Penalty for neglect. paid taxes to remaining due; and upon making oath before him that the sums mentioned in such account remain unpaid, and that he has not been able upon diligent inquiry to discover any goods or chattels belonging to or in possession of the persons charged with or liable to pay such sums, whereon he could levy the same, he shall be credited by the treasurer with the amount thereof. The treasurer shall thereupon deliver such return to the clerk who shall lay the same before the common council at its next meeting. § 46. If any collector shall neglect or refuse to pay over to the treasurer any moneys by him collected, or shall be guilty of any default in the performance of his duties the common council may cause an action to be brought against him and his sureties upon his official bond without further proceedings prior thereto. List of un. § 47. Upon the return of any unpaid taxes to the treasurer, be published the common council shall cause a copy of so much of the tax lists as contains them to be published in the official newspapers once in each week for eight successive weeks with a notice that if the same are not paid to the treasurer within such eight weeks the lands, if any, upon which or in respect to which they are imposed, will be sold at a time and place therein specified at public auction to the person who will take the same for the shortest period and pay the taxes with the expenses incurred thereon, and of the sale. At the time and place specified, the treasurer shall sell the same at such public auction to the person who will take the same for the shortest period and pay the tax and expense incurred thereon, but no real estate shall for any city tax or assessment be sold for a period exceeding twenty years. Each parcel of real estate shall be sold separately. And sold. Certificates of sale to be § 48. Upon making any sale of real estate under the provisions executed. of the last preceding section, the treasurer shall execute two certificates of the fact providing that if the owner thereof or some one on his or her behalf shall not within fifteen months thereafter redeem the same from the effect of the same by the payment for the purchaser's use to the treasurer of the city of the money paid thereon with interest at the rate of one per cent per month until paid, the purchaser will be entitled to a deed thereof. One of such certificates the treasurer shall file with the clerk of the city and the other deliver to the purchaser. During such fifteen months the owner of the real estate or any one in his or her behalf may redeem the same from the effect of the sale by paying the treasurer for the use of the purchaser the sum of money paid therefor with interest thereon at the rate of one per cent per month until paid, or he may redeem any undivided part thereof by paying its proper proportion of such moneys and interest, or any part thereof which belongs to him and which by accident or mistake was assessed and taxed as parcel of other real estate by paying its proper proportion of such moneys and interest. In case the real estate so sold or any part thereof shall not be redeemed as herein provided for, after the expiration of fifteen months from the time of making the sale the treasurer shall exe cute to the purchaser or purchasers, his or their heirs or assigns deeds thereof or of the parts unredeemed for the period for which the same shall have been purchased. § 49. The expenses attending the advertisement, sale and con- Expenses. veyance of real estate for unpaid taxes or assessments by virtue of this act shall be as follows: printer's fee for advertising each parcel fifty cents; treasurer's fee for attending sale giving certificate and deed to the purchaser one dollar, and five per cent upon the amount of the tax to be paid to the treasurer for the use of the city. Provisions in nors. § 50. In case the real estate sold for any tax or assessment shall belong to any person under the age of twenty-one years, case of misuch person on attaining the age of twenty-one years, or within fifteen months thereafter may redeem the same from the purchaser his heirs or assigns, by depositing with the treasurer for his, her or their use the amount for which the same was sold, with fifteen per cent thereon. moved. § 51. The purchaser of any real estate sold for a tax or assess- Buildings ment, pursuant to the provisions of this act, or his heirs or assigns may be remay, within a reasonable time not exceeding ninety days after any redemption made pursuant to the last preceding section of this act, remove any buildings or improvements erected by him, her or them thereon, but in so doing shall commit no unnecessary damage to the same. Time lim § 52. No real estate shall be sold under the provisions of this act for any tax or assessment, excepting within one year from the ited. time the collector shall have returned the tax list or assessment list as unpaid to the treasurer. civil Power to act un § 53. The common council shall have power to collect by action any tax imposed pursuant to the provisions of this against any person, which shall be returned by a collector as paid; but such action must be commenced within one year after such return by the collector. collect by civil