Chap. 368.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act entitled: An act to provide
for the opening, working and changing the public roads in Rappahannock
county and building and repairing bridges therein, approved March 15, 1904.

Approved March 14, 1908.

§1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That C. W.
Browning, of Stonewall magisterial district, in Rappahannock county ;
Robert M. Menefee, of Hawthorne magisterial district, in said county ;
J. Hill O’Bannon, of Piedmont magisterial district, in said county;
Geo. W. Kinsey, of Hampton magisterial district, in said county; K.
Clifton Haddox, of Waketield magisterial district, in said county; and
Charles B. Bowersett, of Jackson magisterial district, in said county of
and they are hereby, appointed road commissioners for the county of
Rappahannock, who shall hold office for the term of two years, beginning
on the first day of May, nineteen hundred and eight, and who shall
qualify on or before that day by taking the usual oath of office, before
the judge of the circuit court for said county, or the clerk thereof in
vacation; and their successors shall be appointed by the said court or
by the judge thereof in vacation.

But before said commissioners, or either of them, shall enter upon the
discharge of their duties under this act, they shall each enter into bond
before the clerk of the circuit court of Rappahannock county in the pen-
alty of five hundred dollars, with security approved by said clerk, said
bond to be conditioned according to law for the faithful discharge of
their respective duties under this act.

§2. The said commissioners shall be residents of the respective dis-
tricts from which they shall be appointed, and shall have personal charge
of the public roads in their respective districts, and the six shall be
known as and constitute the “road board of Rappahannock county,”
and, by such name, shall have the power to contract and be contracted
with, sue and be sued, but no judgment against said board shall bind
the members thereof personally.

§3. The said road board shall have exclusive charge and control of
the public roads and bridges of the county of Rappahannock, and shall
meet annually at the court house of said county, on the second Tuesday
in June and on the second Tuesday in October in each year, and shall
meet at other times and places as may be deemed necessary, such special
meetings are to be on the call of the chairman of said board and of which
meetings there shall be at least one week’s notice; such notice shall be
by publication in the county paper, or by notice set up at the door of the
court house of said county, and at Sperryville, Woodville, Hawlin, Flint
Hill, and Amisville, giving such week’s notice.

§4. The said board shall organize by the election of a chairman, who
shall be ex-officio clerk of said board. Four of said commissioners shall
constitute a quorum, and no member shall vote upon a report, statement
in writing or account of his own.

§5. Each member of said board shall receive for his services two
dollars per day, but he shall not receive more than twenty-five dollars
per annum, and the clerk of said board shall receive in addition twenty-
five dollars per annum, the aforesaid sums to be paid by the treasurer,
on the warrant of the board of supervisors of said county, payable
out of the general county road fund.

§6. It shall be the duty of said board, immediately upon its organi-
zation, to lay off the public roads of each magisterial district of the county
into sections of such length as sliall to them seem best, and. the said
board shall appoint for each section so laid off an overseer, locally in-
terested, as far as practicable, in the working of the section to which he
is appointed. Said road section so laid of shall be entered at length
upon the minute book of said board, and shall be changed and re-ar-
ranged when in the opinion of the board the public interest demands.

87. The said road board shall set aside, out of the road fund for each
district, the first year ten per centum of’ said fund for emergency ex-
penses, and at the beginning of every year thereafter, shall set aside
an amount equal to one-tenth of the road levy of the respective districts,
including what may be left of the emergency fund at the end of the year.
preceding in each district, the other nine-tenths of said road fund shall
be expended by the said board in the manner hereinafter provided.
And at the annual meeting of the board of supervisors in July, it shall
be the duty of said road board, through its chairman, to recommend to the
board of supervisors what amount of road fund shall be levied for the
said respective magisterial districts, and what amount of road levy
shall be made on said county for road purposes for the next ensuing
year.

And it shall be the duty of said board of supervisors to oulke such
levy as recommended: provided, that in no district shall said levy be in
excess of thirty cents on the hundred dollars on the value of real and
personal property in said district, assessed for taxation: and provided.
further, that the levy for general county purposes to defray expenses of
building and repairing bridges, paving costs and damages incident to
the alteration of roads, or the establishing new roads, the purchasing of
tools for working roads, and the payment of survevs, the payment of said
road commissioners for services rendered, and the payment of the clerk
of said road board, and amounts incidental to the general road working
in said county, shall not exceed the sum of thirty cents on the hundred
dollars of assessed value of the property, real and personal, in said
coun

§8. Said board shall ‘epportion the road fund of each magisterial
district among the overseers of the different sections. in proportion to
the travel over the several sections of the district: and so far as practi-
cable, one-half of the money proportioned to said different sections shall
be spent in working the roads between the fifteenth of August and the
fifteenth of October, and the other half to be spent between the fifteenth
of April and the fifteenth of June of each year.

