Chap. 135.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 4, 8 and 22 and to re
peal sections 16, 17, 18 and 19 of an act entitled an act to amend and
re-enact an act entitled an act to amend and re-enact an act approved
March 7, 1900, entitled an act to provide for the working and keeping in
repair the public roads and bridges in the county of Washington, and to
authorize the board of supervisors to borrow money by the issue of
bonds, and to build bridges and to macadamize the roads in said county,
and to authorize the qualified voters of said county to vote on the ques-
tion, approved April 2, 1902, as amended and re-enacted by an act ap-
proved May 15, 1903, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved
March 15, 1906, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved March
13, 1908.

Approved March 11, 1910.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sections
four, eight and twenty-two of an act entitled an act to amend and re-
enact an act approved March seventh, nineteen hundred, entitled an act
to provide for the working and keeping in repair the public roads and
bridges of the county of Washington, and to authorize the board of super-
visors to borrow money by the issuing of bonds, and to build bridges and
macadamize the roads in said county, and to authorize the qualified voters
of said county to vote on the question, approved April second, nineteen
hundred and two, and amended by an act approved May fifteenth, nine-
teen hundred and three, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved
March fifteenth, nineteen hundred and six, as amended and re-enactd by
an act approvd March thirteenth, nineteen hundred and eight, be
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§4. The board of supervisors shall appoint a competent engineer,
who shall be known as the “road engineer,” whose duty it shall be to
lay out and survey all new roads, landings or alterations of old roads in
said county. That all applications for a new road or landing, or to lay
out, open, alter or change a public road or landing must be by petition
signed by not less than five citizens of said county, and in case of a new
road or landing, shall state the termini of said road and the names of
the landowners through which said road shall pass, and the location of
the landing and the owner thereof, and in case of alterations of an old
road the names of the landowners where the alterations are desired to be
made, and said petition must first be presented to the road commissioner
of the district in which the said road or landing is, who shall endorse
thereon his approval or disapproval of the same and his reasons there-
for, which petition and commissioner’s endorsement shall be laid before
the board of supervisors at its next meeting, and if considered of public
necessity they shall order the said engineer to locate or relocate, as the
case may be, the said road or landing. And the said engineer, before
locating or relocating said road or landing or making alterations therein,
as the case may be, shall give notice of the time and place when he shall
go upon said road or landing to the landowners of their tenants in pos-
session whose lands are proposed to be affected thereby of the proposed
road or landing at least five days before the said survey is made, and if
for any reason said engineer does not agree with said landowners as to
the amount of damages to be paid to said landowners, or any of them, he
shall designate and appoint three disinterested resident freeholders, whose
duty it shall be to promptly designate and report to said engineer a just
compensation for the land to be used for such road or landing, and the
aaid engineer shall make report showing the probable cost of construction,
the damages agreed and the damages assessed by said freeholders to the
Jandowners where not agreed, and anything else deemed pertinent by
himself, including the laying out of more than one route, if deemed ad-
visable by said engineer or required by any party in interest, and shall
file with said report a plat showing the location of said road by course
and distance, marking the property lines of the individuals through whose
land it passes and the distance thereof as far as practicable: provided,
however, that no new road shall be located on a steeper grade than four
degrees unless the engineer shall certify that it is impracticable at reason-
able cost to get the degree required by this act, and shall return said re-
port to the clerk’s office of the circuit court of the county within ten
days from the date of said survey and at least five days before the case is
acted upon by the board of supervisors. The said report, together with
the petition and other papers, shall be laid before the board of super-
visors at its next meeting, and unless good cause shall be shown against
the report of the road engineer, the same shall be confirmed, said board
shall have power to recommit the said report of the said engineer for any
or all purposes required by said board. When said report or reports are
confirmed, the board of supervisors shall establish or alter the road or
landing. If such petitioner, proprietor or tenant, or any other person
interested who will enter himself of record for costs, is dissatisfied with
the decision of the board of supervisors in respect to the opening or locat-
ing of the proposed road or landing, or the amount of compensation
allowed, he may of right appeal to the circuit court of said county, and
the said court shall hear the matter de novo, with the further right of
appeal as provided by general law. Upon the hearing of said appeal the
said court shall ascertain and by its order determine, first, whether the
said road or landing ought to be established at all, and, if so, where
located ; second, if established, the amount of compensation to which
such proprietor is.entitled. And said circuit court shall have the power
to recommit said report to the said road engineer, and to do all things
hereinbefore authorized to be done by the board of supervisors.

The general road law of Virginia shall apply where not inconsistent
with the provisions of this act.

88. For the purpose of constructing and macadamizing roads and
building new bridges in said county, the board of supervisors be, and
they are hereby, empowered to issue bonds in the name and on behalf of
the county of Washington, to be called “public improvement bonds,” for
a sum not exceeding two hundred thousand dollars, and to sell the bonds
under such conditions as are hereinafter prescribed, and with the pro-
ceeds of such sale to build roads or bridges in the various districts of said
county, apportioning to and expending in each magisterial district such
proportion as said board may fix and determine: provided, that the board
of supervisors shall not issue any bonds or evidences of debt provided for
in this act in excess of one hundred thousand dollars, except and until a
majority of the qualified voters of any magisterial district in said county,
exclusive of the qualified voters of any incorporated town in such district
which does not pay road tax, shall petition the board of supervisors of
said county to issue bonds for its proportionate part of such excess based
upon the proportion as fixed and determined by the said board of super-

visors as hereinbefore provided for. And upon such petition the board
of supervisors are hereby empowered to issue bonds in the name and on
vehalf of said county for such proportion of the one hundred thousand
dollars’ excess as such district is entitled to nuder the apportionment
such board shall have made for the division of the first one hundred
thousand dollars of bonds provided for by this act, and thereupon said
board may lay a local levy upon such district sufficient to create a sinking
fund to be applied to the redemption and payment of the bonds so issued,
and shall annually, until such bonds are paid, pay over to the sinking
fund commissioners provided for in this act a sum sufficient te pay off
said bonds in forty years.

§22. It shall be the duty of the judge of the circuit court of said
county, before any bonds are issued by the board of supervisors under
section twenty of this act, to appoint two resident freeholders in each
magisterial district wherein said improvements are contemplated, who,
together with the supervisor from that district, shall be known as the
“district road commission,“ any two of whom shall constitute a quorum,
of which the supervisor from that district shall be ex-officio chairman. It
ehall be the duty of said district road commission to determine upon a
recommendation to the board of supervisors what improvements are most
needed in its district, and to see that the money set apart for improve-
ments in that district is properly and judiciously expended, to the end
that the public interest may be fully protected. Said district road com-
mission shall report annually, or oftener if required, to the supervisors,
showing an itemized account of the expenditures of said fund. All
moneys realized from the sale of said bonds issued under the provisions
of this act shall be received by the treasurer of said county, and shall be
drawn out of his hands for improvements in the various districts on
warrants ordered to be issued by the board of supervisors upon his recom-
mendation of the district road commission of said respective districts;
said warrants to be signed by the chairman of the board and counter-
signed by the chairman of the district road commission of the district
wherein said improvements are made.

5. Sections sixteen, seventeen, eighteen and nineteen of this act are
hereby repealed.

6. All acts and parts of acts in conflict with this act are hereby re-
pealed.