Chap. 216.—An ACT for working and keeping in repair the roads in
Tazewell county.

Approved February 24, 1888.

1. Be it enacted by the ee assembly of Virginia, That
the board of supervisors of the county of Tazewell shall take
charge of, and have kept in repair, all the roads and bridges
established, or that may hereafter be established in said
county; and for this purpose the said board are hereby
authorized and empowered to levy a road tax not to exceed
in any one year, fifteen cents upon the one hundred dollars
of assessed taxable values in said county.

2. The said board of supervisors shall, as soon as possible
after the passage of this act, appoint three discreet citizens
in each magisterial district, who shall at once proceed to lay
off all the public roads in their respective districts into road
precincts, no road precinct to contain more than five miles of
road, and apportion the hands thereon; which hands:shall
be required to work on the roads of the precinct to which
they have been assigned, not more than two days in any one

ear.
. 3. When the roads have been laid off into road precincts,
as hereinbefore provided, the board of supervisors shall
appoint a competent surveyor for each road precinct, who
shall hold his office until his successor shall be appointed:
provided however, that any surveyor who has served two
years and has the roads of his precinct in good order may
resign. The board of supervisors shall report a list of all
road precincts and the surveyors appointed therefor, and the
changes made in such precincts and surveyors from time to
time to the county court; and thereupon a writ shall be
issued by said court to the sheriff, commanding him to give
notice to the persons so appointed, which writ the sheriff
shall forthwith execute and return to the clerk.

4. The board of supervisors shall appropriate to each
magisterial district, all the funds collected from that district
on the road tax, and apportion the same among the various
road precincts as in their judgment the public interest
demands, and may have all the hands allotted to the cross or
neighboring roads, and appropriate sufficient funds to the
more public highways to hire the necessary labor to keep the
same in good order, and may authorize any road surveyor to
purchase such tools as may be necessary to the successful
working of the roads of his precinct: provided however,
that when new bridges have to be built, or new roads
opened, the board of supervisors may appropriate twenty
per centum of the entire fund collected under this act, to
opening such roads or constructing such bridges anywhere in
said county. ;

5. It shall be the duty of each surveyor appointed under
this act, to notify all the hands allotted to his precinct when
and where they shall meet: to work the roads of said pre-
cinct, and shall, with any money appropriated by the board
of supervisors to his precinct, hire hands to work on said
roads. But no hired hands shall be worked in connection
with or at the same time that persons are performing the
work required of them under this act. He shall superintend
and direct all hands while at work, see that the roads are
kept clear of obstructions, of necessary width, well drained
and otherwise in good order, and secure from the falling of
dead timber thereon. He shall, on the first day of Decem-
ber, or at the first meeting of the board of supervisors held
thereafter, make a report under oath to said board, showing
the amount of money appropriated to his precinct and the
amount received by him on fines as hereinafter provided; the
manner in which the said amounts were expended; the
number of days work done; the percentage of said work
done by hired laborers, and the price paid per day therefor,
and also the condition of said roads.

6. All male persons, between the age of sixteen and sixty
years, shall, upon being notified by the road surveyor, attend,
either in person or by a sufficient substitute, with proper
tools, and work the roads on such days as the surveyor may
direct, not to exceed two days in any one year: provided
however, that ministers of the gospel, and persons who have
lost a leg or an arm, and persons living in an incorporated
town that provides for its poor and keeps its streets in
order, are exempted from such work; and other persons who

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are otherwise disabled may be exempted by order of the
board of supervisors on account of such disability. For
every day on which there may be a failure, seventy-five
cents shall be paid to the surveyor within twenty days
thereafter by the person in default, if a person of full age,
and ifa minor, by his parent or guardian. If the money be
not paid in the time specified, the surveyor shall make out a
ticket against such delinquent party, or the persons liable to
pay the same, for amount of said fine, and place it in the
hands of the constable of his district, or sheriff of the county,
who is hereby required to receive the same for collection and
give his receipt to the surveyor therefor, and said ticket
shall have the force of an execution. The officer who is
charged with the collection of said fine, shall proceed as in
collecting taxes or county levies. Such officer shall have a
fee of twenty-five cents in all cases where the fine is collected
by him, to be paid by the party, in addition to the fine. He
shall pay over to the surveyor all such fines, within thirty
days after they have come into his hands, or return the same
to the surveyors as insolvent, where the fine cannot be col-
lected by levy. If the officer shall fail to make payment of
the fine, or return the same insolvent within sixty days from
the date he received it, he and his sureties on his official
bond shall be liable for such fine, whether collected by him
or not, to be recovered by the surveyor, upon motion before
a justice of the peace. He shall return to the board of
supervisors, annually, by the first day of December, a list of
all fines so collected, with the names of surveyors to whom
the same have been paid.

7. Hach surveyor shall be paid one dollar for each day
actually employed in working on roads, and for his failure
to comply with the requirements of this act, or to keep the
roads in as good condition as possible with the means at his
command, he shall be fined not less than ten nor more than
fifty dollars, which shall be applied to keeping his road in
good order.

8. All levies made and collected under this act shall be
collected and accounted for by the county treasurer as other
levies are, and shall be paid out to the surveyors on the war-
rant of the board of supervisors.

9. The board of supervisors shall keep a book known as the
toad book, in which shall be kept an account of the road tax
levied in each magisterial district and the amount collected
thereof, and how apportioned among the various road pre-
ancts, and a list of the tools furnished to each surveyor,
who, upon new surveyor being appointed, shall account to
the board of supervisors for all tools furnished him. The
annual reports hereinbefore required to be make by each sur-
Yeyor to the board of supervisors shall be recorded in said
book, which shall be open at all times to the inspection of
tax-payers of said county.

10. The board of supervisors may establish toll-gates, and
tegulate the rates of toll on such roads as, in their judgment,
the public interest demands. The board of supervisors may
allow the clerk of their board a just compensation for the
extra work required of him under this act.

11. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are
hereby repealed.

12. This act shall be in force from its passage.