CHAP. 423.—An ACT to provide for the working and keeping in
order the roads in Spotsylvania county.

Approved February 29, 1892.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia,
That it shall be lawful for the county of Spotsylvania to
work and keep in repair highways, roads and bridges, as
follows:

2. The board of supervisors in said county shall take
charge of and have worked and kept in repair all roads
and bridges heretofore or hereafter established, and for
this purpose are 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.

3. The judge of the county court of Spotsylvania county,
the commonwealth’s attorney, and supervisor for each dis-
trict shall compose a board, to be known as the district
board, each district being represented by its own super-
visor, in conjunction with said judge and commonwea!th’s
attorney, constituting a board of three members, whose
duty it shall be to elect one road commissioner and six
(unless in their judgment a less number will do) compe-
tent and efficient road overseers for each district in said
county.

4. The said road commissioner, after being elected as
hereinbefore provided, shall qualify before the board of
supervisors by giving a bond in the penalty of five bun-
dred dollars, with good personal security, for the faithful
performance of his duties as hereinafter prescribed. It
shall be the duty of said road commissioner, as soon as he
has qualified, to proceed to lay off the roads of his district
into as many divisions as there are overseers, and the di-
visions into sections, not to exceed five miles each, and
number the same and to apportion the hands thereon.

5. The commissioner of roads shall have charge of all
the roads in his district. It shall be his duty to see that
all roads in his district are of proper width, and in all
cases where said roads are not of proper width, shall notify
the party trespassing, by written notice, to remove such
obstructions as lessens the legal width of said road ; and if
the obstruction is not removed after reasonable notice, not
to exceed sixty days, he shall direct the overseer to re-
move such obstruction, and recover from the trespasser
the expenses and costs by motion before a justice of the
peace. He shall see that all bridges are kept in good or-
der, and where bridges are over streams that divide two
districts, the commissioners of the two districts shall act
jointly, and bridges or repairs shall be paid for by said
districts jointly. The said commissioner shall let and re-
ceive all bids or contracts for work to be done in his dis-
trict. He shall examine the roads and bridges not less
than twice during each year. The first examination made
each year shall be before the work for the year is com-
menced (and not later than the first day of April), at
which time he shall carefully note in a book he shall keep
for the purpose the condition of each section of the roads
of his district, and the final examination shall be made
when the work for the year shall be completed. He shall
report to the board of supervisors in writing whether or
not the several road overseers of his district have done the
work assigned them as well and as cheaply as possible,
and for his services he shall receive twenty dollars per
year. .

6. As soon as the road overseers shall have been elected
and have qualified, giving a bond and security to the board
of supervisors for the faithful performance of their duties in
a penalty of not less than three hundred dollars, they shall
take charge of such division of the roads as the road com-
missioner shall] allot them, and work and keep in good
repair the same, and see that all bridges are in safe
condition and that the roads are kept free from obstruc-
tion, and shall have the custody of all implements pur-
chased by the road commissioner, by order of the super-
visors, for use of the roads under their care, and the same
shall be accounted for to their successors. Any commis-
sioner or overseer, after having served two years, if his
roads are in proper and good repair, may resign by first
giving notice to the district board, and may vacate his
office when his successor has properly qualified.

_7. It shall be the duty of each overseer to notify, by giv-
ing twenty-four hours’ notice, the hands allotted to the
several sections of his road, when and where they shall
meet to work said roads, and shall, with any funds appro-
priated by the board of supervisors, hire hands and do
such other necessary work as cannot be done with the la-
bor heretofore provided. Such hired hands shall not work
at the same time with the regular road hands as herein re-
quired to work two days in each year. The price to be
paid for each hand shall be the customary price paid for
other hands in the district where the work isdone. The
overseer shall superintend all laborers and direct their work,
counting ten hours for one day’s service. He shall, on or
before the first day of December, make an itemized report
to the board of supervisors of all the work done on the
roads under his care and the money expended on the same
(each section separately), the number of hands in his di-
vision, the number who responded and worked the re-
quired two days, the number who failed to do so, the
number and amount of fines collected by the overseer
the number and amount of fines given to a proper collect-
ing officer for collection, and whether or not the said offi-
cer has complied with the law. The said report shall be
submitted to the road commissioner of the district at least
ten days before the December meeting of the board of
supervisors, and the said road commissioner shall carefully
examine the said report and report to the board of super-
visors whether or not it be correct.

