Chap. 308.—An ACT to provide for the building and maintaining the public
roads and bridges of Fauquier county, and further establishing the county
as the road unit, and repeal any and all laws heretofore enacted for
Fauquier county. [H B 375]

Approved March 20, 1922.

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

A body to be known and designated as the “Highway commission
of Fauquier county” (hereinafter referred to as the highway commis-
sion, or the commission), is hereby created in and for Fauquier
county. The commission is hereby constituted a body politic and
corporated, under the name and style aforesaid, the commission may
sue and be sued, adopt a common seal, purchase or otherwise acquire
and hold its property which may be necessary for the exercise of
the power of the commission, and do any and all things which may
be necessary for the proper accomplishment of the purpose specified
in this act.

2. The highway commission shall be composed of the following
five members, Thomas B. Glascock, E. Marshall Newton, R. K.
Brown, T. S. Pilcher, and C. C. Claypool, to serve until the first
Monday in December, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-three.
At the general election to be held for the year one thousand nine
hundred and twenty-three and at each general election to be held
thereafter, for the election of county officers, there shall be elected
by the qualified voters of Fauquier county five members of the high-
way commission, one from each district, to serve for a term of four
years. The term of office of each member shall be deemed to continue
until the election and qualification of his successor. If at the time of
the election any one of the above named commissioners should be
disqualified, or for any cause thereafter there shall be a vacancy in
the commission, the remaining members thereof or members thereof
shall appoint some person (or persons) who is a citizen and a tax-
payer of Fauquier county to fill such vacancy, and the person (or
persons) so chosen shall serve for the unexpired term. The members
of the highway commission, before entering upon the discharge of
their duties, shall take before the clerk of the superior court of Fau-
quier county the usual oath of office.

3. The highway commission shall meet at the court house in
Fauquier within twenty days after the date on which this act takes
effect and shall proceed to organize by the election of one of its
members as chairman, and some competent person as secretary. The
commission shall hold a regular meeting at the court house in Fau-
quier on the first Monday in each month, and special meetings may
be held at any time upon the call of the chairman or any two members
of the commission upon two days’ notice to the members who do not
join in the call. The members of the commission shall receive as
compensation while actually engaged in the performance of their
duties the sum of ten dollars per diem and mileage; but no per diem
shall be paid for more than one day in each month. The secretary
shall receive such salary or per diem as the commission may provide
and shall give such bond as the commission may determine.

4. The secretary of the commission shall keep a record and
minutes of its proceedings in a book to be provided for that purpose,
which book, together with all other records, papers and vouchers,
shall be at all times kept open to the inspection of the public.

5. There shall be elected by the highway commission annually
a competent, skillful and experienced person, having practical expe-
rience in modern methods in road building, who shall be known and
designated as the “superintendent of highways,” and there shall also
be elected annually (if the highway commission deems it to be neces-
sary) a skilled and experienced civil engineer also experienced in
modern methods of road building, who shall assist the superintendent
of highways in the discharge of his duties as fixed by this act, and
who shall be known and designated as the “highway engineer.” The
same person may be appointed both as superintendent of highways
and as highway engineer. The said superintendent of highways and
highway engineer (if one be elected) shall be paid a just and reason-
able compensation to be fixed by the commission and the salaries shall
be paid out of the taxes to be levied and collected under this act.

Before entering upon the discharge of his duties the superin-
tendent of highways and his secretary shall give bond in the penal
sum of five thousand dollars, with the surety to be appointed by the
commission, conditioned upon the faithful performance of his duties
and the proper accounting for all funds which may come into his
hands by virture of this act, which bond shall be approved by the
commission, and filed with the secretary. In case such bond be given
in surety companies, then the premiums thereon shall be paid by the
commission from the road taxes to be collected under the provisions
of this act.

7. The highway commission, or the superintendent of highways
under its direction and as its agent, shall have power and authority
to employ and fix the rate of compensation of such overseers, foremen,
laborers and other employees, as may be necessary to be employed
to carry out the provisions of this act, and the persons so employed
shall be at all times under the supervision and subject to the full
authority of the commission and its agents and the commission shall
have authority at all times to suspend, remove or discharge any of
its employees, including the superintendent of highways and the high-
way engineer.

