Chap. 119.—An ACT to amend and re-enact 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 und to mac-
adamize roads in said county, etc. and to authorize the board of
supervisors of said county to open by condemnation or otherwise alter,
discontinue, work, and Keep in order and repair the public roads and
bridges of said county, approved March 7, 1900, and all acts amenda-
tory thereof. (H. B. 144)

Approved March 18, 1915.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That 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 roads in said county, etc., and to
authorize the board of supervisors of said county to open by condemnation
or otherwise, alter, discontinue, work and keep in order and repair the
public roads and bridges of said county, approved March seventh, nine-
teen hundred, and all acts amendatory thereof, be amended and re-
enacted so as to read as follows: |

Section 1. Prior to the first day of January, nineteen hundred and
seventeen, and every two years thereafter, the judge of the circuit court
for the said county shall appoint for each magisterial district of said
county one road commissioner, who shall serve for a term of two years
beginning on the first day of January following his appointment, whose
duty shall be to superintend the working and keeping in repair of all
public roads and bridges in their respective districts.

Section 2. For the purpose of raising revenue for the working and
keeping in repair the public roads and bridges of said county the board
of supervisors shall annually levy along with the county levy, a tax
upon all property, real and personal, assessed for taxation in the several
magisterial districts of the county, which shall be applied to working and
keeping in repair the public roads and bridges in said district, and the
compensation of the engineer and others provided for under the pro-
visions of this act. Such tax shall not be more than fifty cents on every
hundred dollars valuation of such property. The said levy and other
levies under this act shall be collected by the treasurer of said county
as other county levies, accounted for and paid out on the warrant of
said road commissioners, except that a levy for each magisterial district
shall be kept separate by the county treasurer. Each commissioner may
draw on his own warrant only the funds of his magisterial district, as
hereinafter provided. The amount collected in each magisterial district
shall be expended in the district in which it has been collected, excepting
that the tax derived from the State levy for road purposes shall be
divided equally. between the districts.

Section 3. When any citizen, or number of citizens, of any magis-
terial district shall appear before the road commissioner of said district
and deposit a sum of money not to exceed one-half of the current road
levy of said district, or enter into an approved bond, with good security
that either money or labor will be furnished, not to exceed one-half of
the road levy of said district, said labor to be at the current price for
labor, or enter into an approved bond, with good security, in a penalty
of twice the amount subscribed by law for the purpose of grading and
macadamizing any public road, or part of such road, in said district,
the road commissioner of said district is hereby authorized to appropriate
out of the road fund of said district an amount equal to the amount so
subscribed to be used for the said purpose; provided, that not more than
one-half of the current road fund of any district shall be so applied in
any one year.

The amount subscribed by such citizen together with the correspond-
ing amount appropriated by the road commissioner, shall be expended
under the direction of the road commissioner in the district where such
money is subscribed; provided, further, that the money so subscribed
and appropriated shall be applied only to the public roads, and by the
consent of the road commissioner.

The supervisors of Washington county are hereby authorized and
directed to purchase and furnish to the different magisterial districts, free
of charge, suitable machinery for the purpose of building macadamized
roads in the most economical and approved manner, the title to said
machinery to remain in the county to be furnished only on request of
the road commissioners. The supervisors may, if necessary, lay a levy
for the purchase of necessary machinery to carry out this provision;
provided, however, that no taxes shall be levied against the property
of any magisterial district for the purpose of purchasing machinery pro-
vided for in this section if such district now owns such road machinery.
No district shall be allowed the machinery so purchased and owned by
the county unless the property of that district has been taxed for the
purchase of said machinery.

Section 4. The board of supervisors shall appoint a competent engi-
neer who shall be known as the “road engineer,” whose duty it shall be
to lay out and survey all new roads, landings, or alterations 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 land owners through which said road shall pass, and the location
of the landings, and the owner thereof, and in case of alterations of -an
old road, the names of the land owners where the alterations are desired
to be made and said petition must first be presented to the road com-
missioner 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 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 pro-
posed 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 engi-
neer or required by any party in interest, and shall file with said report
a plat showing the location of said roads by course and distance, making
the property lines of the individuals through whose lands it passes and
the distance thereof, as far as practicable; but no new road shall be
located on steeper grade than four degrees, unless the engineer shall
certify that it is impracticable at reasonable cost to get the degree re-
quired by this act and shall return said report to the 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 supervisors at its next meeting, and the
said board of supervisors shall summon the land owners before them to
a certain day not less than five days from the date of service of said
notice to show cause why the report of said engineer shall not be approved,
and the road established as reported, and unless good cause shall be
shown against the report of the road engineers, the same shall be con-
firmed ; said board shall have power to recommit the said report of the
said engineer for any or all purposes required by the board. When said
report or reports are confirmed the board of supervisors shall establish
or alter the road or landing.

