Chap. 376.—An ACT to create a commission of roads and bridges of the
county of Princess Anne, Virginia, for Seaboard magisterial district, and
to prescribe the powers and duties of such commission and to provide for
controlling, constructing and keeping in repair the public roads and bridges
within said magisterial district of said county and for acquiring, establish-
ing, altering and vacating roads and bridges therein and for obtaining and
applying necessary funds for said purpose, including the application of the
proceeds of sale of any bonds issued by said county for said purpose and
the payment of the interest and principal of said bonds and for obtaining
and applying any and all State aid now and hereafter available for said
purpose and for the levy and application of taxes for said purpose.

[H B 234]
Approved March 24, 1922.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia as follows:

A permanent commission, to consist of three members, and to
be known as the commission of roads and bridges of the county of
Princess Anne, Virginia, for Seaboard magisterial district, is hereby
created. Each of said members shall be a resident of the said magis-
terial district of the said county, who is qualified to vote at the time
of his appointment. The commissioners shall be appointed by the
judge of the circuit court of the said county and their regular term
of office shall be three years, respectively, except those first appointed
under this act, of whom one shall be appointed to hold office until
the first day of July, nineteen hundred and twenty-three; one until
the first day of July, nineteen hundred and twenty-four, and one
until the first day of July, nineteen hundred and twenty-five.

The said judge shall forthwith appoint the members of said com-
mission immediately after this act goes into effect. Whenever a va-
cancy in the commission shall occur the judge of said court shall
forthwith appoint a qualified person to fill the same for the unex-
pired term, and any commissioner may be removed by the judge of
said court at any time for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.
The commissioners so appointed shall, immediately upon their ap-
pointment, enter upon the 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 re-
quire of the sheriff of the said county, or any of his deputies, such
attendance and service as may be necessary to preserve order and to
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 business, whether there
be a vacancy in the commission or not, and a majority of the com-
missioners present may decide any question that may properly come
before their 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 on February first of each
year the judge of the said court shall fix the salaries of the members
of the commission for the ensuing year,. but the salary of the mem-
bers of said commission shall be not more than the sum of five hun-
dred ($500.00) dollars per annum each.

2. The said commission shall have the power, and be charged with
the duty, of controlling, supervising, managing, building, improving,
keeping in order and maintaining all the public roads and bridges
within Seaboard magisterial district of said county (not included
within the corporate limits of any incorporated town in said district
which maintains its own streets), and shall make and prescribe such
rules, regulations, specifications, and directions as it shall deem best
for building, keeping in order, repairing and regulating traffic upon
such roads and bridges. As used in this act the term “road” or
“roads” shall be construed to include, highways, streets, avenues and
roads; and the term “bridge” or “bridges” shall be construed to in-
clude bridges, viaducts and couseways.

3. Each of said commissioners, 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 may appoint a district road engineer
(who shall be a competent civil engineer), and whose salary, to be
fixed by it, shall be not more than twenty-four hundred dollars per
annum ; and it may appoint or employ, or authorize the appointment
or employment of, such additional engineers, overseers, agents, ser-
vants, 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 properly 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.

5. The said commission shall, on the fourth Monday in each
month, hold a meeting at the court house of the county, for the dis-
charge of its duties, and may appoint and hold such other regular
or special meetings at such times and places as may be necessary for
that purpose. Any commissioner shall have power to call a special
mecting, upon giving the other commissioners three days’ 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 there-
of, to go over the public roads and bridges of said district at least
once during each ninety days and to keep itself informed by means
of personal investigation and otherwise, as to the condition of the
public roads and bridges of said district, the manner in which they
are constructed and maintained and whether or not its appointees and
employees and their subordinates have performed their respective
duties.

7. The commission shall have power to enter into any and all
contracts necessary or desirable in the performance of its duties and
to purchase such teams, trucks, tractors, equipment, machinery, sup-
plies and materials, and to employ such superintendents, foremen and
laborers as it deems advisable for said purposes, but in all cases of
the construction, reconstruction or surfacing of any road or part
thereof to involve the expenditure of as much as three hundred
($300.00) dollars, in any calendar year, the commission shall cause
to be prepared and placed on file in its office, open to convenient pub-
lic inspection, plans and specifications for such work and shall adver-
tise for bids thereon by posting such advertisement at the door of
the court house of said county, at Lynnhaven post office in said dis-
trict, at Virginia Beach post office in said district and by publication
once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general
circulation published in the city of Norfolk, Virginia, said public
notice and advertisement to be posted and first published at least
thirty (30) days in advance of the opening of bids or such adver-
tisement to be made in the manner prescribed by law in those cases
in which State aid is applied for, and the commission shall award the
contract for said work to the lowest bidder, subject, however, to
its right to reject any or all bids.

