Chap. 74.—An ACT to amend and re-enact chapter 184 of the acts of the gen-
eral assembly of Virginia, 1890, entitled “an act to provide for the working
of and keeping in repair the public roads and bridges in the county of Smyth,”
approved February 6, 1890.

Approved February 25, 1908. ;

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the act
approved February sixth, eighteen hundred and ninety, entitled an act
to provide for the working of and keeping in repair, the public roads
and bridges in the county of Smyth, be amended and re-enacted so as
to read as follows:

81. The board of supervisors of Smyth county shall have original
jurisdiction to open, establish, alter, change, discontinue, and build all
roads and bridges in the county of Smyth.

§2. Every petition to open, establish, alter, or change any ‘public road,
must first be presented to the supervisor of the district in which the road
is, or is proposed to be located, who shall endorse thereon his approval
or disapproval of the same and his reasons therefor, which petition and
the supervisors report, shall be laid before the board of supervisors at
its next meeting, and the board shall have authority, in its discretion,
to appoint five discreet freeholders of the county, any three of whom
may act, to view and examine such roads or routes and report upon the
expediency of changing or altering the location of any road or of open-
ing or establishing any new road. The said viewers shall submit esti-
mates of the cost of changing or altering such road or of opening or
establishing such new road, including the building of any bridge or
bridges that may be necessary, and they may recommend a new or dif
ferent route or a modification of the route or change proposed, and sub-
mit estimates therefor.
§3. At least five days’ notice of the time and place, when and where,
the said viewers will meet, and the purpose of such meeting, shall be
given by posting notices at three or more suitable places in the vicinity
of the proposed new road or of the road which it is proposed to change
or alter. The viewers before they proceed to discharge their duties shall
be severally sworn to perform their duties impartially and to the best of
their judgment. The supervisors of the district in which the new road
is proposed to be established or the road altered or changed, shall have
authority to administer said oaths to the said viewers. If the viewers
decide that the public convenience requires the establishment of such
new road or the alteration or change of such eld road, they shall lay
out the same, having respect for the shortest distance and the best loca-
tion, and shall assess the damage done to land through which the road
passes, taking into consideration the advantage to be derived from the
road passing through the land, and the said viewers shall make report
in writing to the board of supervisors at its next meeting, giving the
names of the proprietors and tenants of the lands on which it is pro-
posed to establish or alter such road, which of the proprietors and
tenants require compensation, and what will be a just compensation to
each of the proprietors and tenants requiring compensation. In all
cases where further notice and the service of process or summons have
been waived in writing, by each of the said proprietors and tenants, or
in the person or by attorney before the board, the board, in its discretion.
may at the same meeting to which said report is returned, determine
the question of establishing or altering such road, and in its discretion,
hear testimony and fix upon a just compensation to the proprietors and
tenants for the land proposed to be taken and the damage accruing
therefrom. But in the event that further notice and the service of
process or summons have not been waived as above provided, unless the
opinion of the board be against establishing or altering such road, the
board shall require its clerk to issue process to summons the proprietors
and tenants of the lands on which it is proposed to establish or alter
such road to the next meeting of the board to show cause against estab-
lishing or altering such road, if any they can, but such process shall not
be necessary as to any proprietors or tenants who have, in the manner
hereinbefore provided, waived or acknowledged service of such process.
Upon the return of said process, duly executed as to all-of the said
proprietors and tenants who have not waived or acknowledged service
of the same, defense may be made to the said proceedings by any party.
and the board of supervisors may, in its discretion, hear testimony
touching the. expediency of establishing or altering the road. Upon
such hearing, unless the board be of opinion that the road ought not
to be established or altered, in which case it shall so order, it shall
proceed to fix upon a just compensation to the proprietors and tenants
for the land proposed to be taken and the damage accruing therefrom.
But if any tenant or proprietor desire it, or the board see cause for so
doing, it may, in its discretion, appoint five disinterested freeholders of
the county as commissioners (any three of whom may act), for the
purpose of ascertaining a just compensation for the land to be used
for such road, after which the same proceedings shall be had as provided
for the commissioners for a like purpose under the general road law of
the State.

§4. The board of supervisors of Smyth County shall have general
supervision, control, and charge of working and keeping in repair the
roads and buildings and repairing the bridges of said county, and for
this purpose may purchase such teams, tools, implements, and machinery
as in its discretion it may deem proper or necessary. It shall have
authority to direct the county surveyor of said county to define the
boundary of any road therein, and to alter the grade of any existing
road, and to perform such other service as in the opinion of the board
may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this act, for which service
.the said surveyor shall receive reasonable compensation from the said
board, payable out of the road funds. Each supervisor of the several
magisterial districts of the said county shall give personal supervision to
and shall have immediate charge and control of the roads and bridges
in their respective districts. It shall be the duty of such supervisor to
see that the roads in his district are kept cleared, smoothed of rocks and
other obstruction, of necessary width, and that the beds of the roads
are raised in the middle and sloped gradually each way to the sides,
well drained, and secure from the falling of dead timber thereon, and
otherwise in good order; that a suitable signboard is placed and kept
at every important fork or crossing, on which shall be stated in plain
letters the most noted place to which each road leads; and that suitable
bridges be constructed and maintained in a safe, substantial condition
over such streams and ravines as may need them; and that across any
stream or ravine where it may be necessary or practicable a sufficient
bridge, bench or log shall be made for the accommodation of foot pas-
sengers, which shall always be kept in a safe condition; and where the
beds of said roads are encroached upon such supervisor shall notify the
persons trespassing by written notice to remove the obstruction, and if
the same be not done in ten days, he shall cause said obstruction to be
removed and may recover the expense, with cost, before any justice of
the peace of said county.

