panies treasurer of treasurer's use of de fire insurance companies or their agents, covering property situ- ance comate in the city of Schenectady, shall be paid to the treasurer of paid to the fire department as defined and created by the act hereby department; amended, and said treasurer is charged with all the rights, duties duties. and obligations of treasurers of fire departments under the provisions of the insurance law, including the right to collect any of said tax remaining unpaid at the time this act takes effect. Such Money for moneys so received by said treasurer shall be held for the uses and partment. purposes of said fire department, as defined by the act hereby amended, and all payments of said tax heretofore made to said Prior paytreasurer and all such moneys or property now held by the fire firmed. department as created by the act hereby amended, are hereby validated and confirmed as the property of the said fire department. Provided, however, nothing in this act shall affect the Support of amount payable to the Firemen's Association of the State of New home. York, for the support and maintenance of the firemen's home. 2. This act shall take effect immediately. ments con firemen's Chap. 298. AN ACT to amend chapter six hundred and eighty-four of the laws of nineteen hundred and five, entitled "An act to supplement the provisions of law relating to the department of public works of the city of Syracuse," in relation to the surfacing or resurfacing of streets paved with certain materials. Became a law April 11, 1914, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, three-fifths being present. Accepted by the City. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: ch. 684, amended by ch. 288, ch. 329, and Section 1. Section nineteen of chapter six hundred and eighty- L 1905, four of the laws of nineteen hundred and five, entitled "An act to § 19, as supplement the provisions of law relating to the department of L. 1907, public works of the city of Syracuse," as amended by chapter two L. 1908, hundred and eighty-eight of the laws of nineteen hundred and L. 1909, seven and chapter three hundred and twenty-nine of the laws of amended. nineteen hundred and eight, and chapter two hundred and fifteen of the laws of nineteen hundred and nine, is hereby amended to read as follows: ch. 215, Common council to order street paving, etc. defrayed by local assessment. street oc cupied by railway tracks. Deduction for variation in width of streets. $ 19. The common council shall have jurisdiction and authority to order the paving, repaving, macadamizing, grading, surfacing, or resurfacing of any street or part thereof and shall proExpense vide for and defray the expense thereof, including the expense of improving portions of the street situated within the side lines of intersecting streets, by local assessment to be assessed pro rata per lineal foot of frontage upon the property fronting upon the street or part thereof in or upon which such improvement is Portion of made; provided, however, that if any part of the street or portion. thereof so improved is occupied by the tracks of a steam railroad or street surface railway, the assessments upon the property fronting upon the street shall be reduced by the amount chargeable to such railroad or railway for improving that portion of its strip lying between the center of the improved street and the side line of the street upon which such property fronts, and provided, also, that if any part of the roadway of the street or portion thereof so improved is wider or narrower than other portions thereof, the assessments upon the property fronting thereon shall be increased or diminished proportionately to the increased or diminished cost of such improvement resulting from such variation in width. Portion of Thirty-three and one-third per centum of the cost of surfacing or resurfacing a street, and in the case of a street paved with vitrified bricks or blocks, or sandstone or granite blocks, such a sum in addition thereto as shall be fixed, deemed and determined by ordi nance of the common council, approved by the board of estimate and apportionment, to be equal to the cost of repairing at least thirty-seven and one-half per centum of the superficial area of the paved surface thereof,1 exclusive of the railroad strip, shall be borne by the city at large and may be paid in installments in the manner provided for payments to be made by property owners assessed for the same improvement. Except as herein otherwise be under- provided, however, no such improvement shall be undertaken unless less owners the owners of at least one-third of the total number of front feet lineal measurement or at least one-third in number of the owners of property on the street or part thereof in or upon which such proposed improvement is proposed to be made shall petition for and consent to the making of such improvement. Such petition. or consent shall be in writing, signed, executed and acknowledged and proved in like manner as a deed to be recorded. It shall be superficial area of the paved cost paid by city. Improvement not to taken un petition. Petition; execution, filing and examination. 1 Words" and in the case of a street surface thereof," new. proposed improve ment; serv publication. filed with the city clerk and shall be thereupon referred by the common council to the assessors for examination and certification. If, after examination, the assessors, or a majority of them, shall Notice of report that the number of property owners so required have executed such petition or consent, and the common council shall de- ice and termine to make such improvement it shall cause a notice of the proposed improvement to be served upon the owners of property fronting upon the street or part thereof, in or upon which such improvement is proposed to be made, by causing a written or printed copy of such notice to be deposited in the post-office at Syracuse in a securely sealed wrapper, postage prepaid and directed to such owners at Syracuse, New York, and also by causing a copy thereof to be published in five successive issues of the official paper or papers. Such notice shall be sufficient notice to all persons interested and no further or different notice of such proposed improvement shall be required. If there be two or more owners of any one piece of property service upon any one of them shall be sufficient. Such notice shall specify. the time within which Time for any person interested may object to such improvement, which time shall not expire within ten days after the completion of such service nor before the next regular meeting of the common council, and that