The commission shall before entering into any contract for the
maintenance of any road or roads during any definite period of time
where such contract involves the expenditure of three hundred
($300.00) dollars, or more, prepare plans and file plans and specifi-
cations, advertise and receive bids and let contract therefor in the
same manner as hereinabove provided for the construction, recon-
struction or surfacing of such roads.

The commission shall require bonds from all contractors and ma-
terial men for the faithful performance of their contracts or under-
takings.

All work of whatever nature shall be done by contract let as
above provided to the lowest bidder, save and except in such cases
as the commission may decide by resolution recorded in its minutes
that the best interests of the district will be served by doing such
work with its own equipment and in such cases it shall file all bids
received on such work and shall keep an accurate record of its own
costs of doing such work and incorporate in its annual report the
economic or excess costs which finally accrue on such work, pro-
vided, however, that nothing herein contained shall prevent, and the
commission shall have full power, to employ, equip and operate such
reasonable forces of men and provide them with such reasonable sup-
plies and material, as may be necessary in the continuous minor main-
tenance of the roads within said district.
8. The said commission shall have all the powers now or here-
after provided for county local road authorities in expending any
and all funds referred to in this act; in obtaining State aid for the
construction, improvement and maintenance of roads and bridges
and in obtaining the refund of said expenditures in whole or in part
by application of such expenditures in anticipation of State aid, and
for such purposes the said commission shall have power to pursue
any method now or hereafter prescribed by general law as a pre-
requisite to obtain such State aid.

The board of supervisors of Princess Anne county shall immedi-
ately after this act goes into effect, and shall thereafter annually,
take any and all additional steps required by law to apply for and
obtain any and all State aid, now and hereafter available for the con-
struction, reconstruction and maintenance of roads in said county
and so much of such funds, if, when and as obtained, as said Seaboard
magisterial district may be equitably entitled to, shall be appropriated
by said board of supervisors and expended by said commission only
for the construction, reconstruction and maintenance of the roads
hereinafter set forth, and such appropriation shall amount to at least
one-third of all sums received from time to time from said source.

9. The board of supervisors of Princess Anne county shall an-
nually levy and appropriate, for district road purposes under this
act, a tax upon the property, real and tangible personal, assessed for
taxation in the said Seaboard magisterial district (and not included
within the corporate limits of any incorporated town in said magis-
terial district which maintains its own streets), which shall be ap-
plied to the working, keeping in order, repairing and maintaining
the public roads and bridges in said district, including the compen
sation of officers and subordinates appointed or employed under this
act. Such tax shall be in an amount sufficient for the reasonable
and proper maintenance of said roads and bridges as may be deter-
mined by said commission, and the same shall be collected, accounted
for, and applied as road funds under this act, as 1f it were a district
levy, and the funds so collected shall be kept separate by the county
treasurer. The said board of supervisors shall also annually appro-
priate for district road purposes under this act such proportion of.
all county road levies as may be collected from taxes assessed against
the property, real and personal, assessed for taxation in said Seaboard
magisterial district. The said board of supervisors shall also forth-
with appropriate for district road purposes under this act all portions
of previous appropriations for roads in said district unexpended at
the date this act shall go into effect. The said board of supervisors
shall forthwith make additional appropriations for district road pur-
poses under this act of the current district levy, and so much of the
current county road levy as may be collected from taxes assessed
against the property, real and personal, assessed for taxation in said
Seaboard magisterial district and not otherwise expended. The said
several funds, so appropriated, shaJl be disbursable for the expenses
(including cost of material, equipment and labor, and compensation
of commissioners and its appointees and employees) necessary to ac-
somplish the purpose of this act, by warrants upon the county treas-
urer, authorized by the said commission, signed by its chairman and
-ountersigned by its secretary. The said several funds shall be ap-
slied by the said commission, first, to the cost and expense of working,
keeping in order, repairing and maintaining the public roads and
bridges, and, secondly, if any of said funds shall then remain, to
the cost and expense of building, acquiring and permanently improv-
ing new or additional roads and bridges, and for this latter purpose
the said commission shall have the sole right and authority to expend
in the manner herein provided, the proceeds of all bonds hereafter
authorized and issued for the purpose of acquiring or improving
roads or bridges in said district; provided, however, that the first
five hundred thousand ($500,000) dollars available from the proceeds
of said bonds to be issued shall be expended proportionately, if, when
and as received upon the construction of the following roads of the
following materials, the said roads, if not constructed as an entirety,
to be constructed proportionately, as follows, and in the directions
hereafter set forth, namely:

