Whenever the Council of said City shall deem it expedient to cause any street or alley in said City or portion thereof to be paved, curbed, or macadamized, or otherwise improved in a permanent manner, it shall order the work done in the following manner and upon the following terms: The contract for such paving or other improvements shall, after due advertisement in which Council shall reserve the right to reject any and all bids, be let to the lowest responsible bidder. The contractor shall look only to the City for the payment of the work, and in no sense to the abutting land owners, except as hereinafter provided. The total cost of grading and paving or otherwise improving any such street or alley (with the exception that where a street is occupied by the street car tracks or other railways, such cost of opening or otherwise improving the distance between the rails and two additional feet outside of each rail, shall be borne and paid entirely by the street car or other railway company operating such street or other railway, unless otherwise provided by the franchise of such street car or other railway company granted previously to the passage of this act) shall be borne by the owners of the land abutting upon said street, alley or portion thereof, according to the following plan, that is to say: Payment is to be made by all land owners on either side of such portion of a street or block so paved or improved in such proportion of the total cost, less the portion, if any, chargeable to such street or other railway company, as the frontage in feet on his land so abutting bears to the total frontage of all lands so abutting on such street, alley or portion thereof so paved or improved as aforesaid. The cost of such paving or improvement chargeable to the abutting owners under this section is not to include any portion of the amount paid for paving of squares at intersection of streets, which shall be borne and paid by the City, except as otherwise herein provided.
When the paving of any street, alley or portion thereof shall have been let to contract and the work done as hereinbefore provided, it shall be the duty of the Engineer of said City to cause the several frontages abutting thereon to be measured, and to calculate the assessment upon each and every land owner so abutting and to certify the same to the Council showing the proper amount to be determined, as provided in the foregoing plan. It shall be the duty of the Council to examine and compare such assessment, amounts and names so certified to it, and thereupon give notice by publication once a week for two consecutive weeks in some newspaper of general circulation in said City, that an assessment under this Charter is about to be laid against the abutting property for paving or improvements done on said streets or alleys, describing the location of such paving or improvements, and any owner or owners thereof shall have the right to appear before said Council, within two weeks from the first publication thereof, and move to correct an apportionment or assessment excessive or improperly made as charged, which correction said Council shall have the power to make according to the intent of this Charter, and if found to be correct or when corrected by the Council as aforesaid, it shall enter the same, together with a description of the lots of land as to location, frontage, depth, and ownership so far as the same may be ascertained, upon its records and shall enter in its records that such owners and lots be assessed and chargeable with the amount so ascertained to be borne by them respectively; and when so approved, certified and entered on record the same shall be and constitute an assessment against said owners and lots for such respective amounts. And it shall be the duty of the Council to immediately certify such assessment to the Treasurer for collection as herein provided, and a copy of said order shall be certified by the City Clerk to the clerk of the county court of Kanawha County, who shall record and index the same in the proper trust deed book in the name of each person against whose property assessments appear therein. The amount so assessed against said abutting land owners shall be paid in ten payments, as follows: That is to say, one-tenth of said amount, together with interest on the whole assessment, shall be paid into the City Treasury, before the first day of May next after said work is completed, and said assessments have been certified to the county clerk. And a like one-tenth, together with interest for one year upon the whole amount remaining unpaid on or before the first day of May in each succeeding year thereafter until all has been paid, and each of said installments of one-tenth beginning with the first shall bear interest on the amount of said installments at six per centum per annum from the date of record of same in the county clerk's office until paid; provided, however, that any abutting property owner so liable for any portion of the cost of such paving shall have the right at any time after the same is certified as aforesid to the Treasurer for collection to anticipate the payment of any or all of said assessments and shall be allowed to pay the face of said assessment with interest at six per cent per annum only from the time of recordation to the time of payment. To each of such installments of assessments remaining unpaid in the Treasurer's hands on the day herein specified for the payment thereof, a penalty of ten per centum on the principal sum shall be added and any assessment so remaining unpaid in the Treasurer's hands on such date, shall be taken up on such settlements had with the Treasurer on such dates, and thereupon such assessments shall be placed with the penalty added thereto, in the hands of the City Collector to be treated and considered, and payment thereof enforced in all respects as hereinbefore provided for the collection of taxes due the City, and they shall be a lien upon the property liable therefor the same as taxes, which lien may be enforced in the same manner as provided for taxes. The lien hereinafter provided for shall have priority over all other liens except those for taxes due the State and shall be a parity with taxes and assessments due the City. Whenever all such assessments for paving, sewerage, macadamizing or other improvements shall be paid in full to the Treasurer, he shall deliver to the party paying the same a release of the lien therefor, which may be recorded in the office of the clerk of the county court of Kanawha County as other releases of liens, and whenever any such assessment shall not be in the hands of the Treasurer for collection, but the same shall be shown to the satisfaction of the City Auditor or other official performing the duties of Auditor, to have been paid in full to any officer entitled to receive the same, such Auditor or the Mayor may in like manner execute such release.