Grades, etc.

Notices.

Notice must specify.

Remonstrances.

Council may order work.

Letting of contracts.

such mode, manner, and means more closely and more fully to the provisions of article seven of this Act.

ARTICLE SEVEN.-OF STREETS, THEIR GRADES AND IMPROVE

MENTS.

SECTION 1. The Council shall have power, and is authorized, whenever it deems it expedient, by resolution in writing, to establish or alter the grade, and to improve any street, or part thereof, now or hereafter laid out or established within the corporate limits of the city, and to make such improvement in such manner as they may think best. The power and authority to improve a street includes the power and authority to improve the sidewalks and pavements, and to determine and provide for everything convenient and necessary concerning such improvements.

SEC. 2. No grade or improvement mentioned in section ten can be undertaken or made without one day's notice thereof being first given, by publication in some newspaper published in the city, or by posting, as may be prescribed by the order of the Council.

SEC. 3. Such notice must be given by the Clerk of the Council, by order of the Council, and must specify, at least in general terms, the street, or part thereof, proposed to be improved, or of which the grade thereof is proposed to be established or altered, and the improvement which is proposed to be made.

SEC. 4. Within ten days from the publication of such notice, the owners of property fronting on such street, or part thereof, as the case may be, amounting to two-thirds of the frontage on such street, or part thereof, may make and file with the Clerk of the Council a written remonstrance against the proposed improvement, grade, or alteration thereof, and thereupon the same shall not then be further proceeded in, or made; but no protest shall be binding upon the Council for any longer period than three months from the presentation thereof; and provided, that the Council may proceed sooner if the property holders, owning real estate amounting to at least one-half of the frontage of property liable to be assessed for the improvement, shall petition the Council for such improvement, in writing.

SEC. 5. If no such remonstrance be so made and filed, the Council, at its earliest convenience thereafter, and within six months from the final publication of such notice, may establish the proposed grade or alteration thereof, or commence to make the proposed improvements, by passage of necessary resolution, as herein provided.

SEC. 6. When the resolution of the Council ordering any work to be done has been adopted, the Council may thereafter proceed to advertise, for such time and in such manner as it shall see fit, for proposals to do said work, and for the awarding of such contract as it shall deem best, and not inconsistent with this Act. The Council shall have the right to reject any or all bids, and may readvertise for other

proposals. It may let the work in such sections or parcels as it may deem best.

SEC. 7. In case the notice be for the improvement of a Costs, how street, or a part thereof, the Council may, through the Sur- assessed. veyor, or other officers and employés, proceed to ascertain and determine the probable cost of making such improvements, and assess upon each lot, or part thereof, fronting thereon and liable therefor, its proportionate share of such cost. No defect in the name of any owner shall affect the validity of any assessment upon any lot, or part thereof, and if the name of any owner be unknown, the lot, or part thereof, may be assessed to unknown owners.

SEC. 8. When the probable cost of the improvement has same. been ascertained and determined, and the proportionate share thereof of each lot, or part thereof, has been assessed, to the satisfaction of the Council, as provided in section seven, the Council must, by motion, declare the same, and direct its Clerk to enter a statement thereof in the docket of city liens, as provided in the next section.

contain.

SEC. 9. The docket of city liens is a book in which must Docket of be entered, in pursuance of this Act, the following matters in liens to relation to assessments made in pursuance of this Act. There must be entered therein:

First-The number or letter of the lot assessed, and the number or letter of the block in which it is situated, or any other valid description of the property, and if a separate assessment is made upon a part of a lot, a particular description of said part.

Second-The name of the owner thereof, or that the owner is unknown.

Third-The sum assessed upon such lot, or part thereof, and the date of the entry.

SEC. 10. The docket of the city liens is a public writing, and imparts notice to all the world of the matters and things therein recorded, and the original or certified copies of any matter authorized to be entered therein are entitled to the force and effect thereof, and from the date of an entry therein of an assessment upon a lot, or part thereof, of a sum so entered is to be deemed a tax levied and a lien thereon, which lien shall have priority over all other liens or incumbrances thereon whatever.

assessments.

