The City of Dunbar is hereby authorized to issue and sell the bonds of the said City for the purpose of providing for grading, paving and otherwise improving the streets and alleys of said City, of constructing sewers for the proper draining of same in anticipation of special assessments to be made upon the property abutting upon the streets and alleys so improved, or property so sewered or drained, and such bonds may be in such an amount as shall be sufficient to pay the entire estimated cost and expense of said improvements for which such special assessments are levied; provided, that the price for which said bonds are sold shall not be below par value thereof; said bonds may be payable in groups of one-fifth of the whole issue payable in two, four, six, eight, and ten years, respectively, and all payable in not to exceed ten years from the date of issue thereof, and shall bear interest at a rate not exceeding six per centum per annum, payable annually; and in the issuance and sale of said bonds, the City shall be governed by all the restrictions and limitations of the Constitution of this State with respect to the issuance and sale of other bonds, and the assessments as paid and provided for in this Charter shall be applied to the liquidation of said bonds and the interest thereon; and if by reason of the penalties collected with the delinquent assessments, there be a balance, after the payment of said bonds and all accrued interest and costs, the said balance shall be turned in to the City Treasury to the credit of the interest and sinking fund of the City.
Provided, that the City shall not by the sale or issue of such bonds cause the aggregate of its debt of every kind whatsoever to exceed five per centum of the value of the taxable property therein; and provided, further, that nothing contained shall be construed as authorizing said City to become indebted in any other manner or for any other purpose, to an amount including the existing indebtedness in the aggregate exceeding two and one-half per centum on the value of the taxable property therein (as provided in chapter fifty-one of the acts of one thousand nine hundred and five) except for the purpose of grading, paving, sewering and otherwise improving the streets and alleys of said City and as provided for in this Charter, and except for the purpose of buying or building electric light plants, water works, gas lines and fields, and other public utilities and municipal buildings, nor shall they make such issue and sale of bonds for grading, paving, sewering and improving the streets and alleys of said City without, at the same time, providing for the collection of a direct annual tax sufficient to pay annually the interest on such debt and principal thereof within a period not exceeding ten years.
All assessments, interest and penalties thereon, collected from the abutting property owners, on account of grading, paving, sewering or otherwise improving the streets and alleys of such City under the provisions of this Charter, shall annually be applied to the annual tax required to pay the interest on such debt and such principal within and not exceeding said period of ten years; and in the event that the assessments, interest and penalties so collected do not amount to a sum sufficient to pay annually the interest on such debt and the principal thereof within and not exceeding ten years, the City shall collect so much of said levy as will pay annually the interest on such debt, and the principal thereof within and not exceeding ten years.