Chap. 550.—An ACT to provide for working the roads, repairing bridges, and
opening new roads in the county of Augusta, and repealing so much of the
acts as affects the county of Augusta, approved February 26, 1884, Feb-
ruary 19, 1886, February 28, 1890, March 3, 1894, and March 2, 1898.

Approved February 26, 1900.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That it shall
be lawful for the county of Augusta, after the first dav of July, nineteen
hundred, to locate, open, change, and repair highw avs, roads, and
bridges, as follows:

2. For each road district in the county of Augusta there shall be
ereated and established a board cons sisting of the supervisor, a com-
missioner of roads, and one director for each district, which board
shall have control of the roads and bridges within its limits, and all
taxes levied for road purposes and for building and repairing bridves
shall be expended in each district, except as hereinafter provided. The
director constituting a member of the board, shall be elected for a
term of two years, in the manner and at the times, and shall qualify
and take office in the manner prescribed for the election and qualifica-
tion of the commissioner of roads, except that no hond shall be required
of him; he shall be a resident of the road district for which he is chosen
and a qualified voter; and the commissioner of roads shall be elected
by the qualified voters of the several road districts, as hereinafter pro-
vided. The board hereby created and constituted is declared to he
a body politic and corporate, and shall be known and designated as the
road board for ————————— road district. The road districts named
in this act shall be of the same extent and limits as the magisterial
districts, as now constituted, and the qualified voters herein referred
to shall be taken to mean such persons as may be qualified voters of
each magisterial district. The first term of office of the commissioners
of roads and directors provided for in this act shall commence on the
first day of July, nineteen hundred and one, and shall continue two
years, and the elections thereto shall be made in Mav next preceding;
each succeeding term shall commence on the first dav of July succeed-
ing the election, and shall continue two years. Each commissioner of
roads thus elected shall qualify at the time and in the manner pre-
scribed for the qualification of magisterial district officers, and shall,
at the time of his qualification, give bond with good security in not less
than one thousand dollars nor more than three thousand dollars. The
present incumbents of these offices shall continue in the discharge of
their duties until their suecessors are elected and qualify and relieve
them by virtue of this act.

3. The commissioner of roads, as the executive officer of the board,
shall have charge of all the roads in his district. His duty shall be to
see that all the roads in his district are of proper width, and in places
where they are not, to give notice, in writing, to the person obstructing
the roads, requiring him to remove the obstructions: ; and, if the obst rue-
tions are not removed within ten davs after the giving of said notice.
he shall direct the overseer of roads to remove the obstructions, and
may recover the expenses incident thereto with costs from the person
or persons so obstructing the roads by judgment of a justice of the
peace, in a proceeding instituted in the name of the road board of the
district: provided, however, that the road board of any district may,
in its discretion, retain any existing road at its present width. He shall
examine the roads in his district at least twice in each year, in the
months of May and October, and oftener, if the exigencies of the service
require it, subject to the approval of the road board, and shall see
that the roads are drained on the sides and all standing pools of water
well removed from the roads, and that the middle of the roads are suffi-
ciently raised to shed the water immediately into the side ditches, and
that the bridges are kept in good repair by the overseer. If he shall
find any overseer delinquent in discharging his duties, the said com-
missioner shall give him notice in writing; and on his failure to dis-
charge his duties in a reasonable time he shall report him to the road
board, who shall, unless good cause be shown, remove him from office
and forthwith appoint another in his place. The compensation of the
commissioner of roads shall be two dollars per day, for each day in
which he has been or may be actually employed in discharging his
duties under the provisions of this law, except at such times as he is
acting in the capacity of a member of the road board (the compensation
for which service is hereinafter provided); but in no case shall the
pay of the commissioner of roads exceed one hundred and twenty-five
dollars per annum, to be paid by the road board of the respective road
districts upon the approval of the other two members thereof, or, if
they should disagree, upon the approval of the judge of the county court,
who may determine the matter without formal pleading: provided, how-
ever, that persons applying for a new road, or to lav out, open, alter, or
change a public road, shall, when the same is rejected, be charged with
the per diem compensation of the commissioner of roads.

