Chap. 317.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act entitled an act to provide
for the establishing, altering, and building of public roads and bridges
in the county of Shenandoah, and for the working and keeping the same
in repair, approved February 8th, 1898, as amended and re-enacted by
an act of the general assembly of Virginia, approved March 14, 1912.

(H. B. 43.)
Approved March 27, 1914.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
an act entitled an act to provide for the establishing, altering and
building of public roads and bridges in the county of Shenandoah
and for the working and keeping the same in repair, approved
T’ebruary eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, as amended
and re-enacted by an act of the general assembly of Virginia, ap-
proved March fourteenth, nineteen hundred and twelve, be amended
and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

1. The supervisors of Shenandoah county and the superintend-
ent of roads for Shenandoah county, whose term of office shall
begin on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and fifteen, and
continue for the period of six years, shall constitute the road board
of Shenandoah county, and shall have control, supervision, man-
agement and jurisdiction over all county roads, causeways, and
bridges erected, or repaired within said county.

2. The board hereby created and constituted is declared to be a
body, politic and corporate, and shall be known and designated as
the road board of Shenandoah county.

3. The State highway commissioner shall nominate, and by and
with the advice and consent of the board of supervisors of Shen-
andoah county, shall appoint a superintendent of roads for Shen-
andoah county, who must be a competent civil engineer, and well
versed in road maintenance and construction, and it shall be the
duty of the said State highway commissioner to send his nomination
to the said board of supervisors on or before the first day of August,
nineteen hundred and fourteen, and on or before the first day of
August of every sixth year thereafter for its confirmation or rejec-
tion, and should the first nomination be not confirmed by the said
board of supervisors, then it shall be his duty to send other nomina-
tions until there shall be an appointment of such superintendent of
roads for Shenandeah county, and it shall be the duty of the said
board of supervisors of Shenandoah county to meet as early after
the first day of August, nineteen hundred and fourteen, and after
the first day of August of every sixth year thereafter, as may be
practical, for the consideration of said nomination, and should the
first nomination not meet their approval, then it shall be said
board’s duty to meet as early as practical after other nominations
are sent to them for their consideration, and until such superintend-
ent shall have been chosen.

The board of supervisors shall assign to the superintendent of
roads a room or compartment in the county court house as his
office, or should this be found not available, then they shall procure
elsewhere in the town of Woodstock a room suitable for such office,
and the cost of maintaining said office shall be paid out of the
county road fund raised under section six of this act. They shall
also provide the said county superintendent of roads such clerical
assistance as they may deem necessary from time to time, and shall
determine what compensation shall be allowed for such purposes
and provide for its payment out of such road funds as may be
available. The county superintendent of roads shall, before assum-
ing the duties of his office, execute and deliver to the board of super-
visors a bond with some reputable bonding company as surety in
a penalty of not less than one thousand dollars and not more than
three thousand dollars, the exact penalty to be fixed by the said
board of supervisors, conditioned for the faithful performance of
the duties of his office. The costs for premiums on such bond shall
be paid out of the county road fund. The said superintendent shall
be a constituent part of said county road board, and shall have an
equal voice and vote with the supervisors in all its meetings and
sessions. His salary shall be the sum of twelve hundred dollars per
annum, and in addition allowance of three hundred dollars for
traveling expenses.

4. It shall be the duty of the county road board to meet bi-
monthly at the county courthouse, at such time or times as they
shall fix and transact all such business as shall legally and properly
come before it.

5. That for the purpose of working and repairing the public
roads and bridges of the county of Shenandoah, whether heretofore or
hereafter established or built, the board of supervisors of said county
shall annually levy along with the county levy, to be known as the
district road tax, a road tax upon the property, real and personal,
assessed for taxation in the several magisterial districts, which shall
be applied to the working, keeping in order, and repairing the
public roads in such districts, and for the construction and repair
of bridges, culverts, and opening new roads, or changing location
of existing roads requiring a less expenditure than one hundred
dollars. The said tax shall be collected, accounted for, and paid out
on the warrant of the superintendent of roads, and the fund col-
lected from each magisterial district shall be kept separate by the
county treasurer, and a different rate of tax may be prescribed by
the board of supervisors for the different districts in the county.
The amount collected in each district, together with the amount
apportioned to each district under section six of this act shall be
expended therein.

