Chap. 296.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act approved January 29,
1898, entitled an act to provide for the working and keeping in repair the
public roads of Amherst county, as amended and re-enacted by an act
approved March 2, 1898, and as further amended by an act approved
March 15, 1904, so as to authorize the board of supervisors of said county
to work and improve the public roads of said county, expend any sur-
plus money on the roads and bridges of said county, and authorize the
erection of toll gates on certain roads for the purpose of raising revenue
to maintain and build macadam roads in said county.

Approved March 16, 1910.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That an act ap-
proved January twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, en-
titled an act to provide for the working and keeping in repair the public
roads of Amherst county, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved
March second, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and further amended
by an act approved March fifteenth, nineteen hundred and four, be
amended and re-enacted to read as follows:

§1. That in and for the county of Amherst the board of supervisors
of said county are hereby made and constituted a road board for said
county, and as such shall have worked and kept in repair the public roads
of said county in accordance with such rules and regulations as they may
deem proper, expedient and necessary, which rules and regulations shall
be published by said road board at least once in each year, either in the
months of June or December.

§2. The board of supervisors of Amherst county is directed and au-
thorized to levy (when it makes its annual levy) such a district road
levy as may be desired and required by said road board to carry out the
purposes of this act, not to exceed twenty-five cents on the one hundred
dollars’ worth of property, to be collected and accounted for as are other
levies, by the county treasurer; the tax so levied and collected in each
district shall be used and applied in that respective district by said road
board, and in addition to said district road tax and the usual estimate
and provision made in the said county levy for building bridges, opening
new roads, and so forth, the said board of supervisors are hereby author-
ized and empowered to make an additional levy, not to exceed the sum
provided for under the general laws, to be collected and accounted for by
the county treasurer, like other levies, but to be kept as a separate fund,
and when the said road board shall deem it advisable, they may allow said
fund to accumulate, and may direct the treasurer of said county to de-
posit so much of said fund as he may have on hand, from time to time,
in one of the national banks of the city of Lynchburg, taking therefor
an interest bearing certificate payable to said treasurer upon the order
of said board; this and any other surplus county funds, now or at any
time in said county treasury, which may be available for the purpose, the
said board of supervisors, by and through the said road board of said
county, is authorized and empowered to use as said road board may deem
advisable and necessary, in repairing, relocating, regrading and improve-
ment of the public roads, as well as opening new roads and building
bridges in said county, under such rules and regulations as said road
board may adopt and publish, as heretofore provided.

§3. At the annual or such other settlements as may be had by said
board of supervisors with the treasurer of said county, of the amounts
collected and paid out by said treasurer and expended by said road board,
said accounts shall be audited by a board of auditors to be composed of
the Commonwealth’s attorney an clerk of said county, and a citizen free-
holder of said county, to be selected and appointed by the judge of the
circuit court of Amherst county, for a term of one year, beginning Jan-
uary first, or as soon thereafter as appointed, and ending the first of
January next following, said citizen member to qualify like other count}
officers and to receive out of the road fund of said county the sum of
two dollars and fifty cents for each day of service as a member of said
auditing board; said board of auditors to approve said settlement, and
have a statement of same published, with such particularity as it may
deem proper, the same to be paid for out of the road fund of said county.

§4. Said road board shall meet on the first Tuesday in each month
in regular session; and for actual attendance on said board each member
shall receive the sum of two dollars and fifty cents, but not to receive pay
for more than twelve meetings in any one year; and for other services
rendered in inspecting and supervising roads the sum of two dollars per
day, accounts for such services to be itemized and sworn to: provided,
however, that no member for the latter service shall receive pay for more
than thirty days in any one year.

§5. The county clerk of Amherst shall perform the duties of clerk
for said road board, and the Commonwealth’s attorney for said county
shall be the legal adviser of said road board, with the same duties and
powers as are provided and imposed upon him by law, in connection with
the board of supervisors; said clerk and attorney for the Commonwealth
shall receive for this additional service such sums as said board may deem
right and proper. |

§6. In order the better to maintain such macadam roads as have or
may hereafter be built in the county of Amherst, and to provide a sink-
ing fund to meet the payment of bonds issued for the construction of
such roads, and to pay interest on said bonds, whether already or here-
after to be issued for said purpose, the board of supervisors of said
county shall have, and are hereby given, the power to erect and maintain
toll gates at such places on said macadam roads as they may deem proper,
and to demand and collect toll on said roads. And said board of super-
visors at their July or January meetings of each year are authorized and
empowered to fix the rate of tolls on said roads, pass and adopt rules and
regulations for the collection of said tolls, and impose penalties for non-
payment or evasion of payment of tolls and the proper use of said roads,
and accounting for the collection of said tolls; a copy of which rates
rules and regulations shall be posted at each toll gate operated here-
under, and at the front door of the courthouse of said county.

