Chap. 70.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an aet entitled an act to
ainend and re-enact an act entitled an act for working the roads of
Loudoun county, passed 1856, and to repeal certain acts amendatory
thereof, approved February 2, 1875. .

Approved February 1, 1879.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
it shall be the duty of the lawfully constituted authority of the

county of Loudoun, after the first day of July, eighteen hun-
dred and seventy-nine, to locate and open new roads, change
the beds of old ones, as in their discretion may be best, work
and keep in repair old and new roads, and build and repair
bridges, and establish and contro! ferries and keep them in re-
pair.

2, That for each magisterial district in the county of Lou-
doun there is hereby created a board consisting of the super-
visor, commissioner of roads, and one justice of the peace; the
justice of the peace, constituting a member of said board, shall
be chosen by the supervisor and commissioner of roads, The
beard hereby created a body politic and corporate shall be
known as the board of commissioners of roads for magisterial
district number » which board shall have exclusive juris-
diction and control of the roads, bridges, and ferries within its
limits; and all taxes levied for road purposes, and for building
and repairing bridges and ferries, shall be expended in said
magisterial district, except as hereinafter provided.

3. That the sub-road districts, as now described by the boun-
daries and within the lines of the districts, shall remain as they
are until changed by said board.

. 4, The commissioner of roads shall be elected every two
years, the next clection to be held the fourth Thursday in May,
eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, according to the provisions
of the general election law of the state; his term of office shall
be for two years, beginning on the first day of July next suc-
ceeding his election; he shall reside in the district (magisterial)
for which he was elected. Each commissioner of roads thus
elected shall qualify at the time prescribed by law, giving an
official bond, with good personal security, for not less than two
thousand dollars, nor more than five thousand. In the event
of a failure to comply with the requirements of the law in

qualifying for said office from any cause, the county judge
shall order a special election for said office at the succeeding
court following his failure to qualify.

5. It shall be the duty of the board of commissioners of
roads in each magisterial district to visit and examine the con-
dition of the roads in their district once every year, and to
report in a book kept for the purpose what amount of money is
necessary to keep in good and ample repair the public roads in
each section of the said road for one year. The road book thus
provided shall be returned to and kept at the office of the com-
missioner of roads, subject to the inspection of any tax-payer
of the different sub-road districts in which he may live or own
property.

6: That every second year there shall be elected by the quali-
fied voters of each sub-road district, on the fourth Thursday in
May, overseers of roads in each sub-road district of the county
of Loudoun, the first election under this law to take place on
the fourth Thursday in May, eighteen hundred and seventy-
nine. He shall reside in the sub-road disfrict in which he is
elected, and shall have charge of all the roads of his sub-dis-
trict, and shall work the roads according to the form and
standard for working roads described in the seventh section of
this law.

7. That all roads shall be thirty feet wide, with eighteen feet
bed. No brakes shall be made across the bed of any road with-
out incurring a penalty of five dollars for each brake across the
road, recoverable before any magistrate’s court, without appeal ;
but trunks or small bridges, such as the mud-holes or branches
which they cross may require, shall be made. Swells or
rises made at right angles across the bed of the road up very
steep hills, for brakes or chucks, must be observed and carried
into effect. All roads must be slightly graded from the center
to the sides; no smooth or passable roads to be worked or in-
terfered with until the rough places are thoroughly repaired by
orading, macadamizing, blasting and reducing hills. All bogs
must be excavated to the depth of the spring heads, and filled
with stone to the surface and then slightly graded from the
center to the sides. All rocks or stumps must be taken from
the road-beds and placed beyond the reach of stock or vehicles
traveling said road. All limbs—stubbs that are in the way of
roads—must be cut off and thrown beyond the reach of the
roads.

8. The overseers of the county roads in each sub-road dis-
trict of their respective magisterial districts, shall give a forfeit
bond for the faithful performance of their trust, with ample
security for double the amount of money appropriated for keep-
ing in good and ample order the roads in their sub-district, said
bonds to be made payable to the board of commissioners of
roads of said district (magisterial), and to be filed by them in
the clerk’s office of the county court for safe keeping, and col-
lectable by the sheriff of their district (magisterial) by due pro-
cess of law whenever it may be advised by said board, in order
to compel compliance with the requirements of the seventh sec-
tion of this law. The funds of the forfeit bonds shall be at-
tached to and become a part of the fund necessary to keep the
said roads in lawful order.