lf any land owner or any party who will enter himself of record
for costs shall be dissatisfied with the location of the road as established
by the board of supervisors, he shall have an appeal as a matter of right
to the circuit court of the county, who shall hear the case de novo with
the same powers that the board of supervisors originally had whose
decision as to the location of said road shall be final.

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 pro-
ceed 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 land owner, or
tenant in possession, whose land is affected by any new road, or change, or
relocation, or discontinuance of any old road, shall consider himself dam-
aged thereby, he or they, shall, within thirty days after the said final order
is entered file with the clerk of said board of supervisors a written de-
mand claiming damages and stating the amount of such claim, and if
the said board of: supervisors and such claimant or claimants cannot
agree upon the amount of such damages, then the said board of super-
visors 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, after
being duly sworn, shall] view the premises, and shall determine and report
to the said board of supervisors what will be a just compensation to the
land owner, 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, which 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 exception thereto, if any,
said board of supervisors may confirm the same, and may confirm either
the majority or the 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 damage. The trial of such appeal shall be by jury, unless
the same is waived by all parties.

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

Section 5. A road engineer shall hold his office for the term of his
appointment, unless sooner removed by said board. The said engineer
shall receive such compensation for his services as said board shall allow.
The engineer shall make annual reports to the board of supervisors or
oftener if said board may direct, of the condition of the roads, new
bridges in each magisterial district in said county, the progress of any
new work, the amount of money required to complete said work, any
change or changes necessary in any roads or bridges in the several magis-
terial districts in the county, the probable cost of the same and anything
else deemed pertinent by said board.

Section 6. Each commissioner shall have charge of the roads of
his district, and shall have power to appoint a sufficient number of fore-
men to take charge of all the hands in his district; said foremen shall be
able to read and write and shall make reports from time to time to the
road commissioner as he may direct. In case of a road or bridge being
on the line dividing two magisterial districts the road engineer and the
commissioners of the adjoining districts shall divide the road between
each district in such a way as will equally divide the expense of repair-
ing said road.

Section 7. If a bridge be built or repaired on the line each district
shall bear one-half of the expense of building or repairing said bridge.
Each commissioner shall receive for his services, to be paid out of the
road funds of his district, one dollar and fifty cents per day for each
day actually employed in looking after the roads in his district; pro-
vided, he shall not receive more than one hundred and fifty dollars for
the same in any one year. The foreman appointed under this act shall
receive not less than one dollar nor more than two dollars per day for
the time actually employed on the roads, and all hands shall receive
the usual price for similar work in said county. The commissioner of
each district shall buy and keep in repair the necessary tools for work-
ing and keeping in repair said roads in his district. In the event that
expensive machinery is wanted, he may combine with any or all other
commissioners of the county in purchasing the same. In case any fore-
man fails to keep his roads in order, on the complaint of any three tax-
payers in his district he may be fined not more than twenty dollars, if
it can be shown that he has funds at his command for repairing said
road. Said fine shall be recoverable before any justice of the peace in
said county. If any commissioner shall fail or refuse to keep the roads
in his district in repair (after being notified by the road board to do so)
and it can be shown that he has money at his command he may be fined
not more than fifty dollars for each offense, said fine to be recoverable
before the circuit court of the county, and it is hereby made the duty
of the prosecuting attorney to prosecute said commissioner for said
failure. :