8. The highway commission shall perform all the duties which
have heretofore been performed, and exercise all the powers hereto-
fore exercised by the board of supervisors of Fauquier county, or
by the road officials of the several districts within said county, or any
other body or persons now: or heretofore acting under authority of
existing laws, in any way relating to public roads.and bridges of said
county, whether under general law or by special statute, except as
hereinafter provided; and the management and control of all public
roads and bridges within said county shall be vested absolutely and
entirely in the highway commission, except roads and bridges under
the exclusive control and management of the authorities of an incor-
porated city or town, or the authorities of the State of Virginia.

9. The system of working the public roads of Fauquier county
by districts, expending within each district-the road taxes collected
within that district, is hereby abolished ; and hereafter all public roads
in said county shall be worked, improved, maintained and repaired,
and all public bridges built, cared for and kept up from the taxes and
other moneys authorized by this act to be expended by the highway
commission, and said taxes and other moneys expended for roads or
bridge purposes in accordance with this act as the same may be neces-
sary in any part of the county without respect to the district or
section from which the taxes or other moneys were derived ; provided,
however, that in expending the receipts from road taxes to be levied
and collected under the provisions of this act the highway commission
shall disburse the same so that the public roads and bridges in each
section of the county shall be kept in as good state of repair, so far
as practicable, as the public roads and bridges are in other sections
of the county.

10. Any person in Fauquier county who shall be convicted in
any of the said courts of said county, whether circuit, justices’,
mayors or other courts, and sentenced to work on the public roads,
shall be assigned into the custody and control of the highway com-
mission of Fauquier county by the board of county supervisors of
said county, or other authorities having charge of said prisoners,
whenever the highway commission shall request said board of county
supervisors or other authority so to do. Said prisoners while in the
custody and under the control of the highway commission shall be
employed on such road work or bridge work as may be deemed best
by the highway commission. The expense of maintaining and guard-
ing said prisoners while employed by the highway commission shall
be paid out of the taxes levied for road purposes under the provisions
of this act. The highway commission is hereby authorized and em-
powered to use the common jail of said county for safe keeping of
said prisoners, or to build and keep a convict camp or camps for said
purpose, and is also authorized and empowered to feed, clothe, main-
tain and guard said prisoners while they are employed.

11. In addition to the convict force, said highway commission
shall have power and anthority to employ such free labor as may be
necessary for the proper construction, maintenance and repair of the
public roads and bridges in accordance with the provisions of this
act. The commission shall also have full power and authority to
engage, purchase, or hire such teams, tools, machinery and epuip-
ment as may be necessary for use on public roads and bridges and to
pay therefor reasonable compensation.

12. The highway commission shall also have power and authority
to enter into contract with any person, firm or corporation for the
construction, improvement, maintenance, or repair of any public roads
or bridges of the county, and, in all cases where the judgment of the
commission is necessary or desirable to require the contractor to
give bond conditioned for the faithful performance of his contract.

13. In opening new highways, widening and straightening out
old roads or repairing the same, the highway commission is hereby
authorized through its agents to enter upon any land and build such
highways. If the commission and the owner or owners of said land
cannot agree as to the amount of damage, if any, the commission
shall, either before or after the completion of the work, select one
disinterested freeholder, who shall be a resident of the district in
which the land is situated, and the said landowner shall have the
power and authority to select one disinterested freeholder in said
district and the two so selected shall have the power and authority
to choose a third freeholder in said district, and the three persons
so chosen shall go upon the land and assess the damages and benefits.
The judgment of two of those chosen shall be the amount of damage
and the commission shall pay said landowner; provided, in the case
either party to said proceedings is not satisfied with the award of
damages, they may appeal to the circuit court of Fauquier county,
as in all other cases of appeal from inferior courts. No suit shall be
brought by any landowner unless the same is commenced within six
months after the completion of the road across the land of the
claimant.

14. Before entering upon any land as authorized by section thir-
teen of this act, it shall be the duty of the highway commission,
through its representative, to serve notice upon the owner or owners
of said land, notifying them that the highway is to be located upon the
land or that certain material is to be taken, as the case may be.