(a) Sixty per centum to be applied proportionately to the con-
struction, reconstruction and surfacing of the following roads, lying
south of State highway, number ten: (1) Commencing from Rose-
mont and running to Holland road, thence to Princess Anne court
house and thence to Hickory bridge. (2) From Way’s corner to
Nimmo church; from Nimmo church to James corner and thence
from James corner south to Pungo store and east towards Sigma,
the funds to be used on the two branches from James corner, to be
the amount which would under the apportionment herein provided
for be alloted from James corner to said Sigma, such fund to be
divided between the two branches from James corner, equally, to
Sigma; (3) From Oceana crossing of said highway to Widgeon’s
corner, and (4) from London Bridge crossing of said highway south-
wardly through London Bridge station, a distance of twu niles.

(a) Ten per centum to be applied to the construction, reconstruc-
tion and surfacing of a road to extend from a point on State highway,
number ten, at the dividing line between the properties now owned
by J. Old and Alonzo Gray and running thence northwardly along
said dividing line and an approximate prolongation thereof to its
intersection with the county road now known as “the Little Neck
road” and running thence northwardly along said Little Neck road
towards Lynnhaven bay. Provided, however, that in the discretion
of the commission the said reconstruction and surfacing may begin
at the intersection of said State highway with the present Little
Neck road and extend along same to a point at or near Smith’s
corner and thence northwardly along said Little Neck road as above
provided for.

(b) Fifteen per centum to be applied to the reconstruction and
surfacing of the road known as the Great Neck road extending from
London Bridge crossing of said highway northwardly towards Wolf's
Snare and thence in the same direction towards its intersection with
Long creek.
(c) Eight and one-third per centum to be applied to the recon-
struction and surfacing of the road leading northwardly from Oceana
crossing of said highway known as the Oceana road by Providence
Methodist Episcopal church towards Mill Dam hill.

(d) One per centum to be applied to the reconstruction and sur-
facing of the road known as Atlantic avenue, commencing at its inter-
section with the northern boundary of the town of Virginia Beach
and extending towards the Virginia Beach casino.

(e) Five and two-thirds per centum to be applied to the recon-
struction and surfacing of the road extending from the northem
boundary of Virginia Beach northwardly along a prolongation of Bal-
tic avenue across an arm of Linkhorn bay and along the Holly road
as shown on plat of Linkhorn park, to its intersection at a point
near the Holly lake with a road leading westwardly along the boun-
dary of said Linkhorn park shown on said plat, thence westwardly
along said road, and thence running northwardly along the present
road binding on the west the property formerly belonging to Gynn
towards its intersection with the property belonging to Richardson.
All of the roads referred to in the above paragraph lettered (a) to
have a hard surface of such width and of such meterial as the said
commission in its discretion may determine; the said roads enum-
erated in the said paragraphs (b), (c), and (d) to have a surface of
concrete nine feet in width with shoulders of crushed stone three and
one-half feet in width on each side; the said road enumerated in
paragraph (d) to conform to the specifications upon which contract
is let in the town of Virginia Beach for so much of Atlantic avenue
as extends from Seventeenth street to the northern boundary of said
town, and the said road enumerated in paragraph (e) to have a
surface of concrete sixteen feet in width with two feet of dirt shoul-
ders on each side until the same turns to the westward at or near
the said Holly pond and thereafter to be constructed of crushed stone
for a width of sixteen feet.

