(a) Generally. The cost of construction of the sewerage works and the debt service on obligations issued therefor shall be met from the general funds of the town, except as provided in this section and in the preceding section. The cost of construction of each lateral sewer installed after the effective date of the amendment of this chapter [this article] inserting this section shall be assessed upon all owners of land abutting upon that portion of any street or highway or right of way in which such lateral sewer is constructed. Such assessment shall be at a uniform rate for each front footage of land abutting on such street, highway or right of way; provided, however, that a minimum rate may be established for any lot of land having a front footage of less than fifty (50) feet, which rate may be equal to that charged for a lot with a front footage of fifty (50) feet; and provided, further, that a higher rate per front footage may be charged for a lot of land upon which a dwelling house is located than for an unimproved lot of land. It is hereby determined that assessments made under this section will not exceed the benefits to the abutting owners. Lateral sewers shall include all sewers which are not designed to receive the sewerage from any other common sewers. The cost of construction of all sewers installed after the effective date of the amendment of this chapter [this article] inserting this section which are not lateral sewers shall also be assessed in the same manner as lateral sewers but only to the extent of the cost thereof which would have been incurred if they had been laid as lateral sewers. The town council shall determine, consistently with generally accepted engineering practice, what is a lateral sewer as defined above and the cost thereof and the partial cost of other sewers to be assessed or charged and its determined shall be conclusive. As to any sewer, the town council may provide that the assessments may be paid in equal annual installments for a period not exceeding twenty (2O) years with interest thereon at a rate determined by the town council not exceeding six (6%) percent per annum payable at the time each installment becomes due. Any landowner shall have the privilege, however, of prepaying unpaid installments with interest to the time of prepayment.
(b) Rate of assessment. The town council shall from time to time establish the rate of assessment for each front footage of abutting land based upon the actual cost of construction.
(c) Annual assessments; lien on real estate. The town council shall annually on or before the 1st day of July certify to the town treasurer all the assessments made by it under the authority of this section 10. Each assessment made by the town council pursuant to this section shall be a lien upon the lands, buildings and improvements upon which it is made in the same way and a manner as taxes are assessed on real estate, but such lien shall not expire until the assessment with all interest, costs and penalties thereon is paid in full, and if the assessment is not paid as required, it shall be collected in the same manner that taxes assessed on real estate are by law collected. Such assessments shall be due and payable at the time the regular town taxes are first due and payable next after the date of receipt by the town treasurer of the aforesaid certificate of assessments from the town council, except that installment payments shall be due beginning at such time, and the town treasurer shall forthwith certify said assessments to the tax collector for collection and said tax collector shall proceed to collect such assessments in the same manner and at the same time the regular taxes of the town are first payable, with provision for installments only as provided in this section. Interest at the rate per annum fixed for nonpayment of town taxes shall be charged and collected upon all overdue assessments and installments of principal of and of interest on assessments from the date they become payable until paid. (P.L. 1958, ch. 138, § 1; P.L. 1960, ch. 205, § 3; P.L. 1967, ch. 110, § 1.)
Editor's note. The amendment inserting this section was enacted by P.L. 1958, ch. 138, § 1, approved May 23, 1958, which became effective as stated in editor's note under the heading of this article.
For a case holding that the expenditures for the installation of house sewer connections were assessable to the owners of the abutting property as part of the construction costs of the lateral sewers, see Garcia v. Falkenholm, 97 R.I. 117, 198 A. 2d 660 (1964).
For a case construing this sentence and holding that assessment voted by the town council of $5.25 and $6.00 per front footage as the base rates respectively for all land abutting upon Forest Avenue and Valley Road, and assessing a charge of $7.00 per front foot for not in excess of 75 feet of the frontage of land upon which a dwelling house as located, there was accomplished pursuant to this section a proper apportionment of the costs of the improvements between improved and unimproved property, see Garcia v. Falkenholm, 97 R.I. 117, 198 A. 2d 660 (1964).
For a case wherein assessments were voted by the town council for improvements already constructed and abutting property owners alleged that the assessments exceed the costs of construction, and the case was fully tried in the superior court except as to a precise fixing of the assessments over construction costs and the aliquot shares of the abutting owners, the supreme court allowed the parties to appear before it to show cause why the case should not be remitted to the superior court with direction to determine the aggregate by which assessments exceed construction costs. See Garcia v. Falkenholm, supra.
For a case holding that, under the provisions of this section, the determination of what constitutes a "lateral sewer" is left to the town council, see Garcia v. Falkenholm, 97 R.I. 117, 198 A. 2d 660 (1964).
P.L. 1973, ch. 179 and a special town election held on August 7, 1973, amended paragraph (b) in its entirety.