ally each way to the sides, where ditches sufficient to carry off the water
shall be made and kept open, and if necessary, boxed ; to see to the proper
grading of all hills in his district before the laying of poles thereon, and
the proper laying and covering of such poles on such hills when graded ;
the polling and otherwise keeping i in good order the roads of his district.

5. The commissioner of roads shall have the care and custody of all
teams, gear, harness, road machinery, road implements, and tools now be-
longing to his road district, or that may be hereafter purchased or pro-
vided by the board of supervisors for his district, and shall be responsible
to the said board of supervisors for the proper care and handling and the
return in good condition of the same (ordinary wear and tear excepted)
when his term of office shall expire.

6. The said commissioner of roads shall (subject only to the board of
supervisors) have complete charge of the working and maintenance of
the roads, and the repairing, letting, and building of all bridges in his
road district. He shall have authority to hire and employ all necessary
labor and teams in the discharge of his duties. The cost and expenses
of making, opening, and maintaining of roads, and repairing and build-
ing of bridges shall be allowed by the board of supervisors upon itemized
accounts certified to be correct by the road commissioner of the road dis-
trict in which the work is done, such certificate to be made on the back
of each account. Such accounts so itemized shall be kept by the clerk,
and, together with the entries of all receipts and disbursements, in the
minutes of the board, which likewise shall state plainly for what given
and from what received, shall be subject to the examination and inspec-
tion of any citizen or tax-payer of the county.

7%. The road commissioner may take from any convenient lands so
much wood, stone, gravel, or earth as may be necessary to be used in con-
structing or repairing such road or any bridge or cause-way therein; and
may, for the purpose of draining the road, cause a ditch to be cut
through any lands adjoining the same: provided, such wood and other
articles be not taken from, and such ditch be not cut through, any lot in
a town, yard, or garden without the consent of the owner.

8. If the owner or tenant of any such lands shall think himself in-
jured thereby, a justice, upon application to him, shall issue a warrant to
freeholders, requiring them to view the said land and ascertain what is
a just compensation to such owner or tenant for the damage to him by
reason of anything done under the preceding section. The said free-
holders, after being sworn, shall accordingly ascertain such compensa-
tion and report the same to the board of supervisors, and an allowance
shall be made therefor in the next county levy.

9. The road commissioner shall be responsible for the condition of the
roads and bridges in his district, and the failure to discharge his duty
shall be a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, upon a warrant be-
fore a justice of the peace, he shall pay a fine of not less than five dollars
nor more than twenty-five dollars.

10. The road commissioner, at such time or times as the board of su-
pervisors may require, shall make out an account of all work that has
been done by him previous to the said report and not before reported by
him, and also what expenses have been incurred, and what money ex-
pended in the maintenance of the roads and bridges, and make report
thereof to the said board; and also state what amount of money may be
needed by him at any time in the discharge of his said duties. The said
board of supervisors may, if, in their opinion, the said work should be
done, and the amount required be expended as reported by him, provide
the said amount out of the county levy, and pay any amounts that may
be due for the work so done by him; all bills, however, to be approved
by the board of supervisors and said road commissioner as hereinbefore
provided.

11. The board of supervisors are hereby authorized and empowered,
with the approval of the county judge, to give to the commissioner of
roads for employment all vagrants and convicted criminals confined in
the county jail. The members of the board of supervisors shall apportion
to each district the road tax of that district, and in the expenditure of
such other moneys as may come into their hands, or they may have to
devote to road purposes, shall look to the improvement of those main
thoroughfares of the county which shall seem to them most needful. The
members of the board of supervisors for each road district in said county
shall be ex-officio road commissioners for their district, and they shall
receive for their services the compensation provided in section nine hun-
dred and seventy-three, Code of eighteen hundred and eighty-seven.

12. The general road law of the State, except so far as it is not in con-
flict with this act, shall be in full force in the county of Caroline, and
all special road laws for the said county heretofore enacted are hereby
repealed.

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