Chap. 308.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 1, 4, 7, 8, 9 and 11 of ar
act entitled an act to create for the county of Norfolk a commission oi
roads and bridges, and to prescribe the powers and duties of such commis-
sion, and thereby to provide for controlling, constructing and keeping in
repair the public roads and bridges within said county, and for acquiring,
establishing, altering and vacating roads and bridges therein; and to re-
peal an act entitled an act for working and keeping in repair the public
roads in Norfolk county, approved February 18, 1890, 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 Norfolk county, approved February 1, 1894, approved February
1, 1915, and to add to said act two new sections, designated sections 7-a
and 13-a. [H B 476]

Approved March 19, 1920.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tions one, four, seven, eight, nine and eleven of an act entitled an act
to create for the county of Norfolk a commission of roads and bridges,
and to prescribe the powers and duties of such commission, and there-
by provide for controlling, constructing and keeping in repair the
public roads and bridges within said county, and for acquiring, estab-
lishing,¢altering and vacating roads and bridges therein; and to re-
peal an act entitled an act for working and keeping in repair the public
roads in Norfolk county, approved February eighteenth, eighteen hun-
dred and ninety, as amended by acts approved February twenty-sixth.
nineteen hundred and eight, and March fourteenth, nineteen hundred
and ten, respectively, and also to repeal an act entitled an act for
working and keeping in repair the public roads in Norfolk county,
approved February first, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, approved
February first, nineteen hundred and fifteen, be amended and re-
enacted, and that two new sections, designated sections seven-a and
thirteen-a, be added to the said act, so that the said amended sections
and said new sections shall read as follows:

Sec. 1. A permanent conimission, to consist of three members, and
0 be known as the commission of roads and bridges for the county
»f Norfolk, is hereby created. Each of said members shall be a resi-
jent of the said county who is qualified to vote. The commissioners
shall be appointed bv the judge of the circuit court of said county, and
heir regular term of office shall be three years, respectively. except
hose first appointed under this act (who shall be appointed within
hirty days after this act goes into effect), of whom one shall be ap-
yointed to hold office until the first day of July, nineteen hundred
ind sixteen; one until the first day of July, nineteen hundred and
eventeen, and one until the first day of July, nineteen hundred and
ighteen. Whenever a vacancy in the commission shall occur, the
udge of said court shall forthwith appoint a qualified person to fill
he same for the unexpired term, and any commissioner shall be re-
novable by the iudge of said court for, neglect of duty or malfeas-
nce in office. Commissioners appointed for regular terms shall, at
he beginning of the terms for which apnointed, and those appointed
o fill vacancies shall, immediately upon their appointment. enter upon
he duties of their office. 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 sheriff of said
county, or any of his deputies, such attendance and services as may be
necessary to preserve 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 transac-
tion of business, 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 super-
visors of said county shall, subject to the approval of the commis-
sion, provide suitable quarters and blank records for the commission,
and the judge of the said court shall fix the salaries of the members
of the commission, but the salary of each commissioner shall be not
less than two hundred dollars, nor more than one thousand dollars
per annum. Due to the added duties and expense of the chairman, he
shall have a salary allowance of not more than six hundred dollars
in excess of the salaries of the other two commissioners.

Sec. 4. The said commission may appoint a county road engineer
(who shall be a competent civil engineer), who shall devote his whole
time to the duties prescribed by the commission, and who shall attend
each meeting of the commission, and whose salary, to be fixed by it,
shall be not more than four thousand dollars per annum. Said engi-
neer shall personally own his means of road transportation, but for
the upkeep and maintenance of such means of transportation over the
roads of said county, he shall be allowed the sum of seven hundred and
fifty dollars per annum. and further, be allowed his expense for com-
mon carriers and hotels when on duties directly connected with the
roads of the county; and it may appoint or employ, or authorize the
appointment or employment of, such additional engineers, 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 employ 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 ascertaining the amounts of the
several funds properlv disbursable by it under this act. The terms,
duties and compensation of its respective 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.

Sec. 7. From and after the passage of this act. the road and
quarry machinerv, equipment and material now belonging to the
county of Norfolk shall be subiect 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. It shall also
have authority to prevent the public from traveling on any road o:
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 materia!
men for the faithful 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, and posted at four public places in each
magisterial district of the county.

