Delmar maryland males don't have to work the streets

Back in 1958 the Commissioners of Delmar Maryland voted to rescind a law that required all males in Delmar Maryland between the ages of 21 to 50 to work on the town streets one day a year. This law had not been enforced for a number of years so they decided to drop it. My father use to tell me about a similar law in Sussex county that required people to pay a ditch tax or in lieu of that send someone out to work a day for the county roads department.

Section (51) Code of public law title “Wicomico County” sub-title “Delmar’

All male citizens of the town of Delmar, between the ages of twenty-one and fifty years (except ministers of the gospel), shall work on the streets of said town not less than one nor more than two days each year, or furnish a substitute of the aforesaid age to do work or pay to the bailiff on or before the day on which the work is to be done the sum of one dollar for each day, for the use of said town and the bailiff shall give at least five days notice of the time and place to meet to do said work, and shall on or before the fifteenth day of May, in each year, post in some public place a full and complete list of the names of the names of all persons notified, the names of the substitutes furnished and by whom such substitute was furnished, and the time worked by each person in lieu thereof performing road duty; and any person paying said money on or before the fifteenth day of July, in any year, shall receive a discount of ten per cent on same for that year. Any person failing to comply with the preceding section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be arrested and brought before some justice of the peace for Wicomico county, upon a warrant issued by said justice of the peace in the name of the state of Maryland, and upon proof of such failure to be fined one dollar for each day so neglected and the costs of the suit, and in default of payment shall be committed to the jail of said county for five days; and if the bailiff shall receive any substitute who is not of the required age under the preceding section, or shall fail to post the said notice, he shall be fined not less than five dollars nor more than twenty dollars.