§5. The supervisor of each magisterial district of the said county, in
the discharge of his duties, is hereby authorized and empowered to let
the working, improvement and repairs of any road or roads, or the
building or repair of any bridge or bridges, in his district, to contract;
may lay off the roads of his district into sections and appoint or employ
road overseers for such sections; may employ or hire laborers, hands,
teams, implements and machinery for the purpose or working and re-
pairing the roads and building and repairing the bridges in his district,
and appoint or employ foremen, who shall have charge of the same
and may adopt such methods, rules, specifications, and regulations
as he-may deem necessary, proper, or expedient for working and repair-
ing the roads and building and repairing the bridges in his district,
except that such supervisor shall not purchase for the county, or for
his district, any teams, implements or machinery without first obtaining
the consent of the board of supervisors. Whenever work is paid for by
the day, not less than eight hours shall constitute a day’s work, and
the pay per diem of such overseer or foreman shall be regulated in
accordance with the number of hands, laborers, teams, implements, or
machinery actually under the charge of such overseer or foreman and
worked or used by him.

§6. Each overseer or foreman appointed or employed under the pro-
visions of this act shall make out an itemized account of all work done
by him or under his charge or direction, showing the teams, tools, im-
plements, and machinery used, and the number and names of the la-
borers employed, the dates on which the work was done, the number of
hours employed each day, and the amount charged by each laborer for
each day or part of a day, shall make oath to the correctness thereof,
before the supervisor of the district in which the work was done, who
is authorized to administer oath for this particular purpose, or before
any officer authorized by law to administer oaths, and present the same
to the supervisor of said district. It shall be the duty of the super-
visor to whom such account is presented to inspect and examine the
roads and bridges for the working, repairing, or building of which the
account is presented, and make report thereof to the board, returning
with such report as vouchers the said account filed with him by the over-
seers and foreman as aforesaid, in which report the said supervisor shall
recommend the allowance or disallowance of all such claims or accounts.
If such supervisor is satisfied that the claim or account should be al-
lowed, he shall state in his said report that he has made the inspection
and examination hereinbefore provided, the amount to which each
overseer or foreman is entitled, that each claim is just and rea-
sonable charge for the work done, and shall recommend the payment of
the same. It shall be the duty of the board of supervisors to examine
said report, and if the same is approved, it shall order payment to each
of the overseers or foreman of the several amounts to which each is
entitled ; provided, there is money in the county treasury to the credit
fund out of which such account should be paid.

§7. It shall be the duty of each supervisor to go over the roads in his
district at least twice a year, inspect said roads, and ascertain whether
or not said roads are properly worked and kept in proper condition
and repair, and whether or not the bridges in his district are in good
repair and in a safe condition, for which service the said supervisor
shall receive the sum of two dollars per day; provided, however, he shall
not be paid for more than thirty days in any one year. The clerk of
the said board shall receive such compensation as the board may pre-
scribe, not to exceed the sum of one hundred dollars in any one year.

§. Each member of the board of supervisors for a failure to perform
any duty required of him under this act, shall be guilty of a misde-
meanor, and shall pay a fine of not less than ten or more than one hun-
dred dollars, said fine to be applied to the public roads in the district
in which the failure to perform the duty occurs.

§9. The said supervisor, or any person appointed or employed to
work on the roads or build or repair the bridges as herein provided,
may take from any convenient lands so much wood, stone, gravel, or
earth as may be necessary to be used in constructing, improving, or re-
pairing such road or any bridge or causeway thereon, and may, for the
purpose of draining said 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. For any material taken or
ditch cut, compensation shall be allowed only as provided by the general
road law of the State. '

§10. Whenever the cost of erecting, building, or repairing any bridge
in the said county amounts to the sum of twenty dollars or more, the
board of supervisors is authorized in its discretion to order that the
same be paid out of the county levy.

§11. The board of supervisors of the county shall, for the purposes
of this act, annually levy, along with the county levy, a road tax, upon
the property, real and personal, assessed for taxation in the several
magisterial districts of the county. Such tax shall conform to the gen-
eral statute governing such cases.

§12. The board of supervisors, in addition to the road tax herein
provided, shall have the authority to appropriate to the road fund
provided by this act, any balance that may remain at the end of any
fiscal year to the credit of any county fund or levy, or so much of said
balance as said board may deem wise or expedient to appropriate; and
in addition to the road tax herein provided, the said board may, in its
discretion, appropriate to the road fund the amount derived from taxes
upon railroad, telegraph and telephone companies, or so much thereof
as the board may, in its discretion, determine to appropriate.

§13. Every owner or occupier of a mill over whose dam, pier-head,
aqueduct, or waste-cut, a road passes, shall keep such dam in good order,
at least twelve feet wide at the top, and also keep in good order a bridge
and abutment leading thereto, of like width, over the pier-head, aque-
duct, floodgates, or waste-cut, through or around the dam. If he wil-
fully or negligently fail to comply with this section, he shall be guilty of
a misdemeanor, and shall be fined five dollars for every failure of twenty-
four hours, but the fine shall not exceed in any case fifty dollars. Said
fines to be applied to the road fund in the district in which the mill is
situated.

§14. The general road law of this State, except so far as the same
is in conflict with the provisions of this act, shall be in force in the
county of Smyth. :

§15. All acts and parts of acts in conflict with this act are hereby
repealed. 1

§16. As the time for working the public roads of the county com-
mences in the spring of the year, and in view of the emergency ex-
isting by reason thereof, this act shall be in force from its passege.