Chap. 182.—An ACT to provide a special road law for the county of Lou-
doun; to provide for the construction, improvement and maintenance
of the public roads in said county and tn create separate road dis-
tricts in each of the several magisterial districts thereof; to provide
for the care and protection of the property of the several district
road boards; and to repeal an act to amend and re-enact an act en-
titled an act to amend and re-enact an act for working the roads of
the county of Loudoun, passed eighteen hundred and fifty-six, and to
repeal certain acts amendatory thereof, approved February 2, 1875,
and February 1, 1879, which was approved February 16, 1880, as
amended by an act approved February 16, 1901, an act approved
March 15, 1910, an act approved March 13, 1912, an act approved Feb-
ruary 15, 1915, and an act approved March 4, 1890, concerning
Lovettsville district of Loudoun county. (H. B. 237.)

Approved March 16, 1916.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
each of the six magisterial districts in the county ot Loudoun,
exclusive of the incorporated towns which maintain their own
roads free of expense to the magisterial districts in which they
are located, or which are exempt by the express provisions of
their charters from the payment of district road taxes, shall
constitute a separate road district. The construction, improve-
ment and maintenance and all other administrative control of
all public roads and highways in each said district shall be
vested in a district road board thereof as hereinafter provided
for. The construction, improvement and maintenance and ail
other administrative control of all the streets, public roads and
highways in each said incorporated town shall be vested in the
council of such town.

2. Each district road board in the several magisterial dis-
tricts of the county of Loudoun shall be composed of the mem-
ber of the board of supervisors for such district, who shail be
chairman of said board, the commissioner of roads now holding
office who shall serve until the expiration of the term for which
he has been elected and whose successor shall be elected for a
term of four years in the same manner as for other county
officers and a qualified voter residing therein who shall be se-
lected by said supervisor and said commissioner of roads and
who shall hold office for a term of one year; one of whom shall
be selected as clerk of said district road board, which shall meet
at least once in each month at such time and place as they may
select.

3. It shall be the duty of the said clerk to keep a complete
record of all meetings of the said board and itemized accounts
of all expenditures made by the said boards, showing for what
purpose the said expenditures were made, which said record
shall be open to public inspection at all times and to perform
such other clerical work as may be required by the said boards.
Copies of the said itemized statements, certified to by the chair-
man and clerk of the respective boards shall be published an-
nually in a newspaper published in Loudoun county.

4, The said boards shall be, and are hereby, declared bodies
politic, for the respective road districts in the county of Lou-
doun and shall have power to sue and be sued. They shall be
known as the road board for ...............0.c00% district.
1916.] ACTS OF ASSEMBLY. v65

5. Each board may within its discretion within thirty days
after this act shall go into effect appoint a district superintend-
ent of the roads for its respective district who shall hold office
for one year unless sooner removed by said board, and whose
duties shall be prescribed by the said board, and each said board
may authorize or appoint such assistants to said district super-
intendent as it may deem necessary for the purpose of carrying
into effect the provisions of this act and to fix compensation of
such superintendent and assistants. And said boards shall have
full power to purchase machinery, teams, supplies and ma-
terials, to arrange for the using of State convict force, and per-
form all other acts necessary to carry into effect the provisions
of this act. They may make all necessary contracts and may
require proper bonds of all employees, servants and contractors
for the faithful performance of their duties. The said district
road boards may remove the said district superintendent or any
assistant from office at any time for failure to perform his du-
ties as prescribed by said boards.

It shall be the duty of the several road boards to see that the
roads in their respective districts are kept in good repair, that
the bridges are in safe condition, that the roads are kept free
from obstructions, except that accumulations of snow are only
to be removed at the expense of the district in the discretion
of the said boards, that all loose stones are removed, that all
roads are of proper width and in all cases where they are not
to notify the person trespassing by written notice and if the
obstructions are not removed after reasonable notice, not to
exceed thirty days, they shall remove the fencing or other ob-
struction and may recover the expense with costs from the tres-
passer upon judgment of a justice of the peace.

