court, as herein provided, according to the provisions of this act, shall constitute and be a lien upon the property assessed, from the time of such confirmation, which lien, with the interest and expenses thereon, as hereinafter provided, shall have priority over all other liens or incumbrances. $20. The trustees shall have power, on the written application of any party interested, in the manner hereinafter provided, to alter the grade of any street or avenue, after the same shall have been previously established by said trustees, in all or any part thereof, provided that before finally determining to make such alterations they shall cause a profile, showing the intended alteration, to be made and placed in the office of the clerk for public inspection, and shall cause a notice to be published in a village newspaper once in each week, for two consecutive weeks, setting forth their intention to make such alteration, and requiring all persons interested therein to present their objections in writing to the board of trustees, at a time and place to be mentioned in said notice, after the expiration of two weeks from the first publication thereof. After the expiration of the time named in said notice, the board of trustees may, by the affirmative voice of two-thirds of all the members, alter such grade. Power of trustees to alter streets. assess $21. Interest at the rate of seven per cent per Interest on annum shall be due and payable upon all taxes and ments. assessments commencing thirty days after the said assessments shall have been confirmed, or the warrant issued for the payment of said taxes; and interest at the rate of twelve per cent per annum shall be due and payable upon all taxes and assessments that remain unpaid sixty days after the said assessments shall have been confirmed, or the warrant issued for the payment of the said taxes. And the said collector of taxes and assessments is hereby authorized to collect the interest upon the said taxes and assessments at the rate provided in and by this section. $22. Whenever any street, avenue or alley shall have been theretofore laid out through any lands in said village by the owner or owners of the lands through which the said street, avenue or alley shall when own Proceedings ers have streets and them to be laid out dedicated public. Owners to keep sidewalks in repair. pass, and the same voluntarily and in legal form ceded or dedicated to public use as a street or highway by the said owner or owners, so that the same can be legally accepted and taken by the trustees of said village as a street or highway, the said trustees, on the petition of any party or parties owning land fronting on the same, may and it shall be lawful for them to lay out and open said street, avenue or alley, so in proper form ceded or dedicated in fact or by implication of law as aforesaid, without the appointment of commissioners as provided for in section. four of this title, and the said board of trustees shall have the power to declare the same legally laid out and opened as a public street or highway. Before acting, however, on such petition, the said trustees shall give public notice of the said application or petition in a newspaper published in said village, once in each week for two successive weeks; describe the said street, avenue or alley so sought to be laid out and opened, and shall state the time when the said trustees will proceed to act upon the prayer of said petition; and unless a remonstrance, signed by a majority of the owners of land on the line of said street shall be presented to the said trustees on or before the time in said notice specified, the said trustees shall then be at liberty at any time thereafter within one year to lay out and open said street, avenue or alley, and to declare by resolution, under the corporate seal of said board of trustees, and the hand of the president and clerk thereof, the said street, avenue or alley laid out and opened, and the same thenceforward shall become a public street or highway. Nothing, however, in this section contained, shall make it obligatory upon the said trustees to lay out or open said street, avenue or alley, if in their judgment at that time there shall be no necessity for the same, and action upon the said petition can be postponed by said board of trustees until such time as the said trustees shall see fit to act upon the same, not exceeding one year. $23. It shall be the duty of the owners or occupants of lands fronting on any of the streets or avenues in said village to construct, relay, and keep when neglect so in repair the sidewalks, curb-stones, and gutters in front of their respective lots, in such manner, at such times, and of such materials as the said trustees may by a by-law, resolution, or ordinance for that purpose legally direct; and if any such owner or occupant Proceedings shall refuse or neglect to construct, relay or repair owners the sidewalks, curb and gutters opposite to or front- to do. ing on the lot or lots owned or occupied by him as aforesaid, when so directed to do by the trustees as aforesaid, then in either case it shall be lawful for the trustees to cause such sidewalks, curb and gutters to be so constructed, relaid or repaired, for or on account of the owner of such lots, and such owner and such lots shall be liable to pay the expenses of such