‘Chap. 229.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act entitled an act to provide for
working, building and keeping in repair the public roads and bridges in Grayson
county, approved March 6, 1900, and as further amended by an act approved
March 14, 1904, and as further amended by an act approved March 13,‘1908,
and as further amended by an act approved March 1, 1918, and as further
amenced by an act approved September 10, 1919, and as further amendéd by
an act. approved March 10, 1920, and as further amended by an act approved
March 24, 1922. [S B 296]

Approved March 14, 1924.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That an act
entitled an act to provide for making, building and keeping in repair
the public roads and bridges in Grayson county, approved March sixth,
nineteen hundred; and further amended by an act approved March
fourteenth, nineteen hundred and four; and as further amended by an
act approved March thirteenth, nineteen hundred and eight; and as
further amended by an act approved March first, nineteen hundred and
eighteen; and as further amended by an act approved September tenth,
nineteen hundred and nineteen; and as further amended by an act
approved March tenth, nineteen hundred and twenty; and as further
amended by an act approved March twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred
and twenty-two, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

The board of supervisors of Grayson county shall have original
jurisdiction to open, establish, alter, change, discontinue, and build all
roads and bridges in the county of Grayson.

2. Every application to open, establish, or change any public or
private road shall be presented to the board of supervisors while in
session and the board shall then have authority to appoint five free-
holders of the district in which the road is located or is proposed to be
located, any three of whom may act, to view and examine such roads
or routes and report upon the expediency of changing or altering the
location of any road or opening any new road; the viewers may recom-
mend a new or different route.

3. The clerk of the board of supervisors shall make a copy of the
order appointing the viewers and shall send’ to each.one by mail on the
‘day the order is entered a copy of the order appointing him and the
viewers shall within ten days from the date of the order appointing
them meet at the most convenient place on the proposed new road or
alteration of the road proposed to be made or changed or altered in
said order. The viewers before they proceed to discharge their duties
shall be severally sworn to perform their duties impartially and to the
best of their judgment.

The oath may be administered to said viewers by the supervisor of
the district in which the road proposed to be established, altered or
changed by anyone having authority to administer an oath. If the
viewers decide that the public convenience requires the establishment
of such new road, or the alteration or change of such old road, they
shall lay out the same, having respect for the shortest distance and best
location and shall assess the damage, if any, done to land through which
the road passes, taking into consideration the advantages to be derived
from the road passing through the land, and the said viewers shall make
report in writing to its next meeting, giving the names of the proprietors
and tenants of the land on which it is proposed to establish or alter
such road, which of the proprietors and tenants require compensation,
and what will be a just compensation to each of the proprietors and
tenants claiming compensation.

In all cases where further notice and service of process or summons
have been waived in writing, by each of the said proprietors and tenants,
or by attorneys before the board, the board shall at the same meeting
to which said report is returned, determine the question of altering or
establishing such road, and shall hear testimony and fix upon a just
compensation to the proprietors and tenants for the land proposed
to be taken and the damage accruing therefrom. But in the event
that further notice and service of process have not been waived as
herein provided unless the board be against establishing or altering
such road, the board shall require its clerk to issue’ process to sum-
mons the proprictors and tenants of the lands on which it is proposed
to establish or alter such roads to the next meeting of the board, to
show cause against establishing or altering such road, but such process
shall not be necessary, nor shall process issue as to any proprietors or
tenants who have in the manner hereinbefore waived or acknowledged
service of such process, or claims no damage.

Upon return of said process duly executed, as to all of the said pro-
prietors and tenants who have not waived or acknowledged service of
the same, defense may be made to the said proceedings by any party,
and the board of supervisors may, in its discretion, hear testimony
touching the expediency of establishing or altering the road, the super-
visors shall limit the number of witnesses to six that they will hear for
and against establishing the road or making the proposed alterations
or changes.

The clerk of the board shall not tax nor allow pay to more than six
witnesses in any proceedings under this act.

