Chap. 173.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act entitled an act to create a
road board for the county of Fauquier, and to provide for the working of the
roads of said county, approved March eighth, nineteen hundred and four, and
amended by act approved March fourteenth, nineteen hundred and six.

Approved March 11, 1908.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That an act
entitled an act to create a road board for the county of Fauquier, and
to provide for the working of said roads of said county, approved March
eighth, nineteen hundred and four, and amended by an act approved
March fourteenth, nineteen hundred and six, be amended and re-enacted
as follows:

§1. That there is hereby created a board, to be known as “the Fau-
quier county road board.” : The said board shall consist of one member
from each magisterial district, to be appointed, as soon as practicable
after this act shall become a law, by the judge of the circuit court for a
period of two years from the date of appointment.

§2. The said board shall have the control, supervision, and manage-
ment over all the roads and bridges of the county, and shall have the
authority, and it shall be its duty, to direct the improvement of the
same in such manner as shall seem to them practicable and best for the
interests of the travelling community.

§3. The said board shall within thirty days after this act shall become
a law, and for every two years thereafter, choose a county superintendent
of roads, and recommend him for appointment to the judge of the cir-
cuit court of the county of Fauquier who shall, in term time or in vaca-
tion, appoint the said nominee (who shall be either a civil engineer or
a person well versed in road building) as said county superintendent
for a period of two years; and the said county board may appoint a
deputy or deputies for said superintendent, upon his request or at their
discretion, for such times as it may direct, but not exceeding the term
of the superintendent. And said board shall have authority to employ
such other agents as it may deem necessary, and shall have full power
to direct the purchase of machinery, teams, supplies, and materials,
and perform all other acts to carry out the spirit of this act. It may
make all necessary contracts, and shall require proper bonds from all
agents and contractors for the faithful performance of their duties. The
said circuit court may remove the said county superintendent from
office, upon application of the said road board, and may fill any vacancy
in said office, by the appointment of the nominee recommended for such
position by the county board. The said county board shall fix the com-
pensation of the county superintendent and his deputies, and of all
agents or contractors created by them under and by virtue of this act.

The said board shall have power to sue and be sued, and suits for
and against said board shall be in the name of “the Fauquier county
road board,” but no member of said board shall in any manner be per-
sonally liable for any recovery against the said board.

§4. The board of supervisors of Fauquier county shall in each year
provide and create a general road fund for building, working and re-
pairing public roads in said county, and for this purpose shall along
with the county levy annually levy a road tax upon the property, real
and personal, assessed for taxation in the several magisterial districts
of the county which shall be applied to the working, keeping in order
and repairing the public roads in such several districts, and such tax
shall be not more than forty cents upon every one hundred dollars, nor
less than twenty cents upon every one hundred dollars in value of such
property. Out of said fund they shall set apart and apportion one-half
thereof as a permanent road fund, which shall be expended by the
county road board only towards a permanent improvement of the public
roads in said county, in accordance with the provisions of this act, and
the said ‘board of supervisors shall set apart and apportion the other
one-half of said fund for the working and repairing of said roads, which
fund shall be expended by the district road board hereinafter provided
for only towards the working and repairing of the public roads in said
county in accordance with the provisions of this act. But the said
county road board and the said district road board shall each expend
the sum so provided in the magisterial districts in proportion to the
amount contributed by each district under the levies made by the board
of supervisors and said county board and said district board shall each
annually settle an account of their receipts and disbursements before
the board of supervisors of said county.

§5. The member of the said county road board and the members of
the board of supervisors from each magisterial district, together with
the county superintendent, shall constitute a district road board for
such magisterial district, which board shall have the immediate control
of the work done or performed on the roads of the respective districts,
subject, however, to supervision and direction by the said board for the
county.

86. The said county road board whenever a bridge or causeway or
either is necessary may have necessary estimates made for their con-
struction, and shall report such estimates to the board of supervisors,
with an application to the said body to make a special levy in the district
or districts in which said bridge or causeway may be located, to provide
for the payment of the cost of the same. And said board of supervisors
shall thereupon make the said levy and turn the proceeds over to the
treasurer of the county to be placed to the credit of the permanent road
fund of said district or districts. If the board of supervisors shall re-
gard the bridge or causeway of value generally to the travelling public
of the county, they may make a levy upon all the districts so benefited
proportionately to their taxable values.