repair, relaying or construction, and all sums so expended upon sidewalks, curb and gutters, after being audited by the trustees, by a vote of the board of said trustees, shall be a lien or tax to that amount pon every such lot; and thereupon it shall be lawful for the said board to issue to the collector of taxes and assessments their warrant, returnable in thirty days, for the collection thereof, out of the goods and chattels of the persons legally liable to pay the same, and if such warrant shall be returned unsatisfied in whole or in part, to advertise and sell such lot in the manner prescribed in titles four and five of this act, as in cases of sale for the non-payment of assessments and taxes, by the Revised Statutes in like cases, and the purchaser or purchasers, owner or owners, and his, her or their legal representatives shall have the same rights and privileges as are given to them respectively in and by said titles. $24. Whenever the occupant or lessee of any real estate in said village shall have been required, as above provided, to make, repair or construct any sidewalk, curb or gutters, he may recover the expenses incurred therefor of the owner of such lot, or set off the amount thereof against the claim for rent or otherwise of the owner or owners of said premises. TITLE VI. Recovery incurred by of expenses lessee. OF THE PREVENTION AND EXTINGUISHING OF FIRES. § 1. The trustees shall have power to prevent the Prevention of Fire engines, etc. Fire department, Chief engineer. dangerous construction and condition of chimneys, fire-places hearths, stoves and stove-pipes, ovens, boilers and apparatus used in any building or manufactory; and to cause the same to be removed or placed in a safe condition when considered dangerous, and to prevent the deposit of ashes in unsafe places; to provide fire-buckets, and to regulate the use of them in time of fire; to authorize the firewardens, or other officers of the village, to keep away from the vicinity of any fire all idle or suspicious persons, and to compel all persons to aid in the extinguishment of fires, and the preservation of property exposed to danger thereat; and generally to establish such regulations for the prevention and extinguishment of fires as they may deem expedient. S2. The trustees shall procure fire-engines and other apparatus used in the extinguishment of fires, and have the charge and control of the same, and shall provide fit and secure engine-houses, or other places for keeping and preserving the same, and shall have power to organize fire and hook and ladder companies, and to appoint a suitable and competent number of able and respectable inhabitants of said village as firemen, and to take the care and management of the engines, and other apparatus and implements made and provided for the extinguishment of fires; to prescribe the duties of firemen, and to make rules and regulations for the government of the fire department. The members of the several fire and hook and ladder companies, when organized under this section, shall have the power to elect a chief engineer, and one or more assistant engineers, and each company to elect a foreman, and one assistant foreman, and a secretary for each of their respective companies, and to select members to fill any vacancy which may occur in their ranks, providing that no engine or other company shall exceed the number of members allowed by the trustees, who shall have power to regulate the number of members for each company, not to exceed sixty members to any one company. They may adopt by-laws for the government of their respective companies, and may impose fines and forfeitures for the violation of the same. They may expel any member from their ranks wardens. $3. The trustees shall be firewardens, and shall Fire have power from time to time to appoint such other firewardens as they may deem necessary, and to prescribe their powers and duties. of firemen ing on $4. The firemen enrolled by virtue of this act Exemption shall, during the term of their services as such, be from servexempted from serving on juries and in the militia, juries, etc. except in case of war, invasion, rebellion or insurrection; and a service of five years as such firemen shall forever exempt them from such jury and militia duty, excepting as aforesaid. The name of each fireman so enrolled shall be registered with the clerk of the village, and the evidence to entitle him to the exemptions provided in this section, shall be the certificate of the said clerk, countersigned by the president of the village. TITLE VII. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS. §1. All actions to recover any penalty or forfeiture under this act, or the ordinances, by-laws, rules, resolutions or regulations made in pursuance of it, shall be brought in the corporate name of said village, and in such action it shall be lawful to declare or complain generally for such penalty or forfeiture, stating the section of this act, or by-law, ordinance, rule, resolution or regulations under which the penalty or forfeiture is claimed, and to give the special matter in evidence. The defendant may plead or answer, denying generally the allegations declared or complained of, and give the special matter in evidence also. Actions to be brought in name of corporation. First S2. The first process in any such action brought process. |