Upon such hearing, unless the board be of the opinion that the road
ought not to be established or altered, it shall proceed to fix a just
compensation to the proprietors or tenants for the land proposed to be
taken and the damage accruing therefrom. But if any tenant or
proprietor desire it, or the board see cause for so doing, it may, in its
discretion, appoint five disinterested freeholders of the county as com-
missioners (any three of whom may act) for the purpose of ascertaining
a just compensation for the land to be used for such road, after which
the same proceeding shall be had, as provided for the commissioners
for a like purpose under the general road law of the State. If the
board of supervisors be of opinion that the road should not be opened
or change made, then all cost incident to the application for such new
road or changes shall be paid by the applicant. No money to be paid
for damage in condemmation proceedings till road is accepted and
completed. Viewers and commissioners appointed shall each receive
two dollars per day for their services.

The board of supervisors of Grayson county shall have general
supervision, control and charge of working and keeping in repair the
roads and opening and making all new roads and repairing the bridges
of the county, all work done and repairs made on old roads to be done
in the spring and summer months of each year, except permanent work
and keeping open ditches and culverts. And for this purpose must
purchase such tools, implements and machinery as is necessary to have
the roads and bridges built or repaired.

It shall have authority to direct a surveyor of said county to define
the boundary of any road therein, and to alter the grade of any existing
road, and to perform such other services as in the opinion of the board
may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this act, for which
service the said surveyor shall receive reasonable compensation from
the said board, not exceeding, however, three dollars per day, payable
out of the road fund of the magisterial district in which the surveying
is done.

4. Each supervisor of the several magisterial districts of the county
shall give personal supervision to and shall have charge and control
of the roads and bridges in their respective districts. It shall be the
duty of each supervisor to see that roads in his district are kept cleared
of rocks, and other obstruction, of necessary width, and the beds of the
roads raised in the middle and sloped gradually each way to the sides,
well drained by underground culvert, and secure from the falling of
dead timber thereon, and otherwise in good order; that a suitable sign
board is placed and kept at every important fork or crossing of every
road, on which shall be stated in plain letters the most noted places
to which each road leads, and the distances thereto; and that suitable
bridges be constructed and maintained in a safe, substantial condition
over such streams and ravines as may need them, and that across any
stream or ravine. where it may be necessary or practical a sufficient
bridge, bench or log shall be made for the accommodation of foot
passengers, which shall always be kept in a safe condition, and where
the beds of said roads are encroached upon, such supervisor shall
notify in writing by letter mailed to the postoffice address of the person
encroaching or trespassing on the public roads to forthwith remove the
obstruction, and if the same be not done in five days, he, the supervisor,
shall cause said obstruction to be removed and shall recover the expenses,
with costs, from said trespasser and the supervisor shall also recover
from the said trespasser a fine not exceeding twenty-five dollars nor
less than ten dollars before any justice of the peace of his district.
The fine shall be paid by the justice of the peace to the treasurer of the
county, who shall place the same to the credit of the road fund of the
magisterial district in which it is recovered. :

5. The supervisor of each magisterial district of the said county,
in the discharge of his duties, is hereby authorized and empowered to let
the working, improvement, and repairs of any roads, or the building
or repair of any bridge or bridges in his district, to contract, may lay
off the roads of his district into sections, and appoint or employ road
overseers for such sections, may employ or hire laborers, hands, teams,
implements and machinery, for the purpose of working and repairing
the roads and bridges in his district, and appoint or employ foremen,
who shall have charge of the same. When work is paid for by the day,
not less than ten hours shall constitute a day’s work, and for each day’s
work a sum of not more than two dollars shall be paid to each able-
bodied laborer; when less than a day’s work is performed, not more than
twenty cents per hour shall be paid. The supervisor shall not allow for
team and wagon and hand, or team and plow and hand, more than four
dollars per day. The supervisor shall pay to each foreman or road
overseer not more than two dollars and fifty cents per day. The super-
visor shall not allow more than three dollars per day for any hand run-
ning plow or tractor pulling a road plow.