9. It shall be the duty of the commissioner of roads to
examine the condition of the roads in his district, as often as
the contingencies which arise by the force of floods, and the
wear and tear of the roads may require, and see that the pro-
visions of the seventh section of this act are strictly complied
with. It shall also be his duty to audit and adjust all accounts
for work done on roads, and for the purchase of tools, and
report the same to the board of commissioners of roads in his
district. Anv failure to perform any of the conditions of this
section, faithfully and explicitly, shall subject him to the pay-
ment of a fine of not less than twenty-five, nor more than fifty
dollars; and any tax-payey, upon proper complaint and attested
by five other tax-payers of his neighborhood and sub-road dis-
trict, before a justice of the peace of said district, that the pro-
visions of this law have not been carried out by him, shall be
sufficient to convict and procure judgment for the sums indi-
cated against him. The said fine, when collected by a constable
of said district, shall become a part of the road fund.

10. The funds collected in any magisterial district for road
purposes shall be placed in the hands of the board of commis-
sioners of roads of said district for safe keeping and disburse-
ment, said board to execute a bond for double the amount of
currency likely to come into their hands, with ample security
to and in the name of said district (magisterial). No device
shall work the forfeiture of said bond, but all the goods, chat-
-tels, and realty under whatever forms of law secured to the
parties bound in said bond shall be amenable to and bound for
the payment of said bond so executed to the deputy sheriff or
sheriff of said magisterial district, who is hereby empowered
to sue and collect said bonds whenever, in his opinion, the said
bond is insecure. For all necessary expenses incurred for col-
lecting said bond, he shall be remunerated from the property of
the parties executing said bond. The board of commissioners
of roads shall not pay any interest on money held by them for
disbursement for road purposes.

11. It shall be the duty of the commissioners of roads to
audit and report all accounts for work done by overseers in
their different road districts, and to pay out threugh the hands
of the sheriff, by order of the board of commissioners of roads,
to th> overseers of roads, the amount of money incurred by
them in the working of the same. The said overseers shall
issue such orders to the board of commissioners of roads as
will insure to their employees on the road payment in full for
services performed by them, which orders shail be deducted
from the accounts of the different overseers of roads in their
settlement with the board of commissioners of roads.

12. All funds remaining on hand at the end of any road year,
shall be loaned at six per centum interest in the name of the
board of commissioners of roads of the magisterial district in
which such fund may accrue, toe such parties as shall be able to
give ample security for the return of the principal and interest,
whenever the necessities of the roads may demand it: provided,
however. no such demand shall be made without a previous
notice of thirty days being given to the holders of said funds
by the commissioner of roads at the mandate of the board of
commissioners of roads. It shall be competent only for said
board to appropriate and pay out all fuhds belonging to said
magisterial district for any work done on roads in said district ;
no money to be paid out by the board of commissioners of roads
by the order of said board for work done on the roads in said
districts, until the work done in said districts shall be found to
have been done in accdérdance with the provisions of the seventh
section of this act, and then only after all accounts and ex-
penses for the same shall have been duly rendered, certified
and recéipted for by parties who have done this work. All
bonds, bills and receipts for work done on the roads, and
the amount of funds on hand in the possesion of the board of
commissioners of roads, shall be filed in the clerk’s office of the
county court of said county.

13. The sheriff shall be required to give additional security
for the collection and payment of all bonds coming into his
possession under the provisions of this act.

14. Each overseer of roads in his sub-district shall sign his
name in a book to be prepared and kept by the commissioner
of roads for that purpose in his magisterial district, embracing
all the specifications for making and keeping in repair all the
roads in the sub-road district embraced in the seventh section
of this act.

15. It shall be the duty of said overseers of roads to sum-
mon all of the parties designated in the following sections of
this act at least two days before the working of the roads in
his sub-district commences, and that any failure upon their
part to summon such parties as are named in the sixteenth
section of this act shall subject them to the payment of a fine
of two dollars, to be used and accounted for as a part of the
road fund provided for in this act; but and if after the failure
of such parties to assemble and work the roads whoa have been
duly summoned in accordance with the sixteenth section, the
overseers shall have the right to summon any person not
included in the sixteenth’ section of this act who may reside in
said sub-road districts, at the sum of one dollar per day, pay-
able on the first day of December of any year. or earlier, as
they may contract, out of their own revenues, subject to having
a lien upon the road fund of said sub-road districts for so much
of road tax as they may thus choose to settle or assume.

