CHAP. 225.—An ACT to amend and re-enact chapter 654 of the acts of
assembly of 1897-8, entitled an act to authorize the board of super-
visors of Floyd county to let to contract the public roads of that
county and levy a tax to keep the same in repair, as amended and
re-enacted by chapter 227 of the acts of 1899-1900, and as amended
and re-enacted by chapter 144 of the acts of 1904. (H. B, 428.)

Approved March 17, 1916.

Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
an act entitled an act to authorize the board of supervisors of
Floyd county to let to contract the public roads of that county
and levy a tax to keep the same in repair, approved March sec-
ond, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, as amended and re-
enacted by chapter two hundred and twenty-seven of the acts
of eighteen hundred and ninety-nine and nineteen hundred, and
chapter one hundred and forty-four of the acts of nineteen hun-
dred and four, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as
follows: oo

Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
it shall be lawful in the county of Floyd to build and construct
roads and bridges, and condemn land therefor, to work and
keep in repair the roads and bridges in said county as follows:

First, the board of supervisors of Floyd county shall have
exclusive control, supervision, management and jurisdiction over
all of the public roads and bridges opened, erected or repaired
in said county, and to be opened, erected and repaired; and
for the purpose of opening roads and building bridges and
obtaining material therefor, they are hereby vested with the
power of condemning real property of every description not
owned by a public service corporation.

2. Whenever the board of supervisors of said county shall
be of the opinion that it is advisable and for the public conve-
nience that any new road shall be made or bridge built or that
any old road or bridge shall be altered or relocated in said
county, or when thereto petitioned by ten freeholders, the board
of supervisors shall appoint two freeholders of the county to-
gether with either the county surveyor or some engineer in
charge of public road work in the county, as viewers, any two of
whom may act, who, after being duly sworn that they will faith-
fully and impartially discharge their duties as viewers, shall go
upon the lands proposed to be taken and shall view the various
proposed routes and locations for said road, or bridge, or for
establishing a new road or building any new bridge, report upon
the expediency of altering the location, width or grade of any
road, lay out the one they prefer, if any, giving their reasons for
the preference, and return with their report a map or diagram
of the proposed road, showing its location and width, provided
every road shall be thirty feet wide, and the grade of no road
hereafter located shall exceed four (4) degrees unless the board
of supervisors order a different width or grade.

3. The said viewers shall report in writing to the board,
(1) the convenience and inconvenience that will result as well
to the individuals as to the public; (2) whether said road will be
one of such mere private convenience as to make it proper that
it shall be opened and kept in order by the person or persons for
whose convenience it is desired; (3) which of the land owners
require compensation; (4) what will be a just compensation to
the land owners requiring compensation for the land so taken
and the damage to the residue of the tract, beyond the peculiar
benefits to be derived in respect to such residue from the road,
or bridge to be made, opened, altered or built; (5) any othez
facts in their opinion useful in enabling the board of super-
visors to determine the expediency of establishing or altering
the road or building the bridge. They shall forthwith file their
report with the clerk of the board.

4. The board at its next meeting shall consider the said re-
port and as soon as may be either approve or disapprove it; and
if the board approve the said report, it shall forthwith order the
construction and opening of said road or bridge for travel, either
by the overseer or in such other manner as said board may di-
rect, but such approval shall not determine the question of com-
pensation to the land owners, and the board shall cause the clerk
to issue a summons to the owners and tenants of the land af-
fected thereby to appear and file with the board in writing their
claims for compensation at the next meeting of the board, if
they desire compensation for their land so damaged or taken;
however, no owner or tenant who is present in person or by
counsel when the order approving the report of viewers is en-
tered need be summoned. The summons may be directed, exe-
cuted and returned as a summons may be in other cases, except
that it may be personally served in the county on an agent or
tenant of any land owner not within the State, and such ser-
vice shall be equivalent to service on the land owner. If the
land owner resides out of the State and have an agent or tenant
known to the clerk or board in the county, or if such land owner
be unknown to the clerk or the board, the clerk or board may
order notice to all whom it may concern, to be published once a
week for four weeks in some newspaper published in said county,
and posted at the front door of the courthouse, on some rule day
to appear and assert any claim he may have for damage done
by establishing or altering such road or bridge.

Personal service of said summons on a non-resident and re-
turn thereof may be in the mode and with the effect prescribed
by section thirty-two hundred and thirty-two of the Code; like-
wise if the clerk shall send the summons by registered mail and
have returned to him a receipt signed by such party.

5. If upon the return of such process duly executed any
owner or tenant as to whom it is returned duly executed, fails
to appear, the said board may direct that the amount allowed
him by the viewers in their report be paid him or may appoint
commissioners as hereinafter provided to determine his com-
pensation. Upon the appearance of such owner or tenant be-
fore the board, if said board cannot agree with him upon the
amount of compensation, then the said board shall, within sixty
days after the completion of the work on said road or bridge and
the opening of it for travel, appoint three disinterested freehold-
ers of the county as commissioners, any two of whom may act,
who after being duly sworn, shall meet at a designated place on
a day named in the order, notice of the time and place of which
meeting shall be given to the land owners and tenants affected,
except that notice need not be given to one who was present in
person or by counsel when the order was entered, go upon the
land in question, examine the premises and hear all parties in
interest and report in writing to the next meeting of the board
what will be a just compensation to each party claiming damages
for his land taken, and for the damage to the residue of the
tract beyond the peculiar benefits to such residue from the road
or bridge to be established.