6. Each overseer or foreman employed under the provisions of this
act shall make out an itemized account of all the work done by him, or
under his charge or direction, showing the teams, tools, implements
and machinery used and the number and names of the laborers em-
ployed, the dates on which the work was done, the number of hours
worked each day, the amount charged by each laborer for each day or
part of a day, and shall state accurately the road on which the work was
done, and shall make oath to the correctness thereof before the super-
visor of the district in which the work was done. The supervisor of the
district or any one authorized by law to administer oaths shall administer
the oath to the overseer or foreman; it shall then be the duty of the super-
visor to whom such account is presented to inspect and examine the
roads and bridges for the working, repairing or building of which the
amount is presented, and if satisfied that the account is correct, he
Shall issue a warrant on the treasurer of the county for the amount due
each man, as shown by said report, payable to the order of said person
or persons at any time there are sufficient funds in the hands of the
treasurer to the credit of the magisterial district road fund in which
said work is done.

7. When any blasting is necessary on any public road, the super-
visor of the district in which the road is located shall employ a competent
person to-do the same and shall furnish such tools and materials as
necessary to complete the work, the person so employed and his as-
sistants shall be paid at the rate of twenty cents per hour. When such
work is completed and an itemized account thereof made out, it shall
be paid out of the road fund of the magisterial district in which the road
is located. If there is not a sufficient amount of money to the credit of
the road fund of said district, the same shall be paid out of any money
of the county not otherwise appropriated.

8. No new road shall be ordered opened by the board of supervisors
unless {it shall first ke made to appear that there is sufficient surplus
in the treasury to the credit of the road fund of the magisterial district
in which said new road is proposed to be opened, or money in the treas-
ury not otherwise appropriated sufficient to pay the same, or unless the
parties interested in the opening said proposed new road shall agree and
obligate themselves to open and build said proposed new road without
cost to said magisterial district or to the county.

9. For the purpose of raising revenue for building, working and
keeping in repair the public roads and bridges of said county, the board
of supervisors shall annually levy, along with the county levy, a tax
upon all property, real and tangible personal, assessed for taxation in
the several ms agisterial districts of the county, which shall be applied
for building, working and keeping in repair the public roads and bridges
in said district. and the compensation of the foreman or road overseers
and others provided for under the provisions of this act, such tax shall
not be less than thirty cents nor more than sixty cents on every hundred
dollars valuation of such property. The said levy shall be collected by
the said treasurer of said county as other county levies, accounted for
and paid out on the warrant of the supervisors, except money collected
from levy of each magisterial district shall be kept separate by the county
treasurer; each supervisor of the county may draw on his own warrant
only the funds of his magisterial district, the amount collected in each
magisterial district shall be expended in the district in which it has
been collected.

10. The board of supervisors, in addition to the road tax therein
provided, shall appropriate to the road fund provided in this act, any
balance that may remain at the end of any fiscal year to the county fund
or levy, or so much of said balance as said board may deem wise or ex-
pedient to appropriate; and in addition to the tax herein provided; the
said board may appropriate to the road fund taxes derived from rail-
road, telegraph and telephone companies, and the said board shall ap-
propriate ten per centum of the money derived from said district levy
for the purpose of permanently improving some important road in each
district each year and may appropriate any other money not otherwise
expended or appropriated that belongs to the county to permanently
improve each year some important road in each district in said county,
and this fund may be used with or without State aid for such permanent
improvement as the board may deem best, and the supervisor in select-
ing the road he will permanently improve each year by the funds col-
lected by this act shall give preference to the road that the citizens living
in that community, or any other private source, will make the largest
private donation for the purpose of making said permanent improve-
ment. No foreman or overseer shall work less than six hands. No
supervisor or foreman or overseer shall be interested, financially, either
directly or indirectly, in any contract for opening, repairing or altering

any road or bridge or the purchase of ariv tools or machinery provided.
for in this act.

11. Each supervisor shall have charge of the roads in his district
and shall have power to appoint a sufficient number of foremen to take
charge of the hands in his district, in building, working and repairing
the roads in said district, but no foreman shal! be appointed by the super-
visor of a district unless he has had practical experience in road build-
ing or will carry out definitely the plans and specifications furnished him
by the supervisor of the district in building or repairing any road in the

istrict.

12. Each supervisor shall go over and personally inspect the roads
of his district and shall keep them in good condition and repair, for which
services the said supervisor shall receive the sum of four dollars per day;
provided, however, he shall not be paid for more than sixty days in any
one year for service under this act, and the clerk of the board of super-
visors shall not receive for his services less than forty nor more than
eighty dollars for any one year.