4, There shall be appointed by the road board, on the fourth Monday
of July in each year, or as soon thereafter as practicable, one overseer of
roads for each road precinct, whose term of office shall be one year,
beginning on the first day of August succeeding his appointment. He
shall reside in the district for which he shall have been appointed, and
shall have charge of the roads of his precinct. If any such overseer
refuse or fail to work the roads in his district when directed by the
commissioner of roads, he shall be liable to a fine, on presentment by
the grand jury, not exceeding fifty dollars. The duty of the overseer
shall be to see that the roads in his precinct are well drained on both
sides, and when they pass over wet or boggy ground that they are there
underdrained and graveled, as far as practicable, having reference to
permanence and extension of the work. He shall keep the road hed
full in the centre to produce a brisk water shed into the side ditches,
which shall be continuous, without obstruction, and sufficiently large to
conduct the water from the road and afford an elevated track. He shall
see that all loose stones are removed and placed for permanent im-
provement; that the roads are kept free from obstructions, standing
dead trees, and other dangerous timber, and otherwise in good order,
and that the bridges are in safe condition. (He shall not be required
to apply to the commissioner, or road board, for an order to make minor
repairs in his road precinct out of the regular road-working season, but
576 ACTS OF ASSEMBLY.

shall remove obstructions, repair bridges, open ditches, and fill mud
holes, when such repairs are needed.) For these purposes he may
employ, at the cost and charge of the road board, such number of
laborers, teams, wagons, carts, plows, and road machines as may be
necessary, with the approval of the commissioner of roads, and in such
work the overseer shall not use his own farm laborers, teams, wagons,
carts, and plows, to the exclusion of those of other citizens of his road
precinct, but shall, as far as practicable, when they can be secured,
use the teams, wagons, carts, plows, and road machinery of persons other
than his own within the bounds of his road precinct, to be paid accord-
ing to the schedule of prices which shall be prescribed in writing on the
first day of July of each year by the road board. He shall, under the
direction of the road board, purchase such tools and implements as
shall be necessary for working the roads, have charge of the same, report
annually, or oftener, if required, their condition and number, and de-
liver possession of the same to the commissioners of roads on settle-
ment of accounts. He shall perform such other duties as may be pre-
scribed by law, or be required by the commissioner of roads in connec-
tion with road work. His compensation shall be one dollar and twenty-
five cents per day for each day in which he is actually employed.

5. The road board, when they deem it expedient, are empowered to
have the building or repairing of bridges or roads, or any part thereof,
done by contract in writing, which shall be filed with the clerk of the
board. Lettings to contract shall be preceded by public notice and be
awarded to the most suitable bidders, taking proper sureties for their
performance, according to this act, under the direction of the road
board. In no case shall any member of the board have any pecuniary
interest in the contracts. If the board shall find at times and places it
most expedient, thev are empowered to employ suitable overseers, at
agreed wages, to work on the roads by the month or year, in discharge
of the duties and obligations imposed on overseers under this act, and
the direction of the commissioner of roads, whose inspection of the
work shall be as frequent as the exigencies may require and the board
approve.

6. For the purpose of providing a fund for working the roads, re-
pairing the bridges, and for opening new roads, it shall be the duty of
the board of supervisors of said county on the first Monday in July in
each year, or as soon thereafter as is practicable, to levy a tax upon all
real and personal property in said county, not exempted by law, not
exceeding twenty cents upon each hundred dollars of the assessed value
thereof.

7. The road board for each district shall certify to the board of super-
visors in the month of July, before the first Monday: in each year, the
amount of money that, in its opinion, will be proper or necessarv to he
spent in its district for the ensuing vear, and the rate of tax that should
be levied upon the real and personal property in said district, and such
certificate shall be binding upon the board of supervisors, who shall
levy the tax thus certified upon each district, respectively, and shall
certify the amount necessary to be raised to the commissioner of revenue,
and he shall extend the taxes against the property and persons in the
district levied for road purposes.
8. The county treasurer shall collect the road tax of the county, and
pay the same out upon the order of the commissioner of roads, cer-
tified by the supervisor of the several road districts; he shall be charged
with the full amount of the road taxes levied for the year, and credited
by all sums paid over in money or otherwise, as herein provided. The
treasurer shall receive, as equivalent to money, all accounts of labor,
teams, wagons, plows, and materials furnished, or for services rendered
in any way, when properly certified by the commissioner of roads and
supervisor, and the same shall be receipted for by the commissioner as
if paid in money: provided, however, that the treasurer shall, in all
cases, pay out money on the order of the commissioner and supervisor
who ordered the work done, or materials furnished or services rendered,
whether said commissioner’s successor shall have qualified or not: and
provided further, that no commissioner shall order any work done by
contract or otherwise, or materials to be furnished after the fifteenth
day of May of the year in which his term expires, except with the con-
sent of the county court, or the judge thereof in vacation. Each com-
missioner of roads acting under the provisions of this act shall settle
with the board of supervisors on the first Monday in July of each year,
or as soon thereafter as said board shall meet, and make an itemized
statement in writing. of all receipts and disbursements received and
made by him during the year next preceding, and when, to whom, and
for what purpose disbursements have been made, and for failure to
make any such settlements in writing, he shall be liable to removal from
office by order of the county court as provided by section eight hundred
and twenty-one of the code of Virginia and the amendments thereto.
It shall be the duty of the board of supervisors to report to the county
court at its August term in each year the names of all commissioners
of roads who have failed to make such settlements. The taxes levied
under this act shall be subject to the laws regulating the collection
of all other taxes.