Sec. 7-a. The commission shall further have the power to pur-
chase such trucks, tractors, tools and other machinery as may be
necessary to equip, organize and put to work in the several magis-
terial districts small forces of laborers under the supervision of a
foreman, who shall be known as a “road foreman,” for the district or
districts put in his charge. The duties of said foreman and his assist-
ants are to inspect and repair the roads and bridges in his district or
districts in accordance with the instructions of the commission or its
engineer. Four forces of this kind are to be organized as soon as
possible—one each for Pleasant Grove and Butts Road districts and
one for Western Branch and Deep Creek districts jointly, and one for
Tanners Creek and Washington districts jointly. The commission
shall keep these forces continually at work, if the funds for their
maintenance are available; otherwise the commission may curtail or
remove the forces entirely until such time as it may be financially
prepared to reorganize them. The road foreman shall report to the
engineer weekly in writing or by telephone, and shall be responsible
to the engineer, who shall in turn transmit said reports to the com-
mission and be responsible to it for the actions of the road foreman.
Each road foreman shall devote his whole time, while employed by
the commission, to road and bridge work, and shall report to the engi-
neer by telephone daily whenever such means of communication is
available. In case of emergency, the commission may mobilize these
road forces as they may deem best. The commission shall as far as
possible keep the forces at work in the several districts supplied with
proper tools and materials for the execution of their work.

Sec. 8. The commission shall from time to time cause to be pre-
pared and placed on file in its office, open to convenient pyblic inspec-
tion, plans and specifications of the work to be done under this act.
Such plans and specifications and the calls for bids thereon shall be
posted at four public places in each magisterial district, and advertised
ten times in one or more newspapers in the cities of Norfolk and Ports-
mouth, said public notices and advertisements to be posted and pub-
lished thirty davs in advance of the opening of bids, and award the
contract to the lowest bidder, subject to its nght to reject any or all
bids. Emergency cases of road or bridge work shall be done as the
commission deems best.

All work of whatever nature, except emergency cases, shall, as
stated above, be let to the lowest bidder, unless all the bids are deemed
oo high by the commission. Then, if the commission decides that
the best interests of the county will be served by doing such work with
ts own equipment, it shall file all bids received on such piece of work
and shall keep a record of the costs of their so doing said work to
Jetermine. what economies or excess costs finally accrued, and incor-
porate such figures in their annual report. |

The commission may lease whatever machinery and equipment now
in their possession, or that they may hereafter acquire, to contractors
or road workers at prices and under conditions they may determine,
provided such machinery is used exclusively in the construction and
naintenance of the roads and bridges of.said county.

Sec. 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 incor-
porated town in said county which maintains its own streets), which
shall be applied to the working, keeping in order and repairing the
public roads and bridges, including the compensation of officers and
subordinates appointed or employed under this act. Such tax shall not
be less than fifteen nor more than fifty cents upon every hundred dol-
lars in value of such property, and the same shall be collected, ac-
counted for, and applied as road funds under this act, as 1f it were a
county levy, except that the funds collected from each magisterial dis-
trict 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 Nor-
folk county ferries as is not required for the county’s proportion of in-
terest on bonds that are now or may hereafter be predicated upon said
ferry property and sinking funds to retire the same. The said board
of supervisors shall also forthwith appropriate for general road pur-
poses 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 disbursable 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 war-
rants upon the county treasurer, authorized by the said commission,
signed by its chairman and countersigned by its secretary. The said
several funds shall be applied by the said commission, first, to the
cost and expense of working, keeping in order and repairing the pub-
lic roads and bridges, and, secondly, if any of said funds shall then re-
main, 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, all unexpended proceeds of
bonds heretofore authorized and issued for the purpose of acquiring
or improving roads or bridges in said county.
432 ACTS OF ASSEMBLY, [va
_ Sec. 11. No commissioner or engineer or other person appoint
or employed by virtue of this act shall become pecuniarily intere
directly or indirectly, in any contract or work of whatever nature, o
in the profits of any contract or work of whatever nature, made b:
or with any person, firm or corporation that may contract. for o
otherwise do work on, or-the furnishing of material, equipment or sup
plies for roads or bridges; and if this provision is violated, the com
missioner ar engineer or other persot$}so violating the same shall, by
means‘of an action,pr’ motion brought within ane year thereafter it
the circuit court of said county, be liable to the county for a sum o:
money equal to double the amount of his interest aforesaid.

pec. 13-a. The commission shall make a complete inventory as
of June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and twenty, and on each succeed-
ing Juné thirtieth, covering the location ahd condition of all real and
personal property belonging under its- jurisdiction, and said inven-
tories shall be open to public inspection at the office of the commis-
sion at any tirhe during business hours.

&. ’

-

Fs