Whenever the Construction Code Official of the Borough of Ho-Ho-Kus
certifies to the municipal governing body that any sidewalks and curbs
are in need of construction, repair, alteration, relaying or maintaining,
the expense of said construction, repairing, altering, relaying or
maintaining shall be borne by the landowners abutting the improvement.
The Borough Council, upon receipt of the certification set forth in §
58-17 hereof, shall determine the necessity of said improvement, and, if it deems that said improvement is necessary, it shall, by resolution, cause a notice, in writing, to be served upon said abutting owners or occupants of said lands requiring the necessary specified work to said curb and/or sidewalk to be done by said owner or occupant within a period of not less than 30 days nor more than 90 days from the date of service of such notice.
Whenever any said abutting lands are unoccupied and the owner
cannot be found within the municipality, the same may be mailed, postage
prepaid, to his or her post office address, if the same can be ascertained.
In the event that such owner is a nonresident of the municipality
or his or her post office address cannot be ascertained, then the
notice may be inserted for four weeks, once a week, in some newspaper
published in the state and circulating in said municipality.
In the event that the owner or occupant of such abutting lands
shall not comply with the requirements of said notice, it shall be
lawful for the Borough Administrator of the municipality, upon filing
due proof of the service or publication of the aforesaid notice in
the appropriate department of the municipality, to cause the work
required to be done and paid for out of municipal funds available
for that purpose. The cost of such work shall be certified by the
Borough Engineer to the department or person having charge of the
collection of assessments in such municipality. Upon filing said certificate
of costs, the amount of the cost of such work shall be and become
a lien upon said abutting lands in front of which such work was done,
to the same extent that assessments for local improvements are liens
in the municipality, and shall be collected in the manner provided
by law for the collection of such other assessments and shall bear
interest at the same rate. In addition thereto, the municipality may
commence, in any court having competent jurisdiction thereof, an action
against the owner of said lands to recover said amount.
Sidewalk construction, repair, alteration, relaying or maintaining shall be in conformance with the requirements of §
58-2 of the Code of the Borough and subject to supervision and approval of the Borough Engineer.