15. The highway commission shall have power to acquire by
purchase gravel pits, rock quarries, and all materials, machinery,
implements and property necessary or useful for the construction,
improvement or repair of the public roads or bridges, under the
charge of the commission.

16. The highway commission shall in each year, prior to the date
on which the board of county supervisors of Fauquier county levies
taxes for general county purposes (beginning in the year nineteen
hundred and twenty-three) present to the board of county supervisors
a statement of the rate of the special tax which the commission desires
to have levied by the board of county supervisors for such year for
the special purpose of constructing, improving, maintaining and re-
pairing public roads and bridges under the provisions of this act;
and the board of county supervisors shall levy said special tax at
said rate for said purpose upon all the taxable property in the county,
provided, however, that the board of county supervisors shall not levy
a special tax for said purpose at a rate greater than seventy-five cents
on the one hundred dollars valuation of said taxable property. In
the event that the highway commission shall fail or neglect to present
such a statement in any year to the board of county supervisors,
then the board of county supervisors shall levy such special tax at
a rate not less than fifty cents on the one hundred dollars assessed
valuation of said property.

17. Fauquier county shall assume the payment of the principal
and interest of all bonds or notes outstanding issued by Center district
in Fauquier county for the purpose of construction, improving or
repairing roads or bridges in said district; and it shall be the duty
of the board of county supervisors of Fauquier county to levy an-
nually a special tax upon all taxable property in said county for
the special purpose of paying such principal and interest, or for pro-
viding a sinking fund for such bonds or notes, which tax shall be
levied at a rate sufficient for said purpose and shall be in addition
to all other taxes authorized to be levied by the board of county super-
visors. The power and duty to levy such special tax is hereby
conferred and imposed upon the board of county supervisors for the
reason that the charge and control of the roads and bridges for which
the bonds and notes aforesaid were issued are transferred by this act
from Center district authorities to the county authorities, and for
the further reason that it would be inequitable to require Center
district by or on whose behalf said bonds and notes were issued,
to bear the whole burden of taxation for the purpose of paying said
bonds and notes, as well as the burden of taxes required by section
sixteen of this act.

18. Alt moneys on hand when this art takes effect, or thereafter
received which were or shall be raised by Fauquier county from all
districts therein for road or bridge purpose (other than moneys raised
to pay the principal and interest of outstanding Center district bonds
or notes), whether raised by taxation, bond issues, or otherwise,
shall, upon the taking effect of this act, or when they are collected,
be deposited with the county treasurer and kept by him in a separate
fund or funds and paid out only upon written orders of the highway
commission, signed by the superintendent and secretary of the com-
mission. All road machinery, stock and implements and other road
property owned or used by Fauquier county or by any district therein
shall, upon the taking effect of this act, be turned over to the high-
Way COmm1ssion.

19, All moneys on hand when this act takes effect, or thereafter
received, raised or to be raised by means of a tax levied on property
or tolls in Center district for the purpose of paying the principal or
interest of bonds or notes issued by such district for road or bridge
purposes, shall, when this act takes effect, be deposited with the
county treasurer of Fauquier county and placed by him in a separate
funds to be used solely for the purpose of paying the principal and
interest of said bonds and notes. '
20. No commission shall be allowed to the county treasurer’s
office or to the board of county supervisors on account of the receipt
or disbursement of the proceeds of the sale of any bonds, or on
account of any moneys raised by special tax for road or bridge
purpose or for the payment of the principal or interest of any such
bonds or notes issued for such purposes.

21. All special or local laws relating to the construction, 1m-
provement, or maintenance of public roads or bridges of Fauquier
county or any district therein, including special or local laws author-
izing the raising of moneys for said purposes, are hereby repealed.
All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this act are also repealed.
Nothing in this act, however, shall be held to invalidate any act done
under such law, or to prevent the collection of any taxes levied under
such law. |

22. This act shall be in force and shall take effect when it shall
have been ratified by the voters of Fauquier county at an election
to be held in said county November seventh, nineteen hundred and
twenty-two.