Chap. 49.—An ACT to create a commission of roads and bridges of the
county of Princess Anne, Virginia, for Lynnhaven 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 establishing, altering and vacating roads and bridges
therein, and for obtaining and applying any and all State aid now
and hereafter available for said purpose. [H B 2]

Approved March 21, 1928.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia as
follows: A permanent commission, to consist of five members,
four of whom shall be appointed by the judge of the circuit
court, in term time or in vacation, and the fifth of whom shal:
be the member of the board of supervisors for Lynnhaven mag-
isterial district, and to be known as the commission of roads
and bridges of the county of Princess Anne, Virginia, for Lynn-
haven magisterial district, is hereby created. Each of said mem-
bers shall be a resident of the said magisterial district of said
county, who is qualified to vote at the time of his appointment.
The regular term of office of the four members of the commis-
sion appointed by the judge of the circuit court shall be four
years, respectively, except those first appointed under this act,
of whom one shall be appointed to hold office until the first day
of March, nineteen hundred and twenty-four; one until the first
day of March, nineteen hundred and twenty-five; one until the
first day of March, nineteen hundred and twenty-six; and one
until the first day of March, nineteen hundred and twenty-seven.
The chairman and secretary of said commission are to be elected
by the said commission. The chairman of the commission is to
receive a salary of one hundred ($100.00) dollars per annum, and
the secretary of the commission is to receive a salary of one
hundred and fifty ($150.00) dollars per annum, and the other
members of said commission except the member of the board
of supervisors, are to receive salaries of fifty ($50.00) dollars
each per annum, and the treasurer of said county is hereby au-
thorized to pay the salaries as hereinabove provided.

The said judge shall forthwith appoint the members of said
commission immediately after this act goes into effect. When-
ever a vacancy in the commission shall occur the judge of said
court shall forthwith appoint a qualified person to fill the same
for the unexpired term, and any commissioner may be removed
by the judge of said court at any time for neglect of duty or mal-
feasance in office. The commissioners so appointed shall, im-
mediately upon their appointment, 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 require of the sheriff of 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, pro-
ceedings, 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 businéss 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 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.

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 Lynnhaven 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 is 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 include bridges, viaducts and causeways.

2. 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 acknowl-
edge, 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 ($5.090.00) dol-
lars, conditioned for the faithful performance of the duties of
his office.

4. The said commission may appoint a district road engi-
neer (who shall be a competent civil engineer), and whose
salary, to be fixed by it, shall be not more than twenty-four
hundred ($2,400.00) dollars per annum; 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 per-
formance 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 as-
sist 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 courthouse of the county,
for the discharge 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 meeting, upon giving the other com-
missioners 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 ma-
jority thereof, 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 emplovees and their sub-
ordinates 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, supplies 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 five
hundred ($500.00) dollars, in any calendar vear, the commis-
sion shall cause to be prepared and placed on file in its office,
open to convenient public inspection, plans and specifications
for such work and shall advertise for bids thereon by posting
such advertisement at the door of the courthouse of said county,
at Lynnhaven postoffice in said district, and by publication once
a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general cir-
culation 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 ad-
vertisement to be made in the manner prescribed by law in
those cases in which State aid is applied for, and the commis-
sion 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 five
hundred ($500.00) dollars, or more, prepare plans and file plans
and specifications, advertise and receive bids and let contract
therefor in the same manner as hereinabove provided for the
construction, reconstruction or surfacing of such roads.

The commission shall require bonds from all contractors and
material men for the faithful performance of their contracts or
undertakings. ,

All work of whatever nature shal! 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 incor-
porate in its annual report the economic or excess costs which
finally accrue on such work, provided 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 supplies and
material, as may be necessary in the continuous minor mainte-
nance of the roads within said district.

8. The said commission shall have all the powers now or
hereafter provided for county local road authorities in expend-
ing 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 anticipa-
tion of State aid, and for such purposes the said commission
shall have power to pursue any method now or hereafter pre-
scribed by general law as a prerequisite to obtain such State ald.

The board of supervisors of Princess Anne county shall im-
mediately 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 construction, reconstruction and maintenance
of roads in said county and so much of such funds, if, when and
as obtained, as said Lynnhaven magisterial district may be
equitably entitled to, shall be appropriated by said board of
supervisors and expended by said commission only for the con-
struction, reconstruction and maintenance of the roads in said
Lynnhaven magisterial district.

9. The board of supervisors of Princess Anne county shall
annually levy and appropriate for district road purposes under
this act, a tax upon the property, real and tangible personal, as-
sessed for taxation in the said Lynnhaven magisterial district
(and not included within the corporate limits of any incorpor-
ated town in said magisterial district which maintains its own
streets), which shall be applied to the working, keeping in order,
repairing, and maintaining the public roads and bridges in said
district, including the compensation 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 determined by said commis-
sion, and the same shall be collected, accounted for, and applied
as road funds under this act, as if 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
appropriate for district road purposes under this act such
proportion cf all county road levies as may be collected from
taxes assessed against the property, real and personal, assessed
for taxation in said Lynnhaven magisterial district. The said
board of supervisors shall also forthwith appropriate for dis-
trict road purposes under this act all portions of previous ap-
propriations 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 Lynnhaven magisterial district and not other-
wise expended. The said several funds, so appropriated, shall
be disbursable for the expenses (including cost of material,
equipment and labor, and compensation of commissioner and its
appointees and employees) necessary to accomplish the purpose
of this act by warrants upon the county treasurer authorized
by the said commission, signed by its chairman and counter-
signed by its secretary. The said several funds shall be applied
by the said commission, first, to the cost and expense of work-
ing, 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 improving 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 pro-
vided, the proceeds of all bonds hereafter authorized and issued
for the purpose of acquiring or improving roads or bridges in
said district.

10. No commissioner or engineer or other person appointed
or employed by virtue of this act shall become pecuniarily inter-
ested, 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 roads 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 incon-
sistent with the 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 provided 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. 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 superseded by the proper Constitution provision.

18. By reason of the condition of the roads in said Lynn-
haven 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.

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