_ Provided, however, that the said commission shall have power
(1) to make such reasonable alterations in the right of way in
any of said roads herein described as they may deem advisable;
(2) to make such additional specifications as it may deem advis-
able; (3) to make such changes in the above specifications as it
may deem advisable, provided a concrete or other hard surface of
at least the width hereinabove provided for each of said roads for
which concrete is prescribed is retained ; and (4) to make any changes
in said specifications that may be required in order to obtain State
aid, immediately or by anticipation. — .

10. No commissioner or engineer or other person appointed or
employed by virture of this act shall become pecuniarily interested,
directly or indirectly, in any contract or work of whatever nature,
or in the profits of any contract or work of whatever nature, made
by or with any person, firm or corporation that may contract for or
otherwise do work on, or the furnishing of material, equipment or
supplies for raods or bridges; and if this provision is violated, the
commissioner or engineer or other person so violating the same shall,
by means of an action or motion brought within one year 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 interest aforesaid.

11. 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
in said district and in such cases the procedure, right of appeal, and
other proceedings shall be the same, mutatis mutandis, as those pro-
vided by general law in the case of similar proceedings before boards
of supervisors. The attorney for the Commonwealth of said county
shall render such legal service to the said commission as may be
proper under this act, without additional compensation to him.

12. After the issue of any bonds now or hereafter authorized for
the improvement of roads or bridges in said Seaboard magisterial
district of Princess Anne county, Virginia, the said board of super-
visors are hereby authorized, empowered and directed to create a
sinking fund to be applied to the redemption and payment of such
bonds and shall annually, until such bonds are paid, pay over to such
sinking fund a sum sufficient to pay off the principal and interest
upon said bonds as the same become due and payable in accordance
with the terms thereof. In order to provide for the payment of said
interest and the creation of a sinking fund, the said board shall
annually levy a tax, in addition to the regular county and district
levies and the levies heretofore authorized in this act, on all property
in said magisterial district of said county, liable to county and district
tax, including the property, if any, located or the situs which for tax-
ation is, within the limits of any incorporated town situated within
said district, wherein real estate is subject to county and district
road tax, for an amount sufficient to pay the interest on the said bonds
issued and outstanding and to provide for a sinking fund for the
payment of the principal of said bonds, and the amount levied for
and set apart as a sinking fund, and the interest thereon, shall be
used for the payment of the principal of said bonds, and for no other
purpose.

13. The said board of supervisors is hereby authorized, directed
and empowered to apply any part or all of said sinking fund to the
payment or purchase of any of said bonds outstanding at any time
and all bonds so paid off or purchased by said board of supervisors
shall be immediately cancelled and shall not be reissued, and the
board of supervisors is authorized and empowered to lend out upon
real estate security (the loan not to exceed fifty per centum of the
assessed value of such real estate), or to deposit in bank at interest,
all accumulations of money to the credit of said sinking fund provided
as aforesaid, and to collect and reinvest the same and the interest
accruing thereon from time to time, so often as may be necessary or
expedient; provided, that no money to the credit of said sinking
fund shall be loaned out, or deposited or invested by the said board
of supervisors, unless said loan, deposit or investment shall be first
approved by the circuit court of said county, or the judge thereof
in vacation, and the form of the security be examined and approved
by the Commonwealth’s attorney for said county, which approval
shall be entered of record in the order book of the said court.

14. All money received from the proceeds of the sale of any
such bond issues shall be paid over to the treasurer of said county
and by him forthwith deposited at the best practical rate of interest
in one or more solvent banks that will give adequate security therefor,
and (subject to the limitations set forth in this act) shall be expended
and disbursed by the commission of roads and bridges of Princess
Anne county for Seaboard magisterial district by warrants upon the
county treasurer authorized by said commission, signed by its chair-
man, and countersigned by its secretary. The treasurer shall imme-
diately notify the said commission of roads and bridges upon the
depositing with him of the proceeds of the sale of said bonds, or any
of them. The said treasurer of Princess Anne county and the surety
on his official bond shall be liable for the amount received from the
sale of said bonds as though it were a county levy.

15. In the event that any part or parts of this act shall be in
conflict with the Constitution of Virginia, the residue thereof shall
nevertheless be valid and such conflicting part or parts shall be super-
seded by the proper Constitution provision. ) ,

16. By reason of the condition of the roads in said Seaboard
magisterial district and the necessity of opening said roads for the
public mails and other purposes, an emergency is hereby declared to
exist and this act shall be in force from its passage.

17. All acts and parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby
repealed.