1292 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 743

appointee shall serve as a chauffeur for six months under a
probation appointment at a salary of One Hundred Dollars
($100. 00) per month, payable monthly. The County Com-
missioners are hereby directed to levy a special tax in each
Election District, sufficient to pay the salaries of the chauffeurs
of the several Volunteer Fire Companies and to pay the salary
of each chauffeur from the tax levied in the Election District
in which the Volunteer Fire Department employing the chauf-
feur is located. The salary of each chauffeur shall be as
follows:

First Year.......................... $1, 200. 00

Second Year........................ 1, 250. 00

Third Year......................... 1, 300. 00

Fourth Year........................ 1, 350. 00

Fifth Year.......................... 1, 400. 00

Sixth and each successive year......... 1, 440. 00

The above salaries shall be payable monthly in equal install-
ments. Persons now employed as chauffeurs of the several
Volunteer Fire Companies shall be appointed by the County
Commissioners in preference to all other applicants to fill the
positions created by this Act, and shall be given credit for
the years of service completed prior to the enactment of this
Act, in computing their pay scale. The County Commis-
sioners may pass rules and regulations setting forth the duties
of each of the chauffeurs appointed under this Act.

The County Commissioners may retire any chauffeur of a
Volunteer Fire Department who shall after the date of this
Act become permanently disabled while in the active per-
formance of his duties, or who has performed faithful services
as a chauffeur for a period of not less than twenty (20) con-
secutive years' service prior to this Act to be included, and
has reached the age of sixty-five (65) years, and place the
chauffeur so retired upon a pension roll and pay him one-half
his regular monthly salary. No chauffeur shall be retired
before reaching the age of sixty-five (65) until he shall have
been examined by a board of three physicians of the State
Department of Health and its findings as to disability as-
signed as a reason for retirement shall have been certified to
the County Commissioners. This Act shall not apply to the
City of Annapolis.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall take
effect June 1, 1941.

Approved May 26, 1941.