Chap. 55.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act approved January 29,
1898, entitled an act to provide for the working and keeping in repair
the public roads of Amherst county, as amended and re-enacted by an
act approved March 2, 1898, and as further amended by an act ap-
proved March 15, 1904, which latter act was further amended by an
act approved March 16, 1910, which said amendment and the amend-
ment herein contained being for the purpose of authorizing the board
of supervisors of said county to work and improve the public roads of
said county, expend any surplus money on the roads and bridges of said
county and cues the erection of toll gates on certain roads in said
county for the e of raising revenue to maintain and build,
macadamize an ‘ot erwise permanently improve roads in said county.

Approved February 20, 1912.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
the act approved January twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and
ninety-eight, entitled an act to provide for the working and keep-
ing in repair the public roads of Amherst county, as amended
and re-enacted by an act approved March second, eighteen hun-
dred and ninety-eight, and further amended by an act approved
March fifteenth, nineteen hundred and four, and further
amended by an act approved March sixteenth, nineteen hundred
and ten, be amended and re-enacted to read as follows:

§1. That in and for the county of Amherst the board of
supervisors of said county are hereby made and constituted a
road board for said county, and as such shall have worked and
kept in repair the public roads of said county in accordance with
such rules and regulations as they may deem proper, expedient
and necessary, which rules and regulations shall be published by
said board at least once in each year, either in the months of
June or December.

§2. The board of supervisors of Amherst county is directed
and authorized to levy (when it makes its annual levy) such a
district road levy as may be desired and required by said road
board to carry out the purposes of this act not to exceed twenty-
five cents on the one hundred dollars’ worth of property, to be
collected and accounted for as are other levies by the county
treasurer. The tax so levied and collected in each district shall
be used and applied in that respective district by said road board,
except that of the railroad’s telephones and telegraph lines, which
shall be equally divided between the four districts, and in addi-
tion to said district road tax and the annual estimate and pro-
vision made in said county levy for building bridges, opening
new roads, and so forth, the said board of supervisors are hereby
authorized and empowered to make an additional levy not to
exceed the sum provided under the general laws to be collected
and accounted for by the county treasurer like other levies and
to be kept as a separate fund; and when said road board shall
deem it advisable, they may allow said fund to accumulate and
may direct the treasurer of said county to deposit so much of
said fund as he may have on hand from time to time in one or
more banks, taking therefor an interest-bearing certificate pay-
able to said treasurer upon the order of said board, together with
approved security for such deposits, this and any other surplus
of the county funds now or at any time in said county treasury,
which may be available for the purpose, the said board of super-
visors, by and through said road board of said county, is author-
ized and empowered to use as said road board may deem advis-
able and necessary in repairing, relocating, regrading and the
improvement of the public roads, as well as opening new roads
and building bridges in said county, under such rules and regu-
lations as said road board may adopt as heretofore provided.

§3. At the annual or such other settlements as may be had
by said board of supervisors with the treasurer of said county
amounts collected and paid out by said treasurer and expended
by said road board, said accounts shall be audited by a board
of auditors to be composed of the Commonwealth’s attorney,
the clerk of the circuit court for said county, and a citizen free-
holder of said county, to be selected and appointed by the judge
of the circuit court of Amherst county, the latter to be appointed
for a term of one year beginning January first, or as soon there-
after as appointed, and ending the thirty-first of December next
following, said citizen member to qualify like other county off-
cers, and to receive out of the road fund of said county the sum
of two dollars and fifty cents for each day of service as a member
of said auditing board, said board of auditors to approve said
settlement and have a statement of the same published with such
particularity as it may deem proper, the same to be paid for out
of the road fund of said county.

§4. Said road board shall meet on the first Tuesday in each
month in regular session, and for such called meetings as the
chairman may designate, and for actual attendance on said board
each member shall receive the sum of two dollars and fifty cents,
but not to receive pay for more than twenty-five meetings in
any one year; and for other services rendered in inspecting and
supervising roads the sum of two dollars and fifty cents per
day, accounts for such services to be itemized and sworn to:
provided, however, that no member, for the latter service, shall
receive payment for more than forty days in any one year.

$5. The county clerk of Amherst shall perform the duties
of clerk of said road board, said clerk to receive for this addi-
tional service one hundred and seventy-five dollars per year, and
the Commonwealth’s attorney for said county shall be the legal
adviser of said road board, with the same duties and powers
as are provided and imposed on him by law in connection with
the board of supervisors. Said attorney for the Commonwealth
shall receive for this additional service such sums as the said
board may deem right and proper.

§6. In order the better to maintain such macadam roads as
have or may hereafter be built in the county of Amherst and
to provide a sinking fund to meet the payment of bonds issued
for the construction of said roads and to pay interest on said
bonds, whether already or to be hereafter issued for said pur-
pose, the board of supervisors shall have, and they are hereby
given, the power to erect and maintain toll gates in such places
on said macadam roads as may be deemed proper and to demand
and collect toll on said roads; but no such toll gate to be estab-
lished within one mile of the comporate limits of the city of
Lynchburg, nor within the corporate limits of any town in said
county. And said board of supervisors at their July and Janu-
ary meetings of each year are authorized and empowered to fix
the rate of tolls on said roads, pass dnd adopt rules and regula-
tions for the collection of said tolls, and impose penalties for the
non-payment or evasion of payment of tolls, and the proper
use of said roads, and account for the collection of said tolls, a
copy of which rates, rules and regulations shall be posted at
each toll gate operated hereunder and at the front door of the
court-house of said county; but said tolls shall not exceed the
rates provided by the general law: provided, that said board shall
not have power to impose or collect any toll on persons travel-
ling on foot along said roads. The board of supervisors of Am-
herst county are further authorized and empowered to appoint
such agents and collectors for receiving said tolls as they may
think proper, requiring of the same proper bonds, with security,
where it may be found necessary, and such agents or collectors
shall receive a commission or salary for their services, as the
said board may deem most advisable, the said tolls so collected
to be turned in every month and received and accounted for by
the treasurer of Amherst county under his official bond as are
the ordinary county levies, he to receive in compensation the same
commission paid him for receiving and disbursing the county
levies. The fund collected by tolls as aforesaid are to be ex-
pended upon the warrant of the county road board under the
provisions of this act, in paying the cost of maintaining toll
gates, repairs of said macadam roads, payment of interest on
road bonds, and providing a sinking fund; and should the fund
so realized be sufficient, to apply any surplus to the building of
other macadam roads and bridges in the county of Amherst.

§7. But it is herein provided that after the establishment of
toll gates as hereinbefore mentioned, and the same have con-
tinued for two years, that upon a petition on the part of twenty-
five per centum of the qualified voters of the county of Amherst
to the circuit court of the county of Amherst, asking for an
election to determine whether said toll gates shall be continued,
or whether they shall be discontinued, that said court shall order
a special election for that purpose, the same to be held and con-
ducted as other special elections are held and conducted and
the expense of said special election to be paid as in elections
held under section five hundred and eighty-one, five hundred
and eighty-two, five hundred and eighty-three and five hundred
and eighty-six of the Code of Virginia and Pollard’s Code, as
amended so far as said provisions may be applicable and not in
conflict with the provisions of this act. |

§8. An emergency existing, due to the fact that the toll gates
provided for can be built at a less cost than after the roads are
completed and that the roads will deteriorate unless kept in
repair, an emergency is declared to exist and this act shall be
in force from its passage.