CHAP. 17.--An ACT to provide a road board for Capeville magisterial district in Northampton county, to authorize the board of supervisors of Northampton county, to borrow money for road purposes in Capeville district and to repeal previous acts.
1st. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That there is hereby established for Capeville magisterial district in the county of Northampton, a district road board consisting of E. D. Stevenson, George F. Parramore, Marion Scott, Preston Scott, Kemper Goffigon and M. S. Wilson, which board shall have exclusive control of all roads and bridges within the limits of said district, and taxes levied for road purposes and for building and repairing bridges shall be expended within the said district, that is to say, that the road taxes levied in the said magisterial district for road purposes shall be expended in said district and its share of the county levy for road purposes, as far as practicable.
2nd. The members of road board provided for in this act shall hold office for two (2), four (4), and six (6) years from the time of their appointment in the order named, so that two shall be elected by the qualified voters of the said district at the regular November election when other county officers are elected, so that the term of service of two (2) of the members shall expire the first (1st) day of January, nineteen hundred and eighteen, two on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty and two on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, and thereafter their term of office shall be six (6) years each. Upon said board meeting and organizing the said commissioners shall at once select a chairman, clerk and treasurer. The last two shall be one whose accounts shall be audited by said board and certified by said board to the board of supervisors, once a year and published once each year. The said commissioners shall reside in the said district during their term of office and upon removal therefrom their successor shall he selected in the manner hereinafter provided.
3rd. Said board hereby provided for shall be a body corporate and shall be known and designated as the board of road commissioners of Capeville magisterial district of Northampton county, and as such shall have the right to contract and be contracted with, sue and be sued.
4th. The commissioners selected under this act shall qualify before the clerk of the circuit court and in the manner provided by law for the qualification of magisterial district officers, and the treasurer shall at the time of his qualification, and before he enters upon the discharge of his duties, give bond for the faithful performance of his duties, with security in the sum of ten thousand ($10,000.00) dollars, by a guarantee company; the premiums to be paid out of the road fund, and shall receive one per centum commission on all moneys coming into his hands in full compensation for his services for receiving and disbursing all funds that may come into his hands as such treasurer.
5th. That the board of supervisors of Northampton county be, and it is hereby authorized and required, from time to time, to borrow such sums or funds of money as said board shall request it to do so, that the total amount borrowed shall not exceed twenty thousand dollars; the said sum or sums so borrowed to be used for the purpose of building, improving and maintaining the public roads in said district.
6th. The said loans shall be effected under the general statute providing for the issuing of county bonds for permanent road and bridge improvement in the magisterial districts for the counties of the State; provided, however, that no such bonds shall be issued except upon approval of a majority of the voters voting at an election to be held as hereinafter directed. Such approval or non-approval, as the case may be, shall be ascertained in an election to be held for that purpose upon an order of the circuit court of said county or the judge thereof in vacation at some time within ninety days after the enactment hereof. Said election to be held upon thirty days' notice thereof, duly posted at the door of the court house of said county, and at the voting precincts in said district. Said elections shall be conducted in the same manner and by the same election officers of such districts who conducted the general election next preceding the same.
7th. The ballots to be used in said election shall be prepared as are ballots for other general elections and shall contain the words "For the issue of bonds, for public road improvements in Capeville magisterial district" and "Against the issue of bonds for public road improvement in Capeville magisterial district," and if upon the canvass of the ballots cast it shall be found that a majority of those voting were in favor of issuing the bonds for road improvement the fact shall be so reported as on the results of other general elections, and the board of supervisors, upon receipt of notice of such results, shall proceed immediately to prepare, execute and negotiate such bonds from time to time as said commissioners may request it to do.
8th. The clerk and treasurer of said road board shall keep a complete and accurate record of all proceedings of said board and the moneys received and expended by the said board and shall in December of each year cause to be published in the newspapers of said county a statement showing all receipts and disbursements of said board for the preceding twelve months; the said board shall meet at some convenient place in said district or in the town of Cape Charles, and for their services in attendance upon said meeting, the members thereof in actual attendance shall receive a per diem of four dollars, but the members of said board shall not receive pay for more than twelve meetings in any one year. The said board is hereby authorized and empowered to adopt such methods and materials as in their judgment may seem best suited for the requirements of their district; employ such engineers, road builders and operators upon such terms as to them may seem fit and reasonable and proper regulations as to location, construction and maintenance of the roads in said district.
9th. After issuing the bonds or any of them, provided for in this act, when the first levy is made by the board of supervisors, tax shall be levied on all property liable to State taxes in said district to pay the interest on the bonds so issued and to create a sinking fund to redeem the principal thereof at maturity, and from year to year such levy shall be laid on said property in said district until said debt together with the interest thereon is paid: provided, that in no year shall said road levy exceed twenty-five cents on the one hundred dollars' worth of property, and shall annually report to the board of supervisors.
10th. All acts or parts of acts in conflict with this act are hereby repealed.
11th. An emergency arising by reason of the importance of the immediate execution of the provisions of this act, the same shall be in force from its passage.