6. The board of supervisors of Loudoun county shall an-
nually levy, in each of the several road districts, along with the
county levy a road tax at a rate not exceeding thirty cents on
every one hundred dollars of assessed value of the property in
each district subject to local taxation for road purposes and a
rate not exceeding thirty per centum on each dollar of license
and head tax assessed or assessable within the road district and
shall certify the said road tax rates to the commissioner of the
revenue and he shall extend the taxes against all property and
persons in the district levied for road purposes, a copy of which
shall be returned to the clerk’s office of the circuit court of the
county and from the said copy so returned the treasurer shall
make out his books for the collection of said tax. The county
treasurer shall keep separate the fund collected from each road
district and shall pay over the same subject to the same deduc-
tions as is provided in the collection of other taxes to the chair-
man of each district road board on January the first and July
the first of each year. A different rate of tax may be prescribed
by the board of supervisors for the different districts of the
county. The amount collected in each district together with the
amount apportioned to each district under the provisions of
paragraph eleven of section nine hundred and forty-four “A”
of the Code, shall be expended therein. The respective district
road boards may in their discretion set apart and appropriate
not less than one-fourth or more than one-half of the funds so
levied and collected in each road district toward the perma-
nent improvement of the main public roads of the respective
districts or maintenance of permanently improved roads.

Permanent improvements shall include only the building of
macadam, gravel, cement or sand clay roads, the construction
of culverts, the building of bridges, or the metalling and per-
manent grading and draining of such roads, of the doing of
work on the main public roads under the direction or with the
approval of the State highway commissioner and the said per-
manent fund so set apart may be used in order to obtain the
benefit of any laws which may be passed granting State money
or other aid to the county highways or in the co-operation with
private subscribers for said improvement. The balance of said
funds so levied and collected in each magisterial district shall
be expended and applied to the working and repairing of the
public roads of the respective districts in the discretion of the
district boards. The said district boards shall have authority
and it shall be their duty to designate the roads or parts of
roads in each of the several districts of the county to be known
as main public roads and to specify the character of permanent
improvement to be made on each road. So far as practicable
such main roads shall be improved in a permanent manner out
of the funds set apart as herein provided with such aid as may
be obtained from the State highway commission, or other State
authorities or private subscription. The intention of this act
is to encourage the building of a portion of permanently im-
proved roadway in each district to be gradually and equitably
made to the end that all parts of said district may as speedily
as possible receive a portion of the benefits of this act.

7. The said district road boards may represent at anv time
to the board of supervisors that there should be alteration of
roads or the establishment of new roads, and that road graders
scraver and certain machinery, wagons, carts and teams sre
necesary for the proper working and repairing of the roads of
their respective districts and submit to the board of supervisors
statements of the cost of such alterations, or establishment of
new roads and the purchase of such machinery, tools, and other
things necessary for the working and repair of the roads of tue
said district with application to the said board of supervisors
tu inake a special levy in the district or districts in which such
allerations and new roass and machinery, tools, and w2agens,
may be neccessary to provide for the same. And the road
boards may represent to the board of supervisors that crushers,
road rollers and engines are necessary to the proper ani per-
manent improvement of the roads in said district or districts
and that by the use of such machinery the road fund prcvided
in this act can be spent more advantageously in the interest of
the people in making durab!ce work and submit to the board the
cost of such machinery and the said board of supervisors may
thereupon make a levy for the necessary amount and turn the
proceeds over to the treasurer of the county to be placed to the
credit of the road fund of the district or districts in which the
said levy was made.

8. No member of said boards or other public officer or any
officer created by this act shall have an interest in any work
done under the provisions of said act.

The members of the said district road boards hereby
created and the district superintendents of roads that may have
heen appointed and his deputy or deputies shall qualify by tak-
ing the usual oath for the faithful performance of their duties
and the said members of the said district boards shall be paid
out of the road fund of their respective districts two dollars
per day for each day necessarily and actually employed in the
performance of their duties.

10. The board of supervisors shall have charge of the work
of building and repairing bridges in Loudoun county and to this
end shall annually along with the county levy lay a tax as a
part of such levy for the purpose of building said bridges, and
they shall have the power to make contracts for that purpose
and to provide for the supervision of such work; provided, how-
ever, that when the costs of building or repairing any such
bridges, or approaches thereto, shall be less than thirty dollars,
the same shall be paid out of the road fund for the district in
which such bridges may be, or if said bridge be of benefit to
more than one district, the cost if less than thirty dollars, shall
be apportioned between the districts so benefited.

11. The act entitled an act to amend and re-enact an act
entitled an act to amend and re-enact an act entitled an act
for working the roads of the county of Loudoun passed eighteen
hundred and fifty-six, and to repeal certain-acts amendatory
thereof, approved February sixteenth, eighteen hundred and
eighty, as amended by an act approved February sixteenth,
nineteen hundred and one, and an act approved March fifteenth,
nineteen hundred and ten, and an act approved March thir-
teenth, nineteen hundred and twelve, and an act approved Feb-
ruary fifteenth, nineteen hundred and fifteen, and an act ap-
proved March fourth. eighteen hundred and ninety concerning
Lovettsville district of Loudoun county, and all special acts here-
tofore passed by the general assembly of Virginia in reference
to the public roads of said county, shall be, and the same are
hereby repealed. .