action. Provision in case of non § 54. In case any tax shall be returned by the collector unpaid which by reason of the non-residence of the person bound to pay residents. the same, or for any other cause cannot be collected, the common council may add the amount thereof to the moneys authorised by the provisions of this act to be raised by tax in the succeeding year. TITLE V. OF THE POWERS OF THE COMMON COUNCIL IN RELATION TO commission § 55. The common council shall have the powers, perform the Powers as duties, and be subject to the liabilities of commissioners of high- ers of highways in towns, with the exceptions and modifications contained in ways. this act. It shall also have 'power: 1. To lay out, open, make, amend, repair, alter, widen, contract, Streets, lanes and discontinue streets, lanes and highways, walks, bridges, drains &c. and sewers in the city. Cleaning streets Trees. Parks. Surveys and maps to be made. Notice to be published. ing real tate. Notice when to be pub served on owner. 2. To clean the same, and to pass ordinances requiring the same to be kept clean, and in proper order, and free from encroachment, incumbrance and injury. § 3. To require, direct and regulate the planting, rearing and preserving of ornamental trees in the streets and public grounds of the city. 4. To lay out, improve, and ornament public parks and plea sure grounds, and to pass ordinances and regulations concerning their preservation and use. § 56. The common council shall cause all streets, alleys, lanes, highways, side and crosswalks, public parks and pleasure grounds, and all drains and sewers in said city to be surveyed, described and recorded in a book to be kept by the clerk for the purpose, and to cause maps thereof to be made and filed with the clerk. Such record and maps shall be prima facie evidence of the facts therein described and portrayed, in all actions between the city and other persons, touching their location. § 57. Whenever the common council shall intend to lay out, alter, widen, contract or discontinue any street, lane or highway, it shall cause a notice of such intention to be published for two weeks in the official newspapers, stating the day upon which it will act thereupon; which day shall be at least two weeks subsequent to the first publication of the notice. Provision re- § 58. In case it shall not be necessary to appropriate, for the lative to tak-purpose contemplated in section fifty-seven, any real estate which shall not belong to the city, or which shall not be given to the city for the purpose, the common council, upon the day fixed in the notice, may proceed to lay out, alter, widen, contract, or discontinue such street, lane or highway mentioned in the notice. § 59. In case it shall be necessary to appropriate for any street, lished and lane or highway, any real estate not belonging to the city, or which the city may not be permitted by the owner freely to appropriate, in addition to the notice provided in section fifty-seven, the common council shall cause a notice to be served upon each of the owners of such real estate, if they can be ascertained, that the common council will act upon the question of making an appropriation thereof for the purpose proposed, at a day to be fixed for the purpose, at least two weeks after such service. The notice shall be served personally upon persons residing in the city, or by leaving the same at their places of abode, with some person of suitable age and discretion. Upon non-residents it may be served personally or by mailing it, addressed to them at their reputed places of abode. In case the owners are unknown, or their places of abode cannot be ascertained, the publication of the notice in the official newspapers shall be equivalent to personal Description and value of real estate required service. § 60. Upon proof of the service of the notices required in the last preceding section being filed with the clerk, the common council may appoint five disinterested freeholders of the city to certained. ascertain and report a description of the real estate required to how to be as be appropriated, with the names of the owners and the recompense which should be made to them respectively therefor; what the whole expense of the improvement would amount to; whether any, and if any, what part thereof ought to be borne by the city; and whether any, and if any, what real estate would be benefitted by the improvement requiring the appropriation of such real estate, specifying the same in parcels, described with certainty, with the names of the owners if they can be ascertained, and the proportion of benefit which each parcel would receive. The freeholders shall be sworn by a justice of the peace, faithfully and impartially to discharge their duties according to the best of their ability. They shall view the premises and receive any evidence which may be offered touching the question before them, and may administer oaths to witnesses who may be examined before them, and shall with convenient dispatch make their report. published. § 61. On the coming in of the report provided in the last pre- Report to be ceding section, the common council shall cause the same to be published in the official newspaper, with a notice that at a time therein