6. The beard of supervisors of said county shall also annually
levy along with the county levy a read tax upon the property, real
and personal, assessed for taxation in said county. Such tax shall
not be more than forty cents upon every one hundred dollars in
value of such property, and the same shall be collected, accounted
for, and paid out on the warrant of the board as if it were a county
levy. Such tax shall be applied to the building and repair of
bridges when the costs thereof is more than one hundred dollars,
the payment of costs and damages incident to the alteration of
roads, or the establishment of new roads costing more than one
hundred dollars; the purchase or repair of wagons, rock crushers,
scrapers, graders, and all machinery, tools, carts and teams neces-
sary for the purpose of construction, working and repair of the
roads, for the erection of necessary buildings to shelter, tools,
wagons, and machinery; for the support of any chain gang; the
salary and traveling expenses of the superintendent of roads and
the expenses of clerk hire and maintenance of the suprintendent’s
office. After the payment of the aforesaid expenses, if there be any
of said fund remaining unexpended, the said board of supervisors
shall apportion the remainder of said fund among the several magis-
terial districts of said county in proportion to the amount of road
tax paid in by each district to the said county road fund to be
expended by the county superintendent in relocating, regrading and
macadamizing existing roads, opening and building new roads, cul-
verts or bridges.

7. The county superintendent of roads shall reside in, or near
the county seat of said Shenandoah county; during the sessions of
the county road board it shall be his duty to be at his office or in
attendance upon such sessions unless excused by the supervisors on
account of illness, or for such other cause as the supervisors shall
deem sufficient; also it is his duty to be present at least one dav
during each session of the circuit court of Shenandoah county, and
he shall be at his office at all such other times as his duties as super-
intendent of roads do not call him elsewhere. He shall pay out all
district funds by warrant on the county treasurer, stating in what
district paid, to whom paid, the amount and character of work
done, the number of days employed, or the amount and kind of
material or other thing purchased, or on what contract paid; he
shall keep a stub for every warrant issued containing the same in-
formation as embodied in the warrant; he shall keep an itemized
account of all moneys expended by him in a book to be kept for
that purpose, which book shall be kept in his office available at all
times 1or inspection by the supervisors, or either or any of them,
the judge and clerk of the circuit court, the county treasurer, and
the Commonwealth’s attorney. At stated intervals a committee
appointed by the board of supervisors shall examine his accounts,
audit the same, and report its findings to the board of supervisors.

The superintendent shall annually on the first Monday in July
of each year, or as soon thereafter as may be practicable, audit,
adjust, and settle all his accounts with the several magisterial dis-
tricts of the said county and also his accounts with the county with
the treasurer for the preceding year, but if the business be not
completed on that day, an adjournment may be taken from day to
day until it is completed. Such settlement shall be made before the
board of supervisors, and an itemized statement in writing of all
receipts and disbursements received and made for the several dis-
tricts and for the county during the year next preceding, and when,
to whom, and for what disbursements have been made. The board
of supervisors shall retain a copy of such settlements, and a copy
thereof certified by the chairman of the board of supervisors shall
be filed in the clerk’s office of the circuit court of said county.

8. The superintendent of reads shall set aside at least one-
fourth of the district funds collected under section five of this act
to be expended in opening roads, building culverts or bridges,
cutting down hills, widening narrow road beds, blasting out pro-
truding rocks in the road bed of the principal highways, when not
otherwise provided for in section six of this act. The residue of
the district funds, he shall distribute over the respective districts
aus he may deem best for the upkeep of the existing roads. In
expending the district road funds, the superintendent shall use his
discretion as to whether the work shall be done by contract, by the
employment of day laborers, or by means of a road-gang. He shall
have authority to employ an overseer, or overseers (who shall be
able to keep accounts). for any given number of miles of road, or
such other territorial divisions as he may establish. The overseer
so employed shall not receive a greater compensation than one
dollar and fifty cents per day for every day actually employed,
unless the county road board shall fix the compensation at a greater
rate; the overseer shall work the roads as directed by the county
superintendent; he shall superintend any number of hands placed
under his charge, and shall also labor with them as much as his
duties will permit; it shall be his duty to keep a correct account
of the time made by each laborer, and the superintendent, in his
discretion, may have the overseer pay off the laborers placed under
his charge. The hours of labor for men and teams may be fixed
by the superintendent. The superintendent may employ or dis-
charge any overseer or laborer at his discretion.

When the superintendent decides to let to contract any work on
the roads or bridges in any district during the year nineteen hun-
dred and fifteen, he shall notify the district road commissioner,
and thereafter, he shall notify the supervisor in whose district the
work is to be done, advising him of the nature of the contract, and
if the commissioner, during the year nineteen hundred and fifteen,
and the supervisor thereafter, deems the contract advisable, a bond
in a sufficient penalty, conditioned for the proper performance of
the work shall be required from the person or persons to whom
the contract is let.

The superintendent shall not pay out more than three-fourths
of any contract price until such road commissioner or supervisor
and the superintendent shall have viewed the work done under the
contract, and the commissioner or supervisor shall have given a
written order to such contractor or contractors for payment in full.
All such contracts and bonds shall be filed with the county road
board, and a recovery may be had for any breach of any contract in
the name of the county road board by motion, after ten days’ notice
in writing to the contractor and his securities. The attorney for the
Commonwealth shall institute and prosecute said motion.