§9. It shall be the duty of. the clerk of said road board to make out
an account of the amount drawn out of the treasury of the county for
all expenses, together with an itemized account as to how the same was
expended. This account shall be passed upon by the said road board:
at its annual meeting in June and the same delivered to the clerk of
the circuit court of said county, and it shall be the duty of said clerk
to lay said account before the board of supervisors at their next succeed-
ing meeting. Said board of supervisors shall require the said circuit
court clerk to record said account or so much thereof as they may deem
proper, in a book called a “road book,” and said book to be kept in the
clerk’s office of said court as a part of the records thereof and for such
services said clerk shall be paid such compensation as the said board of
supervisors may fix, and all of which to be charged to the general road
fund of said county.

89a. Upon the altering or establishing anv road in said county, by
said board, it shall be the duty of the chairman of said hoard to, within
ninety days thereafter, deliver to the clerk of the circuit court of said
county, a diagram and plot.of such road altered or established, giving the
names of the land owners affected thereby, showing the amount of land
taken from each land owner, showing the damages allowed each land
owner, whether for land or fence damages, and the itemized cost attend-
ing the altering or establishing such road. And the same shall be
recorded by the clerk of the circuit court of said county in said road
book, and for such recording said clerk shall have the same compensa-
tion as for recording deeds, to be paid out of the general county fund
upon a warrant by the board of supervisors on the treasurer of said
county. And at said annual meeting of said road board in June, each
road commissioner shall present to said board a statement in writing
of all the road expenses in his district, respectively, approved and directed
by him, and the section on which the same was expended, together with
an account of the number of days which he was employed. Said board
shall examine the same and if approved the amount due to each said
commissioner shall be certified to the board of supervisors for payment
as provided in section five of this act.

§10. The chairman of the “road board” shall keep an account with
the overseers of the different sections of each district of the county; and
place to the credit of each the amount proportioned to be spent in
their respective sections, and the said fund, to be drawn out by an order
on the treasurer of the county, countersigned by the chairman of the
road board in manner herein provided, that ten hours shall constitute
a day’s work, that the laborers employed in working the roads in the
county shall be between the ages of eighteen and fifty years, and for each
day’s work not exceeding one dollar shall be paid, and for each plow
team and plowman not to exceed two dollars and fifty cents shall be paid,
the same for every wagon team and teamsters. The overseers of the
different sections of the public roads shall issue to the laborers on his
roads an order for the work performed by them within ten days after
the work is completed, and the chairman of the road board shall act on
said orders whenever the same are presented to him and when counter-
signed by chairman, paid by treasurer.

§11. And said commissioners shall supervise the respective districts
in the months of June and November, and report to said road board
the conditions to said roads, at the next succeeding meeting of said
road board.

§13. Repealed.

§14. The emergency fund herein provided for is only to be used be-
tween the fifteenth of October and the fifteenth of April and the fifteenth
of June and the fifteenth of August of each year, and then only in the
district for which the same was set aside and by order of the commissioner
from said district.

815. Section fifteen is hereby repealed.

$16. All applications for the opening of new roads, the building of
bridges, and changes or alterations in the public roads shall be made
to the road board of the county, whose duty it shall be to examine the
application, and to open the proposed road, to build bridges, or to make
the change asked for, if a majority of its members shall deem it ex-
pedient so to do.
§17. The road board of said county shall, upon agreeing to open or
change any road in the said county, after giving ten days’ written
notice to the landholders whose land is to be affected by the proposed
road or change, employ a competent engineer or surveyor, at a salary
of not less than two nor more than three dollars per diem, to make the
necessary surveys in changing or opening new roads, and the expense
of opening said roads shall be paid by a warrant issued by the chairman
of the road on the treasurer of the county, and shall be paid out of the
county road fund. But said board may allow such additional amounts
to an engineer that may be reasonable for services rendered.

§18. If any party feels aggrieved by the action of the road board in
opening any road or making any change in the public road, or in re-
fusing to open any road, or making any changes, or in assessing the
damages for the taking of any property for the public use, such party
or parties shall be entitled to an appeal from ¢he action of the road board
to the circuit court of the county of Rappahannock, which court shall
direct a trial of issue made upon the appeal to be tried by jury.

19. It shall be the privilege of any tax payer in said county to com-
plain to the commissioner of roads in his district as to the condition of
any road or part thereof, or of any neglect of duty of a road overseer,
and it shall be the duty of said commissioner to go upon said road, so
complained of, and make such provisions, if necessary, for the improve-
ment of the same as the means at his disposal may permit.

20. The commissioners herein appointed shall enter upon the dis-
charge of their duties immediately upon the passage of this act, but the
regular term of office shall not commence until May the first, nineteen
hundred and eight.

21. The necessity existing for carrying out the provisions of this act
produce an emergency, and therefore this act shall be in force from its
passage.