Chap. 22.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act to amend and re-enact
section four 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 macadamize the roads of said county and
to authorize the qualified voters of the said county to vote on the question
as amended, approved March 20, 1914; 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 and to authorize the qualified voters of said county
to vote upon the question of issuing bonds. (H. B. 35)

Approved February 5, 1915.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That an act
to amend and re-enact section four 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 bor-
row money by the issue of bonds and to build bridges and to macadamize
the roads of the said county, and to authorize the qualified voters of
said county to vote on the question as amended, approved March twentieth,
nineteen hundred and fourteen, be, and the same is hereby, amended so
as to read as follows:

Section 4. The board of supervisors shall appoint a competent en-
gineer 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 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 alter-
ations 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 engineer before locating or relocating said road or landing, or
making alterations therein, as the case may be, shall give notiee of the
time and place when he shall go upon said road or landing to the land-
owners, 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 ot the individuals
through whose land it passes and the distance thereof, as far as prac-
ticable; 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 required 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, to-
gether 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 landowners 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 estab-
lished as reported, 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 the board. When said report or reports
are confirmed, the board of supervisors shall establish or alter the road
or landing. If any landowner 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 origin-
ally had whose decision as to the location of said road shall be final.

- Tf 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 landowner
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
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 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 re-
port to said board of supervisors 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 incon-
sistent with this act.

Section 5. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are
hereby repealed. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from
its passage.