The board of supervisors of Amherst county are further authorized
and empowered to appoint such agents and collectors for receiving said
tolls as they may think proper, requiring of the same proper bonds with
security, where it may be found necessary, and such agents or collectors
shall receive a commission or salary for their services as to said board
may seem most advisable, the said tolls so collected to be turned in each
month and received and accounted for by the treasurer of Amherst
county under his official bond, as are the ordinary county levies, he to
receive in compensation the same commission paid him for receiving and
disbursing the county levies. The funds collected by tolls as aforesaid
are to be expended upon the warrant of the county road board, under the
provisions of this act, in paying the cost of maintaining toll gates, repairs
of said macadam roads, payment of interest on road bonds, and pro-
viding for a sinking fund, and should the fund so realized be sufficient,
to be applied any surplus to the building of other macadam roads and
bridges in the county of Amherst.

$7. The board of supervisors of Amherst county, before erecting toll
gates, under the provisions of this act, or before discontinuing the same,
the power to discontinue said toll gates being here given them, should
they deem it expedient so to do, shall by petition signed by a majority
of the members of said board of supervisors, petition the judge of the
circuit court of said county for a special election in said county on the
question of erecting toll gates and charging and collecting tolls on the
macadam roads in said county, as is allowed under the provisions of this
act, and shall set out in the said petition specifically the location of the
toll gates proposed to be thus erected, together with a schedule of the
tolls proposed to be charged at such gates upon said macadam roads,
specifying the classes of vehicles, teams, passengers and travelers, and the
tolls thereon, respectively ; and said judge shall within ten days after the
receipt by him of such petition, issue a writ of election wherein shall be
recited and stated the location of the toll gates proposed and the schedule
of tolls proposed, as set out in the aforesaid petition. The said writ
shall fix the date of holding such election, and shall be directed to the
sheriff of the said county, whose duty it shall be to forthwith post a
notice of said election at each voting precinct in said county. The said
sheriff shall also give notice to the officers charged with the duty of con-
ducting other elections in said county; but no election shall be held
under this act within less than thirty days from the posting of such
notice as aforesaid.

Said special election shall be held and conducted as other special
elections are held and conducted.

If it appears from the abstracts and returns that a majority of the
votes cast at such election are for toll gates, then the said board of super-
visors may erect the said toll gates and charge and collect the said tolls
as provided under the foregoing provisions of this act, and not other-
wise ; nor shall any other toll gates be erected or tolls charged than are
specified in the said petition and writ: provided, that the said board of
supervisors may, in their discretion, at any time thereafter, discontinue
any or all of the said toll gates, or may reduce the amount of any of the
said toll rates, but the said toll rates so specified in the said petition and
writ of election shall not be increased by the said board of supervisors.

The ballots to be used in said election shall be prepared and furnished
by the regular election officials, as are the ballots in regular elections,
and shall be, respectively, as follows: “For toll gates” and “Against toll
gates,” and the certificate of the election judges shall be substantially
as follows: “We hereby certify that at the election held on the

day of —_———,, nineteen —-_—_——, at —-———— precinct, in Amherst

county, —————— votes were cast for toll gates, and — votes were

cast against toll gates.

C. D.,
Clerks.

E. F.,
G. H.,
Judges.”

The said election shall be held and conducted, the returns canvassed,
contested and the expenses thereof paid, as in elections held under sections
five hundred and eighty-one, five hundred and eighty-two, five hundred
and eighty-three and five hundred and eighty-six-a of the Code of Vir-
ginia and Pollard’s Code, as amended, so far as the said provisions may
be applicable and not in conflict with the provisions of this act.

§8. No toll gate erected under this act shall be located within one
and one-half miles, measured along said roads, of the corporate limits
of any city or incorporated town.