Section 8. For the purpose of constructing and macadamizing roads
and building new bridges in said county, the board of supervisors be and
they are hereby empowered to issue bonds in the name and on the behalf
of the county of Washington to be called “‘public improvement bonds,”
for a sum not exceeding two hundred thousand dollars, and to sell the
bonds under such conditions as are hereinafter prescribed, and with the
proceeds of such sale to build roads or bridges in the various districts of
said county, apportioning to and expending in each magisterial district
such proportion as said board may fix and determine; provided, that the
board of supervisors shall not issue any bonds or evidences of debt pro-
vided for in this act in excess of one hundred thousand dollars, except
and until a majority of the qualified voters of any magisterial district
in said county shall petition the board of supervisors of said county tc
issue bonds for its proportionate part of such excess based upon the
proportion as fixed and determined by the said board of supervisors as
hereinafter provided for. And upon such petition the board of super-
visors are hereby empowered to issue bonds in the name and on behalf
of said county for such proportion of the one hundred thousand dollars
excess as such district is entitled to under the apportionment such board
shall have made for the division of the first one hundred thousand dollars
of bonds provided for by this act, and thereupon said board may lay a
local levy upon such district sufficient to create a sinking fund to be
applied to the redemption and payment of the bonds so issued, and
shall annually, until such bonds are paid, pay over to the sinking fund
commissioners provided for in this act a sum sufficient to pay off said
bonds in forty years.

Section 9. The bonds issued in pursuance of this act shall be coupon
bonds of not less denomination than one hundred nor more than one
thousand dollars each, payable in not more than forty years from that
date, and bearing interest payable annually, at a rate not exceeding six
per centum per annum; the said board having the right to redeem any
of said bonds after the expiration of ten years. The said bonds shall
be issued in the name of Washington county, Virginia, shall be signed
by the chairman of the board of supervisors of said county, attested by
the clerk and shall have affixed thereto the seal of said board.

Section 10. Any person, other than a duly authorized officer, chang-
ing the lines of any public road, on either side thereof, as the lines were
when said road was located, or relocated, as the case may be, without
the permission, entered of record, of the circuit court of the county in
which the road lies, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on
conviction thereof shall be fined not less than five nor more than fifty
dollars. It shall be the duty of the supervisor of the district to give
notice in writing to all persons making, or who have made, such en-
croachments on. any public road in his district by changing the lines
or the direction thereof without permission of the court aforesaid, to
remove any fence or obstruction, whether made before or after the passage
of this act, and to restore the original line or lines of the said road, and
on failure to do so, within twenty days after said notice, then the person
so offending shall be liable to a fine of five dollars for each day said
fence or other obstruction remains in said road after the expiration of
the twenty days aforesaid.

Section 14. The said board of supervisors is hereby empowered to
make sale of said bonds, but no bonds shall be sold for less than par
value thereof, and the said bonds and coupons and interest thereon shall
be redeemable in lawful money at maturity, and shall be receivable at
maturity for all taxes and other debts due the said county of Washington
except school levies.

Section 12. The form of said bonds and coupons shall be determined
by the board of supervisors.

Section 13. The said bonds and coupons issued under this act shall
be redeemable at the office of the treasurer of Washington county, and
when paid by him or received from taxes or other debts, shall be marked
paid or cancelled.

Section 14. The said board of supervisors shall create a sinking
fund to be applied to the redemption and payment of the bonds issued
for the building and improvement of roads in any or all districts of
said county, and shall annually until such bonds are paid, pay over
to the sinking fund commissioners provided for in this act a sum sufficient
to pay off said bonds in forty years.

Section 15. Three substantial citizens and taxpayers of Washington
county to be designated by the board of supervisors, are hereby appointed
a board of sinking fund commissioners, who shall give bond to said
board, to be approved by them, in double the amount of money likely to
come into their hands, for the faithful performance of their duties, and
it shall be the duty of said commissioners to receive said sinking fund
and loan or invest the same in road bonds of the county, keeping a
separate account of the funds received from and disbursed for each
district ; they shall receive for their services one per centum of all money
so received and loaned or paid out. Should either of said sinking fund
commissioners fail or refuse to qualify, or after qualifying, resign or
die, then said vacancy shall be filled by the board of supervisors.