SEC. 11. If written five days from the entry of the assess- Collection of ment in the docket of city liens, the sum assessed upon any lot or part thereof is not wholly paid to the City Treasurer, and a duplicate receipt thereof filed with the Clerk of the Council, the Council may thereafter order a warrant for the collection of the same to be issued by the Clerk, directed to the City Tax Collector or other person authorized to collect taxes due the city.

SEC. 12. Such warrant must require the person to whom Sale of it is directed to forthwith levy upon the lot, or part thereof, property. upon which the assessment is unpaid, and sell the same in the manner provided by law, and to return the proceeds of such sale, less his fees, if any be allowed by the Council therefor, to the City Treasurer, and the warrant to the said

Redemption by owner.

Same.

Same.

Same.

Property liable.

Same.

Clerk, with his doings indorsed thereon, together with the receipt of the City Treasurer for the proceeds of such sale as paid to him.

SEC. 13. Such warrant shall have the force and effect of an execution against real property, and shall be executed in like manner, except as in this article otherwise specially provided. If from any cause any warrant be not executed within the time allowed by law, the Council may order the issuance of an alias warrant, and as many thereof as may be necessary to enforce the collection of such assessment.

SEC. 14. The person executing such warrants shall immediately make a deed for the property sold, to the purchaser, stating therein that the same is made subject to redemption, as provided in this article. Within one year from the date of such sale, the owner, or any person in interest, may redeem the same, or any part thereof, upon the terms and conditions provided in the next section.

SEC. 15. Redemption of the whole property is made by the payment of the purchase money, and forty per cent. addition, and the amount of any tax or incumbrance which the purchaser may have paid upon the property. Redemption of a part is made by the payment of that proportion of the purchase money which the part redeemed bears in value to the property sold for the assessment.

SEC. 16. A redemption discharges the property from the effects of sale for the assessment. If made by the owner, or his successor in interest, the estate in the property is thereby restored to such owner or successor in interest, as the case may be; but if made by a lien creditor, the amount paid for the redemption is thereafter to be deemed a part of his judg ment, decree, or mortgage, as the case may be, and shall bear like interest, and may be enforced and collected as part thereof.

SEC. 17. Whenever a purchaser, or those claiming under him, refuse to convey to a person entitled to redeem, such person may enforce a conveyance thereof by a suit in equity, as for a specific contract to convey real property, and such suit may be maintained against absent parties, without proof of the tender of the money and offer to redeem, if the plaintiff bring such money into Court and offer there to redeem.

SEC. 18. Each lot or part thereof, fronting upon any street, or part thereof, ordered to be improved, shall be liable for the proportion of the cost of making such improvements, which the frontage of such lot or part bears to the total frontage of the street, or part thereof, along which such improvement is ordered; provided, that the Council shall have the right to allow a credit at the contract price, as awarded by the Council, upon any assessment for any improvement of a street in front of any real estate, done within twelve months before the passage of this Act of Revision, or for any grading done under article nine of this Act.

SEC. 19. Within twelve months before the adoption of such assessment by the Council; and provided further, that no such credit shall exceed the amount of the proposed

assessment against such real estate, for and on account of which such credit is claimed. The cost of providing crosswalks, and of improving all intersections of streets, and of the space included between the center line of the street to be improved and the prolongation of the side lines of any street forming a junction with such street to be improved, to such center line, shall be paid out of the General Fund of the city, and shall not be included in such assessments. The cost of the surveys, maps, and of establishing grades, shall be paid out of the General Fund. Whenever any street, or part thereof, has been graded, or otherwise improved, at the expense of the owners of the real estate fronting thereon, and the same has been accepted by the Council, and the same shall require any repairs to be made thereon, at any time within twelve months from such acceptance, the Council may order such repairs to be made, and pay the same out of the General Fund; but may, if it see fit, proceed as hereinbefore provided, and have the cost thereof assessed upon the real estate benefited.

