Chap. 152.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 4 of an act entitled an
act to provide for working and keeping in repair the public roads and
bridges of the county of Washington, and to authorize the board of
supervisors to borrow money by the issue of bonds, and to build bridges
and to macadamize the roads in said county, and to authorize the qual-
ified voters of said county to vote on the question ag amended. (H. B. 484.)

Approved March 20, 1914.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
section four of an act entitled an act to provide for the working and
keeping in repair the public roads and bridges of the county of
Washington and to authorize the board of supervisors to borrow
money by the issue of bonds, and to build bridges and macadamize
the roads in said county and to authorize the qualified voters of
said county to vote on the question, as amended, be amended and
re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Sec. 4. The board of supervisors shall appoint a competent
engineer, who shall be known as the “road engineer,” whose duty
it shall be to lay out and survey all new roads, landings or altera-
tions of old roads in said county. That all applications for a new
road or landing, or to lay out, open, alter or change a public road
or landing must be by petition signed by not less than five citizens
of said county, and in case of a new road or landing, shall state
the termini of said road and the names of the landowners through
which said road shall pass and the location of the landing and the
owner thereof, and in case of alterations of an old road the names
of the landowners where the alterations are desired to be made, and
said petition must first be presented to the road commissioner of
the district in which the said road or landing is, who shall endorse
thereon his approval or disapproval of the same, and his reasons
therefor, which petition and commissioner’s endorsement shall be
laid before the board of supervisors at its next meeting, and if
considered of public necessity, they shall order the said engineer to
locate or relocate, as the case may be, the said road or landing.
And the said engineer, before locating or relocating said road or
landing, or making alterations therein, as the case may be, shall
give notice of the time and place when he shall go upon said road
or landing to the landowners, or their tenants in possession, whose
lands are proposed to be affected thereby, of the proposed road or
landing at least five days before the said survey is made, and the
said engineer shall make report showing the probable cost of
construction, and anything else deemed pertinent by himself,
including the laying out of more than one route, if deemed advisable
by said engineer or required by any party in interest, and shall
file with said report a plat showing the location of said road by
course and distance, making the property lines of the individuals
through whose land it passes and the distance thereof as far as
practicable; provided, however, that no new road shall be located
on a steeper grade than four degrees, unless the engineer shall
certify that it is impracticable at reasonable cost to get the degree
required by this act, and shall return said report to clerk’s office of
the circuit court of the county within ten days from the date of
said survey, and at least five days before the case is acted upon by
the board of supervisors. The said report, together with the
petition and other papers, shall be laid before the board of super-
visors at its next meeting, and unless good cause shall be shown
against the report of the road engineer, the same shall be confirmed ;
said board shall have power to recommit the said report of the
said engineer for any or all purposes required by said board. When
said report or reports are confirmed, the board of supervisors shall
establish or alter the road or landing.

If the order of the said board of supervisors shall direct such
new road to be opened, or such road or any part thereof to be
relocated, changed or discontinued, it shall also direct said road
engineer to proceed to open, relocate, change or discontinue the
same, and shall direct in what manner the same shall be improved,
and said road engineer shall proceed to do said work as soon as
practicable; and if any landowner or tenant in possession whose
land is affected by any new road, or any change or relocation or
discontinuance of any old road, shall consider himself damaged
thereby, he or they shall, within thirty days after said final order
is entered, file with the clerk of said board of supervisors a written
demand claiming damages and stating the amount of such claim,
and if said board of supervisors and such claimant or claimants
cannot agree upon the amount of such damages, then the said board
of supervisors shall, within not less than sixty days after the
completion of the work on said road as directed by said final order,
order a jury of five disinterested freeholders, any three of whom
may act, who shall not reside in the immediate vicinity of said
road, to be summoned by the sheriff or constable, who shall give
such claimant or claimants three days’ notice of the time and place
when and where said jury, afer being duly sworn, shall view the
premises, and shall determine and report to said board of super-
visors what will be a just compensation to the landowner or tenants
in possession claiming compensation for the land so taken and for
the damages to the residue of the tract, if any, beyond the peculiar
benefits to be derived in respect to such residue, from the road so
established, when report shall be made in writing to the next
regular meeting of said board of supervisors, and exceptions thereto
may be filed by such claimant or claimants.

Upon consideration of said report, and the exceptions thereto,
if any, said board of supervisors may confirm the same, and may
confirm either the majority or minority report if two are filed, or
it may reject the same, and recommit to the same or to another jury,
for another report, and such claimant or claimants may appeal to
the circuit court of said county from the final decision of the said
board of supervisors as to the amount of such damages. A trial of
such appeal shall be by jury, unless the same is “waived by all
parties.

The damages finally awarded shall be out of the funds of the
district or districts in which such road is located.

The provisions of the general road law shall apply where not
inconsistent with this act.

Sec. 5. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are
hereby repealed.