9. The superintendent shall visit each district of said county as
frequently as the work demands, or the county road board may
require; he shall personally inspect all improvements and so much
of the up-keep as time and the other duties of his office will permit.
The superintendent, or at his discretion an overseer who shall
report to the superintendent, shall see that the roads in the various
districts are kept clear, smoothed of rocks and obstructions, of neces-
sary width, well drained, and otherwise in good order, and shall
take such action as will secure the roads from falling timber:
across each stream, at or near any ford, when it is necessary and
practicable, a sufficient bridge, bench or log shall be placed for the
use of foot travelers. At cross-roads, the superintendent shall
maintain signboards for the information of travelers.

It shall be the duty of the superintendent to do all surveying for
proposed new roads and for the alteration of roads, and all such
other surveying as may be incident to the opening, alteration, main-
tenance and improvement of the roads of the said county, and when
necessary, he may employ a chain carrier and pay for his services
a compensation not to exceed one dollar and fifty cents per diem to
be paid out of the district fund when the work is performed for
the district.
At such times as the other duties of the office of the superintend-
ent will permit the road board may direct the said superintendent
to prepare a correct plat of the public roads of said county, and
for such purpose may supply him with necessary chain carriers and
such other assistance as may be requisite in the execution of the
work, the expense of which shall be paid out of the levy made
under section six of this act. But the superintendent shall receive
no extra compensation for his services in such work.

The superintendent may be required by the board of supervisors
to survey and co-operate with the State highway commissioner in
the building of new roads under the general laws of the State.

It shall also be the duty of the superintendent to encourage the
farmers and adjoining land owners to haul rock from their fields
to suitable points along the roadway to be used in repairing the
roads or in macadamizing the same. Rock obtained from such
sources to be free of cost to the county or district, or a nominal price
may be paid therefor.

When the superintendent assumes his office, he shall give a re-
ceipt to the board of supervisors for all engines, crushers, road
serapers, wagons, carts, tools for road construction, and all other
rounty and district property which may properly be put in his
-charge. He shall report the condition of the same, and what re-
pairs, if any are needed when he takes charge, and shall annually
thereafter report to the road board the number and kind of all
public property in his charge, and the condition of the same. It
shall also be his duty to see that all county and district property be
properly housed and protected.

10. No member of the board of supervisors or any member of
the county road board shall be directly or indirectly interested in
any contract made under this act, and any participation therein by
either shall render the contract null and void.

11. The superintendent, on his own initiative, may survey the
route for a new road, or relocation of an existing road, which in his
judgment would improve the existing system of roads, and be bene-
ficial to the surrounding community, and in every such event, he
shall notify the supervisor of the district in which said proposed
new road or relocation is and the abutting land owners of the pro-
posed improvement, and shall set a day for their inspection of the
same. After securing the consent of the abutting land owners with!
a statement in writing of their waiving of all damages, or a state-
ment setting forth the amount of damages they agree to accept,
and if the damages and costs of making the new road or the re-
location of an existing road do not exceed the sum of one hundred
dollars, the superintendent shall notify the board of supervisors
of the proposed new road or relocation of an existing road, and
shall deposit with them a diagram or map of the survey of the same
together with a waiver in writing signed by the adjoining land
owners, or a statement in writing of the amount of damages claimed.
The superintendent shall proceed at such time as is practicable to
open the new road, or relocating an existing road, and when an
existing road is relocated, that part of the old road replaced by the
new road shall be closed and abandoned, and the costs thereof shall
be paid out of the district fund levied under section five of this
act.

Should the cost of opening the new road or the relocation of an
existing road be more than one hundred dollars, and there be no
objection on the part of the public, or the abutting land owners,
the superintendent shall, with the consent of a majority of the board
of supervisors, make the proposed improvement, charging one hun-
dred dollars of the cost thereof to the district fund and the residue
shall be paid by the read board out of the county levy provided for
in section six of this act.

All petitions for the establishment of new roads, or the altera-
tion of existing roads presented to the board of supervisors, if in
their opinion they are deemed meritorious, shall by the said board
be referred to the superintendent for his approval or disapproval,
and he shall make report thereof to the said board, accompanied
by his reasons for such report, and shall also give any and all in-
formation necessary to enable the court to have an adequate com-
prehension of the matter, and shall return with said report a dia-
gram of the proposed route and a correct survey if required, to which
report exceptions may be taken, if any, and the court, at its discre-
tion, may hear evidence, and if the opinion of the court be against
the establishing or altering of the road or tlie building of the bridge,
the petition shall be dismissed, but if favorable to the establishing
or altering of the road, or the building of the bridge, then the land
owners along the route of the proposed road, or in case of a bridge
the land owners along the approaches thereto, shall be duly sum-
moned to show cause why the report of the superintendent shall
not be confirmed; and the further proceedings, if any, shall in
every instance, be at the cost of the party on whose motion they
are incurred, and shall be taxed in favor of the party prevailing.