SEC. 20. A sale of real property under the provisions of validity of this article conveys to the purchaser, subject to redemption, sales. as herein provided, all the estate or interest therein of the owners, whether known or unknown.

ing liens

and enforce

SEC. 21. When an assessment upon any lot or part thereof, Parties hold for any improvement done, or ordered to be done, upon any may pay street, for the payment of which assessment such property is assessments, chargeable becomes delinquent, any person having a lien collection. thereon by judgment, decree, or mortgage, or otherwise, may at any time before the sale of such lot, or part thereof, pay the same, and the Council shall, upon such payment being made, order the Mayor, in the name of the corporation, to make and execute and deliver to the party making such payment, and to his assigns, an assignment and transfer of said claim of the corporation therefor; and upon such transfer being made, the amount of such delinquent assessment and all costs thereon, together with the cost of making such assignment, shall thereafter be deemed a part of such lien, creditor's judgment, decree, mortgage, or other charge and incumbrance, and shall bear like interest, and may be enforced and collected as a part thereof.

ment.

SEC. 22. If at any time it is found that the sum assessed when deficit upon any lot or part thereof for any improvement is insuffi- in assesscient, the Council must ascertain the deficit, and declare the same; when so declared the Clerk must enter the sum of the deficit in the docket of the city liens, in a column reserved for that purpose in the original entry, with the date thereof, and such deficit shall thereafter be a lien upon such lot or part thereof, in like manner and with like effect as in the case of the sum originally assessed, and shall also be payable and may be collected in like manner and with like effect as in the case of such sum so assessed.

SEC. 23. If, upon the completion of any improvement, it when is found that the sum assessed therefor upon any lot or part surplus. thereof, is more than sufficient to defray the cost thereof, and the fees and other expenses allowed by the Council for

When notice

is not necessary.

Drains and

sewers.

Deficiency

collection, the Council must ascertain and declare the surplus in like manner as in the case of a deficit. When so declared it must be entered, as in the case of the deficit, in the docket of the city liens, and thereafter the person who paid such surplus, or his legal representative, is entitled to payment of the same by warrant on the City Treasurer.

SEC. 24. All money paid or collected upon assessments for the improvement of streets shall be kept as a separate fund, and in no wise used for any other purpose whatever; all money so assessed, including a deficit, from time of being entered in the docket of city liens, shall bear interest at two per cent. per month until paid or collected.

SEC. 25. The proceedings authorized by this article, for the establishment or alteration of a grade, or the improvement of a street, or a part thereof, may be taken and had without giving the notice prescribed in section two, whenever the owner or owners of two-thirds of the property liable to be assessed shall, in writing, petition the Council therefor. SEC. 26. The Council shall have power to lay down all necessary sewers and drains, and may order the same paid out of the General Fund of the city; but it shall, unless it otherwise prescribe, cause the same to be assessed on property fronting on either side of the street or sewer. The mode of apportioning the estimated cost of improvement of streets, prescribed in section eighteen of article seven of this Act, shall apply to the construction of such sewers or drains, and when the Council shall not direct the same to be otherwise assessed or paid, such expenses shall in every respect be assessed and collected in the same manner as is provided in case of street improvements; provided, that no credit, mentioned in said section eighteen, shall be made in any assessment for construction of sewers; and that when any sewer is constructed across private property, and leaving such piece of property with two frontages thereon, such property shall be assessed for only one of such frontages.

SEC. 27. Whenever any lot or part thereof, sold under the and surplus. provisions of this Act, shall bring more than the assessment thereon, with interest and costs and charges of collection, the surplus must be paid to the City Treasurer, and the person executing the warrant must take a separate receipt for such surplus, and file it with the Clerk of the Council on the return of the warrant. At any time thereafter the owner, or his legal representative, is entitled to a warrant upon the Treasurer for such surplus; provided, that whenever any lot or part thereof, sold under the provisions of this Act, shall bring less than the assessment thereon, the Council shall supply the deficiency out of the General or Cash Fund.

Deed.

SEC. 28. The deed to the purchaser must express the true consideration thereof, which is the amount paid by the purchaser, and the return of the person executing the warrant must specify the amount for which each lot or part thereof was sold, and the name of the purchaser.