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When the contract or contracts for improvements have been executed and approved, if any part of the cost is to be assessed against property, or its owner or owners, the director of public works shall at once prepare a statement containing the names of persons, firms or corporations or estates owning property abutting on the highway, or section thereof, to be improved and the number of front feet owned by each, with such description by lot or block number, or otherwise, sufficient to identify the same, and also containing an estimate of the total cost of the proposed improvement, the cost per front foot of abutting property. Said statement shall be examined by the City Council and any errors therein corrected, but no error or omission shall invalidate any assessment made thereunder. When said statement has been approved by the council, it shall then determine and declare the necessity of assessing any part of the cost of proposed improvements against such owners and their property by resolution directing notice to be given to such owners and fixing the time and place of a hearing to be given them. Such notice shall be signed by the city secretary, or other officer designated by the council, and shall state the time and place of hearing, the general nature of improvement proposed, the highway or section thereof to be improved and the total amount and amount per foot proposed to be assessed against owner and his property.
Such notice shall be served by publishing same for three times, the first being at least twenty-one days before the date of hearing, in the city’s official newspaper and by mailing a copy thereof by letter deposited in the post office of said city directed to the address of each owner, if known, but if not known, then to the address of his agent or attorney, if known. Said letters shall be posted at least fourteen (14) days before the day of said hearing. Said notice and letter shall contain all the information required by law. On the day fixed for said hearing or any time thereafter, before any assessment is made, any person, firm, corporation or estate owning or having any interest in any property proposed to be assessed for any part of the cost of such improvement or against whom any personal charge is proposed, shall have the right to appear before the City Council in person, or by attorney or agent, and shall be entitled to a hearing as to all matters affecting said assessment or personal liability, or the benefits of said improvement, if any, to property proposed to be assessed and any objection to such assessment, or to the making of such improvement or any invalidity or irregularity in the proceedings with reference thereto, or any other objection. All objections shall be filed in writing, and thereafter the opportunity shall be given to persons filing objections to subpoena witnesses and produce testimony. Said hearing may be adjourned from time to time until completed without further notice. The City Council shall have power to inquire into and determine all facts necessary to the adjudication of objections and the ascertainment of special benefits to such owners by means of such improvements and shall render such judgment in each case as shall be just and proper. Objections to the regularity of any proceedings, or the validity of any assessment or charge of personal liability against any person or property, shall be waived unless presented at the time and in the manner herein specified.
When said hearing has been concluded, the City Council shall by ordinance, which shall take effect from its passage, without publication or other prerequisites, assess against the several owners of property, and their property abutting on the highway or section thereof, ordered to be improved, such part of the cost of improvement as said council may have adjudged against them. Said ordinance shall fix a lien upon said property and declare the respective owners thereof to be personally liable for the amounts assessed against them, and shall state the time and terms of payment of such amounts. The said ordinance shall prescribe the rate of interest upon deferred payments, not exceeding the maximum set by law, and shall provide that failure to pay any installment when due shall mature all of said deferred payments. But any owner shall have the right to discharge any installment before maturity by the payment of same with accrued interest to date of payment. The lien and charge of personal liability above referred to shall secure and include all costs of collection, including a reasonable attorney’s fee, when incurred. Upon payment in full of any assessment against any such property, the city shall, acting by its mayor, execute a release which shall discharge the lien thereof.
More than one parcel or lot of land, the property of one owner, or owned jointly by two (2) or more owners, may be assessed together without invalidating said assessment or the lien thereof, or any claim of personal liability. The cost of such improvement assessed against any property, or its owner, together with interest as set by the City Council and costs of collection, including reasonable attorney’s fees, when incurred, shall constitute a personal claim against such property owner and be secured by lien on such property superior to all other liens, claims or titles, except lawful taxes, and such liability and lien may be enforced in any court having jurisdiction, or by sale of such property by the officer, and in any manner, as far as applicable, sales are authorized to be made for nonpayment of city taxes, but it shall not be necessary to sell at the same time as for delinquent taxes. The recital in any deed made in pursuance to such sales that all legal prerequisites to the validity thereof have been complied with, shall be prima facie evidence thereof, and without further proof shall be presumed to be true.
The City Council may by resolution make such rules and regulations as may be deemed proper to enforce collection of such assessments. Any error or omission in any proceeding herein provided for shall be corrected by the council, and shall not invalidate the said proceedings. The passage of such ordinance making said assessment shall be notice to all persons of the lien created thereby.
Any person interested in any property assessed for such improvements, or against whom any charge of personal liability may have been fixed, may, within fifteen (15) days from the conclusion of the hearing above referred to, but not thereafter, institute suit in any court having jurisdiction for the purpose, on any ground, of testing the validity of said assessment or personal liability, and the validity of any proceeding had with reference thereto; but is said action be not brought within said period of fifteen (15) days, then said persons, their heirs, successors, assigns, or personal representative, shall be forever barred from asserting any defect in such proceedings or any invalidity in said assessment or charge of personal liability, in any action in which the same may thereafter be brought into question.
The said city and the contractor to whom the work of improvement may have been let, shall be made parties defendant to any suit brought under this section. When any suit has been brought under the terms of this section, the performance of any work may be suspended at the election of the city or the contractor until said suit is finally determined, provided that any writ of error or appeal from the judgment of the court in which said suit was brought shall be perfected within thirty (30) days from the adjournment of the term of the court of original jurisdiction at which final judgment shall thereafter be taken or sued out, but any such suit shall be entitled to precedence in all courts in this state, and any party may move in any court of an early hearing, and such cases shall, in all courts, be entitled to be advanced on the docket and speedily determined.
When the City Council has reason to believe that the owner of any property may successfully claim the same as exempt from assessment, the council may order that the improvement shall not be made in front of said property, unless the owner shall first satisfactorily secure the payment of the amount which would be assessed against the same, were it not exempt. When any part of the cost of improvement is to be paid by such property owners or assessed against their property and the contractor is required to look to such property or its owners for the proportion of the cost assessed against them, and the city is relieved from the payment of such cost, the contractor may or may not be required to construct improvements in front of property which is exempt from the enforcement of a lien for such cost. The omission of improvements in front of such property on a highway or section thereof ordered to be improved, shall not invalidate or affect any assessment against any other property located on such highway, or section thereof, or charge of personal liability against the owner thereof.
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