Section 1. Whenever the city council shall provide by ordinance for establishing, opening, widening or altering any street, avenue or alley, or public ground or square, and it becomes necessary for that purpose to take private property and no agreement can be made with the owners thereof, just compensation shall be made therefore to the persons whose property is so taken, which the city recorder shall cause to be ascertained by a jury of six disinterested freeholders of the city, the particulars of which proceedings shall be prescribed by ordinance.
Section 2. The city recorder shall appoint a day for empaneling a jury and ascertaining the damages, at least six days' notice of which shall be given to the person whose property is proposed to be taken, and if any of the owners thereof are unknown or cannot be found by the city marshal or are absent from the city (and the return of the marshal shall be conclusive as to the facts therein stated), publication thereof shall be made in a newspaper for at least three weeks before the day appointed, notifying all owners or others interested in the property proposed to be taken, that on the day therein named the city recorder will cause the property therein described to be condemned for public use as an alley, street, avenue, public ground or square, as the case may be, and damages to be assessed therefor as herein provided, and such notice, by publication as aforesaid, shall be binding on all persons whomsoever, having any interest in any property of any portion of the damages in consideration of the benefits to be derived by them.
Section 3. It shall be the duty of the jury:
First:
To ascertain the actual value of the land proposed to be taken for the opening, widening, establishing or altering of any street, avenue, alley or public square, without reference to the proposed improvement, then for the payment of such sum to assess against the owner of the property taken for the opening, widening, altering or establishing of any street, avenue, lane, alley or public square, the benefit or benefits accruing to the remainder of his property on such lane, alley, street, avenue or public square, according to the value of the property so assessed, and in proportion such property may be benefited by the proposed improvements, and the sum so assessed by the jury against the owner or owners of such property shall be a lien on said property until paid; then the jury shall assess the remainder of the damages ascertained and the benefits accruing to the public generally against the city.
Section 4. The city recorder shall have power, for good cause shown, within ten days after any inquest shall have been returned to him, to set the same aside and cause a new inquest to be made.
Section 5. If the verdict of the jury be not set aside by the city recorder, it shall be his duty, within ten days, to report the same to the city council, and if not confirmed by the council within ten days after being reported to them by the city recorder, all the proceedings shall be void; if the title to any property proposed to be condemned to be in controversy, nothing shall be paid therefore until the right to the money ascertained by the verdict of the jury is determined by a court of competent jurisdiction in a suit between the parties respectively claiming the same, none of the costs of which litigation shall be borne by the city unless the city be one of the claimants, and during such controversy the money shall remain in the treasury.
Section 6. Whenever one or more of the owners of property of which it may be necessary to take for public use in the opening of any street, avenue, alley or square, shall propose to relinquish such property without claim of damages, on condition of exemption from payment of benefits for further opening of such improvements, or upon other conditions, the city recorder shall be authorized to compromise or agree with such persons, and to remit, abate or exempt them from payment of the damages in consideration of the payment of benefits, wholly or partly, as equity may seem to require, and for the assessment of benefits and damages to other property on the same street, alley, lane, avenue or public square shall proceed as in other cases.
Section 7. Judgments against the city on account of damages to private property in case of opening, altering, widening or changing alleys, lanes, streets, avenues or public squares, shall not be considered as ordinary judgments, but such judgments shall be held in abeyance and the city shall not take possession of the grounds condemned until such judgments shall be confirmed and appropriations made to pay the same out of the general revenue.
Section 8. Either party may appeal to the circuit court from the judgment of the recorder's court within ten days after the rendition of said judgment in the same manner as appeals are taken from the justices' courts; such appeals shall not stay the work of establishing, opening, widening or altering of any avenue, street, alley or public square, but such ground may be taken possession of by the city upon tender to the owner or owners of the same of the amount assessed by the jury as damages in the recorder's court.
