(A) Whenever the Board of Selectmen shall determine that it may be advisable to make an extension or improvement to the town water system, it may direct the Board of Water Commissioners to obtain plans and cost estimates therefore.
(B) Upon the receipt of such plans and cost estimates and if in view thereof it appears that such extension or improvement is necessary or desirable, the Board of Selectmen shall vote to proceed with such extension or improvement, shall take all steps necessary in accordance with the Charter to obtain funds for such extension or improvement and shall direct the Board of Water Commissioners to prepare estimates of and procedures for assessing benefits to the properties which are to be benefitted.
(C) The Board of Water Commissioners shall thereupon prepare a report setting forth the method of assessing benefits and the amount of each such assessment.
(D) Within 30 days after receipt of said report, the Board of Selectmen shall either return said report to the Board of Water Commissioners for amendment or shall proceed with an ordinance assessing benefits.
(E) (1) There is created a Water Assessment Board of Appeals, consisting of five electors of the town who shall be appointed by the Board of Selectmen, two members shall be appointed for terms to expire on the first Monday of January 1972 and three members shall be appointed for terms to expire on the first Monday of January 1974. Upon expiration of said terms, all terms of appointment shall be four years.
(2) Within 30 days after notice has been sent by U.S. mail, postage prepaid, to each owner of property benefitted, which notice will include the amount of the assessment against such property, any such property owner may appeal from said assessment to the Water Assessment Board of Appeals by filing written notice of such appeal with said Board of Appeals. Said notice may be filed at the office of the Board of Selectmen. Forms for said notice may be prescribed by said Board of Appeals.
(3) Said Board of Appeals shall assign a place and time for a hearing on said appeal. Said hearing shall be held not later than 60 days after the filing of said notice, and notice of said hearing shall be given by mailing written notice thereof to said property owners by U.S. mail, postage prepaid, not less than 15 days before the date of said hearing.
(4) Said Board of Appeals may increase or decrease the assessment against the subject property if it shall appear to the Board that the assessment was erroneous, or that the nature of the subject property is such that a redetermination of the assessment would be equitable.
(5) Said Board of Appeals shall send notice of its action to said property owners by U.S. mail, postage prepaid, within 60 days after said hearing.
(F)
Any property owner who has prosecuted an appeal to the Water Assessment Board of Appeals may take an appeal from the action of said Board of Appeals to the Superior Court for the Judicial District of New London within 30 days after the mailing of the notice of its action by said Board of Appeals.
(G) (1) The assessments of benefits shall become final upon completion of its duties by the Water Assessment Board of Appeals and shall be recorded in a water assessment book in the office of the Town Clerk. When any owner of property shall make use of the water main unless otherwise provided in the ordinance assessing benefits, the assessment of benefits applicable to said property shall become due and payable, together with interest at the rate of 12% per annum for the period from the date said assessment became final until the date of payment, together with any connection charge or similar charge then in effect. The assessments of benefits shall thereupon become liens upon the property against which they are made. Any such lien shall be liable to be foreclosed in the same manner as if it were a mortgage on such land in favor of the town. Such liens shall not continue to exist for a period longer than one year after the assessment becomes due and payable unless within that period a certificate signed by the First Selectman or his or her designee describing the premises on which such lien exists, the work on account of which it is claimed and the amount claimed by the town as the lien shall be filed in the town land records. Any such lien shall cease to exist whenever a certificate discharging the same signed by the First Selectman or his or her designee shall be filed in the town land records. Such lien shall be discharged by the First Selectman or his or her designee upon payment of such unpaid assessment, interest as set forth herein and a lien fee which shall be an amount which is equal to the sum of a $5 administrative fee and the amount charged by the Town Clerk for recording and releasing such lien.
(2) The Water and Sewer Commission shall have authority and responsibility to foreclose any such lien in the name of the town.
(H) For purposes of this section, the term PROPERTY OWNER shall be deemed to mean each person having a property interest in the premises as disclosed by the town land records.
(Ord. passed 3-22-1979; Ord. passed 11-23-1980; Ord. passed 1-7-2020)
Editor’s note:
TM Volume 11 page 110, 133; TM Amended
TM Volume 10, TM Volume 11 Amended; TM Volume 13, page 195, Amended;
TM Volume 14, page 51, Amended