Chap. 38.—An ACT to create for the county of Norfolk a commission of
roads and bridges, and to prescrive the powers and duties of such com-
niission, and thereby to provide for controlling, constructing and keep-
ing in repair the public roads and bridges within said county, and, for
acquiring, establishing, altering and vacating roads and bridges there-
in; and to repeal an act entitled, an act for working and keeping in
repair the public roads in Norfo k county, approved February 18, 18909,
as amended by acts approved February 26, 1908, and March 14, 1910,
respectively, and also to repeal an act entitled, an act for working and
keeping in repair the public roads in Norfo':k county, approved Feb-
ruary 1, 1894. (S. B. 272.)

Approved March 4, 1914.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia as fol-
lows: A permanent commission, to consist of three members and to
be known as the commission of roads and bridges for the county of
Norfolk, is hereby created. The commissioners shall be appointed
by the judge of the circuit court of said county, and their regular
term ot office shall be three years, respectively, except those first
appointed under this act (who shall be appointed within thirty days
atter this act goes into effect), of whom one shall be appointed to
hold ottice until the first day of July, nineteen hundred and fifteen,
one until the first day of July, nineteen hundred and sixteen, and
one until the first day of July, nineteen hundred and seventeen.
Whenever a vacancy in the commission shall occur, the judge of said
court shall forthwith appoint a qualified person to fill the same for
the unexpired term, and any commissioner shall be removable by the
judge of said court for negiect of duty or malfeasance in office. Com-
missicners appointed for regular terms shall, at the beginning of the
terms for which appointed, and those appointed to fill vacancies shall,
immediately upon their appointments, enter upon the duties of their
othce. No person who holds any other county office, or who is not
a voter and freeholder of said county, shall hold office as a member
of said commission, or perform any of the duties thereof. The
commission shall annually elect one of their members chairman,
and another of their members secretary of the same, and shall have
authority to require of the sheritf of said county, or any of his
deputies, such attendance and service as may be necessary to pre-
serve order and serve notices. All sessions of the commission shall
be public, and a permanent record (to be prepared by the secretary),
shall be kept of its orders, proceedings, receipts and expenditures,
and of all reports made to or by it, which shall at all times, during,
normal business hours, be open to public inspection. Two of the
commissioners shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of busi-
ness, whether there be a vacancy in the commission or not, and a
majority of the commissioners present may decide any question that
may properly come before the meeting. The board of supervisors
of said county shall, subject to the approval of the commission,
provide suitable quarters and blank records for the commission,
and the judge of said court shall fix the salaries of the members of
the commission, but the salary of each commissioner shall not be
less than two hundred dollars, nor more than one thousand dollars,
per annum, in addition to his necessary traveling expenses while
performing the duties of his office.

2. The said commission shall have the power, and be charged
with the duty of controlling, supervising, managing, building, im-
proving and keeping in order all the public roads and bridges
within said county (not included within the corporate limits of
any incorporated town in said county which maintains its own
streets), and, as an incident thereto, of the stone quarry operated
by said county; and shall make and prescribe such rules, regula-
tions, specifications and directions as it shall deem best for build-
ing, keeping in order and repairing of such roads and bridges.

As used in this act, the term “road” or “roads” shall be con-
strued to include highways, streets, avenues, roads, tram-roads,
lanes and alleys, and may embrace pipes, wires, poles, gates, sign-
posts and other like things on, under, over or adjacent thereto; and
the term “bridge” or “bridges” shall be construed to include bridges,
viaducts, wharves, piers, bulkheads and causeways.

3. Each of the said commissioner, as well as the road engineer
hereinafter provided for, shall qualify as other county officers are
required by law to qualify, and shall enter into and acknowledge,
before the court or judge before whom he qualifies, a bond, payable
to the county, with security to be approved by such court or judge,
in the penalty of five thousand dollars, conditioned for the faithful
performance of the duties of his office.

4. The said commission shall appoint a county road engineer

(who shall be a competent civil engineer), who shall devote his
whole time to the duties of his office, and who shall attend each
meeting of the commission, and whose salary, to be fixed by it, shall
uot be less than twelve hundred dollars, nor more than twenty-five
hundred dollars per annum; and it shall appoint or employ, or
authorize the appointment or employment of, such additional en-
gineers, overseers, agents, servants, laborers and other subordinates
as may be necessary for the proper performance and execution of
the duties imposed by this act. It shall also have authority to em-
ploy counsel, when the same is rendered necessary to protect the
public interest incident to its work under this act, and to employ an
expert accountant to assist in opening its initial records and in as-
certaining the amounts of the several funds properly disbursable by
it under this act. The terms, duties and compensation of its re-
spective appointees and employees shall be as prescribed by it, their
compensation shall be a reasonable one, and any and all of them
shall be removable at its pleasure for inefficiency or other good
cause.
5. Thesaid commission shall, on the first Monday in each month,
hold a meeting at the courthouse of the county, for the discharge of
their duties, and may appoint and hold such other regular or spe-
cial meetings at such times and places as may be necessary for that
purpose. Any commissioner shall have power to call a special
meeting, upon giving the other commissioners reasonable written
notice of the time and place thereof.

The chairman (or in case of his absence, the commissioner who
shall then be chosen as temporary chairman) shall preside at all
meetings, and shall have power to administer an oath to any person
concerning any matter submitted to the commission or connected
with its duties.

