Chap. 9.—An ACT to provide a special road law for the county of Fauquier;
to provide for the working and keeping in repair of the public roads in
said county and to create separate district road boards in each of the
several magisterial districts thereof; to authorize the erection of toll
gates and the collection of tolls upon certain public roads therein, and
making certain provisions for the enforcement and correction of said tolls
and the protection of the said roads, and the property of said district road
boards, and providing certain penalties for the violation thereof, and to
repeal all special acts heretofore enacted in reference to the public roads
of said county, and to validate the official acts of certain officers under
laws heretofore in effect in said county. (H. B. 12)

Approved February 2, 1915.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, as
follows:

Section 2. That each of the five magisterial districts in the county
of Fauquier shall constitute a separate road district, and the improve-
ments, maintenance, construction and all other administrative control of
all public roads and highways in each district shall be vested in a dis-
trict road board thereof as hereinafter provided for.

Section 3. Each district road board in the several magisterial dis-
tricts of the county of Fauquier shall be composed of the member of the
board of supervisors of such district and two qualified voters residing
therein to be appointed by the judge of the circuit court of said county,
one of whom shall be selected as clerk of said district road board, which
board shall meet at least once in each month at such time and place as
they may select.

It shall be the duty of the said clerk to keep a record of all meetings
of the said boards, and itemized accounts of all expenditures made upon
the warrants of said boards, showing for what purpose the said expendi-
tures were made, which said records shall be open to public inspection
at all times, and to perform such other clerical work as may be re-
quired by the said boards. Copies of said itemized statements, certified
to by the chairmen and clerks of the respective boards, shall be filed in
the clerk’s office of the circuit court of said county upon the first day
of each term thereof, and be kept by the clerk thereof open to public
inspection.
Section 4. The said boards shall be, and are hereby, declared bodies
policit for the respective magisterial districts of the county of Fauquier,
and shall have power to sue and be sued, and suits for and against said
boards shall be in the name of the road board for the district so suing
or sued, but no member of said board shall in any manner be personally
liable for any recovery against the said board.

Section 5. The said district road boards shall, within thirty days
after this act shall go into effect, appoint a district superintendent of
the roads for their respective districts, who shall hold office at the will
of said boards, and whose duties shall be prescribed by said boards; and
the said boards may appoint such assistants to said district superin-
tendent as they may deem necessary for the purpose of carrying into
effect the provisions of this act and to fix the compensation of such
assistants. And the said boards shall have full power to purchase ma-
chinery, teams, supplies and materials, and perform all other acts neces-
sary to carry into effect the provisions of this act. They may make all
necessary contracts, and may require proper bonds of all employees,
servants and contractors for the faithful performance of their duties.

And the said district road boards may remove the said district superin-
tendent, or any assistant, from office at any time for failure to perform his
duties as prescribed by the said boards.

The said district road boards shall fix the compensation to be paid
the said district superintendent of roads at a rate not to exceed the
sum of one thousand dollars per annum; provided, however, that if such
compensation shall exceed the sum of five hundred dollars per annum
the said boards shall require said district superintendent to devote his
entire time exclusively to his duties as prescribed by said boards.

Section 6. The board of supervisors of Fauquier county shall an-
nually levy along with the county levy, a road tax upon the property,
real and personal, assessed for taxation, in the several magisterial dis-
tricts, which shall be applied to the working, keeping in order, ‘and
repairing the public roads in such district. Such tax shall not be less
than twenty cents upon one hundred dollars in value of such property,
and the same shall be collected, accounted for and paid out on the war-
rant of the several district boards, and the fund collected 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
the provisions of paragraph eleven of section nine hundred and forty-
four-a of Pollard’s Code, shall be expended therein. It shall be the
duty of the board of supervisors to set apart and appropriate one-half of
the funds so levied and collected in each magisterial district, to be ex-
pended and applied by the said district boards towards the permanent
improvement of the main public roads of the respective districts. Per-
manent improvement shall include only the building of macadam, gravel,
or sand-clay roads, the construction of culvert or the metalling and the
permanent grading and draining of such roads, or the doing of work
on the main public roads under the direction or with the approval of
the State highway commissioner, and the said permanent fund so set apart
may be used in order to obtain the benefit of any laws which may be
passed granting State money or other aid to the county highways, or in
co-operating with private subscribers for said improvement. The other
half of said funds so levied and collected in each magisterial district
shall be expended and applied to the working and repairing of the
public roads of the respective districts in the discretion of the district
boards. The said district boards shall have authority, and it shall be
their duty, to designate the roads or part of roads in each of the several
districts of the county to be known as main public roads and to specify
the cnaracter or permanent improvement to be made on each road. So
far as practicable such main public roads shall be improved in a per-
manent manner out of the funds set apart as herein provided, with such
aid as may be obtained from the State highway commission, or other
State authorities or private subscription. The intention of this act being
to encourage the building of a portion of permanently improved roadway
in each district during each year, the extension of the permanent work in
each district to be gradually and equitably made to the end that all parts
of said district may, as speedily as possible, receive a portion of the bene-
fits of this act.

