Chap. 49.—An ACT for working the roads and building and repairing the bridges
in Caroline county.

Approved March 2, 1904.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the act
approved May sixteenth, ninetecn hundred and three, entitled “an act
to amend and re-enact an act entitled an act to provide for opening,
building and keeping in repair the public roads and bridges in Caroline
county,” be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 1. That the board of supervisors of Caroline county shall have origi-
mal jurisdiction to establish, 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 board: provided, that any one feeling himself
aggrieved by an order of said board establishing, discontinuing, or alter-
ing any road or bridge may appeal to the circuit court of Caroline county
in the same manner that appeals are now allowed from the decisions of
the said board.

§ 2. The said board of supervisors, subject to the provisions of this
act, 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 payment of hires, so much of the county levy as
they may deem expedient, in their discretion, to require all persons who
may use wagons, carts, or other’ vehicles in said county to provide such
wagons, carts, or other vehicles with tires of such width as the said
board may prescribe, upon such condition as said board may prescribe,
and may prescribe such penalty for the failure of any person to comply
with the said requirement or order as said board may deem best.

§ 3. The board of supervisors shall annually, and oftener if necessary,
appoint one commissioner of roads for each magisterial district in said
county, whose duties and compensation shall be prescribed by said board
of supervisors.

§ 4. The commissioner of roads shall be an experienced road builder.
He shall be a resident and voter of the district from which appointed,
and subject to removal at the pleasure of the board of supervisors; shall
hold office for the term of one year from date of his appointment. 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 in such penalty as said
board may prescribe, with surety to be approved by the board of super-
visors, and payable to said board, with condition for the faithful per-
formance of his duty, and any recovery thereupon shall be for the benefit
of his road district.

§ 5. The commissioners of roads of the several magisterial districts
shall constitute a board of road commissioners, who shall, when so
directed by the board of supervisors of said county, proceed to let to con-
tract, to the lowest suitable bidder, the work of building and keeping in
repair the roads and bridges in their respective districts. Notices of all
public lettings shall be posted at each precinct and post-office in the dis-
trict and otherwise, as said board may deem best. The letting of said
work shall be upon proper and accurate specifications. All bids for such
work shall be in writing and signed by the party and delivered under
seal to the said board of road commissioners, or any of them, subject to
the approval or rejection of the board of supervisors.

§ 6. Each contractor shall be required to give bond, with good security,
in a penalty of at least double the amount of his bid, for the faithful
performance of his contract, which bond shall be subject to the approval
of the board of supervisors, and filed with the clerk of the board of super-
visors, and the condition and width in which each section of road 1s to
be kept is to be incorporated in each bond and contract, and a recovery
may be had for the breach of said contract, in the name of the county,
for the benefit of the road fund, in the circuit court, by motion, after
ten days’ notice to the contractor and his security or securities.

§ 7. The board of road commissioners shall have the right at any time,
with the consent of the board of supervisors, to let privately any road
section, to reject any bid or revoke any contract and relet the same, or
to contract for the working of the road machine in any part of his dis-
trict; and mo member of the board of road commissioners shall be
directly or indirectly interested in any contract made under this act,
and any participation shall render the contract null and void.

§ 8. The supervisor and commissioner of roads shall give a personal
supervision over all the roads and bridges in their respective districts,
and to cause the roads to be well drained, cleaned free from obstructions
and encroachments and secure from the falling of dead timber thereon,
and of mecessary width, the costs and expenses of which, as shown by an
itemized account, shall be presented to the board of supervisors, duly
audited, and, if correct, shall be paid out of the county levy or district
road fund, as they may direct.

§ 9. In case the commissioners in any precinct are unable to let to
contract any section, sections, or any of the roads in their respective dis-
tricts, the commissioner in that district shall appoint some person, or
persons, to put in repair such places as need putting in order, either to
lowest bidder or by hire of labor, and an itemized account to be furnished
for said work, and endorsed by the commissioner, shall be presented to
the next meeting of the board of supervisors.

