Chap. 230.—An ACT to provide for the establishing, altering and biilding the
public roads and bridges in the county of Shenandoah and for working iid
keeping the sume i repair.

Approved February §, 1595.

1. Beit enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That for the
purpose of establishing, altering, building, having worked and repaired
the public roads and bridges in the county of Shenandoah, whether
heretofore or hereafter established or built, the board of supervisors of
said county are authorized and empowered to levy a road tax not ex-
ceeding in any vear thirty cents upon the one hundred dollars of assessed
taxable values, including all railroad and telegraph companies in said
county, and to adopt such regulations as do not conflict with this law
as may be necessary to secure the estabhshiment, alteration, building and
keeping in repair the publie roads and bridges in said county.

After the treasurer shall have collected the road tax for any one vear
and finds out what the net procecds are for cach district, having first
divided the road tax equally between the respective districts of said
county, he shall notify the clerk of the board of supervisors, who shall
issue a warrant on the treasurer, payable to the road board of each dis-
trict, for the amount of the net proceeds of said road tax for the various
Jistricts of said county, and which shall be expended in each district as
hereinafter stated. As large an amount as possible shall be set aside
annually by the road board of each district for the purpose of macada-
mizing certain specified roads in such district, and the residue of the
rond tax to be used for establishing, altering, building, working and
keeping in repair the public roads and bridges heretofore or hereafter
established, altered or built in said county.

2. The supervisor and commissioner of roads of each niagisterial dis-
trict shall constitute a district road board, and shall meet ten days prior
to the first Monday in July of each vear for the purpose of advertising
the letting of the roads in the district to eontract for the ensuing vear.
The road board of cach district shall, if it sees proper, employ a clerk,
who shall be a person authorized to administer an oath, and who shall
receive for his services two dollars per day for each day he is in attend-
ance upon the said board, to be paid out of the district fimd, and which
shall be in full of all services, including qualifving claimants to their
accounts against said board.

3. The board hereby created and constituted is declared to be a body
politic and corporate and shall be known and designated as the road
board of ———— —— mazcvisterial district.

4. The road board of each district shall, annually, on the first Mon-
day in July meet for the purpose of opening and considering the bids
for working and kecping in repair the roads and bridges of the district;
notice of which meeting, and the purpose thereof, shall be posted for
ten days prior to the time of meeting at each postoflice and at three
other public places in the district. The bids shall be in writing and
siened by the contractors, and shall be delivered under seal to the
road board of the district, not later than the day preceding the meeting
of said board, for its approval or rejection. Tn case of a letting, the

same may be for the whole or in sections, at the discretion of the beard,

and may be for a period of one or two years, as the board may deter-
mine, but in no case shall the letting extend bevond the period for
which the road board contracting for the same was elected. The said
board shall have the right to reject anv and all bids, and af it shall ap-
pear that no bid is accepted, then the road board: shall have the roads
of the district worked and the bridges repaired as it may see proper,
Where there is a letting of the roads or bridges to contract the contractor
shall be required to give bond, with good and acceptable security, ma
penalty of at least double the amount of his bid for the faithful) per-
formance of his contract, and in any case not more than three-fourths
of the money under the contract shall be paid to any contractor until
the road, bridge or work has been accepted and approved by the road
hoard contracting for the same, and a recovery may be had for any
breach of said contract in the name of the district, by motion, after ten
davs’ notice to the contractor and his securities. The attorney for the
commonwealth shall institute and prosecute said motion. The contracts
and bonds shall be filed with the clerk of the road board.

5. All contracts for the working and keeping in repair the roads and
bridges shall be made only with citizens of the district in which the
roads and bridges let to contract reside.

GO. It shall be the duty of the commissioner of roads to give personal
supervision to all the roads and bridges in his district, to see that the
contractor is faithfully performing his contracts, and for any failure in
carrying it out the commissioner shall report the same to the road board
of the distric ‘t, and said road board shall at once institute, through the
attorney for the commonwealth, procee:lings for the recovery for a breach
of said contract. Each commissioner shall see that the roads in his dis-
trict are kept clear, smoothed of rocks and obstructions, of necessary
width, well drained, and otherwise in good order, and shall take such
action as will secure them from the falling of timber therein. Across
each stream, when it is necessary and practicable, a sufficient bridze,
bench or log shall be placed for the accommodation of foot passengers.
For each and every breach of duty under this section the commissioner
shall be deemed to be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be fined not
less than five dollars nor more than twenty dollars.

7. The commissioner of roads shall receive as compensation not ex-
ceeding two dollars per day while actually engaged, but in no case shall
his compensation exceed one hundred dollars per annum, which shall
be paid from the fund arising from the levy provided for in the first
section of this act.