Section 7. The several district road boards shall annually on the first
Monday of July of each year, or as soon thereafter as practicable, audit,
adjust and settle their accounts with the treasurer for the preceding
year, but if their business shall not be completed on that day, they may
adjourn 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 by the several
district boards in their respective districts during the year next preceding,
and when, to whom and for what purpose disbursements have been made.
The said board of eupervisors shall retain a copy of said settlement and
a copy thereof, certified by the chairman of said board of supervisors,
shall be filed in the c'erk’s office of the circuit court of said county.

Section 8. The said district road boards may represent at any time
to the board of supervisors that there should be certain alterations of
roads, or the establishment of new roads, and that road graders, scrapers
and certain machinery, tools, wagons, carts and teams are necessary for
the proper working and repair of the roads of their respective districts
and submit to the board of supervisors statements of the costs of such
alterations or establishment of new roads and the purchase of said
machinery, tools and other things necessary for the working and repair of
the roads of the said districts, with application to the said boards of
supervisors to make a special levy in the districts or district in which
such alterations and new roads and machinery, tools, et cetera, may be
necessary, to provide for the same. And the said road boards may repre-
sent to the boards of supervisors that crushers, road rollers and engines
are necessary to the proper and permanent improvement of the roads in
said district or districts, and that by the use of sych machinery the road
fund provided in this act can be spent most advantageously in the interest
of the people in making durable work, and submit to the board the cost
of such machinery, and the said board of supervisors shall thereupon
make a levy for the necessary amount and turn the proceeds over to the
treasurer of the. county to be placed to the credit of the road fund.
Said board of supervisors are hereby authorized to make such levy in
accordance with such distribution among the districts as they may think
proper.

Section 9. It shall be unlawful for any person or persons to drive,
or cause to be driven, a vehicle of any discription into the ditches on
either side of the public roads, but this section shall not apply in those
instances where the width of the road renders it impossible for vehicles
to pase each other without getting into said ditches.

Any person violating this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor,
and shall, on conviction thereof before any justice of the peace of the
county, be fined a sum not less than one dollar for the first offense and
not more than ten dollars for every offense thereafter. The said fines
shall be paid into the road fund of the road district in which said offense
may have been committed. Any driver of any vehicle violating the pro-
visions of this act may, upon conviction thereof before a justice of the
peace, be imprisoned in the jail of the county, not less than ten days
nor more than thirty, for such offense.

Section 10. No member of said boards, or other public officers or
any officer created by this act, shall have any interest in any work done
under the provisions of said act.

Section 11. The members of said district road boards hereby created
and the superintendent of roads and his deputy shall qualify by taking
the usual oath for the faithful performance of their duties, and the
said members of the said district boards shall be paid out of the road
fund of their respective districts three dollars per day for each day
necessary and actually employed in the performance of their duties.

Section 12. In order to improve, maintain and keep in good repair
the macadamized, or otherwise permanently improved roads in the several
magisterial districts, the several district road boards are hereby author-
ized and empowered to erect, maintain and operate toll gates upon said
macadamized or otherwise permanently improved roads in their respec-
tive magisterial districts, and to demand and receive tolls thereon at
such rates of toll, and under such rules and regulations, as they may
prescribe. Such rates of toll may be prescribed and enforced by the
said district road boards upon each section of five miles of said roads as
may be necessary to pay the cost and expense of operating said toll
gates and of improving, maintaining and keeping. in good repair the
road within such section. For a fractional part of any section of five
miles, if in their judgment it is necessary, the said district road boards
may erect toll gates thereon and demand and receive only such proportion
of tolls as the said fractional part bears to a full section of five miles.

