Chap. 199.—An ACT to provide for working and keeping in repair the public roads
and bridges of Page county, and for opening new roads and changing the loca-
tion of existing roads.

Approved February 2, 1898.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the board
of supervisors of Page county shall take charge of and have worked and
kept in repair the public roads and the bridges within the limits of the
said county, and shall also have authority to open new roads and to
change the location of existing roads in the manner hereinafter pro-
vided; and for this purpose the said board of supervisors is authorized
and empowered to levy a road tax not exceeding in any one year twenty
cents upon the one hundred dollars of assessed taxable values of all
property in said county, except that the said board, upon the request of
the supervisors of Markville district in said county, may levy a tax in
said district for the next fiscal year of forty cents on each one hundred
dollars of such assessed values in said district; said road tax to be col-
lected, accounted for, and paid out upon the warrant of said board in
all respects as if it were a county levy fixed by the board, except that
the fund collected from each magisterial district shall be kept separate
by the county treasurer, and a different rate of tax may be levied in
different districts. The amount collected in each district shall be ex-
pended in that) distriet, but no claim for work done on the roads and
bridges ino said county or material therefor shall be allowed by said
board, unless the claimant shall present to said board an itemized ac-
count giving name of each party emploved, the number of days each
hand was employ ed, andthe kind and quantity of material used, ‘and the
price paid for said labor and material, which said account shall be ap-
proved in writing by the supervisor of the district in which said work
was done or material furnished, who shall certify in writing upon said
account that he has personally inspected the work and material charged
for, that the work has been properly done, and that the account 1s cor-
rect and just.

The said board of supervisors may adopt such regulations, not in
contradiction of the laws and constitution of this state, as may be neces-
sary or proper to secure the needful and efficient working of the roads
of said county.

3. The supervisor of each magisterial district shall keep his district
divided into as many road districts as he may deem advisable, and may
Increase or diminish the number of such road districts when the public
interest requires it; and on the first day of the July term of the court of
said county, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and an-
nually thereafter, at said term, shall notify the said court in ‘writing of
the number of road districts in his district, and said court, at said
term, shall appoint an overseer of roads for each road district, who shall
hold said office until his successor shall have been appointed. The said
court shall have the power to remove any overseer of roads for cause.

4. Each overseer of roads shall be required to expend the income at
his disposal, or so much thereof as may be necessary, in working and
keeping in repair the roads and bridges in his district, in conformity
with rules and regulations to be adopte d by said board, and for his ser-
vices shall receive a compensation of one dollar and fifty cents per dav for
each dav he is engaged in working on the roads and bridges in his district.

&. It shall be the duty of the supervisor of each district to keep him-
self informed as to the condition of the roads and bridges in his district
and the manner in which they are worked and kept in repair, and
whether or not the overseers in his district have fully performed their
duty, and shall receive compensation for his services under this act for
the time he is actually engaged two dollars per day, to be paid out of
the funds derived from his own district.

6. The clerk of the board of supervisors shall receive for the duties to
be performed by him under the provisions of this act such compensation
as may be allowed by said board, to be apportioned by said board among
the magisterial districts.

7. All orders and proceedings of the said board under this act neces-

sary to be recorded shall be entered of record by the clerk in the minute
book of said board,

8. No public road shall be less than fifteen feet nor more than thirty
fect wide, at the discretion of the county court. In working all public
roads the road bed shall be raised in the middle and slope gradually to
each side, with ditches suflicient to carry off the water, which ditches
shall be kept open at all times. All public roads shall be kept clear of
all loose rocks and other obstructions.
9. No public road shall be located along a water course in such m:
ner as to render any portion of it liable to damage or overtlow by
ordinary rise of the stream, and any public road in said county
located shall be changed if a better location can be secured.

10. All applications or petitions for opening new roads or chang
the location or width of existing roads shall be made to the county co
of said county, but no such application or petition shall be conside
by said court unless the approval of the supervisors of the district
which such proposed road or existing road is located is endorsed there

11. Uponsuch application being made to said court it shall appo
three disinterested and discreet frecholders not residents of the mag
terial district in which such road is located, who after being duly swe
to discharge their dutics impartially to the best of their judgment, sh
go upon the route along which it 1s proposed to establish a new road,
on the road the location of which is proposed to be changed, and loc
the road along and over the most feasible and practicable route.
locating a new road or changing the location of an existing road, si
commissioners shall have respect to the shortest distance and best lo
tion so as to do the least injury to private property, and also, as far
practicable to be agreeable to the persons to be affected thereby; but in
case shall a vard, garden or orchard, or any part thereof be tal
without the consent in writing of the owner: provided, however,
in cases where it is absolutely necessary for the public good, and t
compliance with section nine of this act a public road may be loca
through an orchard without the owner’s consent. The said comn
sioners shall employ a competent surveyor, who may be one of th
number, who shall make a survey of the route of the road as located
changed. Such surveyor shall make out a report of such survey, giv
the beginning and terminus of said road as located or changed,
"arious bearings and distances of the route, and the width and grade
said road, and shall also make a full plat of said survey. The s
commissioners shall assess all damages that may be sustained by a
one from the location or alteration of any road, taking into conside
tion the conveniences and inconveniences that may result to all st
persons by the establishment or alteration of such roads. They sl
make a full report in writing of all their proceedings as herein requir
which report, together with the report and plat of the surveyor, st
be returned to the court. If the commissioners be of opinion that
road ought not to be established or altered as asked for, they shall
report and give the reasons for their opinion.

