The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1919-03-27
THURSDAY MARCH 81. 1919.
OUR NEW ROAD LAW

We publish in this issue the Act
passed by the recent Session OF the
Legislature, entitled can Act to pro-
vide a system of Government for
Williamsburg County"
Carefully reading this act we no
tice that it is practically a verbatim
copy of the old law, except for the
several last sections which are en-
tirely new.
One of these sections provide that
any Township in the County may
vote upon itself a special road tax,
another section provides for IL
cense fee upon all vehicles in the
County, which fee is to be collected
by the Clerk of Court when ne Is
sues the license tags which are to be
numbered and on which is to be the
name of the County. The fees are as
follows: S1.O0 for one-horse vehicles;
$500 for two-horse vehicles and
$500 for log wagons. These fees are
to be collected annually, the Clerk
of Court retaining 10 cents per IL
cense as compensation. for issuing
same. ANY person operating vehl-
Gle without said license will be DEEM
ed guilty of a misdemeanor and fin
ed from five to twenty dollars, or
imprisoned not more than thirty
days for each offense.
Another section provides that con-
vict labor shall not be used upon the
public roads or works Of the Countys
except in conjunction with the con-
vict labor of some other county or
counties. If convictS are not used
they are to be sent to the State pen
etentiary if their Sentenses are more
than thirty days, if less to be kept
in County Jail.
Under the old law funds collected
for road purposes could be used eth
er upon bridges or roads as neces-
sity warranted. The new. law separ-
ates the funds into two accounts,
Bridges, and Roads. The Bridge
Account is to be credited with the
funds collected from the railroads
to be used only upon the bridges OF
the county, but dividing any uneN-
pended balance at the end of the
year propotionately among the
townships.
The old law provided that funds
should be spent as nearly as practl-
cable in the townships from which
they are collected, while the new law
provides that funds must be spent
only in the townships from which
they are collected.
The old law left it with the Coun-
ty Commissioners to employ the road
engineer in such manner as they
deemed proper and to fix his salary.
The new law provides that the engi-
neer be appointed upon recommend
alton of the State Highway COM
mission, provides that he mush be
graduate of we'll recognized school
of instructio in civil engineering
with two years experiencein road
building, and must not be citizen
of Williamsburg County. He is to
receive a salary of not more than
s25O.OO and an allowance of 100000
for expenses.
The new law raises the salary of
the County Commissioner s25O.0O
and raises the Commissioners from
three to four dollars per day. Both
the old and new law allows 10 cents
Der milage in additional to the com
missioners salary.
These differences, together with an
additional two mills provided In the
supply bill tax for roads make up
the changes from the old to the ne"
law and we sincerely hope that I'M
movement will soon be noted upon
our public roads. The law takes ef-
feet July l, 1919.
We understand that there Is no"
in the treasury quite a nice road
fund unexpended, they say because
of lack of labor, and when this fund
Is increased by the big sums to oe