13. Each supervisor shall keep a book and shall keep down the
names of the foremen or road overseers employed by him, the tools and
machinery purchased by him, and shall number the roads of his district
and shall give to each road a name, the name and number of the road
shall be the same that the clerk of the board is required to give to each
road in section eighteen"of this act, and shall keep in the book names of
the men employed by him and the amount paid to each one, and shall
bring his book to the monthly meetings of the board of supervisors and
it shall be open for inspection for any taxpayer of the county, and the
amounts paid out by him in the building and repairing of the roads and
bridges of his district shal! be published as required by the general law
of the State.

14. The supervisor or any person appointed or employed to work
on the roads, or build or repair the bridges, as herein provided, may
take from any convenient lands, whether on the right of roadway or not,
so much wood, stone, gravel or earth as may be necessary to be used in
construction, improving or repairing such roads or any bridge or cause-
way thereon, and may, for the purpose of draining said road, cause a
ditch to be cut through any lands adjoining the same. For any material
taken or ditch cut compensation shall be allowed only as provided by
the general road laws of the State.

15. Jf any foreman or road overseer fails to keep his road in order
and in good condition, on complaint 1 in writing of any taxpayer of his
district to the supervisor of the district, he shall be fined not less than
ten nor more than fifty dollars, if it can be shown that he has funds at
his command for repairing the said road, said fine shall be recovered
before a justice of the peace for said county, and shall be paid to the
treasurer of the county and placed to the credit of the road fund in said
magisterial district.

16. Each supervisor shall make an equitable and fair distribution
of the money derived from this act in his magisterial districts on all the
public roads in his district, taking into consideration the amount of
travel and importance of each road. He shall not allow any funds to
be expended in permanently improving any road exceeding four degrees;
he shall have authority to remove any foreman or overseer at any time
he considers it to the interest of the roads of his district.

17. The board of supervisors shall cause to be kept by the clerk of
their board an itemized account of all work done and money expended
for tools and machinery and in building, working and keeping in repair
roads and bridges of the county, which shall be recorded by the clerk
of the board of supervisors in a book to be kept for the purpose and pub-
lished in a manner provided by a law for publication of expenditures.
The supervisor shall deliver to his successor in office all tools and
machinery purchased by him, or owned by his magisterial district and
take his receipt for same and file this receipt with the clerk of the board.
The board of supervisors shall devise a system of bookkeeping to carry
out the intention of this act and require the clerk of the board to keep
such book as directed and they shall prescribe the method by which the
treasurer shall keep his books with reference to the county and district
levies, and a collection of the county and district road tax and require
the clerk and treasurer to follow out the plans and details of the system
of said board of supervisors; but each supervisor shall keep a separate
book as required of him by section thirteen of this act.

18. The supervisors shall purchase a well bound book suitable for
keeping and recording records therein, and this book shall be labeled
“public and private roads of Grayson county.” This book shall be de-
livered by the board of supervisors to the clerk of the board and the clerk
shall record and index in this book all the public and private roads of
the county. He shall state the magisterial district in which the road
is located, where it commences and where it terminates, the name and
the number of each road, the length of same, the community through
which it passes. And hereafter when a public or private road is located,
constructed and established or an alteration made in an old road, the
clerk shall index and record the same as herein provided; nothing else
shall be written or printed in this book except what is required to be by
this section of this act.

No supervisor or clerk of this board shall receive any compensation
under this act until this section has been fully complied with.

19. Each member of the board of supervisors for a failure to per-
form any duty required of him under this act shall be deemed guilty of
a@ misdemeanor, and shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not less
than one hundred nor more than five hundred dollars; said fine shall be
applied to the road funds of this district in which the failure to perform
said duty occurs.

20. The general road law of this State, except in so far as the same
is in conflict with the provisions of this act, shall remain in force in the
county of Grayson; provided, however, nothing in this act shall apply
to any portion of the State highway system which is now or may here-
after be located and established in said county of Grayson.

21. All acts and parts of acts in conflict with this act, except such
as relate to the State highway system, are hereby repealed, so far as
applicable to Grayson county.

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