By:  Cain                                    S.B. No. 1550

         97S0821/1                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to the regulation and maintenance of county roads.

 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-3           SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 251.005, Transportation

 1-4     Code, is amended to read as follows:

 1-5           (a)  A county commissioner serving as a road supervisor shall

 1-6     make a sworn annual report during the ninth month of the fiscal

 1-7     year on a form approved by [to each regular term of] the

 1-8     commissioners court showing:

 1-9                 (1)  the condition of each road or part of a road and

1-10     of each culvert and bridge in the commissioner's precinct;

1-11                 (2)  the amount of money reasonably necessary for

1-12     maintenance of [held by overseers available to be spent on] the

1-13     roads in the precinct during the following fiscal year;

1-14                 (3)  the number of traffic control devices [mileposts

1-15     and fingerboards] in the precinct defaced or torn down;

1-16                 (4)  any new road that should be opened in the

1-17     precinct; and

1-18                 (5)  any bridges, culverts, or other improvements

1-19     necessary to place the roads in the precinct in good condition, and

1-20     the probable cost of the improvements[; and]

1-21                 [(6)  the name of each overseer who has failed to work

1-22     on the roads or who in any way neglected to perform the overseer's

1-23     duties].

 2-1           SECTION 2.  Subsection (b), Section 252.101, Transportation

 2-2     Code, is amended to read as follows:

 2-3           (b)  Notwithstanding Subsection (a), the commissioners court

 2-4     of Collin, [or] Dallas, or Van Zandt County may adopt this

 2-5     subchapter instead of the special law for that county if the court

 2-6     determines that this subchapter is better suited to that county

 2-7     than the special law.

 2-8           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-9     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-10     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-11     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-12     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

2-13     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

2-14     passage, and it is so enacted.