9. The road board shall annually on the first Monday in July audit,
adjust, and settle accounts of the treasurer for the preceding year;
but if their business shall not be completed on that day, they may
adjourn from day to, day until it is completed. They shall charge the
treasurer with the full amount of the road tax levied in the district, and
shall credit him by his commissions, delinquent taxes, and all payments
made by him (by order of the road board) for which he has proper re-
ceipts. He shall receive the same per centum for collecting road taxes
as is allowed for collecting state taxes.

10. The said road board of each road district shall convene at stated
times and places in its districts, of which there shall be notice given,
at which persons having business with the board may attend. Meetings
for special purposes may he held at Staunton; also in the district, on
request of either member of the road board. The supervisor shall be ex
officio president of the board. The director shall discharge the duties
of clerk. The board shall be a deliberative body, to consider the sub-
jects committed to it in this act. and determine the ways and means
by which to most fully accomplish its designs. The commissioner of
roads shall be its chief executive officer. The said board shall keep
a record of its proceedings and preserve all its vouchers, prescribe regu-
lations for the purchase, care, preservation, and transfer of implements
and other property from the outgoing officer to the incoming one, re-
quiring necessary vouchers. The commissioner of roads shall annually
make a written report to the board of supervisors on the condition of
the roads and bridges, the operations of the closing year, the items, con-
dition, number, and disposition of the district property, with such
recommendations for future action as he may deem proper. His annual
report shall be published for the information of the public. The com-
pensation of the members of the road board shall be one dollar and
twenty-five cents per day for each day that they shall be in attendance
upon the mectings of the board, to be paid with cost of necessary
stationery and printing out of the fund appropriated for the road dis-
trict.

11. The road precincts shall remain as now Jaid out and described
by metes and bounds in the several magisterial districts until changed
by the road loard as hereinafter provided. The said board shall have
power, and it shall be its dutv, to make such changes therein as mav be
proper. When any change is made in the road precincts it shall be
reported to the county clerk, who shall keep a record of the same in a
hook kept for that purpose, and the said county clerk shall also keep
a record of all the road overseers who, when appointed bv the road
board, shall be reported to the said clerk, and it shall be the duty of
the said board to report all appointments of overseers to the said county
clerk.

12. The commissioner of roads of each district shall cause to be
erected, at all points where roads cross or intersect or diverge from each
other, suitable indicators, showing the next most prominent place on
the road and the distance. Anv person who defaces, removes, or in any
wav injures such indicator shall pay a fine of five dollars, to be recov-
ered by the commissioner of roads, upon the judgment of a justice of
the peace, by proceedings instituted in the name of the road board
of the district. Any overseer shall have power to enter upon any lands
adjoining his road to make necessary repairs, drains, or ditches, taking
due precaution not to injure such land or lands by such repairs. Anv
person who shall obstruct the ditches or impair the drainage of the roads
shall pay a fine of one dollar for every day it continues, and cost of the
removal thereof, the damage done to the road, and the costs of proceed-
ing against such person by the commissioner of roads before a justice to
payment. The commissioner of roads shall be empowered to administer
oaths and affirmations.

13. Every public road hereafter established, in the county of Augusta,
shall he thirty feet wide. and the grade of such road shall not exceed
five degrees at anv one point. The road board of any district may, how-
ever, by special order, establish a different width or grade.