All tolls received upon any such section shall be expended by said dis-
trict road board in the improvement, maintenance and keeping in good
repair the road within such section ; unless and except such other expendi-
tures be first approved by the circuit court of Fauquier county, or the
judge thereof in vacation, by an order duly entered of record in the
clerk’s office of said court.

The said district road boards are hereby authorized and empowered
to erect such buildings, fences and gates, and to employ such collectors,
or toll gate keepers, and other servants to require bond of such employees
conditioned for the faithful discharge of their duties, and are hereby
vested with all such general powers as may be necessary to maintain and
operate the toll gates and to collect the tolls as provided in this act.

The said district road boards shall’be accountable for all tolls col-
lected by them in their respective districts, and all monies and tolls so
collected in any district shall be deposited by the road board of such
district at the end of each month with the treasurer of Fauquier county
and by him credited to the road funds of such district, but in a separate
account from other road funds, and shall be disbursed upon the warrant
of said district road board. But before any tolls shall be so demanded
or received by the said district road boards under this act, they shall each
enter into an acknowledged bond before the clerk of the circuit court of
Fauquier county in such sum as the said court, or the judge therein in
vacation, may prescribe, with security to be approved by the said court
or the judge thereof, conditioned for the faithful discharge of their
duties hereunder. :

The district road boards shall file with the clerk of the circuit court
of Fauquier county, regularly at the end of each calendar month a state-
ment showing the amount of tolls collected during the month upon each
road or section, the anfounts expended in cost of operating and collecting
said tolls, and the sums expended on such section in maintaining and
keeping in repair of the said section or sections, which said statements
shall at all times be open to public inspection.

The said district road boards shall from time to time cause a list of
toll rates to be printed, and have such rates posted conspicuously at each
toll gate.

AN collectors or toll gate keepers employed by the said district road
boards are hereby vested with the powers of special police or constables
while engaged in the performance of their duties.

If any person subject to the toll prescribed by the road board of any
district shall attempt to pass or shall pass, or shall cause any vehicle,
animal or other thing subject to the prescribed toll to pass any toll gate,
or other regular place for the payment of tolls, without paying or tending
such toll, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction
thereof be punished by a fine of not less than one, or more than ten
dollars, which, upon collection, shall be paid to the treasurer of Fauquier
county and by him credited to the road funds of the district in which
such offense occurs in the same manner as tolls are credited as herein
provided.

If any person shall wilfully or maliciously injure, destroy, deface
or remove any toll gate, fence, house or other property used, owned or
occupied by the district road board of any district in connection with the
collection of tolls, or used, owned, or occupied by any collector or toll
gate keeper in connection with such collection, or if any person shall
attempt to interfere or shall’interfere with any collector or toll gate
keeper whilst engaged in the collection of tolls or in the performance of
his duties as such, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon
conviction thereof be punished by a fine of not less than one nor more
than ten dollars, which upon collection shall be paid to the treasurer of
Fauquier county and by him credited to the road funds of the district in
which such offense occurs in the same manner as the tolls are credited
as herein provided.

Upon the complaint of five or more persons residing in any district
that a section or sections of road, or the fractional part of a section of
road, in said district, on which tolls are being demanded and received
under this act, are out of repair, or that the rates of toll being charged
thereon are unreasonable and excessive, or that the monies received from
the collection of tolls is not being expended by the district road board of
such district in the manner provided herein, they may apply by petition
in writing to the circuit court of Fauquier county, or to the judge thereof
in vacation, which said petition shall be sworn to, and the district road
board of such district shall be made party defendant to said petition.
The said petition shall set forth the matters complained of, and may be
heard by the court, or the judge thereof in vacation, but no hearing upon
the said petition shall be had until after fifteen days’ notice of said appli-
cation, together with copies of the said petition, shall have been duly
served upon the members of such district road board.

