Chap. 334.-An ACT to amend and re-enact an act entitled “an act to pro-
vide for the establishing, altering and building of public roads and
bridges in the county of Shenandoah, and for the working and keepin
the same in repair,” approved February eighth, eighteen hundred and
ninety-eight. "

Approved March 14, 1912.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
an act entitled “an act to amend and re-enact an act to provide
for the establishing, altering*and building of public roads and
bridges in the county of Shenandoah, and for the working and
keeping the same in repair,” approved February eighth, eighteen
hundred and ninety-eight, be amended and re-enacted so as to
read as follows:

1. The board of supervisors of Shenandoah county shall have
the control, supervision, management, and jurisdiction over all
the county roads, causeways, and bridges erected or repaired
within said county.

2. That for the purpose of working and repairing the public
roads and bridges of the county of Shenandoah, whether here-
tofore or hereafter established or built, the board of supervisors
of said county shall annually levy along with the county levy,
to be known as the district road tax, a road tax upon the prop-
erty, real and personal, assessed for taxation in the several mag-
isterial districts, which shall be applied to the working, keeping
in order and repairing the public roads in such districts, and for
the construction and repair of bridges requiring a less expendi-
ture than thirty dollars. The said tax shall be collected, ac-
counted for, and paid out on the warrant of the several district
road boards, and the fund collected from each magisterial district
shall be kept separate by the county treasurer, and a different
rate of tax may be prescribed by the board of supervisors for the
different districts in the county. The amount collected in each
district, together with the amount apportioned to each district
under section three of this act shall be expended therein. The
funds so levied and collected in each magisterial district may be
applied by the said boards towards the permanent improvement
of the main public roads of the respective districts as well as to
the working and repair of said road, as the several road boards
may think proper.

3. The board of supervisors of said county shall also annually
levy along with the county levy a road tax upon the property,
real and personal, assessed for taxation in such county. Such
tax shall be not more than forty cents upon every one hundred
dollars in value of such property, and the same shall be collected,
accounted for, and paid out on the warrant of the board as if it
were a county levy. Such tax shall be applied to the building
and repair of bridges, where the cost thereof is thirty dollars or
more, the payment of costs and damages incident to the alteration
of roads, or the establishment of new roads, the purchase of road
scrapers, graders and all machinery, tools, wagons, carts, and
teams necessary for the purpose of working and repair of all the
roads of said county, for the support of any county chain-gang,
and the payment of any superintendent of roads that the board
of supervisors may find it necessary to appoint. After the pay-
ment of the aforesaid expenses, if there be any of said fund re-
maining unexpended, the board of supervisors may out of said
fund purchase crushers and engines, crush stone for sale to the
various road districts of said county, at such price as shall be just
and equitable and macadamize such roads in said county as said
board may deem necessary and proper to be macadamized at the
expense of said general road fund, and may hire the said equip-
ment to such districts upon such terms as the said board may
deem equitable; or the said board of supervisors may apportion
the remainder of said fund or any part thereof among the several
magisterial districts of said county in proportion to the amount
of road tax paid by each district to the said county road fund, to
be expended in working, keeping in order and repairing the
public roads in such district and as provided for in section two
of this act. :

4. The supervisor and commissioner of roads of each magis-
terial district shall constitute a district road board, and shall
meet ten days prior to the first Monday in July of each year for
the purpose of advertising the letting of the roads in the district
to contract for the ensuing year. The road board of each 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 attendance upon
the said board, to be paid out of the district fund, and which
shall be in full of all services, including qualifying claimants to
their accounts against said board.

5. 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 magisterial district.

6. The road board of each district shall, annually, on the first
Monday in July, meet for the purpose of opening and considering
the bids for working and keeping in repair the roads of the dis-
trict and for making or repair of bridges requiring expendi-
ture of less than thirty dollars, notice of which meeting, and the
purpose thereof, shall be posted for ten davs prior to the time of
meeting at each postoffice and at three other public places in the
district. The bids shall be in writing and signed by the contract-
ors, 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. In case of a letting, the
same may be for the whole or in sections, at the discretion of
the board, and may be for a period of one or two years, as the
board may determine, but in no case shall the letting extend be-
yond the period for which the road board contracting for the
same was elected. The said board shall have the right to reject
any and all bids, and if it shall appear that no bid is accepted,
then the road board shall have the roads of the district worked
and bridges made and repaired as it may see proper. Where
there is a letting of the roads or bridges to contract, the con-
tractor shall be required to give bond, with good and acceptable
security, in a penalty of at least double the amount of his bid for
the faithful performance 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 board 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 days’ notice to

the contractor and his securities. The attorney for the common-
wealth shall institute and prosecute said motion. The contracts
and bonds shall be filed with the clerk of the road board.