14. When any person applies to the county court to have a road or
bridge therein established or altered, the court shall refer such applica-
tions, which shall be in writing, describing as accurately as possible
the desired road or bridge, to the road board of the magisterial district
in which the whole or the greater part thereof is to be located, and there-
upon the said board shall view the ground and report to the court the
conveniences and inconveniences that will result from it as well to
individuals as to the public, if such road or bridge be, as proposed, es-
tablished, and especially whether any yard, garden, orchard, or any part
thereof, will in such case have to be taken.

15. The board shall particularly report the facts and circumstances,
in its opinion, useful in enabling the court to determine the expediency
of establishing or altering the road or bridge. It may examine other
routes than that purposed for the road, and report in favor of the one it
prefers with reason for the preference. The report shall state the names
of the landowners on each route, and state which of them require com-
pensation, the probable amount, in their opinion, to which each party
may be entitled; to what amount any person, through whose lands any
road is to be opened, mav be benefited thereby, and any other matter
which may be deemed pertinent. A map or diagram shall be returned
with the report, and for that purpose the board may, if it see fit, employ
a surveyor.

16. Upon the return of the report summons shall be awarded against
the proprietors of the land, which shall be served in person if they be
residents of the county, and, if not, upon any agent or attorney or tenant
of the land. If there be no agent, attorney, or tenant within the county,
service may be had by publication for one weck in some newspaper pub-
lished in the county. The summons or publication shall be to show cause
at the term of the court to which it mav be returnable, why said road
shall not be opened, or bridge built; and the cost of the same and the
compensation of the road board shall be paid by the road board of the
district out of its funds, except that the court. may, in its discretion,
render judgement for the same against the applicant, should the appli-
cation be denied. 2

17. The court shall hear evidence for and against the report of the
road board, and for and against the assessment of damages to any
Jandowner, and may decide the same upon evidence, or, in its discretion,
it may direct the road board of some other district than that in which
said road is proposed to be opened or bridge built, to go upon the land
and make further report as to the advisability of opening the road,
or the damages allowed to any landowner, or any other matter that
the court may assign to them; and there shall, under no circumstances.
he any other commission or board appointed for any purpose in connec.
tion with the application, and no other report shall be considered in
connection therewith than the two reports herein provided for: and
these two reports shall be considered in connection with each other
and with the evidence heard upon the application.

18. If the court shall be of opinion that the road should be openec
or bridge built, it shall so direct: provided, however, that no such orden
shall have any validity unless it is stated therein that the attorney fol
the commonwealth defended the application, and that at least two mem.
bers of the road board of the district wherein said road or bridge i:
to he located were examined as witnesses touching the application. Anc
the clerk of said court shall certify its order to the commissioner 0:
roads of the district, who shall cause it to be executed: provided, how
ever, if the cost of opening the road or building the bridge and th
damaes to the landowners shall exceed the sum of one hundred anc
fifty dollars, the said road shall not be opened or the bridge built unt
the board of supervisors shall approve the same, and make an appro-
priation therefor out of the county levy.

19. No roads shall be established through any lot in any incorporated
town without the consent of the owner thereof, or through the land of
any cemetery or any seminary of learning, without the consent of the
owner thereof or the corporate authorities.

20. Should any member of the road board be unable, or should the
court think it improper for him to act under the fifteenth, sixteenth,
seventeenth, and eighteenth sections of this act, because of interest in
the subject. matter, or other sufficient cause, the court may appoint
some freeholder of the county to act in his place.

A majority of the board shall constitute a quorum for any matter
under this act, except that both of the other members of the road board
must pass upon the accounts of the commissioner of roads.

21. In case of a road on the line dividing two magisterial districts
the commissioners of roads of the adjoining districts shall divide the road
between each district in such a way as will equally divide the expense,
if they can agree, and in case they cannot agree the board of super-
visors of the county shall divide the same and direct what part of said
road shall be opened and kept in repair by each magisterial district.

22. The acts to provide for the working of roads, repairing of bridges,
and opening new roads, approved February twenty-sixth, eighteen hun-
dred and eighty-four, February nineteenth, eighteen hundred and
eighty-six, February twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety, March
third eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and March second, eighteen
hundred and ninety-eight, and the acts amendatory thereof, so far as
they relate to and affect the county of Augusta, and all acts and parts
of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed.

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