16. All persons who pay a road tax and a license tax for
road purposes shall have the privilege of working out the
amount of road levies assessed against them: provided, they
comply with the requirements of the fifteenth section of this
act requiring them to work when summoned; otherwise the
overseers shall employ any laborers they can obtain, and upon
the terms ia said fifteenth section.
17. No higher rates of taxation for road purposes shall be
made than are now levied by road 'evyers, nor shall any other
taxes for road purposes be assessed than is now provided by
law in the said county of Loudoun.

18, That all roads worked by overs2ers under the present

system, shall be worked by and in accordance with the pro-

—

visions of tais act.

19. No surveyor shall have for services performed more than
two dollars per day. Commissioners ef roads shall have two
dollars per day for time actually employed; overseers of roads

one dollar and fifty cents. The board of commissioners of

I

roads shall have each two dollars per day for the time actually
employed by them, as all of the officers designated in this act
shall have a written statement of the time actually employed
by them for road purposes, sworn to and certified by any
notary public or justice of the peace in the inagisterial district
in which such services have been performed.

20. Stone-masons, blacksmiths and carpenters, shall each
receive at the rate of one dollar and fifty cents per day for time
actually served by them on bridges and ferries.

21. All tools used for road purposes shall be furnished by the
county out of the road funds of the same. The overseers of
the different sub-road districts of the county, shall take an in-
ventory of such tools as are in their possession and under their
control, and furnish to the board of commissioners the cost of
repairs at the end of every road year. Ile shall give his bond,
with appréved security, for the safe-keeping of all tools used
by him; the bond shall cover the assessed value of the tools
by two disinterested mechanics. ‘The overseers of roads shall
purchase such tools as are necessary for all road purposes, at
the lowest cash prices; he shall have the bills of the purchase
price of said tools andof keeping them in repair, lian led yearly
to the commissioner of roads a month before the time of the
annual settlement of road accounts, who shall surrender to said
board of commissioners said bills for endorsement, and when
approved, they shall be given by them to the. sheriff for pay-
ment.

22. That in the event of the death or retnoval from the magis-
terial districts of any of the commissioners of roads, it shall be
competent for the judge of the county court to order a special
election to supply his place at the next succeeding court after
his removal or death; that in the event of the death or removal
of any of the overseers of roads, it shall be competent for the
sheriff of such magisterial district in which the death or removal
of any of the parties indicated may occur, to give ten days’
notice that an election will be held at the precincts embraced
in the sub-road district for the election of an overseer of roads
according to the forms of law for all other elections.

23. That every petition for a new road, or to lay out, open,
alter, or change a public road, must first be presented to the
board of commissioners of roads in the district in which the
road is, who shall endorse thereon their approval or disapproval
of the same, and their reasons therefor, which and commis-
sioner’s report shall be laid before the county court at its next
term, in open court, and the court shall appoint three discreet
freeholders to view the ground of any new road or propose a
change; the county or other competent surveyor shall accom-
pany the viewers, and if neccessary survey and map the road.
The whole number of viewers must view, but a majority may
decide for or against, and they may view and make report of
and estimate for any modification of the route.

24. That notice of the time and place when the viewers shall
meet shall be given in some public manner in the vicinity of
the proposed road at least five days before the time of meeting.
The viewers, before they proceed to discharge their duties, shall
be severally sworn by the commissioner of roads, or some other
person anthorizod to aiminister oaths, to perform their duties
impartially, and to the best of their judgment. If they decide
that there is public necessity for the’road or change, they shall
lay out the same, having respect for the shortest distance and
the best ground, and so as to do the least injury to private
property, and also, as far as practicable, to be agreeable to the
petitioners. They shall assess the damage done to land through
which the road passes, taking into consideration the advantage
to be derived from the road’s passing through the land, and
shall report in writing to the next term of the court: but in no
case shall any yard, garden, orchard, or any part thereof, be
taken.

25. That the court shall examine the amount of damages as-
sessed, and if satisfied the public interest will be subserved by
its payment and the opening of the road on the proposed
change, shall approve the report, and order the damages to be
paid by the magisterial district or districts through which the
road may pass, in such proportion as the damages may have
been assessed in the said districts respectis ely; but upon the
return of the report of the viewers, the proprietors and tenants
of lands upon which said road will be, if established, shall be
summoned to show cause against said report, and any proprie-
tor or tenants of lands on which said road will be established,
may enter himself a party defendant to said petition, after
which the same proceedings shall be had as under the general
road law of the state, upon the return of the report of the com-
missioner of roads: previded that the viewers and surveyor
shall be paid out of the county treasury.

