Chap. 263.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 3, §, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, and
16 of an act entitled an act to provide for the working and keeping in
repair the public roads and bridges of Page county, and for opening new

roads and changing the location of existing roads, approved February 2.
1898,

Approved March 15, 1906.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
three. eight, ten, eleven, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen of an act
entitled an act to provide for working and keeping in repair the public
roads and bridges of Page county, and for opening new roads and chang-
ing the location of existing roads, approved February second, eighteen
aa and ninety-eight, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as
ollows :

$3. The circuit court of said county, or the judge thereof in vacation,
shall. on or before the first day of June, nineteen hundred and six, and
biennially thereafter, appoint a discreet freeholder of said county, who
shall be the commissioner of roads of said county, and who shall within
five davs after receiving notice of his appointment, qualify before the
clerk of said court by taking the oath of office prescribed for other county
officers, and executing and filing with the said clerk a bond, with security
in the penalty of five hundred dollars, conditioned for the faithful dis-
charge of the duties of his office. He shall hold his office for two years,
and until his successor shall have been appointed and qualified, and shall
receive as compensation two dollars per day for each day he shall be
actually employed in the discharge of the duties of the office. Any va-
cancy occurring in the office shall be filled by the said court or the judge
thereof in vacation. He shall, on or before the first day of July, nineteen
hundred and six, and annually thereafter, appoint as many overseers of
roads in each district as the supervisor of such district shall notify him
are required. If the supervisor of any road district shall fail to notify
him at the time herein fixed as to the number of overseers required in his
district, he shall ascertain the number from the minute book of the board
of supervisors, and at once appoint such overseers. He shall, once a year,
prior to the meeting of said board, at which the overseers of roads are
paid. with the supervisor of the district, inspect the public roads and
bridges of each district, and report to the said board, in writing at such
meeting, whether the publie roads and bridges in the several districts have
been constructed, worked and kept in repair, according to specifications
and the law, and in such report shall make any suggestions as to changes
in the roads or manner of working the same as he may deem pertinent.
He shall have power to remove any overseer for cause. The supervisor
of each magisterial district shall keep his district divided into as many
road districts as he may deem advisable, and may increase or diminish
the number, as in his judgment the public interest may require, and shall
record in the minute book of said board the number of road districts in
his district; and prior to the fifteenth day of June in the vear ninetecn
hundred and six, and annually thereafter at such time, notify in writing.
the commissioner of roads of the number of said road districts.

$8. No public road shall be less than fifteen fect nor more than thirty
feet wide, at the discretion of the board. In working all public roads,
the road bed shall be raised in the middle and slope gradually to each
side, with ditches sufficient to carry off the water, which ditches shall be
kept open at all times. All public roads shall be clear of all loose rocks
and other obstructions.

$10. All applications or petitions for opening new roads or changing
the location or width of existing roads, shall be made to the board of
supervisors of said county, but no such application or petition shall be
considered by said board unless the approval of the supervisor of the dis-
trict in which such proposed or existing road is located, is endorsed
thereon.

$11. Upon such application being made to said hoard, it shal] appoint
three disinterested and discreet freeholders, not residents of the magis-
terial district in which said road is located, who, after being duly sworn
to discharge their duties impartially to the best of their judgment, shall
go upon the route along which it is proposed to establish a new road. or
on the road the location of which is proposed to be changed, and locate
the road along and over the most feasible and practicable route. In ]o-
cating a new road or changing the location of an existing road, said com-
missioners shall have respect to the shortest distance and best location,
so as to do the least injury to private property, and also, as far as prac-
ticable, to be agreeable to the persons to be affected thereby; but in no
case shall a yard, garden, orchard, cemetery or graveye ard, or any part
thereof, he taken without the consent in writing of the owner: provided.
however, that in cases where it is absolutely necessary for the public good,
and to a compliance with section nine of this act, a public road may be
located through an orchard without the owner’s consent. The said com-
missioners shall employ a competent surveyor, who may be one of their
number, who shall make a survey of the route of the road as located or
changed. Such surveyor shall make out a report of such survey, giving the
heginning and terminus of said road as located or changed, the various
hearings and distances of the route, the width and grade of said road, and
shall also make a full plat of said survey. The said commissioners shall
assess all damages that may be sustained by any one bv the alteration or
location of said road, taking into consideration the conveniences and in-
conveniences that may result to all such persons by the establishment or
alteration of such road. They shall make a full report in writing of all
weir proceedings as herein required, which report, together with the
port and plat of the surveyor, shall be returned to said board of super-
sors. If the commissioners be of opinion that the road ought not to be
tablished or altered, as prayed for, they shall so report and give the
asons for their opinion.

$13. Any person feeling himself aggrieved by the action of the com-
issioners appointed under section eleven of this act may make applica-
on to said board not later than the next meeting thereof after the said
port shall have been returned, for the appointment of other commis-
oners, and the said board shall thereupon appoint three other commis-
oners in the same manner, with powers and duties similar in all respects
| those first appointed, who, after being duly sworn for that purpose.
all proceed to discharge the duties for which they were appointed, as
‘ovided in section eleven, after having given notice, as provided in sec-
on twelve of this act. The report of the second sect of commissioners
all be final, and no further application shall be heard by the said board.
‘the report of the second set of commissioners shall confirm the report
the first commissioners, or shall not materially differ therefrom, the
ets accruing from the appointment of the second commissioners shall
‘paid by the party or parties applying therefor and shall be recoverable
yon motion, after ten days’ notice, before the circuit court of said
unty.

sid. If any citizen of said county or any ‘overseer of roads shall repre-
nt to the board of supervisors that any road in his district, or any part
ereof, is not of sufficient width, and the said board shall ascertain
at the said road as originally established was of sufficient width, but
at it has been encroached upon by the landholders on either side, by
¢ erection of fences, the said board shall proceed to widen said road. if
|their opinion it is necessary ; and to that end the supervisor of the dis-
ict in which said road is located shall notify such landholder or land-
iders to remove such fencing within thirty davs after said notice in
riting, in which notice shall he designated the line to which said fencing
all be removed. If such landholder or landholders shall fail or refuse
remove said fencing as required, then said supervisor shall order the
erseer of such road to remove such fencing at the costs of such land-
Ider or landholders, which costs shall be recoverable for the benetit
the road fund of such district, by motion before the circuit court after
n days’ notice. But if said board of supervisors shall ascertain that
e road as originally located was not of sufficient width, and in their
inion the public convenience requires the road to be widened, they shall
‘oceed to have the same done as provided in sections eleven and twelve
‘this act.

$15. If the board of supervisors shall be of the opinion, after examin-
g the report of the commissioners and other papers, and hearing such
idence as may be offered, that the road should be established, altered,
‘widened, as applied for according to said report, it shall enter an
der on the minute book confirming said report, describing the road to
‘ established, altered, or widened, and directing the work to be done.
the board refuse to open or alter said road, it shall dismiss the applica-
tion at the costs of the applicant, which said costs when collected shal
be turned over to the road fund of the district in which the road pro
posed to be made or altered is situated.

$16. The report of the surveyor with the accompanying plat and th
report of the commissioners on any road that is ordered to be established
altered, or widened, shall be recorded by the clerk of said board in :
book kept for that purpose, and he shall be paid for recording said pla
and reports at the same rates now paid for recording similar papers. Bu
the applicant may appeal from the decision of said board in the manne
now prescribed by the general road law.

2. In order to carry into effect the provisions of this act at the tim
set forth an emergency exists; it shall therefore go into effect from it:
passage.