fixed, and which shall be at least six days after the publication thereof, it will act upon the same. Prior to such day, any person objecting to the matters contained in the report, or to the proposed improvement, may file with the clerk his objections in writing, which objections shall be read before the common council before any action is had thereupon. The common council may then confirm the report or reject the same, and may appoint five other disinterested freeholders to proceed anew in the premises. Upon the coming in of their report, the same shall be published with a like notice of the day when the common council will act thereon. The second report shall be final without further confirmation. § 62. Upon confirming the first report of the freeholders as Real estate above provided, or upon the day fixed for acting upon the second when to be appropriated report, the common council may, by a vote of a majority of all by council. its members, authorise and direct the appropriation of the real estate, and the making the improvement. In such case it shall cause an assessment list to be made by transcribing so much of the report acted upon as contained the description of each parcel of real estate to be benefited by the improvement, with the name of the owner, if known, and the amounts of the proportion of benefit which it would receive, directing such amount to be assessed upon such parcels of real estate respectively. The assessment list shall be made to resemble in form as nearly as practicable, the tax list, and be provided with a column in which payments can be entered by the treasurer. Two copies thereof shall be made and signed by the mayor and clerk, one of which shall be filed with the clerk, and the other delivered to the treasurer. list to be ev § 63. The assessment list filed with the clerk and delivered to Assessment the treasurer, shall in all courts and places, be evidence of the idence. assessments therein specified, and all sums of money assessed 2 publish assessment lists. therein upon or in respect to any real estate, shall be liens thereon for two years from the time the assessment lists are filed with the clerk. Treasurer to § 64. Upon receiving an assessment list, the treasurer shall cause a copy thereof to be published in the official newspapers, with a notice similar to the one required upon receiving the tax lists and the treasurer shall proceed thereon to collect the moneys upon the same, in the same manner as upon a tax list, and at the expiration of the month during which he shall receive payments thereon, he shall deliver it to the collector of the ward in which the moneys or the greater part thereof, on the said list are to be collected; and such collector shall proceed thereon to collect the moneys due thereon in the same manner that he is required to collect taxes upon the tax lists, and to make return in like manner; and all the provisions of this act relative to the collection of city taxes, shall apply to such assessments, except those contained in the fifty-fourth section thereof. Expense how to be borne. Streets, &c., and paved. § 65. In case it shall appear by the report of the freeholders which is acted upon by the common council, that any portion of the expense of such improvement ought to be borne by the city,, the same shall be a charge upon the city treasury and shall be paid from the current revenue of the city, by a special tax, as provided by title nine of this act. § 66. The common council shall have power to cause any may be gra- street, highway, lane or alley in said city to be graded, leveled, ded, leveled paved or repaved, and to cause such crosswalks, sidewalks, drains and sewers to be made therein as it shall deem necessary and the same to be repaired, amended or relaid as it shall deem necessary. Prior to the passage of any ordinance for such purpose it shall cause a plan and accurate specification of the work proposed to be constructed to be prepared. It shall then cause the same to Proposals to be published in the official newspapers with a notice that on a be received certain day at least two weeks from the first publication thereof the common council will act in relation to its construction and in the meantime sealed proposals for constructing the work with bonds for the faithful performance thereof will be received by the mayor. Upon the day mentioned in the notice the mayor shall in the presence of the common council open the sealed proposals for constructing the work. No proposal shall be considered which shall not be accompanied by a bond with sureties, and in a penalty both to be approved by the common council, conditioned that if the proposal be accepted the person proposing will construct the work at the price and upon the terms proposed according to the plans and specifications published and subject to the supervision and approval of such person as the common council may designate for the purpose. The common council shall then determine whose is the most favorable proposal. It may then by a vote of a majority of all its members authorise and direct the construction of the proposed work, accept the most favorable proposal and direct the expense thereof to be assessed in the manner following: And opened. Determina tion. |