Section 9. The city council shall as soon as practicable after the passage of this act, provide for the establishment by the city or other engineer, of the grades and curbstone lines of each and every avenue or street within the limits of said city, and shall also require said engineer to prepare perfect profiles of said streets, exhibiting the grades at the crossings thereof, and the elevation of all grade points, which said profiles when complete, and the graduation and lines established in accordance herewith, shall be approved by ordinance; and the city or other engineer shall immediately thereafter prepare a corrected diagram of all such streets, exhibiting the graduation and lines thereof, which diagram shall be securely framed and be kept suspended in the office of the city clerk for public examination, and after such graduation shall have been established and approved, no change in the grade of any avenue or street shall be made except by an ordinance, passed by the city council, all the members thereof concurring, and after due notice by publication in at least one of the newspapers published in said city of the pendency of such ordinance before the city council; and in case any such change of grade shall be made, all damages sustained by any person by reason of such change of grade shall be paid by the city; and in the event of a failure on the part of the mayor, or person damaged, to determine the amount of such damages, the same shall be ascertained by the same proceedings provided for on condemning private property for public use.
Section 10. A general sewer system shall be established by ordinance, and shall comprise three classes of sewers, namely: Public, District and Private Sewers.
Section 11. All sewers draining streets, alleys or public grounds, or parts of district or private sewers crossing avenues, streets or public grounds shall be classed as public sewers. All sewers rendered necessary by natural watercourses, or for sanitary precautions, or other local causes, appertaining to any district or portion of said city, and the location of said sewers, not being in any street, alley or public grounds, shall be classed as district sewers; and all sewers constructed by individuals for their sole and individual benefit, for the purpose of draining private premises, or by the direction of the city council as a sanitary measure, shall be classed as private sewers.
Section 12. Public sewers shall be constructed along the principal courses of drainage at such times and to such extent, of such dimensions and under such regulations as may be provided by ordinance; and there may be extensions or branches of sewers already constructed or entirely new throughout, as the case may require, and the cost of construction thereof, together with the cleaning, improving and repairing of the same as shall by the city council be deemed necessary, shall be paid from the general fund of said city.
Section 13. District sewers shall be constructed within the limits of districts to be prescribed by ordinance connecting with the public sewers or other district sewers, or with any natural course of drainage, as the case may require. But such district may be subdivided, enlarged or changed by ordinance at any time previous to the construction of any sewer therein. The city council shall cause sewers to be constructed in each district whenever a majority of the property holders resident within a district shall petition therefore, or whenever the city council may deem said sewer necessary for sanitary or other purposes. Such sewers shall be made of such dimensions as may be prescribed by ordinance, and may be changed, enlarged or extended, and shall have all the necessary laterals, inlets and other appurtenances which may be required whenever the city council shall direct by ordinance the construction of any district sewer as hereinbefore provided. The city engineer, commissioner of sewers, or other officer in charge of the work, shall upon the execution of a contract with any party or parties for the construction of such sewer, assess the cost of the work, as determined by said contract, as a special tax against the lots of ground situated within the limits of said district, exclusive of improvements, in proportion to the area of the whole district, not excluding highways, which assessment rolls, when completed, shall be delivered to the auditor, who shall extend the tax thereon and place the same in hands of the treasurer for collection, as in the case of other taxes, and the amount so raised shall constitute a special fund, applicable solely to the construction of such district sewers, and such assessment shall, when made, constitute a lien on each lot upon which it shall be made, and in the case of default in payment of such taxes by any lot owner, the same may be collected in like manner as is provided for other delinquent taxes, and whenever said City of Chillicothe shall own any lot or lots within the limits of any district where such sewer shall be constructed, the tax levied against such property shall be paid from the general fund. Private sewers may be connected with public or district sewers under the direction of the city engineer. Sewers shall not run diagonally through private property when it is practicable to construct them parallel to its front lines and a public sewer shall not be constructed through private property when it is practicable to construct it in an adjacent street. Whenever district sewers have been already constructed, the city council shall have power to assess a special tax against the property in such districts in like manner as is provided in case of construction of new district sewers, and the sum realized from such tax shall be applied in payment of any debt contracted by the city for the construction of said sewers, together with the interest thereon, or if said district sewer was constructed at the expense of the general fund, then said amount so raised by special tax shall be returned to the credit of said general fund. All sums of money necessary for the cleaning, repairing and other incidental expenses of district sewers shall be paid out of the general appropriation for that purpose and at the end of each fiscal year, the auditor shall report to the city council the amounts paid on account of each district separately, and the amount so charged to each sewer district, in proportion to assessed value of property, shall be assessed as a special district sewer tax, and the amount thereof charged to and collected from the lot owners in such districts respectively as an item in the general tax bills of the next fiscal year following the expenditures.