8. Each overseer shall be paid one dollar per day for
each day of service actually rendered (but he shall not be
paid but for one day’s service in summoning hands on
any one section of his road), and for a failure to comply
with any of the requirements of this act, or a failure to
keep the roads in as good condition as the means at his
command will enable him to do, he shall pay a fine of not
less than ten nor more than fifty dollars; such fine to bé
expended on the roads in his care.

9. All male persons between the ages of sixteen and
sixty years shall be liable to road service, and, upon be-
ing notified by the overseer, attend either in person or by
sufficient substitute, and work the roads in such manner
and on such days as the overseer may direct, not to ex-
ceed two days in any one year: provided, however, that
ministers of the gospel (who have charge of a church
and a congregation), 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, and
such other persons as the district [board shall exempt.
For every day there shall be a failure to answer such no-
tice from the overseer, seventy-five cents shall be paid to
the overseer within twenty days thereafter by the person
in default, if a person of full age, and if a minor by his
parent or guardian. If the money is not paid in the time
specified, the overseer shall make out a ticket against the
delinquent party or persons liable to pay said fine, and
said tickets, when placed in the hands of the constable of
his district, or sheriff of the county, shall have the force
of an execution. The officer shall proceed as in the col-
lection of taxes and county levies. Such officer shall
have a fee of twenty-five cents, to be paid at the same
time by the party in addition to the fine. Such officer
shall pay over to the overseer all fines collected within
thirty days after they come into his hands, or return the
accounts as insolvent when they cannot be collected by
levy. If the officer shall fail to make payment or return
the claim as insolvent in sixty days from the date he re-
ceived it, he and his sureties on his official bond shall be
liable for such ticket or tickets, whether collected by him
or not, to be recovered by the overseer by a motion before
a justice of the peace.

10. All levies made and collected under this act shall
be collected and accounted for by the county treasurer as
other levies, and shall be paid out by order of the board
of supervisors.

11. The board of supervisors shall keep a book, to be
known as the road book, in which shall be kept an account
of the road tax levied in each district, and the amount
collected thereof, and how apportioned on the roads, and
shall apportion to each district all the funds collected from
that district as a road tax, out of which shall be paid the
commissioner, the road overseer, and the purchase price of
all tools and implements, wages to hands, material, etcet-
era: provided that when new bridges are to be built or
new roads opened, an appropriation not to exceed twenty
per centum of the entire road tax collected may be expended
therefor. The said board shall, not later than the first
day of May in each year, apportion the road fund of
the several districts to the roads, naming the amount to
be expended upon each section, giving to the roads most
in use the largest sums of money. Notice shall be given
the road commissioners and overseers at which meeting
such apportion will be made, and they shall attend the
same and give the board the benefit of their knowledge in
performing said duty.

12. Every petition for a new road, or to lay out, alter,
or change a public road, must be first presented to the
road commissioner of such district as the road may be in,
who shall endorse thereon his approval or disapproval,
and his reasons therefor, which petition shall then be laid
before the district board. Said board shall then elect
three discreet and competent citizens, who shall accom-
pany the county surveyor and view and make a full report
concerning such petition to the said board, which board
shall order or reject said road, or change the said road, as
in their judgment is best for the public good. No public
road shall be less than thirty feet wide.

13. The general road law of the state, except so far as
the same is in conflict with the act, shall be in force in
Spotsylvania county, and an act entitled “an act to pro-
vide for the working and keeping in order the roads in the
county of Spotsylvania,” approved March third, eighteen
hundred and ninety, is hereby repealed.
14. This act shall take effect from its passage.