Chap. 345.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act entitled 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 affect the county of Augusta,
approved February 26, 1884; February 19, 1886; February 28, 1890; March
3, 1894, and March 2, 1898, approved February 26, 1900.

Approved March 14, 1908.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That an act
entitled “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 affect the county of Augusta, approved February
twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred 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,” approved Feb-
ruary twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred, be amended and re-enacted so
as to read as follows:

2. That it shall be lawful for the county of Augusta, after the first
day of July, nineteen hundred, to locate, open, change and repair
highways, roads, and bridges, as follows:

For each road district in the county of Augusta there shall be created
and established a board consisting of the supervisor, a commissioner
of roads, and one road director for each district, which board shall
have control of the roads and bridges within its limits, subject however
to the control and direction of the board of supervisors of said county ;
and all taxes levied for road purposes and for building and repairing
bridges shall be expended in each district, except as hereinafter provided.
The director constituting a member of the board shall be elected by the
qualified voters of the respective road districts for a term of four
years in the manner and at the times, and shall qualify and take office
in the manner prescribed for the election and qualification of other
magisterial district officers, except that no bond shall be required of
him; he shall be a resident of the road district for which he is chosen
and a qualified voter; the commissioner of roads shall be elected by
the qualified voters of the respective road’ districts for a term of four
years, and shall qualify and take office in the manner prescribed for the
election and qualification of other 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 board hereby created is declared to be a body politic and corporate
and shall be known and designated as the road board for .............
road district. The road district 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 per-
sons as may be qualified voters of each magisterial district.

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 ob-
structing the roads, requiring him to remove the obstructions; and if
the obstructions are not removed within ten days after the giving of
said notice, he shall cause the same to be removed, 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 pro-
ceeding instituted in the name of the road board of the district: pro-
vied, however, that the road board of any district may, in its dis-
cretion, retain any existing road at its present width. He shall examine
all the roads in his district at least twice in each year in the months of
May and October, and oftener, if the exegencies 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. The compensation of the com-
missioner 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 act, 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 boards of the respective road dis-
tricts upon the approval of the other two members thereof, or, if
they should disagree, upon the approval of the judge of the circuit
court, who may determine the matter without formal pleading: pro-
vided, however, that persons applying for a new road, or to lay 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. The road boards of the several road districts shall build, maintain,
work and repair the roads and bridges in accordance with such rules
and regulations as the board of supervisors of said county may from time
to time prescribe and publish. And such rules and regulations, or any
change or amendments thereto, shall be sufficiently published, within
the meaning of this act, when a copy thereof shall be posted at the court-
house and a copy thereof furnished to each member of the several
road boards (except the supervisors), by the clerk of said board.

5. For the purpose of providing a fund for working the roads, re-
pairing the bridges, and 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 practicable, to levy a tax upon all real and
personal property in said county, not exempted by law, not exceeding
twenty cents upon each one hundred dollars of the assessed value thereof.

6. The road board of each district shall certify to the board of super-
visors, before the meeting at which said tax is to be levied is held, the
amount of money that, in its opinion, will be proper or necessary to be
spent in its district for the ensuing year, 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.

%. The county treasurer shall collect the road tax of the county and
pay the same out upon the order of the commissioner of roads, certified
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.
Each commissioner 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 such settlements in writing, he shall be liable to
removal from office by order of the circuit court, as provided by section
eight hundred and twenty-one of the Code of Virginia, and the amend-
ments thereto. It shall be the duty of the board of supervisors
to report to the circuit court at its October 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.

8. The road board shall annually, on the first Monday in July, audit,
adjust and settle their accounts with 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
vouchers. He shall receive the same per centum for collecting road
taxes as is allowed for collecting State taxes.

9. The road board of each road district shall convene at stated times
and places in its district, at which persons having business with the
board may attend. Meetings for special purposes may be held at
Staunton, or in the district upon the request of any member of the
board. The supervisor shall be ex-officio president of the board, and the
director shall be clerk. The board shall be a deliberative body to
consider the subjects committed to it in this act and determine the ways
and means by which to most fully accomplish its designs, but it shall
in all matters be subject to the superior direction and control of the
board of supervisors. The commissioner of roads shall be its chief exe-
cutive officer. ‘The said board shall keep a record of its proceedings,
and preserve all its vouchers, and prescribe regulations for the purchase,
care, preservation, and transfer of implements and other property from
the outgoing officer to the incoming one, requiring proper 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, condition and disposition
of the district property, with such recommendations for future
action as he may deem proper- The compensation of the members of
the road board shall be two dollars per day for each day that they shall
be in attendance upon the meetings of the board, to be paid, with
cost of necessary stationery and printing, out of the fund appropriated
for the road district.

10. 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. Any person who defaces, removes, or in
any manner injures such indicator shall pay a fine of five dollars to
be recovered 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 road official shall have power to enter upon
any lands adjoining a public road to make necessary repairs, drains
or ditches, taking due precaution not to injure such land or lands by
such repairs. Any person who shall obstruct the ditches or impair
the drainage of the roads shall pay a fine of one dollar for each day it
continues, the costs of the removal thereof, the damage done to the road,
and the costs of the proceedings, to be recovered by the commissioner
of roads before a justice of the peace upon proceedings in the name of
the road board. The commissioner of roads shall be empowered to ad-
minister oaths and affirmations.

11. Every public road or bridge, hereafter established or altered in
the county of Augusta, shall be established or altered in accordance with
the provisions of the general road law of the State of Virginia, as set
forth and provided in an act entitled “an act to provide the establish-
ment, proper construction, and permanent improvement of the public
roads and landings, for building and keeping in good order and repair
of all public roads, bridges, causeways, and wharves in the several
counties of this State, and to repeal chapter forty-three of the Code of
Virginia,” approved March twelfth, nineteen hundred and four, except
that all the duties imposed under and by virtue of said act upon viewers,
as therein set forth, shall be imposed upon, performed and discharged
by the road board of the road district wherein the proposed bridge
or road or the greater part thereof is proposed to be located or es-
tablished.
12. All petitions for the establishment of new roads or bridges which
may be pending in the circuit court of said county on the day this act
becomes effective shall be heard and disposed of by said court as if this
act had not been amended.