Section 16. It shall be lawful for the board of supervisors to build
bridges wherever the public necessity may demand. Upon the recom-
mendation of the supervisor of a district when he shall decide to build
a bridge in his own district, the board of supervisors may, by and with
the advice of the county engineer, locate said bridge and require said
engineer to make a report to them, giving plans and specifications, and
the probable cost of such bridges; and said board may lay a local levy on
said district or districts, to pay for building said bridge, and the district
in which any bridge is built shall bear the whole expense of such bridge,
or if built between two districts, they shall each bear one-half of the
said expense, and the board of supervisors may issue a certificate for the
whole amount of said expenses payable in one, two, three, four and five
years bearing interest at the rate of six per centum per annum and the
said certificates shall state upon their face for what bridge they are
issued, and out of what district levy they shall be paid, and the terms
of their payment.

Section 17. The said board is hereby empowered, without a petition
from the qualified voters of any district as provided for in section eight,
to issue bonds of said county for such amount as they deem necessary
not in excess of one hundred thousand dollars for the purpose of con-
structing, macadamizing or improving the roads in said county, or any
district, or districts therein; provided, that not more than twenty-five
thousand dollars shall be expended in any one district of said county.
Said board may levy a tax in such district or districts wherein said
improvements are made, in addition to the regular county levy for an
amount sufficient to pay the interest on and provide a sinking fund for
the amount or amounts so expended in said district or districts; pro-
vided, said tax shall not be more than fifty cents on every hundred dollars
calculation of property, real and personal, in said district or districts.

Section 18. It shall be the duty of the judge of the circuit court
of said county before any bonds are issued by the board of supervisors
hereunder, to appoint two resident freeholders in each magisterial dis-
trict wherein said improvements are contemplated, who, together with
the supervisor from the district, shall be known as the “district road
commission,” any two of whom shall constiute a quorum, of which the
supervisor from that district shall be ex-officio chairman. It shall be
the duty of said district road commission to determine upon a recom-
mendation to the board of supervisors what improvements are most
needed in its district, and to see that the money set apart for improve-
ments in that district is properly and judiciously expended, to the end
that the public interest may be fully protected. Said district road com-
mission shall report annually, or oftener if required, to the supervisors
showing an itemized account of the expenditure of said fund. All moneys
realized from the sale of said bonds under the provisions of this act shall
be received by the treasurer of said county, and shall be drawn out of his
hands for improvements in the various districts on warrants ordered to
be issued by the board of supervisors upon his recommendation of the
district road commission of said respective districts; said warrants to
be signed by the chairman of the board and countersigned by the chair-
man of the district road commission of the district wherein said im-
provements are made.

Section 19. The said road commissioners shall cause to be kept an
itemized account of all work done and money expended in road im-
provements, with the funds issued under this act, which shall be recorded
by the clerk of the board of supervisors in a book to be kept for the
purpose, and published in the manner provided by law for the publica-
tion of other expenditures.

Section 20. Before entering upon the duties of his office, each road
commissioner shall execute before the clerk of the circuit court, bond in
the penalty of five hundred dollars for the faithful performance of his
duty as such commissioner, with good and approved security.

Section 21.. The board of supervisors shall devise a system of book-
keeping in order to carry out the intention of this act and require, by
order, the clerk of said board to keep said books as directed, and they
shall prescribe the method by which the treasurer shall keep his books
with reference to the county and district levy and the collection of the
county and district road tax, and require said treasurer to follow out
plans; if the treasurer, or clerk of said board of supervisors shall fail
or refuse so to carry out the order of the board of supervisors, they shall
be fined for each offense not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than
fifty dollars, said fine to be recoverable by motion after reasonable notice
in the circuit court of said county.

Section 22. It is further provided that the road commissioners may
let to contract, if they think proper, the building of any bridges across
any stream, or the macadamizing or keeping in repair of the roads pro-
vided for in this act to the lowest responsible bidder and have the power
to reject any or all bids.

‘Section 23. Specifications for said work shall be drawn by the said
engineer, and the work carried on under his supervision, provided that
no commissioner, road engineer, or foreman, shall be personally interested,
either directly or indirectly in any contract for the building of any
bridges or the altering of any roads.

Section 24. This act shall be literally construed to the end that
its purposes may be fully carried out.

Section 25. The provisions of chapter forty-three (43) of the Code
of Virginia, being the general road law, shall apply where not incon-
sistent with this act.

Section 26. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act
are hereby repealed.

Section 27. It being necessary that immediate work should be done
for the purpose of working and keeping in repair the public roads and
bridges of Washington county an emergency exists and this act shall be
in force from its passage.