in case no objection is made within the time specified all persons interested will be deemed to have acquiesced in the proposed improvement. Such objection must be in writing, sub- Objections. scribed by the property owner objecting or his duly authorized agent and be filed with the city clerk. If no such objection has Action been filed within the time specified, the common council may at objections. any regular meeting within three months after the expiration of said ten days, by ordinance, order said improvement to be made; but if any such objection has been filed the common council shall objections; hear such objection and any proof that may be offered and the where obimprovement shall not be ordered except by ordinance adopted by a two-thirds vote of all of the members of the common council. The certificate of the assessors shall be endorsed upon the petition Certificate or consent and shall be presumptive evidence of the facts therein stated. objections. where no Hearing on action jections. of assessors on petition or consent as evidence. amended by § 2. Section twenty of such chapter, as amended by chapter $ 20, as two hundred and fifteen of the laws of nineteen hundred and nine, L. 1909, is hereby amended to read as follows: ch. 215, amended. Street re dered with 20. The common council shall have jurisdiction and au- pairs orthority, without the petition or consent of the owners of prop-out petition erty affected thereby and liable to assessment therefor, to order or owners consent. City en gineer to repairs by further re pairs ordered. in any one year the paving or repaving of streets not to exceed ten2 miles in length; the surfacing or resurfacing of streets not to exceed ten2 miles in length; and the grading or regrading of streets not to exceed six3 miles in length. No certify to street, except a street paved with vitrified bricks or blocks, or city before sandstone or granite blocks, shall, however, be so ordered surfaced or resurfaced until the city engineer shall certify to the common council that at least thirty-seven and one-half per centum of the superficial area of the paved surface thereof, exclusive of the railroad strip, has been repaired at the expense of the city. The Ordinance; ordinance declaring its intention to make any such improvement shall not be passed except by a two-thirds vote of all the members of the common council and when approved by the mayor shall be deemed a substitute for the petition or consent of property owners and thereafter the same notices shall be served and the same steps and proceedings had and taken and the expense thereof be provided for, defrayed, assessed, levied and collected in the same manner and by the same proceedings as in the case of a like improvement instituted by petition or consent of property owners. § 3. This act shall take effect immediately. passage and approval. Notice; proceed ings; expense. Commissioners. Purposes and powers. Chap. 299. AN ACT to provide for the erection, equipment and furnishing of a vocational high school building in the city of Syracuse. Became a law April 11, 1914, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, three-fifths being present. Accepted by the City. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: Section 1. Edwin Nottingham, Henry C. Allen, Irving A. Savage, John J. Colwell and T. Aaron Levy, of the city of Syracuse, New York, are hereby constituted a board of commissioners for the purposes hereinafter set forth and are hereby authorized and empowered to erect, equip and furnish a vocational high school building, which shall provide facilities for such forms of voca 2 Formerly "five." 3 Formerly " three." 4 Words " except a street paved with vitrified bricks or blocks, or sandstone or granite blocks," new. building. sation; ex tional, industrial and technical instruction as the said commissioners shall determine, which building shall be located upon the Location of following lands already acquired or which shall be hereafter acquired by the city of Syracuse for this purpose, namely: bounded on the east by Oswego street; on the south by Tully street; on the west by Seneca street; and on the north by Otisco street in the eleventh ward of said city. Such commissioners shall serve No compenwithout compensation, but the necessary expenses incurred by penses. them, while in the discharge of their duties, shall be allowed and paid to them by the treasurer of said city, upon vouchers therefor to be approved by the mayor. In case any vacancy occurs Vacancies. in said board, by death, resignation, or removal from the city of any of the commissioners above named, a majority of the remaining members of said board shall forthwith fill the same by the appointment of a citizen of the said city. A majority of the Quorum. said board shall constitute a quorum and the assent of a majority of the board shall be required for the transaction of business. Within one month after the passage of this act, the said com- Organizamissioners shall meet at the city hall, and after having each taken, subscribed and filed in the office of the clerk of such city, the constitutional oath of office, shall elect one of their number chairman. The board shall keep a true record of its proceedings which, Records with all contracts, vouchers and other papers connected with inspection its business, shall at all reasonable times, be subject to the inspec- council. tion of the common council, or any committee thereof, appointed or designated for such purpose. Notice of such election and of Notice of the naming of a clerk as hereinafter provided shall be transmitted tion. to the common council. The said commissioners shall designate Meetings. a day and hour and a place for their regular meetings which shall be entered of record, and which may be changed by them from time to time; they may adjourn from day to day and shall meet pon the call of the chairman, or of any two commissioners, upon written or printed notice thereof, signed by him or them, and given through the postoffice, postpaid, addressed to each of the other commissioners, at his last known place of business or residence, at least one day before the time of such meeting. tion. of common organiza superin and clerk. 2. The said board is hereby authorized to employ an archi- Architect, tect, a superintendent and a clerk and to fix the rate of their com- tendent pensation, which shall be paid out of the fund hereinafter mentioned, upon vouchers to be approved by the said board. architect shall prepare plans, specifications and drawings such high school building for the adoption of which, it shall The Plans, specifica for tions and be approval, drawings; |