GENERAL PERMANENT POWERS OF

BOARDS.

Sec. 25. The boards of supervisors, in their respective counties, shall have jurisdiction and power, under such limitations and restrictions as are prescribed by law:

or

1. To supervise the official conduct of all county officers, and officers of all districts and other subdivisions of the county charged with the assessing, collecting, safe-keeping, management, disbursement of the public revenues; to see that they faithfully perform their duties, direct prosecutions for delinquencies, and, when necessary, require them to renew their official bonds, make reports and present their books and accounts for inspection.

2. To divide the counties into townships, election, school, road, supervisor, sanitary, and other districts required by law, change the same, and create others, as convenience requires.

3. To establish, abolish, and change election precincts, and to appoint inspectors and judges of election, canvass all election returns, declare the result, and order the county clerk to issue certificates thereof; but no election precinct shall be established or abolished, or the boundaries of any precinct changed, within ninety days prior to any election.

4. To lay out, maintain, control, construct, repair, and manage public roads, turnpikes, ferries, wharves, chutes, and other shipping facilities and bridges within the county, unless otherwise provided by law, and to grant franchises and licenses to collect tolls thereon; provided, where the cost of the construction of any bridge, whart, chute, or other shipping facilities that may be built under the provisions of this subdivision exceeds the sum of five hundred dollars, they must cause to be prepared and must adopt plans and specifications, strain sheets, and working details, and must advertise for bids for the construction of such bridge, wharves, chutes, or other shipping facilities, unless otherwise provided by law, in accordance with the plans and specifications so adopted.

All bidders shall be afforded opportunity to examine such plans and specifications, and said board shall award the contract to the lowest responsible bidder, and the plans and specifications so adopted shall be attached to and become a part of the contract; and the person or corporation to whom the contract is awarded shall be required to execute a bond, to be approved by said board, for the faithful performance of such contract: provided, that after the submission of the bids as herein provided, the board of supervisors being advised by the county surveyor that the work can be done for a sum less than the lowest responsible bid, it shall then be their privilege to reject all bids and to order the work done or structure built by day's work, under the supervision and control of the said surveyor; provided further, that the surveyor in such cases shall be held personally responsible, under his official bond, to construct said bridge or structure, according to his plans and specifications, at a cost not to exceed the amount of the lowest responsible bid received; provided, that the road commissioners or road Overseers in their respective districts shall employ all labor required and direct the conduct of work of any kind upon any and all public roads; provided further, that in cases of great emergency, by the unanimous consent of the whole board, they may proceed at once to replace or repair any and all bridges and structures without notice.

5. To construct or lease, officer and maintain, hospitals and poorhouses, or otherwise, in their discretion, provide for the care and maintenance of the indigent sick or dependent poor of the county; and for such purposes to levy the necessary property or poll taxes, or both. The board of supervisors shall appoint some suitable person to take care of and maintain such hospitals and poorhouses, and shall also appoint some suitable graduate or graduates in medicine to attend to such indigent sick or dependent poor, and to the patients in such hospitals and poorhouses. The board shall not let the care, maintenance, or attendance of such indigent sick or dependent poor by contract to the lowest bidder.

6. To provide a farm, in connection with the

county hospital, or poorhouse, and make regulations for working the same.

7. To purchase, receive by donation, or lease any real or personal property or water rights necessary for use of the county, and to purchase or otherwise acquire necessary real estate upon which to sink wells to obtain water for sprinkling roads, and other county purposes, and to erect thereon tanks and reservoirs for the storage of water for such purposes, and to erect pumping apparatus for obtaining the same, to preserve, take care of, and manage and control the same; but no purchase of real property shall be made unless a notice of the intention of the board to make such purchase, describing the property to be purchased, the price to be paid therefor, from whom it is proposed to be purchased, and fixing the time when the board will meet to consummate such purchase, has been published for at least three weeks in some newspaper of general circulation, published in the county; or if none be published in the county, then has been posted at least three weeks prior to the time when the board meets to consummate such purchase, in at least three public places in each supervisor district.

