Chap. 85.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act entitled an act for work-
ing and keeping in repair the public roads in Norfolk county, approved Feb-
ruary 18, 1890.

Approved February 26, 1908.

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

§1. All of the public roads in the county of Norfolk shall be improved
and kept in order by a contract system, in the following manner, to-wit:

§2. ‘There shall be for the said county a county road board, which
shall be composed of the supervisors of the several districts of the said
county who shall be ex-officio members of said county road board.

§3. The said county road board shall have control of all public roads
within the county, and shall make and prescribe such specifications,
restrictions, directions, rules, and regulations as they may deem best
for the working, keeping in order, and repairing the roads in the county.
‘They shall designate the principal roads in the county upon which they
shall, in their discretion, order more work to be done and more money
expended than upon other roads of less importance.

§4. The said county road board shall, on the first Monday in each
month, hold a meeting at the courthouse of the county for the discharge
of their duties, and may appoint and ‘hold such other regular meetings
and such special meetings at such other times and places as may be
necessary for that purpose. Four members of said board shall con-
stitute a quorum for the transaction of business.

§5. The chairman of the board of supervisors shall be the chairman
of said board and the clerk of the circuit court of said county shall be
the clerk of said board. ‘The chairman shall preside at all meetings
of said board during the term of his office as chairman, if present, but
in case of his absence from any meeting, the members present shall
choose one of their own number as temporary chairman. Every chair-
man shall have power to administer an oath to any person concerning
any matter submitted to the board or connected with their duties. The
clerk of the board shall keep a record of all the proceedings of the
board, and perform such other clerical duties pertaining to the work
of the board, as it shall direct. He shall receive for his services as such
clerk an annual salary of one hundred dollars, to be paid out of the
general road levy. All expenses incurred by the board in the discharge
of its duties shall be paid by the order of the board upon a warrant
issued by the clerk of the board and signed by the chairman thereof.

§6. A special meeting of the county road board shall be held when
requested by two or more of the members thereof, which request shall
be in writing, addressed to the clerk of the board, and specifying the
time and place of meeting; and upon such request the clerk shall im-
mediately issue a summons directed to the sheriff of the county, com-
manding him to summon each member of the board to appear at the
time and place mentioned. The sheriff shall be allowed fifty cents for
the service of each summons, payable out of the county levy.

§7. They shall sit with open doors, and all persons conducting them-
selves in an orderly manner may attend their meetings. They may re-
quire the sheriff of the county in person, or at his option one of his
deputies, to attend their meetings and preserve order, or discharge such
other duties as may be necessary to the proper dispatch of the business
before them; and such officer for his services shall be entitled to a com-
pensation, to be ascertained by the board and paid out of the general
road fund, not exceeding two dollars per day or ten dollars per annum.
All questions submitted to the board for decision under the provisions
of this act shall be determined by a vote of a majority of the members
present; but in any case in which there shall be a tie vote of the board
upon any question, it shall be the duty of the clerk of the board to
certify that fact to the judge of the circuit court, who shall thereupon
attend the meeting of the board, and the vote of the board shall be again
taken upon such question, and if again there be a tie, it shall be the
duty of said judge to give the casting vote, and thereby decide such
question; whereupon the proper order in execution of such decision
shall be entered by the clerk. Every decision and order so made and
entered shall be as binding and valid as if the same were determined
and entered upon the vote of all or a majority of such board.

§8. It shall be the duty of each member of said board to go over the
roads of his district at least once within the months of February and
August of each year, and shall keep himself informed as to the con-
dition of the public roads and bridges in his magisterial district, the
manner in which they are worked and kept in repair, and whether or
not the road engineer (as hereinafter designated) has fully performed
his duty, and make a written report thereon to the said board on the
first Monday in each year, and file the same in the clerk’s office of the
county. The members of the said board shall each receive an annual
salary of one hundred dollars to be paid by the treasurer out of the
general road levy.

§9. The circuit court of said county shall appoint a road engineer
who shall be a competent surveyor, whose term of office shall be four
years from the first day of January next succeeding his appointment.
He shall be appointed at the December term next preceding his term
of office, and shall qualify as other county officers are required by law
to qualify, and shall enter into and acknowledge a bond before the court
or judge before whom he qualifies with surety to be approved by the
court or judge in the penalty of not less than five thousand dollars.
Such bond shall be payable to the county and with condition for the
faithful performance of his duties as such road engineer; except that
the first appointment of a road engineer under this act shall be made
at the October term, nineteen hundred and eight, of the circuit court.
He shall qualify at said term and enter immediately upon the dis-
charge of his duties; and the road engineer first appointed under this
act shall continue in office for four years from the first day of January
next succeeding the day of his qualification.