26. All new roads established by the county court shall be
thirty feet wide; and all old roads shall be, after twelve months
after the enactment of this law, at the discretion of the com-
missioner of roads, be increased to the requisite width ordered
by the county court in regard to the width of the new roads.

27. That the court may, at its discretion, grant a second or
third review, the viewers to be paid the sum of one dollar per
diem, and the county or other surveyor two dollars der diem, to
be paid as provided for.

28. That the clerk of the county court shall keep a road
docket, in which all proceedings in regard to roads in the county
court shall be kept of record.
29. That in case of a road or a line dividing two magisterial
districts, the commissioner of roads of the adjoining districts
shall divide the said road between such districts, in such way
as will equitably divide the expense, if they can agree; and in
case they cannot agree, the county court shall divide the same,
and direct what part of said road shall be opened and kept in
repair by each magisterial district.

30. That ander the direetion of the commissioner of roads,
the overseers shall erect, at all points where roads cross or in-
tergect, or diverge from each other, suitable indicators showing
the next most prominent place on the road, and the distance.
A failure to comply with this provision shall be punished by a
fine of no‘ less than five dollars for each offence; and any per-
son who defaces, removes, or in any way injures any indicator,
shall be subject to fine of dollars, to be recovered by the
commissioner of roads upon a judgment of a justice of the
peace; and any overseer shall have power to enter upon any
lands adjoining his section of road to make necessary repairs,
drains or ditches: provided. however, that the owner or tenant
of the land shall petition for redress to court for whatever
damage inay be sustained ; two disinterested viewers appointed,
one by the court. the other chosen by the owner or tenant of
the land, and these two not agreeing, shall choose a third to
help ascertain the amount of damages. ‘Their decision shall be
final.

31. That the board of commissioners of roads for their re-
spective districts shall annually, in the month of July of each
year, lay a road tax not exceeding thirty cents on the dollar of
state revenue, and a like percentage on licenses within the dis-
trict, as adjusted for the state and county tax, and shall certify
the amount necessary to be raised to the commissioner of the
reveline, and he shall extend the taxes against all property and
persons in the district levied for road purposes, a copy of which
shall be returned to the clerk's office of the county court, and
from the said copy, so returned, the sheriff shall make out his
books for the collection of said tax.

32. That the sheriff of the county shall collect the road tax,
and pay the same over to the commissioners of roads of the
several districts; he shall be charged with the full amount of
the road taxes levied for the year, and credited by all sums paid
over in money or otherwise, as herein provided; he shall, in
the month of Debember of each year, give notice by posting
handbills in each road district to tax-payers, requiring them to
call on him to pay their road tax. Such as shall make pay-
ment on or before the first day of March thereafter, shall be
entitled to a deduction of five per centum. The sheriff shall
recelve, as equivalent to money, all accounts for labor or for
services rendered in any way, when properly certified by the
commissioner or overseer, and the same shall be receipted for
by the commissioner as if paid to him in money. Each com-
missioner of roads, acting under the provisions of. this act,
shall settle with the board of commissioners of roads on the
first Monday in June of each year, or as soon thereafter as the

said board shall meet, and account for all moneys received by
him from the sheriff for said purposes, and pay over any balances
in his hands to his successor in office, which shall be placed to
the credit of the board and appropriated fur road purposes.

33. That if any person shall neglect to make payment of
road taxes until after the first day of March. the sheriff shall
make out a list of delinquents and of the amount of taxes due
from each, and shall collect them as now provided by law for
the collection of state taxes.

34, That the board of commissioners of roads shall annually,
onthe first Monday in June, audit, adjust and settle the accounts
of the sheriff for the preceding year. They shall charge the sheriff
with the full amount of the road tax levied in his district, and
shall credit him by his commissions, delinquents, and all pay-
ments made by him to the commissioner of roads, for which he
has the proper receipt. He shall receive the same per centum
fer collecting road taxes as for collecting state revenue.

35. Any person placing obstructions across roads of any
description, kind or character, shall be fined not less than five
dollars nor more than twenty-five, to be assessed by the board
of commissioners of roads, and collected before a justice’s
court. Ali such fines to constitute a road fund and deposited
as the same with the board of commissioners of roads.

' 86. The general road law of this state, except so far as the
same is in conflict with this act, shall be in force in the county
of Loudoun.

37. That all acts relating to working roads in the county of
Loudoun and parts of acts relating to the same, are hereby re-
pealed.

38. All incumbents in the office under the existing law, will
remain in position and fulfil their obligations until their terms
of office expire, at which time this act shall be in force.