6. It shall be the duty of the said commission, or a majority
thereof, to go over the public roads and bridges of said county at
least once during the months of February and August of each year,
and to keep itself informed, by means of personal investigation or
otherwise, as to the condition of the public roads and bridges of
said county, the manner in which they are worked and kept in
order, and whether or not its appointees and employees and their
subordinates have performed their respective duties. ‘lhe said com-
mission shall have regard not only to the development of the road
and bridge system of the county as a whole, but to the needs of the
inhabitants of each magisterial district respecting the same.

(. From and after the passage of this act, the road and quarry
machinery, equipment and material now belonging to the county of
Norfolk, shall be subject to the authority and control of the said
commission, and it shall have power to purchase machinery, teams,
equipment, supplies and material, and to perform all other things
necessary to carry out the purpose of this act. lt shall also have
authority to prevent the public from traveling on any road or
bridge, or any portion thereof, while the same is being built, im-
proved or repaired. Said commission may make all necessary con-
tracts, and may require proper bonds from all contractors and ma-
terial men tor the faitnful performance of their contracts or
undertakings. Any rules and regulations of a general nature that
the commission shall prescribe respecting travel by the public shall
be published at least twice in a newspaper of general circulation
published in the city of Norfolk or Portsmouth.

8. ‘Lhe commission shall from time to time cause to be prepared
and placed on file (open to convenient public inspection) pians and
specifications of work to be done under this act, and (unless in the
judgment of the commission the public interest will best be sub-
served by having the same done directly by itself rather than by
contract), it shail call for bids therefor by means of an advertise-
ment published for fifteen days in a newspaper of the character
hereinabove described, and award the contract to the lowest bidder,
subject to its rights to reject any or all bids.

9. The board of supervisors of Norfolk county shall annually
levy and appropriate, for general road purposes under this act, a
tax upon the property, real and personal, assessed for taxation in
the county (and not included within the corporate limits’ of any
. incorporated town in said county which maintains its own streets),
which shall be applied to the working, keeping in order and repair-
ing the public roads and bridges, including the compensation of the
ofticers and subordinates appointed under this act. Such tax shall
not be less than twenty nor more than thirty cents upon every hun-
dred dollars in value of such property, and the same shall be col-
lected, accounted for and applied as road funds under this act as
if it were a county levy, except that the fund collected from each
magisterial district shall be kept separate by the county treasurer.
The board of supervisors shall also annually appropriate for general
road purposes under this act, so much of the county’s annual income
from the Norfolk county ferries as is not required for the county’s
proportion of interest on bonds predicated upon said ferry property
and sinking fund to retire the same. The said board of supervisors
shall also forthwith appropriate for general road purposes under this
act, all portions of previous appropriations for roads unexpended at
the date this act shall go into effect. The said board of supervisors
shall have power to make additional appropriations for general road
purposes under this act from the general county levy not otherwise
expended. The said several funds, so appropriated, shall be dis-
bursable for the expenses (including cost of material, equipment
and labor, and compensation of commissioners and its appointees
and employees) necessary to accomplish the purpose of this act, by
warrants upon the county treasurer, authorized by the said com-
mission, signed by its chairman and countersigned by its sesretary.
The said several funds shall be applied by said commission, first,
to the cost and expense of working, keeping in order and repairing
the public roads and bridges; and, secondly, if any of said fund
shall then remain, to the cost and expense of building, acquiring
and permanently improving new or additional roads and bridges,
and for this latter purpose the said commission shall have the
right and authority to expend in the manner herein provided, the
proceeds of bond issues heretofore or hereafter authorized for per-
manent road or bridge purposes; but in the event that at any time
after the former purpose shall have been accomplished, the un-
expended balance of levies, under its control, arising from property
in a particular community, in the county, shall justify the expendi-
ture of a part of the same for sewerage or electric lights therein,
the said commission shal] have authority to make such expenditures.

10. The commission shall annually, at its meeting in June, make
in writing a detailed report of its year’s work and expenditures,
and an estimate for the ensuing year of the funds and levies under
this act necessary to be applied to the working, keeping in order
and repairing the public roads and bridges in the county, and file
a copy of such report and estimate with the board of supervisors
at their regular meeting in July of each year; and the board of
supervisors shall, subject to the restrictions contained in this act,
inake such levy as shall be so recommended by the commission.

11. No commissioner or engineer appointed by virtue of this act
shall become pecuniary interested, directly or indirectly, in any
contract, or in the profits of any contract, made by or with any
person, firm or corporation that may contract for work on, or mate-
rial, equipment or supplies for, roads or bridges; and if this pro-
vision is violated, the commissioner or engineer so violating the
same shall, by means of an action or motion brought within two
years thereafter in the circuit court of said county, be liable to the
county for a sum of money equal to double the amount of his in-
terest aforesaid.

12. The said commission shall have, and may exercise, the
powers, authority and jurisdiction now or hereafter conferred upon
boards of supervisors by general law (so far as not inconsistent with
this act), in regard to establishing, altering and vacating, roads
and bridges, and the attorney for the Commonwealth of said county
shall render such legal service to the said commission as may hk
proper under this act, without additional compensation to him.

18. The said commission shall have the right to apply for anc
receive, and make use of, under this act, such State money or con-
vict aid as may be properly applicable to the county of Norfolk
under the general laws of the State on those subjects.

14. An act entitled an act for working and keeping in repair
the public roads in Norfolk county, approved February eighteenth,
eighteen hundred and ninety, as amended by acts approved Feb-
ruary twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred and eight, and March four-
teenth, nineteen hundred and ten, respectively, and an act entitled
an act for working and keeping in repair the public roads in Nor-
folk county, approved February first, eighteen hundred and ninety-
four, are hereby repealed.

15. All other acts or parts of acts inconsistent or in conflict with
this act, are hereby repealed.