The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-10-01

3. BY the issuing OF county or mag
tsterta1 district road bonds.
All of you are more or less familiar
| with the laying Of levies once a year
by your Boards OF Supervisors. These
are required under the General RoaH
Law of the State. In number of In
| stances, however, the funds derived
from this source have not been ade-
quate to carry on the necessary work
and the boards have had to turn to
the second plan and apply to the Leg
islature for special laws allowing tho
laying OF special lev1es for road pur-
poses. These two plans are followed
where the citizens are willing to wait
for the necessary improvements to
reach them. and I may add here that
I believe a great many OF the counties
should be patient and follow this
| plan, for some time to come, or until
the improvements now under way have
increased their taxable values sufii-
GENTLY to warrant the borrowing of
large sums of money
County Bond Issues.
The third plan Is the borrowing Of
| money by issuing the bonds of the
| county.
| To meet these conditions. the Legis-
lature of 1908 and 1910 passed what is
known as the County and Magisterial
1
these laws counties or districts desir-
\ ing to issue bonds can. through their
| Boards of Supervisors or number OF
| the freeholders of the county or dis
trict, petition the Judge OF the Circuit
Court to order a bond issue election
to be held. The court, in It's order
| designates the roads to be improved
and the amount Of bonds to be issued.
| Up to the hrst of July 1t was pos
s!ble for the Boards of Supervisors or
the citizens OF a county to petition the
| court for the Improvement of many
times the mileage OF roads covered by
the bonds to be issued. that 10. they
would designate. say. 100 miles OF road
and specify that 100000 Of bonds
would be issued. when. As a matter
OF fact, the 100 miles Of road would
require 100000 for their improve
ment. After a great many efforts we
! finally got the last Legislature to
amend these laws. requiring that be-
| fore the court shall order q bond issue
election. that the proper estimates
shall be made OF the cost OF tho pro-
posed Improvement These estimates
| shall then be certified to the court for
its guidance in the amount Of bonds to
| be issued. The lack OF this amendment
in the law has really been the cause
Of very serious complaint in bond
issue counties where they have failed
! to construct all OF the roads set out
in the call for the election. Counties
! or districts issuirg bonds are now re-
CURED to make proper provision for
their upkeep and maintenance. The
last Legislature amended the laws and
requires that the Board of Supervisors
| OF county shall lay an annual levy OF
not less than 3 per cent Of the
amount of bonds issued for mainten-
ence purposes. Unfortunately for
many of the counties, you cannot mako
| this legislation retroactive. for some
| OF the boards are letting these roads
go to pieces for lack OF proper atten-
ton.
| Million and Half in BondA
/ Eleven counties of the State have
issued $1.4ss.70o in bonds sinoe the
end OF our last fiscal year, that Ia,
since the LIST day Of October. 1918.
organization Of the department, ts.-
1880 Of honda
J In this connection I wish b call
your particular attention to q law
which permits cities and towns to con-
tribute to the construction or improve
ment Of the roads leading into that
town; this has been done In . num-
Der Of instances This has been par
tiouiariy the case In the cities Of DAN
souNA' At~ii o.n. HA"
,oi. fredericksoulg ana richmond
have contributed to special projects
and under special conditions OF
course the cities are contributing to
the ROAD work OF the stass, In tnat
tnsy pay thear proportion OF the state
taxes.
Inc IeSs GonSress passed what 10
known as the Federai Ala Road Bill.
ana virginia WIN receive from this
source about 100000 the nrst year.
s1uooeo inc second year. up 70 *ooo'-
ooo Tor the nfth year.
Inc Dill requires thes ths state
shaN appropriate from M own reve-
MUGS or from otner sources. hke
amount This TO DO expended on pro-
Jects and according TO plans agreed on
~ the Secretary OF Agriculture and
the state HIGHWAY Department From
TINS you Will see tnAt tnere are three
DOSGiOI0 sources from which we GXn0Ct