The City of Hornell is hereby declared a separate highway district
exempt from the supervision and control of the Commissioner of Highways
of the Town of Hornellsville.
All streets, parks, places, lanes and alleys now in public use
within said city heretofore laid out as public highways under any
law of this state of which a record has been made in the office of
the Clerk of Steuben County or of the Clerk of the Town of Hornellsville
or of the Clerk of the Village or City of Hornell, and all streets,
parks, places and lanes and alleys not recorded, which have been or
shall have been dedicated, worked or improved and used continuously
as public highways for twenty (20) years or more at the time this
Charter takes effect shall be deemed public highways of the City of
Hornell.
[L. 1916, c. 409]
The Department of Public Works shall have the power to cause
all streets, places, lanes and alleys used as highways in said city,
which shall have been opened, laid out or dedicated to public use
but not sufficiently described, to be ascertained, described and entered
of record in the City Clerk's office in a book to be provided
by the city for that purpose, in the manner required by law of Commissioners
of Highways and Towns; and the same, when so ascertained, described
and recorded, shall be public highways, lanes, parks, streets and
places of said city.
[L. 1916, c. 409]
The Department of Public Works shall have power to lay out and
open streets, alleys, lanes, highways, parks and public grounds in
said city and to alter, widen, grade, construct, extend or discontinue
the same subject to the limitations of appropriations for such work.
When said Department shall lay out, widen, alter, extend or discontinue
any street, alley, lane, park, place and public grounds, it shall
make an order to that effect, including a survey of the street, alley,
lane, park, place or public ground as the case may be, which shall
be signed by a majority of the Directors of said Department and be
filed with and recorded by the City Clerk in a book kept for that
purpose and such order shall then take effect.
[L. 1916, c. 409]
When the Department of Public Works, with the approval of the
Common Council, shall have determined to lay out, alter, widen, grade,
straighten, extend, make, open or construct any street, alley, lane,
highways, place or public ground and to take, appropriate and condemn
the land necessary for the same and shall have ascertained the estimated
expense of such improvements, aside from the damages hereinafter mentioned,
and shall have determined to assess such expense and damage in the
manner hereinafter provided, it shall give notice of such determination
to the owner or owners of and other persons interested in the lands
so proposed to be taken and appropriated by publishing the same once
in each week for four (4) successive weeks in the official newspaper
of said city or by personal service thereof, within the state, upon
each of such persons at least fifteen (15) days prior to the time
of the application hereinafter mentioned. Such notices shall specify
in general terms the improvements to be made and shall describe the
lands proposed to be taken and appropriated therefor and shall state
that such owner or owners and all persons interested in said lands
may, on or before a day to be specified in said notice, file with
the Clerk of the city their claim for damages, if any they have, on
account of such taking or appropriating; and that, in case any such
claim for damages shall be filed, said Department will apply, at a
time and place to be specified in said notice, to a special term of
the Supreme Court within the judicial district in which said city
is located or to the County Court of Steuben County for the appointment
of three (3) Commissioners to ascertain and determine the damages
so claimed. If any such claim shall have been filed as aforesaid,
said Department shall then proceed to acquire and condemn the lands,
interest in land or right necessary to so lay out, alter, widen, grade,
extend, make, open or construct such street, alley, lane, highway,
place or public ground in the manner now provided by the condemnation
law of this state. If no claim shall have been filed, then said Department
shall complete their action determined upon.
All cleaning and repairing of streets shall be done at the expense
of the city at large, except as herein otherwise provided.
[L.L. No. 3-1970]
All curbing and guttering constructed under the direction of
the Department of Public Works shall be done at the expense of the
city at large.
[L. 1916, c. 409]
When the grade of a street or other way has been established
by the Common Council of the City of Hornell or by the Board of Public
Works of the City of Hornell or that may be hereafter established
by the Department of Public Works and the street or other way graded
accordingly, the grade thereof shall not be changed except for the
purpose of correcting error or making necessary improvements in the
general drainage plan of the city, and except the same shall be done
at the expense of the city at large.
[L. 1916, c. 409]
No street or part thereof shall be paved or macadamized or sprinkled
by said city unless the resident owners of more than one-half (1/2)
of the linear feet of real estate owned by residents of said city
adjacent and contiguous to that part of the street proposed to be
paved or macadamized or sprinkled petition the Department of Public
Works therefor.
[L.L. No. 4-1963]
Every tax and assessment imposed under any of the provisions
of this title shall be a lien upon all real estate against which the
same shall be assessed from the time of filing the certificate of
assessment with the City Chamberlain and for the number of years thereafter,
unless sooner paid, as is provided in the Local Finance Law as the
useful life of such project, and the same may be collected as prescribed
in Title V of this Charter.
[L. 1916, c. 409; L. 1943, c. 710; L.L. No. 4-1963]
The Department of Public Works, at the time it shall confirm any assessment made under the provision of this Charter, may provide that the owners of any real estate against which a tax is thereby assessed shall have the privilege of paying the same in such equal annual installments, not to exceed the useful life of such project as prescribed by the Local Finance Law, as it may prescribe, upon filing with the City Clerk, within ten (10) days thereafter, their election and agreement to pay the same in that manner, with interest thereon, payable annually. Every assessment of which an election and agreement as above provided has been so filed shall be collected by such installment with annual interest thereon, in the manner in this title provided, and every installment with accrued interest shall be a lien upon the real estate against which the same was assessed, as provided in § C-160 of this Title VIII. If bonds are issued to finance an improvement for which such an assessment shall have been levied, the funds derived from the collection of said installments as they become due shall be applied to the liquidation of said bonds and shall be placed to the credit of the Department of Public Works fund for that purpose only.
[L. 1916, c. 409]
The Department of Public Works is hereby authorized and empowered
at any time upon any paved or unpaved street upon which improvement
is contemplated to compel the property owners whose lots front or
abut thereon to lay house connecting drains and sewer, gas and water
pipes and conduits in the manner they shall provide from the line
of curbing in front of their property on any street to the sewer,
gas and water mains or pipes or either and connect them therewith,
and said Department of Public Works may establish rules therefor.
Whenever the owners of said property fail to comply with the regulations
or ordinances of the Common Council heretofore passed or passed by
said Board pursuant to the authority hereby conferred, the work so
required may be done by the Department of Public Works at the expense
of such owners. Such expense shall be assessed upon the real property
so affected and added as a separate item to the assessment for local
improvements and collected by distress and sale as hereinafter provided.
