24-3-118. Hearing before county commissioners; determination and payment of damages; entry on land; abandonment prohibited; records; surveys.

(a) At the next meeting of the county commissioners after the report of the appraisers has been filed, or as soon thereafter as may be practicable, the said board may hear testimony and consider petitions for and remonstrances against the establishment or alteration, as the case may be of any road, or may establish or alter any road or may refuse so to do, as in the judgment of the said board, the public good may require, but in case there shall be no claim for damages filed, they shall act as speedily as possible in the matter. Said board may increase or diminish the damages allowed by the appraisers, and may make such establishment or alteration of any road, dependent or conditioned upon the payment, in whole or in part, of the damages awarded or expenses incurred in relation thereto by the petitioners for such road or such alteration of any road.

(b) The amount of damages awarded, if any, shall immediately be paid to the person or persons entitled thereto or deposited with the county clerk for delivery to such person or persons, which payment shall be without prejudice to the right of such person or persons to appeal to the district court as provided by law.

(c) When the road has been established and the award has been paid by the board of county commissioners or by the department of transportation, to the person or persons entitled, or deposited with the county clerk, the highway authorities and their contractors and employees may take possession and exercise full control of the land within the right-of-way of the road so established.

(d) After the county or the department of transportation has taken possession of the right-of-way, there shall be no abandonment of the establishing of the highway, and in the event of an appeal by an owner of real estate affected to the district court from the award finally made by the board of county commissioners, the board shall pay the amount finally determined to be due.

(e) A certificate, authorized by the board of county commissioners and signed by its chairman, setting forth the legal description of the property taken shall be recorded in the office of the county clerk, and indexed in like manner and with like effect as if it were a conveyance of the easement or right-of-way from said owners to the county.

(f) If, upon considering and acting upon the report of the viewers or otherwise, the board of county commissioners shall decide to lay out or alter any road, they shall cause the county surveyor to make an accurate survey thereof, if such survey is necessary, and to plat the same in books to be provided by the county for such purpose, and the county clerk shall record in the same books opposite or near to such plat so that the same may be easily ascertained to be concerning the platted road, the proceeding of the said board in relation to the location, establishment or alteration of said road, in order to keep in a separate book a record of all the county roads of that county.