Chap. 238.—An ACT to create a commission of roads and bridges for the
county of Princess Anne, Virginia, for Pungo magisterial district, and to
prescribe the powers and duties of such commission and to provide to con-
trolling construction, and keeping in repair public roads and bridges within
said magisterial district of said county and for acquiring, establishing, alter-
ing and vacating roads and bridges therein. And for obtaining and applying
any and all State aid now and hereafter available for said purposes. [H B 405]

Approved March 23, 1926.

' Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That a per-
manent commission to consist of five members one of whom shall be
the member of the board of supervisors of Pungo district, and four of
whom shall be free holders and qualified resident voters in said magis-
terial district. Said commission to be elected by the duly qualified
voters of said district at any special election called by the circuit court
of Princess Anne county for the purpose of voting upon a bond issue
to construct roads and bridges in said district. Said commission to
serve until the next general election or such time as their successors
shall have been elected and qualified. And every four years there-
after, and the members so elected shall qualify in the manner now
prescribed by law for the qualification of member of board of super-
visors of counties and shall take office immediately after such election.

2. 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 con-
structed and maintained and whether or not its appointee and em-
ployees and their subordinates have performed their respective duties.

3. Said commission shall meet at the courthouse of the county
on the fourth Monday in each month and at such times as its mem-
bers may desire. At its first regular meeting said commission shall
elect a chairman, vice-chairman and secretary to serve for the re-
mainder of that calendar year, and similar officers for each calendar
year thereafter shall be elected by the commissioners at their first
regular meeting in said calendar year. The chairman of the com-
mission shall receive as compensation for his services the sum of one
hundred dollars ($100.00) per year, the secretary the sum of one hun-
dred and twenty-five dollars ($125.00), and the remaining members
of the commission the sum of seventy-five dollars ($75.00) per year,
and the board of supervisors of the county shall make provision for
the payment of these said salaries in the manner prescribed by law for
the payment of salaries to road superintendents.

4. Whenever a vacancy in the commission shall occur, the judge
of the circuit court of Princess Anne, 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 malfeasance in office. The commissioners so appointed shall,
immediately upon their appointment, enter upon the duties of their
office. .

5. All meetings of the commission shall be public and a permanent
record shall be kept by the secretary of all of its proceedings and of all
business by it transacted, which said record shall be open to public
inspection at all times.

6. The board of supervisors of the county shall provide quarters
and records for the meetings of the commission and for the transaction
of its business. At any meeting of said commission, three members
thereof shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business,
whether or not there be a vacancy in the membership of said board,
and a majority of the commissioners present may pass upon and de-
cide any question that may come before the meeting.

Special meetings of said commission to be held at the courthouse
of said county, or at any place designated by chairman, may be called
by any members thereof upon five days’ written notice to the other
members of said commission. The chairman (or in case of his absence
the vice-chairman, or the commissioner who may be chosen as tem-
porary chairman), shall preside at all meetings and shall have power
to administer an oath to any person concerning any matters submitted
to the commission or connected with its duties.

7. 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 not exceed twenty-four hundred dollars ($2400.00) 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 such employment
is necessary to protect the public interest, incident to its work, under
this act, and to employ an expert accountant from time to fime as his
services may be required. 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.

_ 8. 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 team, trucks, tractors, equipment, machinery, sup-
plies and materials and to employ such superintendents, foremen and
laborers as it deems advisable for the purpose of building, repairing,
improving and maintaining the roads and bridges of Pungo magisterial
district of Princess Anne county, Virginia. All indebtedness incurred
by said commission shall be paid by the board of supervisors by war-
rants drawn on the Pungo district road fund upon receipt of monthly
statements from the said commission, such statement to be signed by
chairman of commission and supported by proper bills and invoices
in duplicates. But in all cases of the construction, reconstruction,
maintenance or surfacing of any road or part thereof involving the
expenditure of more than five hundred dollars ($500.00) in any calen-
dar year, the commission shall cause to be prepared and placed on file
in its office, open to convenient public inspection, plans and specifica-
tions of such work, and shall advertise for bids thereon by posting such
advertisement at the door of the courthouse of said county and by
publication once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper
having general circulation, said notice to be posted and advertisement
to be published in the manner above prescribed over a period of at
least thirty days prior to the opening of the bids for such work. In
those cases in which State aid is available and required, publication
shall be as prescribed by law and the rules of the State highway com-
mission. In all cases the commission shall award the contract for
said work to the lowest bidder, subject, as of course, to its right to
reject any and all bids made. The commission shall require bond
from all contractors or material men for the faithful performance of
their contracts or undertakings. All work of every 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 interest 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 all work and shall keep an accurate
record of its own cost of doing such work and incorporate in its annual
report the excess cost which finally accrued in such work, provided,
however, that nothing herein contained shall prevent, and the com-
mission shall have full power to employ, equip and operate such reason-
able forces of men and provide them with such reasonable supplies and
material as may be necessary in the continuous maintenance of the
roads within said district.

9. The said commissioner shall have all the powers now or here-
after provided for 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 prerequisite to obtain such
State aid.

The board of supervisors of Princess Anne county shall immed-
lately 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 or hereafter available for the con-
struction, reconstruction and maintenance of roads in said district,
and so much of such funds, if, when as obtained, as said Pungo dis-
trict, 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 in said
district.

10. The board of supervisors of said county shall annually levy
and appropriate, for district road purposes under this act, a tax upon
the property, real and personal, assessed for taxation in said district,
as is allowed by law, the Proceeds from which said tax shall be applied
to the repairing and maintenance of the public roads and bridges in
said district, including the compensation of officers and subordinates
appointed or employed under thisact. Such tax shall bein an amount
sufficient for the reasonable and proper maintenance of said roads and
bridges, as may be determined by said commission, and said funds
shall be collected, accounted for and applied as road funds under this
act as if the same were a district levy, and shall be separately kept
by the county treasurer.

Said board of supervisors shall forthwith 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. Said board of supervisors shall forthwith make additional
appropriations for district road purposes, under this act of the current
district levies, and so much of the county road levy as may be collected
from taxes assessed against the property in said district and not other-
wise expended. The said several funds so appropriated shall be dis-
bursable for the expenses necessary to accomplish the purpose of this
act. The said several funds shall be applied by said commission,
first, to the cost and expense of repairing and maintaining the public
roads and bridges, and, second, if any of said funds shall remain, to
the cost and expense of building, acquiring and permanently im-
proving new and additional roads and bridges, and for this latter pur-
pose the commission shall have the sole right and authority to expend
in the manner herein provided, the proceeds of all bonds hereinafter
authorized and issued for the purpose of acquiring or improving roads
or bridges in said district.

11. No commissioner or engineer, or other person appointed or
employed by virtue 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 other-
wise do work on any roads and bridges in said district, or for the fur-
nishing of material, equipment or supplies therefor. . Any person
violating this provision of this act shall be deemed to be guilty of a
misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punishable by a
fine of not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500.00) and confinement
in jail not exceeding six months, either or both, in the discretion of the
court or jury trying the cause.

12. The said commission shall have and may exercise the powers,
authority and jurisdiction now or hereafter conferred on boards of
supervisors by general law (so far as the same is 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 as is provided by law in the
case of similar proceedings before boards of supervisors. The attorney
for the Commonwealth of county shall render such legal service to
said commission as may be proper under this act, without additional
compensation therefor.

13. In the event that any part or parts of this act shall conflict
with the Constitution of Virginia, the residue thereof shall nevertheless
be valid, and such conflicting part or parts shall be superceded by the
proper constitutional provisions.

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

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