No person shall tap, open or make connections with any sanitary or combined sewer within the City or cause the same to be done without first having procured a license to do so as hereinafter provided. Any person desiring to tap, open or make connections with such sewer or engage in the business of sewer tapping and making sewer connections with public sewers or drains, shall make application in writing for such license to the Director of Public Service. The Director shall examine or cause to be examined the qualifications of such applicant for such license and shall grant a license if the applicant is found to be qualified therefor and complies with all other requirements of this chapter.
The applicant must have a minimum of four years of acceptable experience in the construction of sewer lines. At least two years of this experience shall be as a foreman or field superintendent over a sewer construction crew, or equivalent experience. The other two years' experience shall be as a pipelayer or as an operator of sewer trenching equipment, such as a crane or backhoe, or equivalent experience.
The applicant must possess all equipment necessary in the judgment of the Director or his authorized representative, to adequately make connections to the public sewer system and to construct the related sewer systems being connected to the public sewer. Such equipment shall be of adequate capacity and maintained in proper working order so as to provide adequate performance at all times.
A sewer tapper's license shall authorize the licensee to tap, open and make connections with public sewers, drains and drainage facilities under the provisions of the ordinances of the City and laws of the State, provided that such license shall not be issued nor become effective until such applicant files with the Clerk-Auditor a bond in the form prescribed by the Director, with surety or sureties approved by the Director in the amount of one thousand dollars ($1,000) and containing provisions that such licensee will indemnify and save harmless the City from all loss or damage that may be either directly or indirectly occasioned by his opening, tapping or making connection with any public sewer or drain or drainage facility, failure to properly perform the work or any work incident thereto. Should the surety or sureties withdraw from the bond, or the bond for any reason becomes of no effect, then the license issued to such applicant shall immediately become void without notice.
The licensee, in making excavations in any street, alley, public way or other public place shall in all respects be governed by the provisions of law and the ordinances of the City now in force or which may be hereafter adopted, regulating excavations. If the licensee violates any of the ordinances of the City or laws of the State relative to the excavating of streets or other public places, or the opening, tapping and/or connecting with public sewers, drains and drainage facilities, the Director of Public Service shall have the power to suspend the license for such time as he may deem proper, or revoke the same as he may deem appropriate in the public interest.
By acceptance of a sewer tapper's license, the applicant assumes responsibility for restoring any pavement, curb, sidewalk, driveway, sewer pipe or appurtenance, shrubbery, lawn or other facility in the public right of way which is disturbed or damaged by the operation.
The Director or his authorized representative shall have the authority to require the applicant, before work is started in a public right of way, to have two men on the job: one operator of trenching equipment and one man as a pipe layer.
Fraudulent statements or other misrepresentations made by the applicant in his application for a license, or failure to show adequate performance in laying of a sewer line, or failure to abide by any of the foregoing provisions, shall be grounds for the denial or revocation of the license by the Director.
(Ord. 155-1977. Passed 8-8-77.)
(Ord. 155-1977. Passed 8-8-77.)