Chap. 656.—An ACT providing for the working, opening, and keeping in repair
the roads in the counties of Brunswick, Nottoway, and Amelia, and for the
building and keeping in repair the bridges i in said counties.

Approved March 8, 1896.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That it
shall be the duty of the board of supervisors of the counties of
Brunswick, Nottoway, and Amelia, at their annual meeting in July
of each year, to levy a tax not exceeding twenty cents on the one
hundred dollars’ value on the property in said county, real and per-
sonal, which tax shall be known as the road tax; and said tax in
each magisterial district of said counties shall be kept separate, and
the amount received from each district shall be expended in said
district in the manner hereinafter provided.

2. The board of supervisors of said counties shall, as soon as practi-
cable after the passage of this act, nominate a suitable person to the
county court of said counties as superintendent of the roads and
bridges of said counties. And it shall be the duty of the said court,
upon receipt of such nomination, if it approves the same, at the
next term thereof to appoint such person as such superintendent ;
and in like manner thereafter, upon the recommendation of the
board of supervisors, the court concurring, the county court shall
annually, at its July term, make said appointment; but the super-
intendent first appointed under this act shall hold office until the
first day of August, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, and those
annually appointed thereafter shall hold office for twelve months
from the first day of August succeeding the appointment. And in
case the court should not concur in the nomination made by the
board at any term, then another nomination or nominations shall
be made by the board, as herein provided, until a nomination is
made which is concurred in by the court.

3. The superintendent so appointed shall qualify at the term of
court at which he is appointed by taking an oath faithfully to dis-
charge the duties of his office, and by giving bond for that purpose
in the penalty of at least two thousand dollars, said bond to be pay-
able to the counties of Brunswick, Nottoway,and Amelia, with surety
to be approved by the court. The said bond shal) contain a waiver
of the homestead exemption, and shall be recorded as other official
bonds are now required to be recorded. The said superintendent
may be removed at any time by the board of supervisors for cause,
but the said superintendent, in case of his removal by said board,
shall have an appeal from the decision of said board as of right to
the county court of said counties, whose decision in the matter
shall be final. In case of the death or removal of said superintend-
ent, the vacancy for the unexpired term shall be filled in the same
manner that the original appointment is made.

4. It shall be the duty of the superintendent to take charge of the
maintenance, repair and construction of the public roads and bridges
of said counties, shal] keep and maintain the same in as safe condi-
tion for public travel as means furnished him by the board of super-
visors will permit. He shall have all the rights to take from conve-
nient lands such materia] as he may deem necessary for use on said
roads or bridges, and to make such use of said lands for draining
purposes as are conferred by existing laws upon road surveyors.

5. Said superintendent shall have charge of and provide for all
mules, horses, oxen, implements, tools or machines which may be
placed in his charge by the board of supervisors. And he may
be authorized by said board to hire teams for carrying on the work
at any time at such rates per day as said board may from time to
time determine. He shall be authorized by the board, and it shall
be his duty, to employ all necessary labor by the day, week, or
month, as the board may direct, at a compensation to be fixed by said
board from time to time. And to meet such expenses the board may
place in the hands of the said superintendent sums of money not to
exceed four hundred dollars for any one month; but no greater sum
shall be expended in any magisterial district than the sum levied
and collected in said district as aforesaid.

6. The superintendent shall act for the counties in all cases where
the existing law requires commissioners to be named by the county
court to report upon and award contracts, to repair or build bridges
or open and repair roads and to receive the same, and to see that the
work is done in such cases after such contracts are awarded in ac-
cordance with such contracts, and his acts in such premises shall
have the same force and effect as the act of commissioners if they
were appointed under existing laws.

7. Said superintendent shall make a report every two months to
the board of supervisors of his transactions as such, furnishing item-
ized statements of the amounts received by him and how he has ex-
pended the same, under oath and sustained by proper vouchers.

8. Whenever the superintendent deems it necessary to call to his
assistance a civil engineer or surveyor in order to construct a road
or bridge, he may do so with the consent of the board of supervisors
and at a compensation to be fixed by them. He shall at all times be
under the direction of the said board, who are hereby authorized to
prescribe any system and regulations for conducting the work as to
them may seem best.

9. The said board shall purchase for the superintendent such
horses, mules, teams, wagons, carts, scrapers, machines and imple-
ments as they may think necessary for carrying on the operations
aforesaid, and shall take his receipt for the same when delivered to
him.

10. The said board shall determine what compensation shall be
allowed the said superintendent and fix the time for the payment of
the same, may make the same uniform during the year or otherwise,
and may compensate him by the day or by the month while he is
actually engaged in the work if they deem advisable. But such com-
pensation shall in no event exceed the sum of five hundred dollars,
except in Nottoway county it shall not exceed eight hundred dollars
per year, which shall be paid out of the general county levy and not
from the road tax levied under this act.

11. The said board shall, as soon as practicable after the passage
of this act, at a meeting to be held for the purpose, ascertain and de-
termine what roads in each magisterial district shall be worked
under the provisions of this act, and shall also determine at said
meeting what bridges in said counties shall be paid for out of the
tax levied for roads and bridges in each district and what bridges
shall be paid for out of the general county levy; anda copy of the
list of said roads in each district to be worked by said superintend-
ent shall be furnished him by the clerk of the said board, as well as
a list of the bridges in each district that are to be kept in repair or
rebuilt out of the road tax and of the bridges to be. repaired or re-
built out of the general levy. And the said board of supervisors
shall have entire control of the letting to contract the building or
rebuilding and keeping in repair the bridges in the district that are
to be paid for out of said road tax, but the county court shall let
the building, rebuilding, or repairing of the bridges to be paid for out
of the general county levy in the manner now provided by law, ex-
cept that the superintendent shall act as commissioner as heretofore
provided in this act; and whenever the said superintendent shall
report to the judge of the county court in vacation that any of the
bridges that are to be kept in repair or built or rebuilt out of the
general county levy need repairing or rebuilding, it shall be the duty
of the said judge to enter a vacation order directing said superin-
tendent: to receive proposals for the work; and it shall be the duty
of the county judge, and he is hereby authorized, to confirm the re-
ports of the superintendent letting the work to contract in vacation
if, in the judgment of the said judge, it is necessary or proper that
it be done, and shall direct the work to proceed or refer the matter
to the board of supervisors as the law now provides in such cases;
and it shall be the duty of the said superintendent to keep a general
supervision over the bridges in said county and report to the board
of supervisors when any of the bridges which are to be paid for out of
the road tax as aforesaid need rebuilding or repairing, and to the
county court or the judge thereof in vacation when any of the bridges
to be paid for out of the general county levy need repairing or re-
building.

12. The said board of supervisors, with the consent of the county
court, or judge thereof in vacation, shal] have power, and they are
hereby authorized, to employ upon the county roads, or any portion
thereof, all vagrants and convicted criminals confined in the county
jail and all persons confined in said jail in default of the payment
of fines imposed upon them, said parties to be worked under the
supervision of said superintendent under such rules and regulations
as the said board may prescribe. But in such case the board, main-
tenance, and cost of guarding such persons, where necessary, shall be
paid for out of the road tax for the district in which they are worked
for the time being, and shall not be a charge upon the state, as now
provided by law, in case they remain in jail and are not worked upon
the roads as aforesaid.

13. The road tax levied for the year eighteen hundred and ninety-
six shall be used and expended by said board of supervisors in ac-
cordance with the provisions of this act.

14, The existing laws regarding the foregoing subjects shall be,
and they are hereby, repealed in so far as they are applicable to the
counties of Brunswick, Prince Edward, Nottoway, and Amelia.

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