8. To cause to be erected or rebuilt, or furnished, a courthouse, jail, hospital, and such other public buildings as may be necessary, or to provide suitable buildings for such purposes. None of the aforesaid buildings shall be erected or constructed until the plans and specifications have been made therefor and adopted by the board. All such buildings must be erected by contract, let to the lowest responsible bidder, after notice by publication in a newspaper of general circulation published in such county, for at least thirty days. In case there is no newspaper published in such county, then such notice shall be given by posting in three public places.

9. To sell at public auction, at the courthouse door, or at such other place within the county, as the board may, by a four-fifths vote, order, after thirty days' notice, given either by publication in a newspaper published in the county, or by posting in five public places in the county, and convey to the highest bidder for cash, any property belonging to the county not required for public use,

paying the proceeds into the county treasury for the use of the county; provided, if in the unanimous judgment of the board, the property does not exceed in value the sum of seventy-five dollars, or if it be the product of the county farm, the same may be sold at private sale without advertising by any member of the board empowered for that purpose by a majority of the board.

10. To examine and audit, at least every twelve months, the accounts of all officers having the care, management, correction, or disbursement of moneys belonging to the county, or moneys received or disbursed by them under authority of law.

11. To examine, settle, and allow all accounts legally chargeable against the county, except sala. ries of officers, and such demands as are authorized by law to be allowed by some other person or tribunal, and order warrants to be drawn on the county treasurer therefor.

12. To levy taxes upon the taxable property of their respective counties for all county purposes, and also upon the taxable property of any district, for the construction and repair of roads and highways and other district purposes; provided, that no tax shall be levied upon any district until the proposition to levy the same has been submitted to the qualified electors of such district, and received a majority of all the legal votes cast upon such proposition.

12. Whenever there shall be presented to the board of supervisors of any county a petition signed by the qualified electors of any township or townships in number equal to a majority of the votes cast at the preceding general election, praying that said township or townships may be allowed to take the census of said township or townships for the purpose of ascertaining the population therein contained, the board of supervisors shall order such census to be taken by one or more suitable persons appointed therefor by the board of supervisors, and such census shall be taken by such persons so appointed of all the inhabitants of such township or townships; the full name of each person shall be plainly written, the names alphabetically arranged and regularly numbered in one complete series, and when completed shall be

verified before any officer authorized to administer oaths, and be filed with the county clerk of the county wherein such census is taken, and thereupon the same shall be known and shall be the official census of said township or townships. The expenses of taking such census shall be a county charge.

13. Any county having an outstanding indebtedness, evidenced by bonds or warrants thereof, may refund such indebtedness and issue bonds of the county therefor, and any county may incur or refund a bonded indebtedness for any purposes for which the board of supervisors are herein authorized to expend the funds of said county. Such indebtedness shall be refunded or incurred in the following manner, to-wit: The board of supervisors thereof shall by order specify the purpose for which the indebtedness is to be incurred, the amount of bonds which they propose to issue, the rate of interest, and the number of years, not exceeding forty, the whole or any part of said bonds are to run, and shall further provide for submitting the question of the issue of said bonds to the qualified electors of the county at a special election to be called by the board for that purpose, and the words to appear upon the ballot shall be "Bonds-Yes," and "Bonds-No," or words of similar import. None but qualified voters of the county shall be permitted to vote thereat, and it shall be held as nearly as practicable in conformity with the general election law of the State. Notice shall be given of such election by publication in one or more newspapers published in the county, once a week for at least four weeks, or daily for not less than thirty days, prior to said election. If there be no such newspaper, then by posting the same conspicuously in five public places in said county at least thirty days before said election. Such notice must contain the time and place or places of holding such election, the name of election officers to conduct the same, the amount and denomination of the bonds, the rate of interest to be paid, and the number of years, not exceeding forty, the whole or any part of such bonds are to run. If any election officers so named in such notice are not present at the opening of the polls, the electors present may appoint elec