Office of commis sioners and highways. ARTICLE III. POWERS AND DUTIES OF HIGHWAY OFFICERS. SECTION 404. Office of commissioners and overseers of highways. 406. Application for additional appropriation. 407. Notice of application. 408. Resolution allowing same to be furnished to supervisor. 410. Repairs in case there is not time for such application. 411. Duties of overseers of highways. 412. Sidewalks and trees. 413. Scraper and plough. 414. Extra work by overseer. 415. Penalties on overseers for neglect. 416. Duty of commissioners to prosecute. 417. Application of penalties. 418. Order made by two commissioners. 419. Actions against railway corporations. § 404. The mode of determining the number of Overseers of commissioners of highways in each town; the conditions of eligibility to office, the manner of their election and qualification, and the security they are required to give; the compensation for serving; the penalty for not serving; the mode of filling vacancies, are prescribed by the general laws relating to the government of towns contained in part IV of this Code. Duties of commissioners of highways. § 405. The commissioners of highways in each town have charge of the highways therein. It is their duty: 1. To cause them to be kept in repair; 2. To regulate highways, public landings and watering places laid out, and to alter such as a majority of them deem inconvenient; 3. To cause to be recorded, opened and worked, such highways as are laid out by them, pursuant to the provisions of article VI of this chapter, or by special commissioners appointed under article I of chapter II, of title II, of part IV, of this Code; and to ascertain, describe, and enter of record in the town clerk's office, such roads used as highways as have been laid out but not sufficiently described, and such as have been used for twenty years but have not been recorded; The act for the counties composing Long Island (Suffolk, Kings and Queens) directs them to enter of record such highways "as shall have been laid out but not sufficiently described, and such as were used as highways for twenty years or more next preceding the twenty-first day of March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven, and which shall have been worked and used as such constantly for the last six years." 4. To divide their town into so many road districts as they deem convenient, by writing, under their hands, to be lodged with the town clerk and by him entered in the town book; such division to be made annually, if they deem it necessary, and in all cases at least ten days before the annual town meeting; 5. To assign to each district such persons liable to highway labor as they deem proper, having regard to proximity of residence as much as may be; subject, however, to the provisions of article V of this chapter; 6. As often as they deem necessary, to require the overseers of highways to warn such persons to work, with such cattle, implements, carriages, or sleds as one of the commissioners may direct;' in 7. To cause to be erected and maintained on the post-roads, and on such other highways as they deem proper, mile-boards or stones with proper scriptions, and, at the intersections of the like roads, guide-posts with proper inscriptions ;* 8. To render to the town auditors at their annual meeting a written account for the year, stating: 1. The labor assessed and performed; 2. All sums received by them under this chapter; 3. The manner in which they have been expended; 4. The improvements which have been made on the highways during the preceding year, and their present condition; 5. The further improvements necessary, and the probable expense of making them beyond the assessment in that year; 9. To deliver to the town supervisor a statement of the improvements necessary, together with their probable expense.* Application for additional 1 1 R. S., 1020, § 1. 2 1 R. S., 1030, § 5; 1039, § 9. Laws of 1830, ch. 56; 1 R. S., 1030, § 3. 1 R. S., 1030, § 4, first clause. § 406. When the commissioners deem the sum of appropria two hundred and fifty dollars insufficient to pay for such improvements and for arrears due for part improvements, they may apply in the town meeting for a vote authorizing the necessary additional sum, not exceeding seven hundred and fifty dollars, to be raised; and at the time of such application they shall exhibit a statement of their accounts and an estimate of the expenses necessary for improvements during the ensuing year. application. 1 R. S., 647, §§ 9, 11; Laws of 1857, ch. 615, vol. 2, p. 338, § 1. § 407. Before making such application they shall Notice of post in a conspicuous manner, in not less than five of the most public places in the town, at least four weeks before the meeting, a notice specifying the amount to be applied for and the purposes to which it is to be appropriated, and the probable amount necessary to be expended at each place if there be more than one. 1 R. S., 647, § 10. allowing same to be furnished to § 408. If the town meeting, by vote, allow an Resolution additional sum, the clerk shall enter their resolution respecting it in his minutes, and shall deliver a copy of the same to the town supervisor. 1 R. S., 647, § 11; first clause. supervisor. supervisors. § 409. The supervisor shall lay such statement Duty of of the commissioners together with the resolution of the town, before the next meeting of the board of supervisors, who shall cause the required sum to be raised in the town, in the same manner as other town charges, but the moneys raised upon the statement of the commissioners shall not exceed $250 in any one year. 1 R. S., 647, § 11, 1st clause. Repairs in case there is not time for such application. From 1 R. S., 1030, § 4; 647, § 11, last clause. By the Long Island counties' act, the limit of the amount to be raised upon commissioners' estimate was seventy-five dollars. Laws of 1838, ch. 56, § 4. § 410. In case of damage to any highway after any town meeting, or when too late to give the notice required by section 407, the commissioners may, with consent of the board of town auditors, cause the damage to be immediately repaired; and the vouchers for the expense thereof they shall present at the next annual meeting of the town auditors, or at a special meeting to be convened by the supervisor, or in his absence by the town clerk, upon the written request of any commissioner. Such bills, after being audited, shall be collected, if audited at an annual meeting, as though the amount had been voted at a town meeting. If audited at a special meeting, the supervisor and town clerk shall issue a certificate setting forth the amount audited, in whose favor, and the nature of the work or materials, and such certificate shall bear interest from date, and shall be levied and collected as other town charges. But no such account shall be allowed by the board unless it be verified by the claimant, and the commissioners certify that at their request the work has been actually performed and the materials actually furnished; and the board may require such other proof as they deem proper to establish the claim and the value of the work and materials. Laws of 1858, ch. 103, p. 200, §§ 1, 2, 5. |