7. 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 district, and said road
board shall at once institute, through the attorney for the com-
monwealth, proceedings for the recovery for a breach of said
contract. Each commissioner shall see that the roads in his
district 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 bridge, bench or log shall be placed for
the accommodation of foot passengers.

8. The commissioner of roads shall receive as compensation
not exceeding 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.

9. No member of the board of supervisors or the commis-
sioner 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 board of supervisors shall order the opening
of a new road, the alteration of a road or repair of 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 is to be
built, in the same manner as the working and repairing of roads
is provided for in section six 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 board of super-
visors, 1f, in the opinion of the board, 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, accom-
panied with their reasons for said report, and shall also give any
and all information necessary to enable the court to have an ade-
quate apprehension of the matter, and shall return with their re-
port a diagram of the route, and, if necessary, shall employ the
county survevor, to which report exceptions may be taken, if any,
and the court, at its discretion, 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 establishing or altering of the road or
the building of the bridge, then the landowners 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 district shall not be con-
firmed; and the further proceedings, if any, shall in every in-
stance, be at the cost of the party on whose motion they are
ineurred, 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 and fifty
cents each, per day for the time actually employed. In case com-
missioners are asked for and appointed by the court, they shall
receive one dollar each per day for the time actually employed,
to be 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 commissioner of roads, and have what further powers are
necessary to be employed in executing this act. For the addi-
tional service required of the supervisors under this act they
shall receive the sum of two dollars per day while actually en-
gaged, but in no case shall the compensation of any one of them
exceed the sum of fifty dollars per annum, to be paid from the
fund arising under the levy provided for in the first section of
this act.

12. At the regular election in November there shall be elect-
ed in each magisterial district one commissioner of roads, who
shall reside in the district for which he is elected, and whose
term of office shall be for four years, beginning on the first day
of January succeeding his election. Each commissioner of roads
appointed or elected shall qualify at the time and in the manner
prescribed by law for the qualification of magisterial district of-
ficers, and shall, at the time of his qualification, or before he en-
ters upon the discharge of his duties, give bond, with good
personal security in the penalty for one thousand dollars.

13. All costs attending the petition for the opening and alter-
ing of roads and building of bridges, including the cost of the sur-
veyor and the chain carriers, where they are employed, shall
where the petitions do not prevail, be at the cost of the parties
petitioning for the same, and upon dismissal of the petition, the
whole costs shall be taxed against the petitioners.

14. The several district road boards shall annually on the
first Monday in July of each year, or as soon thereafter as prac-
ticable, audit, adjust, and settle their accounts with the treas-
urer for the preceding year, but if their business shall not be com-
pleted on that day, they may adjourn from day to day until it
is completed. Such settlement shall be made before the board of
supervisors, and an itemized statement in writing of all receipts
and disbursements received and made by the several district
boards in their respective districts during the year next preced-
ing, and when, to whom, and for what disbursements have been
made. The board of supervisors shall retain a copy of said set-
tlement, and a copy thereof certified by the chairman of the board
of supervisors shall be filed in the clerk’s office of the circuit
court of said county.

The road board of each magisterial district of Shenandoah
county shall, at some time during the month of December of each
year publish an itemized statement of expenditures for the
preceding year, together with the names of persons to whom paid.

The publication by each of said board shall be made in some
county paper, published in its district, if no county paper is
published in its district, then it shall be published in the county
paper that is circulated most widely in its district. The expense
of such publication shall be paid out of the district fund.

The penalty for violation of this act shall be a fine of not less
than ten dollars nor more than twenty dollars.

15. If, in the opinion of the road board of any district,
should become proper, in order to properly maintain the macad-
amized roads of such district, the said road board shall have the
power to erect and maintain toll gates, and to demand and col-
lect tolls on said roads, the rates of toll to be fixed by said board,
but not to exceed those fixed by law for the Valley turnpike
company. The district boards shall be charged with the duty of
collecting and disbursing all tolls, and the net proceeds from each
macadamized road shall be applied towards keeping such macad-
amized road in good repair.

16. All special acts heretofore passed in reference to the
working of the public roads in Shenandoah are hereby repealed,
but such provisions of the general road law of this State, together
with amendments thereto, not in conflict with this act, and the
act entitled an act to prescribe the jurisdiction of the several
boards of supervisors of the county of Frederick, Clarke, Warren,
Page, and Shenandoah, as approved May twentieth, nineteen hun-
dred and three, and acts amendatory thereof, shall continue in
force in the county of Shenandoah.