12. Notice of the time and place when and where commissioners |
vided for in the preceding section shall meet, must be given by prin
or written hand-bills posted in some conspicuous place in the vicir
of said road, at least five days before the day of meeting.

13. Any person feeling himself agerieved by the action of the c
missioners appointed under section eleven of this act may make appl
tion to said court not later than the next term after the said report s!
have been returned for the appointment of other commissioners, and
said court shall thereupon appoint three other commissioners in
same manner, with powers and duties similar in all respects to th
first appointed, who after being duly sworn for that purpose, shall 7

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ceed to discharge the duties for which they were appointed, as provided
in section eleven, after having given notice as provided in section twelve
of this act. The report of the second commissioners shall be final, and
no further application shall be received by the said court. If the report
of the second set of commissioners shall confirm the report of the first
commissioners, or shall not materially differ therefrom, the court shall
give judgment for the cost of the second set of commissioners against
the party applying therefor.

14. If any citizen of said county or any overseer of roads shall repre-
sent to the board of supervisors that any road in his district, or any part
thereof, is not of suflicient width, and the said board of supervisors
shall ascertain that the said road as originally established was of suth-
cient width, but that it has been encroached upon by the landholders on
either side by the erection of fences, the said board shall proceed to
widen said road, if in their opinion it is necessary; and to that end the
supervisors of the district in which said road is located shall notify such
landholder or landholders to remove said fencing within thirty days
after said notice in writing, in which notice shall be designated the line
to which said feneing shall be removed. If such landholder or land-
holders shall fail or refuse to remove such fencing as required, then said
supervisor shall order the overseer of such road to remove said fenci ing
at the cost of said Jandholder or landholders, which costs shall be re-
covered for the benefit of the road fund of such district, by motion he-
fore the county court after ten days’ notice. But if said board of super-
visors shall ascertain that the road as originally located was not of sufti-
cient width, and in their opinion the public convenience requires the
road to be widened, they shall apply to the county court for relief, and
the said court shall appoint three freeholders, who shall proceed to lav
out said road of suflicient width in the same manner and perform the
saine duties as provided in sections eleven and twelve of this act for the
establishment of a new road or the alteration of the location of anv
existing road.

15. If the court shall be of opinion, after examining the report of the
commissioners and other papers, and hearing such evidence as may be
offered, that the road should be established, altered or widened, as ap-
plied for according to said report, it shall enter an order on the order-
book confirming said report and describing the road to be so established,
altered or widened, according to said report. The clerk of said court
shall thereupon certify a copy of said order and all papers in the pro-
ceedings before said court to the board of supervisors, and said board
shall proceed at once to execute the order of said court. If the court
refuse to open or alter said road, it shall dismiss the application at the
costs of the applicant, which said costs when collected shall be turned
over to the road fund of the magisterial district in which the road as
proposed to be made or altered is situated.

16. The report of the surveyor with the accompanying plat and the
report of the commissioners on any road that is ordered to be established,
altered or widened, when transmitted to the board of supervisors by
the clerk of the court shall be recorded by the clerk of said board in a
hook kept for that purpose, and the order of the court shall be
copied into the minute-book of said board. The clerk of the board, for

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recording said plat and reports, shall be paid at the same rates now
paid for recording similar papers.

17. The commissioners appointed under this act shall receive one
dollar per dav for services rendered, which, together with all costs and
damages resulting from opening, changing or “widening roads shall be
paid by the district or districts in which they are incurred.

18. The board of supervisors shall have power to pay all claims for
damages arising under this act in the manner provided by law.

19. All roads in Page county which have been used and worked as
public roads by the road authorities of said county for five years prior
to the passage of this act are hereby declared to be, in all respects and
for all purposes provided hy law, public roads of said county, whether
the condemnation proceedings and other records of the opening of said
roads, and the dedication thereof to public use, can be found or not.

20. The supervisors shall not be allowed pay for attending any meet-
ing of said board in excess of the total amount now allowed by law, unless
such meeting be ordered by the county court, and said court shall not
order such meeting unless the public necessity requires it.

21. No person shall drag any log or logs over or along any of the
public roads of said county, without the consent in w riting of the over-
seer of roads of the district in which said road or roads are located, or
the supervisors of the magisterial district.

22. Such provisions of the general road law of the state as do not
conflict with this act, shall continue in force in the county of Page, and
all acts and parts of acts in conflict with this act are hereby repealed.

23. This act shall be in force from July first, eighteen hundred and
ninety-eight.