§Y. The said county road board may represent at any time to the
board of supervisors that there should be certain alterations of roads,
or the establishment of new roads, and that road graders, scrapers and
certain machinery, tools, wagons, carts and teams are necessary for the
proper working and repair of the roads of the said county, and submit
to the said board of supervisors statements of the cost of such alterations
or establishment of new roads and the purchase of said machinery, tools
and other things necessary for the working and repair of the roads of
the said county, with application to the said board of supervisors to
make a special levy in the district or districts in which such alterations
and new roads and machinery, tools, etcetera, may be necessary; to pro-
vide for the cost of the same. And the said county road board may
represent to the board of supervisors that crushers, road rollers, and
engines, are necessary to the proper and permanent improvement of the
roads in said county, and that by the use of such machinery the road
fund provided in this act can most advantageously in the interest of
the public be applied in making durable work, and submit to the said
board the cost of such machinery, and the said board of supervisors
shall thereupon make a levy for the necessary amount and turn the
proceeds over to the treasurer of the county to be placed to the credit
of the road fund. Said board of supervisors is hereby authorized to
make such levy in accordance with such distribution among the districts
as they may think proper.

§8. If said board of supervisors should not act in accordance with
the directions contained in sections five, six and seven of this act the
road board of the county may appeal to the circuit court of the said
county and the said court shall hear the matter de novo, and render
such judgment in the premises as to it may seem just and for the
accommodation of the travelling public, and such judgment shall be
certified to the board of supervisors, who shall thereupon act in accord-
ance with the order of said court.

And if the said circuit court shall direct the said levies specified in
sections five, six and seven to be made, the county road hoard may pro-
ceed to contract for the construction of said bridges or causeways, and:
to make such alterations of roads and such new roads that may be levied
for, and to purchase such equipment as are specified in the foregoing
sections. .

89. It shall be unlawful for any person or persons to drive or cause
to be driven a vehicle of any description into the ditches on either side
of the public roads, but this section shall not apply in those instances
where the width of the road renders it impossible for vehicles to pass
each other without getting into said ditches.

Any person violating this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor,
and shall on conviction thereof before any justice of the peace of the
county be fined a sum not less than one dollar for the first offense and
not more than ten dollars for every offense thereafter. The said fines
shall be paid into the road fund of the road district in which said offense
may have been committed. Any driver of any vehicle violating the pro-
visions of this act may upon conviction thereof before a justice of the
peace be imprisoned in the jail of the county not less than ten days
nor more than thirty for such offense.

§10. It shall be unlawful for any person or persons to drive or cause
to be driven heavily laden wagons or engines or thrashers in or upon
any portion of the highway immediately after the same has been im-
proved, or until sucli povtion of the highway shall have partially dried
out or frozen.

Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be considered
guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall on conviction before any justice of
the peace be fined a sum of not less than one dollar nor more than five
dollars for the first offense, and for such offense thereafter a sum not
less than five dollars and not exceeding ten dollars, said fund to be
paid into the road fund of the road district where the offense was com-
mitted, and said person so violating the provisions of this section shall
repair the damage that he may have done to the road, and in the event
that he shall fail to do so, the road board of the district may require
the necessary work to be done and may collect the cost from the person
by whom the damage was committed.

§11. All persons engaged in the lumber business and all shippers of
lumber, ties, tiling and other like products who shall haul their said
products over any portion of the public roads of said county of Fau-
quier shall be assessed by the district assessor with a license tax upon
such business to an amount not less than ten dollars and not exceeding
fifty dollars. And the said persons shall be further assessed with a
license tax upon such business to an amount of one-half of one per
centum of the gross amount of business done by said person or persons.
And said person or persons shall make oath as to the amount of business
done by them, and shall verify the statement, as far as practicable, by
the certificates of the agents of the respective stations whence said lum-
her may be shipped. °