§10. It shall be the duty of the said road engineer to lay off all the
public roads in each district of said county into sections, which he may
designate by numbers, the lengths of which sections shall not exceed
five miles. The road engineer shall each year ascertain the amount and
character of work -to be done on each section in each district, and shall
prepare specifications thereof, which shall be posted in three or more
public places on the section on which the work is to be performed,
authorizing bids for the same, and said bids shall, in all cases where
the contract exceeds one hundred dollars, be advertised five successive
times in some daily newspaper published in Norfolk city or Portsmouth.
The road engineer shall post along with the specification notice of the
time and place at which he will open the bids for the work on such
section, requiring all bids to be in on the day previous to the day ap-
pointed for opening the same. The contract shall be awarded to the
lowest bidder. The road engineer shall require the contractor for such
work to execute to him a written agreement setting forth all matters
appertaining to the contract. The road engineer may, in his discretion,
reject any or all bids. When the work contracted for shall have been
completed, the road engineer shall inspect the same, and if it shall
appear to him to have been performed in accordance with the terms of
the contract, he shall certify that fact to the county road board, which
shall issue to the said contractor a warrant upon the county treasurer
for the amount due him under the contract, the warrant to be signed
by the chairman of said board and countersigned by the clerk. All
matters in controversy arising under such contract between the road
engineer and the contractor shall be submitted to the county road board
and finally settled by it. The said road engineer shall have power to
employ, subject to the approval of the said county road board, from
time to time, persons to remove obstructions in the roads of the county
and to make light repairs on the same. The road engineer shall an-
nually, on the first Monday in July, make to the county road board a
full report of his work as such road engineer for the past year, which
report shall be entered upon a book kept by the road engineer for that
purpose, and shall, if required by the county road board, be published
in one or more newspapers printed either in the city of Norfolk or
Portsmouth, the cost of such publication to be paid for out of the gen-
eral road levy, by order of the board, upon warrant issued by the clerk
of the board, and signed by the chairman thereof. Said road engineer
shall receive for his services an annual salary of eighteen hundred
dollars, to be paid monthly by the county treasurer out of the general
road levy.

§11. When the road engineer shall have rejected the lowest bid, the
bidder may, if he feels aggrieved thereby, appeal to the county road
board at their next regular meeting after such bid shall have been
rejected; and the decision of the board upon such appeal shall be final
and binding. But.the bidder in order to avail himself of this privilege,
shall, within five days after the bid shall have been rejected, notify the
road engineer in writing of his purpose to appeal.

§13. The circuit court shall have power to remove any road engineer
appointed under this act at any time during the term of office, for
neglect of duty or malfeasance in office. A vacancy in the office of any
road engineer appointed under this act shall be filled by the circuit
court; and in case of a vacancy wherein the office has been partly filled
by one road engineer and partly by another in one year, the annual
compensation shall be apportioned between them by the county road
board in such manner as may be just.

§14. No member of the county road board or road engineer appointed
under this act shall become interested, directly or indirectly, in any
contract or in the profits of any contract made by or with any person
who may contract for work on roads, or in the sale or furnishing of
supplies or materials for such work. The amount embraced in any
such contract in which any such member of the county road board or
road engineer may be so interested shall not be paid in whole or in
part, and if paid may be recovered with interest by the county, in the
circuit court of the county, by action or motion, within two years from
the time of payment.

815. The board of supervisors of the county shall levy and appropriate
for general road purposes, under this act, a tax upon the property, real
and personal, assessed for taxation in the county, which shall be applied
to the working, keeping in order and repairing the public roads and
bridges and the compensation of the officers appointed under this act.
Such tax shall not be less than fifteen nor more than thirty cents upon
every hundred dollars in value of such property, and the same shall be
collected, accounted for, and applied as road funds under this act as
if it were a county levy; except that the fund collected from each magis-
terial district shall be kept separate by the county treasurer. The board
of supervisors shall also appropriate one-half of the county’s annual
income from the Norfolk county ferries, not otherwise appropriated,
for general road purposes under this act. The board of supervisors shall
have power to make any additional appropriation for general road pur-
poses md this act from the general county levy not otherwise ex-
pended. .

§16. The county road board shall annually, at their meeting in July,
make in writing an estimate for the ensuing year of the funds and levies
under this act necessary to be applied to the working, keeping in order
and repairing the public roads and bridges in the county, for the com-
pensation of the road officers, and other expenses provided for under
this act, and file a copy of such estimate with ‘the board of supervisors
at their regular meeting in July in each year; and the board of super-
visors shall make such levy subject to the restrictions contained in section
fourteen of this act as shall be so recommended by the county road board.

§18. All acts or parts of cats inconsistent or in conflict with this act
are hereby repealed.