§ 10. The commissioner of roads shall have the care and custody of
all teams, gear, harness, road machinery, road implements, and tools
mow belonging to his road district, or that may hereafter be purchased or
provided by the board of supervisors for his district, and shall be respon-
sible to the said board of supervisors for the proper care and handling
and return in good condition of the same (ordinary wear and tear ex-
cepted) when such working of the road machine by him in such precinct
shall have been completed. The said commissioner of roads, subject
always to the board of supervisors, shall have charge of the working and
building of all roads and bridges and the polling of all hills in his road
district; and to this end shall have authority to hire and employ all neces-
sary labor and teams in the discharge of his duties. The cost and ex-
penses of making, opening and maintaining of roads, and repairing and
building of bridges and the polling of hills shall be allowed by the board
of supervisors upon itemized accounts certified to be correct by the road
commissioner of the road district in which the work is done, such certifi-
cate to be made om 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 inspection of any citizen or tax-payer of the county.

§ 11. 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 causeway 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.

§ 12. 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 three 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
freeholders, after being sworn, shall accordingly ascertain such compen-
sation and report the same to the board of supervisors, and allowance
shall be made in the next county levy therefor. He shall have authority
to forbid the public from travelling on any road, or portion of road,
while the same is being built, improved or repaired, and thereafter when
such travel would, by weather conditions, in the opinion of the board
of supervisors, greatly damage such road; to require adjacent property
holders to remove all trees which may fall from their land into the road ;
to proceed by warrant against parties ploughing up, moving, or other-
wise encroaching upon or obstructing the public road; and any party so
convicted shall be punished as for a misdemeanor and ‘fined not less than
five nor more than twenty-five dollars.

§ 13. The supervisor and 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 before a justice of the peace, he shall pay a fine of not
less than five dollars nor more than twenty-five dollars. The road fund
of each district shall be kept separate, and shall be applied exclusively
in each district: provided, that each annual district fund in the propor-
tion that it bears to the total annual road fund of the county and dis-
tricts may be drawn upon for the expenses of the county road board for
the purchase of utensils for use in all of the districts, or for any expen-
diture, the benefits of which are shared by all the districts: and pro-
vided further, that the road fund in any district may, in such proportion
a3 may be fixed by the county road board, be drawn upon for its propor-
tionate share of expenditure made jointly with adjacent district.

§ 14. In addition to the authority conferred upon the board of super-
visors by this act, they may, in their discretion, adopt the following plan
for working the roads and building and repairing bridges or any of
them in said county, namely: They may purchase or hire such teams,
road machines, implements, tools, wagons, camp equipage and all other
necessary articles for the ues of one or more road “working gangs,” and
put the same to work for such time during the year as they deem best,
on any of the roads and bridges of said county under one of the commis-
sioners of road of said county, who shall be manager of the same, and
whose duty shall be to employ such laborers or hands as the board of
supervisors may deem to be necessary to constitute his “gang,” and at
such compensation as said board may prescribe. And if the board of
supervisors of said county should at any time adopt the plan of working
the roads, building amd repairing the bridges in said county, as specified
in this section, they may discontinue the working of any of the said roads,
and so forth, in accordance with the plan prescribed in the other sections
of this act. And it shall be the duty of the several supervisors of the
several magisterial districts to supervise the roads amd the working of
them and the building and repairing of the bridges in their respective
districts; and the commissioners of roads, while working the roads in
any district, shall work the same under the supervision and direction of
the supervisor of said district. For all the services rendered by said
supervisors under this act they shall each be entitled to receive as com-
pensation a sum not exceeding sixty dollars in any one year.

§ 15. The board of supervisors are hereby authorized and empowered,
with the approval of the, judge of the circuit court, to give to any of the
commissioners of roads for employment all vagrants and convicted
criminals confined in the jail of said county.

§ 16. The general road law of the State, except so far as it is not in
conflict 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.

§ 17. This act shall be in force from the first day of July, nineteen
hundred and four.