Chap. 752.—An ACT providing for the working, opening, and keeping in re-
pair the roads in the county of Lunenburg, and for the building and keeping
in repair the bridges in said county.

Approved March 4, 1896.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That it
shall be the duty of the board of supervisors of the county of Lunen-
burg, at its annual meeting in July in each year, to levy a tax of not
yxceeding twenty cents on the one hundred dollars value of the prop-
arty in said county, real and personal, which tax shall be known as
fhe road-tax, and said tax shall be expended in the manner herein-
zfter provided.

2. The board of supervisors of said county shall, as soon as prac-
-icable after the passage of this act, nominate a suitable person to
-he county court of said county as superintendent of the roads and
bridges of saidcounty. And itshall 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 super-
visors, the court concurring, the county court shall annually, at its
July term, make said appointment; but the superintendent first ap-
pointed 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 shal] 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 county of Lunenburg with surety to be approved by the
court. The said bond shall contain a wavier of the homestead ex-
emption, 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 county, whose decision in the matter shall be final.
In case of the death or removal of said superintendent 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 county, shall keep and maintain the same in as safe condi-
tion for public travel as the means furnished him by the board of
supervisors will permit. He shall have all the rights to take from
convenient lands such material as he may deem necessary for use on
said roads or bridges, and to make such use of said lands for drain-
ing 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.

6. The superintendent shall act for the county 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 or repair roads and to receive the same, and to see that the
work is done in such cases after such contracts are awarded in
accordance 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 the existing law.

7. Said superintendent shall make a report every two months to
the board of supervisors of his transaction as such, furnishing item-
ized statements of the amounts received by him and how he has
expended 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 beat. ,

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. Butsuch com-
pensation shall in no event exceed the sum of five 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 pas-
sage of this act, at a meeting to be held for the purpose, ascertain
and determine 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 county shall be paid for out of the tax
levied for roads and bridges and what bridges ‘shall be paid for out
of the general county levy; and s copy of the lists of said roads in
each district to be worked by said superintendent 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 rebuilt 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
f the bridges, to be paid for out of the general county levy in the
nanner now provided by law, except that the superintendent shall
ct as commissioner as heretofore provided in this act; and when-
ver the said superintendent shall report to the judge of the county
-ourt in vacation that any of the bridges that are to be kept in repair
yr built or rebuilt out of the general county levy need repairing or re-
>rilding, if shall be the duty of the said judge to enter a vacation order
lirecting said superintendent to receive proposals for the work;
and it shal] be the duty of the county judge, and he is hereby author-
ized to confirm the reports of the superintendent letting the work to
sontract, 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 supervisiors 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 rebuilding.

12. The said board of supervisors, with the consent of the county
court, or the judge thereof in vacation, shall have power, and they
are hereby authorized, to employ upon the county roads, or any por-
tion 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, maintenance, and cost of guarding such persons, where neces-
sary, shall be paid for out of the road tax, 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
accordance 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
county of Lunenburg.

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