Chap. 410.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act approved March 13, 1914,
entitled an act to provide a road law for Spotsylvania county, and all acts
subsequent thereto. {H B 526]

Approved March 24, 1922.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That an
act entitled an act to amend and re-enact an act approved March 13,
1914, and all subsequent acts thereto, entitled an act to provide for
a road law for Spotsylvania county, be amended and re-enacted so
as to read as follows:

Sec. 1. The management and control of all roads in the county of
Spotsylvania shall be placed under the direction of the board of super-
visors of the said county, who are hereby constituted a road board
for the purpose.

The board of supervisors are empowered and authorized to levy
annually, not in conflict with general laws, a road tax of not exceeding
sixty (60) cents on the one hundred dollars valuation of all taxable
property, which together with such other moneys as may be derived
from any road tax upon telephone lines, railroads, et cetera, shall
constitute a road fund.

The said road board shall adopt economical, modern, progressive
and uniform standards for the construction and repair of roads; shall
carefully scrutinize all expenditures of road funds, and in their dis-
cretion, shall require all persons who use wagons, carts, or other
vehicles in said county, to provide such wagons, carts, or other
vehicles with tires of such width as they, the said board, may pre-
scribe, upon such conditions as they may prescribe, and may prescribe
such penalty for the failure of any person to comply with said require-
ments or order as they may deem best. |
The said board may also erect tollgates on such of the roads of the
county or any district thereof as they may deem proper, at not less
than five miles apart, and fix the rate of toll for the various kinds
of vehicles, automobiles, locomobiles, and so forth, in proportion
to the damage done by such vehicles, and from the action of the
board in fixing such rates of toll, et cetera, there shall be no appeal.
No tollgate shall be maintained where the cost of keeping said gate
exceeds ten per cent of gross receipts in any six months period. —

The said road board is authorized to make and publish such orders
and regulations governing the use of the said road as it may deem
wise and proper in regard to hauling any loads over the road, this
not to apply to school children or individual travel, and said road
board, while the same is being built, improved or repaired, and
thereafter when such travel would, by weather conditions, in the
opinion of said road board, greatly damage such road, and may pre-
scribe such penalty for the failure of any person to comply with
said order or regulation as they may deem best; to proceed, by
warrant, against all parties plowing up, moving, or otherwise en-
croaching upon or obstructing said road; or driving vehicles un-
necessarily into or along the ditches on the side of said road; to
require drivers of wagons to accompany same while same are in
motion upon said public roads; and any party so convicted shall be
punished as for a misdemeanor and fined not less than five nor more
than twenty-five dollars. Said road board may appoint for each
of the districts in the county as many persons as said board may deem
necessary, to report to said board or a justice of the peace, without
compensation, all violations of this act or of any order passed by said
board in pursuance thereof.

It shall be the duty of such member of said road board of each dis-
trict of Spotsylvania county to see that the roads in his district are
kept cleared, smoothed of rocks and other obstructions, of necessary
width ; that the beds of the roads are raised in the middle and sloped
gradually each way to the sides, well drained, and secure from the
falling of dead timber thereon, and otherwise in good order; that if
needs be, a suitable sign board be placed and kept at every important
fork or crossing, on which shall be stated in plain letters the most
noted place to which each road leads; that bridges be constructed
and maintained in a safe, substantial condition, and where the
beds of said roads are encroached upon, the member of said board
for such district shall notify the person trespassing by written notice
to remove the obstruction, and if the same be not done in ten days,
he shall cause said obstruction to be removed and may recover the
expense with costs from said trespasser before any justice of the
peace of said district.

The said road board shall have authority to direct a surveyor of
said county to define the boundary of any road therein; to alter the
grade of any existing road, and to perform such other service as may
be necessary to carry out the provisions of this act, for which service
the said surveyor shall receive reasonable compensation from the
said board not exceeding, however, four dollars per day, payable
out of the road fund.

The said road board may adopt such methods of working and
repairing said roads as the said board shall deem best; they may
purchase or hire such teams, road machines, engines, implements,
tools, wagons, camp equipage and all other necessary articles for the
use of the employees working said roads; to hire such labor as may
be necessary and put the same to work-for such time during the
year as they may deem best on any of the roads of said county,
under a foreman appointed by the members of said board for each
district, who shall be manager of the same, under the direction and
control of the member of said road board, for his district.

All road taxes shall be expended in the district from which they
are collected; provided, however, that the construction and repair
of bridges shall be under the control and supervision of the board
of supervisors, and cost of said construction and repair may be paid
for out of the county levy.

Each member of the said road board for his district shall keep a
strict and faithful record of his expenditures of said road fund in
his district, require itemized accounts for all expenditures, pay all
bills out of said road funds, and shall annually produce before the
treasurer of said county at the time the said treasurer settles his
accounts, the itemized bills for the money so expended, and said
itemized bills, together with the vouchers, shall be filed in the clerk’s
office of said county.

The treasurer shall annually make off statements of the road
accounts for the respective districts, and have the same published
along with his annual statement of receipts and disbursements of
the county levy.

The county treasurer shall keep the road fund separate from other
tax funds, keeping an account with each district separately.

For all services rendered by the said supervisors under this act
they shall each be entitled to receive as compensation a sum not
exceeding seventy-two dollars in any one year, except as members
of the road board of Spotsylvania county there shall be allowed
each member two dollars and fifty cents per day for each day not
exceeding four days in any one month spent in inpecting the roads
of their several districts, provided they make due report of the con-
dition of said roads of said district at next meeting succeeding said
inspection.

Any person or persons violating any of the provisions of this act,
concerning the roads and bridges in said county, may be proceeded
against, as for a misdemeanor, by a warrant from a justice of the
peace of the county tryable in the district in’ which the offense
occurred.

2. All acts and parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby re-
pealed, so far as they affect Spotsylvania county.

3. By reason of the necessity of consummating the result pro-
vided in this act, an emergency exists and this act ‘shall be in force
from its passage.