12. The board of supervisors shall have what further powers
are necessary to be employed in executing this act. For the addi-
tional service required of the supervisors under this act they shall
receive the sum of two dollars per day while actually engaged, but
in no case shall the compensation of any one of them exceed the
sum of fifty dollars per annum to be paid from the fund arising
under the levy provided for in the sixth section of this act.

13. All costs attending the petition for the opening and the
altering of roads and building of bridges including the cost of the
chain carriers, where they are employed, shall, where the petitions
do not prevail, be at the cost of the parties petitioning for same, and
ttpon dismissal of the petition, the whole costs shall be taxed against
the petitioners.

14. If in the opinion of the county road board it should become
proper, in order to properly maintain the macadamized roads of
the county, the said road board shall have the power to erect and
maintain toll gates, and to demand and collect tolls on said roads,
the rates of toll to be fixed by said road board, but not to exceed
those fixed by law for the Valley turnpike company. The superin-
tendent shall be charged with the duty of collecting and disbursing
all tolls, and the net proceeds from each macadamized road shall
be applied towards keeping such macadamized road in good repair.

15. The district road boards as created under act of March
fourteenth, nineteen hundred and twelve, shall not at their annual
meetings on the first Monday in July, nineteen hundred and four-
teen, renew existing contracts or make new contracts for a longer
period than six months, and shall not expend more than one-half
of the district funds for the current year.

Beginning with the first day of January, nineteen hundred and
fifteen, the district road boards for the respective districts in said
county shall consist of the county superintendent and the commis-
sioners of roads who were elected in the month of November, nine-
teen hundred and eleven and so continue until the first day of
January, nineteen hundred and sixteen. During the year nineteen
hundred and fifteen, the district road boards shall meet at such
times and places within the district as the said superintendent shall
select and transact such business as may properly come before the
board.

During the year nineteen hundred and fifteen, the commissioner
of roads shall receive as compensation not exceeding two dollars ~
per day while actually engaged, but in no case shall his compensa-
tion exceed forty dollars per annum, which shall be paid by war-
rant of the superintendent out of funds arising from the levy pro-
vided for in the fifth section of this act.

16. The road board shall have authority to buy or have printed
such literature as in their judgment will advance the cause of good
roads among the people of the county, and it shall be judiciously
distributed by the members of the county road board. The super-
intendent shall at suitable times during the year arrange for the
holding of farmers’ picnics, meetings or sessions which may be held
in the various school houses when it does not interfere with the
school work, or other meetings throughout the country districts
of the county for the purpose of fostering a spirit of improvement
of the public road beds, widening the roads, beautifying and clean-
ing the roadsides of unsightly filth, brush and noxious weeds the
seeds of which when distributed are injurious to farming cperations.
When the superintendent is not able to personally preside at any
of these meetings, he shall appoint a supervisor or such other suit-
able person as may be obtainable to preside. The superintendent
shall designate suitable topics in conformity with the spirit of this
section of this act, for discussion by competent lecturers, or to be
debated by a limited number of volunteers selected from the various
districts in which the meetings are to be held.

For carrying out the intention of this section, the superintendent
shall have the privilege of expending out of the district road funds
a sum not to exceed twenty-five dollars for each district in any one
year, to be expended for lights, fuel, and other incidental items,
which expenditures and items shall be reported to the county road
board the same as are all other expenditures made under the pro-
visions of this act.

17. The county superintendent may be removed from his office
at any time by the State highway commissioner for inefficiency,
or the neglect of the duties of his office; and any vacancy which
may occur by removal, resignation, or otherwise, shall be filled in
like manner, as provided for his original election.

18. All special acts heretofore passed in reference to the work-
ing of the public roads in Shenandoah are hereby repealed, but such
provisions of the general road law of this State, together with
amendments thereto, not in conflict with this act, and the act en-
‘titled an act to prescribe the jurisdiction of the several boards of
supervisors of the counties of Frederick, Clarke, Warren, Page and
Shenandoah, as approved May twentieth, nineteen hundred and
three, and acts amendatory thereof, shall continue in force in the
county of Shenandoah.

19. But this act shall not take effect until the board of super-
visors of Shenandoah county shall by a recorded majority vote of
those voting at a meeting of said board, approve this act and adopt
it as the said law of Shenandoah county.