The court, or the judge thereof in vacation, shall hear the case set out
in said petition upon the evidence introduced by the parties to this pro-
ceeding, and if the court, or the judge thereof, “shall be satisfied from
all the evidence that the said section or sections complained of are not
in good repair, he may, in his discretion, by an order duly entered of
record in the clerk’s office of his said court suspend the collection of
tolls thereon for such time and upon such conditions for the repair
thereof as he may deem proper; and if the said court or the judge thereof,
shall be satisfied from all the circumstances and facts introduced in
evidence that the rates of toll complained of are unreasonable or exces-
sive, or that the monies received from said tolls are being expended by
the district road board of such district in violation of the provisions of
this act, he may, by an order duly entered of record in the clerk’s office
of his said court, revise and correct the said rates in such manner and for
such time, and take such order to secure the proper application of the
monies received from said tolls as in his discretion may be deemed
proper. And the court in his discretion may require security of the
complainants for the costs of such proceeding, and may enter such order
as to costs upon a final hearing as in his discretion may be deemed

roper. __ |

P ‘Section 13. The board of supervisors shall have charge of the work
of building and repairing bridges in Fauquier county, and to this end
shall annually along with the county levy, lay a tax as a part of such
levy for the purpose of building said bridges, and they shall have the
power to make contracts for that purpose and to provide for the super-
vision of such work; provided, however, that when the costs of building
or repairing any such bridge, or approaches thereto, shall be less than
thirty dollars, the same shall be paid out of the road fund for the district
in which such bridge may be, or if said bridge be of benefit to more than
one district, the costs, is less than thirty dollars, shall be apportioned
between the districts so benefitted.

Section 14. It shall be unlawful for any person or persons to drive.
or cause to be driven, heavily laden wagons or engines or threshers in
or when any portion of the highway, immediately after the same has
been improved or until such portion of the highway shall have partially
dried out or frozen.

Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be considered
guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, on conviction before any justice of
the peace, be fined a sum not less than one dollar nor more than five
dollars for the first offense, and for such offense thereafter, a sum not
less than five dollars and not exceeding ten dollars, said fund to be
paid into the road fund of the road district where the offense was com-
mitted, and said person so violating the provisions of this section shall
repair the damage that he may have done to the road, and in the event
that he shall fail to do so, the road board of the district may require
the necessary work to be done and may collect the costs from the person
by whom the damage was committed.

Section 15. All persons engaged in the lumber business, and all
shippers of lumber, ties, tiling and other like products, and all persons
hiring teams to haul said products, who shall haul their products over
any portion of said roads of the county of Fauquier, shall be assessed
with a license tax on ten dollars upon such lumber business or hauling,
and the said person shall be further assessed with a tax upon such busi-
ness to an amount of one half of one per centum of the gross amount of
business done by such person or persons, and said person or persons
shall make oath as to the amount of business done by them, and shall
verify the statement as far as practicable by the certificates of the agents
of the respective stations whence said lumber may be shipped.

Section 16. The act entitled an act to create a road board for the
county of Fauquier, and to provide for the working of the roads of said
county, approved March eighth, nineteen hundred and four, as amended
and re-enacted by an act approved March fourteenth, nineteen hundred
and six; as further amended and re-enacted by an act approved March
eleventh, nineteen hundred and eight; as further amended and re-enacted
by an act approved March ninth, nineteen hundred and ten; as further
amended and re-enacted by an act approved March sixteenth, nineteen
hundred and fourteen, together with all of said amendatory acts, and all
special acts heretofore passed by the general assembly of Virginia in
reference to the public roads of said county, shall be, and the same are
hereby repealed.

The general road law of the State of Virginia, except in so far as
the same is in conflict with this act, shall be in force in the county of
Fauquier, and nothing contained in this act shall be construed as to
interfere with existing and unexpired contracts for the working of roads
in said county.

Section 17. All property, including machinery, teams and all other
articles used and owned by the county and district road boards, as now
constituted, shall be transferred to the district boards herein authorized
as soon as they shall organize under the provisions of this act.

Section 18. All payments and disbursements heretofore made by the
treasurer of Fauquier county upon the warrants of any county or district
road board, and all the official acts of any such county or district road
boards made and performed by virtue of, and in compliance with the
provisions of any special act heretofore in force in said county, are
hereby validated and confirmed.

Section 19. By reason of the fact that section three of the special
road law now in force in Fauquier county has been held unconstitutional
on the ground of the freeholder qualification for members of road boards,

an emergency is declared to exist and this act shall be in force from
its passage.