8. AlJ levies made and collected under this act shall be collected and
accounted for by the county treasurer as the other levies are, and shall
be paid out on the order of the road board of the district.

9. No member of the board of supervisors or the commissioner of
roads shall be directly or indirectly interested in any contract made under
this act, and any participation therein by either shall render the contract
null and void.

10. When the court shall order the opening of a new road, the altera-
tion of a road or bridge, or the building of a new bridge, the opening,
altering or building the same shall be let to contract by the road board
of the district in which said road is to be made or altered, or the bridge
ix to be built, in the same manner as the working and repairing of roads
and bridges is provided for in section four of this act, the contractor
giving bond with security to be approved by the road board of the dis-
trict. All petitions for the establishing or altering of roads and the
building of bridges shall be referred by. the court, if, in the opinion of
the court, they are believed to be meritorious, to the road board of the
district in which the same is asked to be established, altered or built for
its approval or disapproval, and said board shall make report thereof,
accompanied with their reasons for said report, and shall also give any
and all information necessary to enable the court to have an adequate
apprehension of the matter, and shall return with their report a diagram
of the route, and, if necessary, shall employ the county surveyor, to
which report exceptions may be taken, if any, and the court, at its dis-
eretion, may hear evidence, and if the opinion of the court be against
the establishing or altering of the road or the building of the bridge,
the petition shall be dismissed; but if favorable to the establish-
ing or altering of the road or the building of the bridge, then the
landownera along the route of the proposed road, or in case of a
bridge the landowners along the approaches thereto, shall be duly
summoned to show cause why the report of the road board of the dis-
trict shall not be confirmed; and the further proceedings, if any, shall,
in every instance, be at the cost of the party on whose motion they are
incurred, and shall be taxed in favor of the party prevailing. When a
surveyor and chain-carriers are employed under.this section the pay of
the surveyor shall be two dollars and fifty cents per day and that of the
chain-carriers one dollar each per day for the time actually employed.
In case commissioners are asked for and appointed by the court they
shall receive one dollar each per day for the time actually employed, to
he paid by the party against whom the cost for the further proceedings
is taxed.

11. The board of supervisors shall fix the compensation of the com-
missioner of roads, and have what further powers are necessary to be
employed in executing this act. For the additional service required of
the supervisors under this act they shall receive the sum of two dollars
per day while actually engaged, but in no case shall the compensation of
any one of them exceed the sum of fifty dollars per annum, to be paid
fromi the fund arising under the levy provided for in the first section of
this act.

12. At the regular election in May there shall be elected in each mag-
isterial district one commissioner of roads, who shall reside in the dis-
trict for which he is elected, and whose term of office shall be for two
years, beginning on the first day of July succeeding his election. Each
commissioner of roads appointed or elected shall qualify at the time and
in the nanner prescribed by law for the qualification of magisterial dis-
trict officers, and shall, at the time of his qualification, or before he
enters upon the discharge of his duties, give bond, with good personal
security, in the penalty of one thousand dollars.

13. If the road board of any district, or the board of supervisors, shall
neglect to perform any of the duties required of them by this act, the
county court may, upon the application of any person interested, by
mandamus, compel said boards, or either of them, to perform said
duties.

14. When the court decides in favor of opening a new road or build-
ing a bridge or makes an order for additional expenditures for material
and labor, as provided in section nine hundred and eighty-seven of the
eode of Virginia, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, the cost of open-
ing or building and.the money appropriated for said additional expen-
ditures shall be paid in whole from the county fund; but the cost for
altering the public roads, where the same is ordered by the court, and
for working and kecping in repair the public roads and bridges of the
county shall be borne in whole by the district In which the altering,
working and repairing is done. All costs attending the petition for the
opening and altering of roads and the building of bridges, including the
cost of the surveyor and the chain-carriers, where they are emploved,
shall, where the petitioners do not prevail, be at the cost of the partics
petitioning for the same; and upon the dismissal of the petition the
whole of said costs shall be taxed against the petitioners, and the clerk
of the county court shall issue execution for the same as in other cascs
where there is a judgment for costs.

15. All acts and parts of acts, whether by special act or not, incon-
sistent with this act, and particularly the act approved February six-
teen, eighteen hundred a ltg ninety-two, entitled anicaetoto provide for
the working and keeping in repair the public roads and bridges in the
county of Shenandoah, as well as the act appreved December tenth,

eighteen hundred and ninety-three, amendatory thereof, are hereby ex-
pressly repealed; but such provisions of the general road law of this
state as it appears In the code of Virginia, eighteen hundred and eightv-

seven (and any acts amendatory thercof to the time of the approval of
this act), not in conflict with this act, shall continue in force in the
county of Shenandoah.

16. This act shall be in foree from and after its passage.