Chap. 321.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and
8 of an act entitled an act to establish a board of river and harbor
commissioners for Nansemond river, approved February 9, 1882. -

Approved March 1, 1888.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
sections one, two, four, five, six, and eight of the act approved
AVIV VE MOVE Disle

February ninth, eighteen hundred and eighty-two, entitled
an act to establish a board of river and harbor commissioners
for Nansemond river, be amended and re-enacted so as to read
as follows:

§ 1. It shall be the duty of the county court of Nansemond
county, at the May term of said court annually, to appoint
five competent persons, who shall be known as the board of
river and harbor commissioners for Nansemond river and its
tributaries. The said commissioners shall qualify before said
court and hold office until their successors are appointed and

ualified.

1 § 2. It shall be the duty of said board, and they shall have
the power, to establish certain lines for building wharves and _
piers at the port of Suffolk, or at any other point on the said
river and its tributaries; and for this purpose, if in their dis-
cretion they shall think it necessary, they may employ a sur-
veyor or civil engineer, whose compensation shall be fixed by
said board and paid out of the county treasury.

§ 4. Any corporation, company, or individual who shall
build or attempt to build any wharf, pier, or bridge on the

said river and its tributaries, or shall drive any piles, or set
any weirs, or place other obstructions of any Kind, such as
raft logs or other timbers, in said river or its tributaries, with-
out first obtaining written permission of said commissioners,
shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction
shall be fined not less than ten nor more than five hundred
dollars, and the county court of Nansemond county shall have
jurisdiction to try all cases under this act.

§ 5. All permissions granted by the said board of commis-
sioners under this act, to build wharves, piers, or bridges,
shall be duly recorded in the clerk’s office of Nansemond
county court, in a book to be kept for that purpose, and the
clerk shall receive therefor a fee of one dollar for each entry,
and a certified copy thereof to be made for the applicant.

§ 6. The said loan of commissioners shall have power,
where owners of wharf property, or any old hulk, weir-stakes,
or other obstructions, by neglect or otherwise, allow their
property to rot or waste away and fill up the river or its
tributaries at any point, to order the owners thereof to repair
or remove the same; and if said owners neglect or refuse to
make said repairs or removal within a reasonable time, said
board shall have the same done at the expense of the owner;
and if the owner refuse to pay the expense, the property shall
be sold by order of the board to pay the same, and any other
property of the owner shall be liable for the payment of said
damages, to be recovered before a justice of the peace, with
a right of appeal to the county court.

§ 8. No compensation shall be allowed to the said board of
commissioners for their services under this act, except for
actual travelling expenses, whenever it shall be necessary for
the said board to make a trip down said river or its tribu-
taries for the purpose of viewing the location for a proposed
wharf, pier, or bridge, in which case the said expenses shall

Google
be paid out of the county treasury, as also the hiring of small
boats to make inspection of wharves, and so forth, advertis-
ing for the removal of obstructions, and stationery.

2. The title of said act shall be so amended as to read:
An act to establish a board of river and harbor commissioners |
for Nansemond river and its tributaries.

3. This act shall be in force from its passage. ,