At its next meeting the board shall consider said report, hear
all parties whose property is affected thereby, and if good cause
be shown against the said report, or the commissioners failing
to report within a reasonable time, the board of supervisors, as
often as may seem to it proper may appoint other commissioners
for the purpose of ascertaining the compensation aforesaid.
When any report of commissioners is confirmed, the board shall
provide for the payment of the compensation allowed therein,
unless the parties whose property is taken or damaged shall de-
cline to accept the amount allowed, in which case such party
may within sixty days appeal as of right from the order of the
said board of supervisors allowing compensation to the circuit
court on the question of due compensation, which court shall
hear the matter of compensation de novo with further right of
appeal to all parties as provided by general law, but no appeal
shall be taken from the discretionary finding of said board as
to the advisability of opening, repairing, or altering any road
or building, repairing or altering any bridge.

6. Stone, gravel, sand, earth, clay, timber and other ma-
terial for building and repairing roads and bridges may be taken
for present use as provided in clauses twenty-one and twenty-
two of section nine hundred and forty-four-a (944-a) of the
Code of Virginia, and the board of supervisors may acquire for
present or future use stone, loose or in quarries, gravel beds,
sand, earth and clay, or any of them together, with ways of in-
gress and egress to and from same by condemnation by the same
procedure as prescribed in said section for acquiring land for
a road, bridge or landing, and may acquire a fee simple or any
lesser estate in the land where such material is.

7. The board of supervisors of said county shall have charge
of the making, altering, repairing and keeping in order all pub-
lic roads and bridges in the said county, and for the purpose
of this act the board of supervisors may in their discretion
levy a capitation tax of not exceeding one dollar on every male
citizen over twenty-one years; provided that the taxes collected
for road purposes in each magisterial district shall be expended
on the roads in the districts in which collected except the taxes
derived from railway and telegraph companies which shall be
equally divided between the magisterial districts of said county.

8. It shall be the duty of supervisor of each magisterial
district to give personal supervision to all roads and bridges in
his district, and to see that the work upon same is properly done.
And each supervisor shall receive as compensation for such ser-
vice two dollars per day for not exceeding thirty days in any
one year, for the time actually employed by him in the per-
formance of the duties imposed upon him by this section. And
the said board of supervisors of said county may purchase an
equipment, including teams to be used in permanently improv-
ing under the supervision of the State highway commission such
roads in said district in said county as the board may deem it
advisable using for defraying the expenses thereof, the road
levy provided herein, together with any other funds available.
9. The board of supervisors shall provide for all cost of
roads and bridges now in existence, and for opening and altering
new roads, or repairing new bridges, or rebuilding old ones, to
be levied, collected and paid out according to provisions of law,
and work shall be done in such manner as the said board shall
prescribe; provided, that all expenses for bridges that cost
over fifty dollars ($50.00) for building or repairing shall be
paid out of the county levy, but the said board shall not ex-
pend in any one year more than the amount of levy for that
fiscal year, unless they shall have accumulated money out of the
previous levies, in which they are authorized to spend said
moneys so accumulated.

10. No member of the board of supervisors shall, directly or
indirectly, be interested in any contract made under this act,
and the office of any supervisor violating this section shall be
deemed, ipso facto, vacated.

11. Alli levies made under this act shall be extended by com-
missioners of revenue upon their books separate and apart from
other levies, and only be extended in district in which they are
assessed.

12. It shall be left to the discretion of the board of super-
visors whether the road should be worked py overseers, by con-
tract or otherwise, and for such roads as the board may deem
advisable. The supervisors of each magisterial district may
appoint an overseer for any road in his district which overseer
shall hold office at the pleasure of the supervisor appointing
him, and shall receive as compensation for his services not ex-
ceding ($1.50) one dollar and fifty cents per day. Each over-
seer shall submit to the supervisor appointing him an itemized
statement under oath showing the amount of time he has worked
upon the road, the time each man employed by him has worked,
and the cost and value of all material used by him and from
whose lands taken.

13. The supervisor of each magisterial district by and with
the consent of the majority of the whole board is hereby author-
ized to purchase such tools, implements and machinery, as well
as teams that may be needed for work on the public roads of his
district, and to hire men for any special work at a compensa-
tion to be agreed upon by the supervisor and the man or men
so employed, such compensation not to exceed one dollar per day
for each man employed, unless, a higher wage be specifically di-
rected in each case by the board of supervisors. All money raised
by road tax levied under this act shall be expended in the district
where collected, and in case an overseer 1S appointed to work
any road, the supervisor of the district, or the supervisors of
the districts in which the road lies, shall, on January first, of
each year, notify the said overseer or overseers of the amount
of money to be spent in work for his roads that year, and _ said
overseer or overseers shall not receive pay or bind the board of
supervisors, or the supervisor of his district or the supervi-
sors of the districts in which said road lies, for any amount in
excess of the amount allotted by the board of supervisors, to
the supervisor of said district, or to the supervisors of said
districts for the said road.

14. And the board of supervisors of Floyd county may, by
a majority vote of said board, adopt for the county of Floyd any
laws or parts of laws in force in any county of this State for
building, repairing, altering and keeping in order the public
roads and bridges of said county, provided that such acts or
parts of acts when so adopted by the board of supervisors for
Floyd county, shall be entered upon the minutes of said board.

15. Nothing contained in this act not in conflict with the
general road laws of the State shall be construed as depriving
the board of supervisors of Floyd county from accepting the
benefits which may accrue to the several counties of the State
under said general road law.

16. All acts or parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby
repealed.

17. There being an emergency, owing to the condition of
some of the roads in the county of Floyd needing repairs, and
owing to the delay under the present law in the matter of con-
demnation of land for rights of way, and owing to the near-
ness of the time for laying the county levies, this act shall be
in force from the time of its passage. *