(A) The township, a Second Class Township, provides for a water supply system to supply sufficient water for the protection of property within its borders from fire.
(B) The township has also entered into contracts with other water suppliers to utilize their fire hydrants to service property within the boundaries of the township.
(C) The other water suppliers have imposed fees upon the township for the use of those fire hydrants.
(D) 53 P.S. § 65703 provides a system by which the monies necessary to provide fire hydrant service may be obtained by the township, the manner in which such assessments shall be collected and the procedures for enforcement.
(E) The Board of Supervisors voted to assess the cost and expense of such fire protection service upon all property within 780 feet of any fire hydrant in the district benefitted thereby.
(F) The Supervisors shall annually assess, or cause to be assessed, the cost and expense of fire hydrant service, whether such hydrants are located within the township or outside its territorial limits; provided, however, the township has entered into a contract with that water supplier regarding use of its fire hydrants, by an equal assessment upon all property whether or not exempt from taxation by existing law, abutting upon said highways, streets, roads and alleys, or portions thereof, and upon property within 780 feet of any fire hydrant in the district benefitted thereby.
(G) No such assessment shall be made against any farmland, but vacant lots between built-up sections, either tilled or untilled, shall not be deemed to be farmlands.
(H) All such assessments for fire protection shall be filed with the Township Tax Collector who shall give 30 days’ written or printed notice that the assessments are due and payable, stating the due date to each party assessed, either by service on the owner of the property or by mailing such notice to the owner at his or her last known post office address. The Township Tax Collector shall be entitled to the same commission for the collection of such assessments as he or she is entitled to by law for the collection of the township road tax. If the assessments or any of them remain unpaid at the expiration of 90 days, they shall be placed in the hands of the Township Solicitor for collection. The Township Solicitor shall collect the same together with 5% as attorney’s commission and interest from the date such assessments were due by a municipal claim filed against the property of the delinquent owner in a like manner as municipal claims are by law filed and collected.
(I) Where an owner has two or more lots against which there is an assessment for the same year all such lots may be embraced in one claim.
(J) All assessments when collected shall be paid over to the Township Treasurer who shall receive and shall keep the same in a separate account and shall pay the same only upon order signed by the Chairperson of the Township Supervisors attested by the Township Secretary. The Township Tax Collector and the Township Treasurer shall make a report to the auditors of the township annually.
(K) This section shall become effective five days after adoption.
(Ord. 45, passed 3-2-1988)