The general road law of the State of Virginia, except in so
far as the same is in conflict with this act, shall be in force in
the county of Loudoun, and nothing contained in this act shall
368 ACTS OF ASSEMBLY. [VA.

be construed as to interfere with existing and unexpired con-
tracts for the working of roads in said county.

NEW RoaDs.

12. That every petition for a new road, or to lay out, open,
or alter or change a public road, must first be presented to the
road board of the district in which the road is, who shal] en-
dorse thereon their approval or disapproval of the same, and
their reasons therefor, which petition and the report of the road
board shall be laid before the court at its next term in open
court, and the court shall appoint three discreet qualified voters
to view the ground of any new road or proposed change or alter-
ation of an old road; the county or other competent surveyor
shall accompany the viewers and survey and map the road or
change. The whole number of viewers must view, but a ma-
jority may decide for or against, and they may view and make
report of an estimate for any modification of the route.

13. The notice of the time and place when the viewers shall
meet shall be given in some public manner in the vicinage of
the proposed road, at least five days before the time of meeting.
A copy of said notice duly verified shall be returned to the court.
The viewers, before they proceed to discharge their duties, shall
be severally sworn by some person authorized to administer
oaths, to perform their duties impartially and to the best of
their judgment. If they decide that there is a public necessity
for the road or change, they shall lay out the same having re-
spect for the shortest distance and the best ground, and so as to
do the least injury to private property; as also, as far as prac-
ticable, to be agreeable to the petitioners. They shall assess
the damage done to the land through which the road passes,
taking into consideration the advantage to be derived from the
roads passing through the land and shall report in writing at
the next term of the court. They shall report especially whether
any yard, garden or orchard or any part thereof will in such
case have to be taken; and in no case shall any yard or garden
or any part thereof be taken without the consent of the owner.

14. That the court shall examine the said report and the
amount of damages assessed and if satisfied that the public in-
terests and convenience will be subserved by its payment and
the opening of the road or the proposed change shall approve
the report and order the damages to be paid by the magisterial
district or districts through which the road passes in such pro-
portion as the damages may have been assessed in the said dis-
tricts, respectively; but upon the return of the report of the
viewe.s the proprietors and tenants of the land upon which said
road will be, if established, shall be summoned to show cause
against said report and any proprietor of said lands may enter
himself a party defendant in said petition, after which the same
proceedings shall be had as under the general road law of the
State upon the return of the report of the commissioner of roads,
provided that the viewers and surveyor shall be paid out of the
county treasury.

15. That the court shall at the time when any new road is
established direct what width the road beds shall be made and
shall have power to regulate the width of all roads, provided
that the land condemned for any new road shall not be less in
width than thirty feet.

16. That the court may at its discretion grant a second or
third review, the viewers to be paid the sum of one dollar per
dem to be paid for as provided for in section fourteen of this
act.

17. That the clerk of the court shall keep a road docket in
which all proceedings in regard to roads in the county shall
be kept of record.

18. That in case a road is a dividing line between two mag-
isterial districts the road board of the districts thus adjoining
shall divide said roads between such districts in such way as
will equitably divide the expense if they can agree; in case they
cannot agree the court shall divide the same and direct what part
of said road shall be kept in repair by each magisterial district.

19. Any person or persons causing water to be diverted
from its natural course and conveyed across a public highway
or who by the erection of waste gates or any other means shall
cause water to flow or be conducted over such public highway
shall place and keep in good repair bridges over the same at his
or her expense and that the road board shall notify such person
or persons that a bridge should be built or that his or their
bridge is unsafe and such person or persons shall fail to build
such bridge or make the necessary repairs he or they shall be
held responsible for all damages to be recovered by warrant
before a justice of the peace or court of competent jurisdic-
tion that may result from such failure. Within ten days after
such failure the road board may make such repairs and require
such party or parties to pay all costs thereby incurred which
costs may be recovered before the justice of the peace or court
of competent jurisdiction.

20. That members of district road boards under the special
road law now in force in Loudoun shall continue in office and
discharge the duties of the same as herein provided until their
successors are duly appointed and qualified under the provisions
of this act and all contracts made in pursuance of law shall re-
main full force and effect.

21. all property including machinery, teams, and all other
articles used and owned by the district road boards as now con-
stituted shall be transferred to the district boards herein au-
thorized as soon‘as they shall organize under the provisions of
this act. |

22. This act shall be in effect from January first, nineteen
hundred and seventeen.