The commissioner of the revenue shall have access to the railroad
books at the different stations to enable him to ascertain the recorded
amount of the business done at the stations of the county, and shall
thereupon certify the amount to the county treasurer, who shall collect
the same as other license taxes for State and county purposes. Any
stim or sums assessed upon parties so engaged in the lumber business
as certified in this section shall be a lien upon the property of the said
persons hereinbefore recited, and any fund derived from the said license
tax shall be by the treasurer placed to the credit of the road fund of the
district in which the said license tax was collected. ;

$12. Every person who shall subscribe by an affidavit that he has
owned and used exclusively during the preceding year in hauling loads
of two thousand pounds weight and over on the public roads of this
county draught wagons with tires not less than four inches in width
shall for each year after the passage of this act be credited by the
treasurer of the county with one-fourth of the road tax assessed and
levied on the property of such person. Provided, however, that such
credit shall not exceed the sum of five dollars in any one year.

§13. The board of supervisors for said county shall have the authority
to appropriate to the general road fund provided for by this act, and
the general road law for the State, any balance that remains at the end
of any fiscal year to the credit of the county fund or levy, upon the
application of the county road board.

§14. Bonds may be issued by the county of Fauquier for the purpose
of macadamizing or otherwise permanently improving the roads of the
said county or building bridges therein. The circuit court of said county
may, upon the petition of a majority of the said county road board,
make an order requiring the judges of election at the next general elec-
tion of the said county or district officers, or at any other time not less
than thirty days from the date of said order, which shall be designated
therein, to open the poll and take the sense of the qualified voters on the
question, whether there shall be issued bonds by the board of super-
visors of said county, to be expended in macadamizing or permanently
improving, or building the roads of said county. The said election shall
be held in accordance with the conditions and requirements of the gen-
eral road law for the State, and the bonds, if it shall appear by the report
of the commissioner of election that a majority of the qualified voters
of the county, including a majority of the freeholders voting upon the
question, are in favor of issuing the bonds for the purpose aforesaid,
the circuit court shall at its next term after such election, enter of
record an order requiring the supervisors of the county to proceed, at
their next meeting, to comply with the provisions of the general road
law for the issuance of said bonds.

$15. Said bonds when issued shall be delivered to the treasurer of
the county, who shall place the proceeds of the sale thereof to the credit
of the county road fund; and the said treasurer shall be liable for the
amount received for said bonds as though it were a county levy. The
said fund shall be expended upon the warrant or order of the said county
road board for the purpose for which it was created. The said treasurer
shall receive as compensation for his services hereunder a commission
of one-fourth of one per centum on the amount thus coming into his
hands.

§16. The amount of bonds issued under this act shall not exceed the
sum, the interest upon which at the rate fixed by the board of super-
visors of the county, ‘shall require the imposition of an annual tax of
twenty cents on the one hundred dollars. All moneys which shall belong
to the general road fund of the county under the provisions of this act.
or of the general road law of the State, shall be paid by the order of
the county road board upon the treasurer of the county.

§17. No member of said board, or other public officer, or any officer
created by this act, shall have any interest in any work done under the
provisions of said act.
§18. The members of the said county road board hereby created and
the superintendent of roads and his deputies shall qualify by taking
the usual oath for the faithful performance of their duties, and the said
members of the said road board shall be paid out of the road fund three
dollars per day and mileage when in attendance on the county road
board, and the road boards of their respective districts, and the said
members of the board of supervisors when in attendance on the road
board of their respective districts shall be paid by the boards of super-
visors of the county out of the county levy three dollars per day and
mileage for such attendance.

§19. The said road board may employ a clerk at a salary of not more
than fifty dollars per annum.

§20. The governor shall have authority to furnish to the county of
Fauquier, upon the requisition of the said county road board, convicts
whose terms of service at the time of application for them does not ex-
ceed five years, in conformity with chapter two hundred and two, title
fifty-five, of the Code of Virginia, for eighteen hundred and eighty-
seven, to work on the county roads under such regulations as the said
county road board may prescribe in conformity with said chapter, and
on such conditions as to safe-keeping as the governor and said board
may agree upon.

§21. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby
repealed so far as same apply to the county of Fauquier; and all parts
of the general road law for the State not inconsistent with this are are
hereby enacted as part and parcel of this act.

An emergency existing this act shall be in force from its passage.