[Added by L. 1922, Ch. 613]
The common council shall have power to determine the existence and direct the removal of a public nuisance, in any part of the city; and if the same be not removed in such time as the council shall direct, to cause the same to be removed at the expense of the city, and to cause buildings, trees and other encumbrances encroaching upon the streets or avenues to be removed; to prevent the erection or construction of any steps, platform, bay window, cellar door, area, descent into a cellar or basement, sign or any post or erection, or any projection from any building or otherwise, in, over or upon any street, or avenue in said city, and to cause the same to be removed.
Whenever any such nuisance, encroachment or obstruction shall have been removed at the expense of the city, such expense shall be ascertained by the common council and entered in its minutes, after a hearing as provided in section one hundred and eight of this act, and together with the expenses of collection, shall be a lien upon the said lot from the time the expenses shall be incurred, and may be collected by action, in the name of the city, against the owner, and after demand of payment from the owner, and his neglect or refusal to pay such expense, by sale of the lot, in the manner hereinbefore provided for the sale of property, for taxes imposed for city purposes.
[Amended by L. 1910, Ch. 302; L. 1911, Ch. 699; L. 1922, Ch. 613; L.L. No. 1-1964]
The said common council shall have the power, and it shall be their duty, upon their own motion, or upon application as hereinafter provided:
a. 
To lay out, open, make, amend, repair, alter, widen, straighten, extend, contract or discontinue streets, lanes, alleys, highways, walks, public squares, bridges, drains, culverts and sewers in said city. But no street, lane or highway in said city shall be discontinued without the written consent of all parties owning lands thereon.
b. 
To cause any street or streets, section or sections of any street or streets in said city, to be graded, leveled and paved and repaved, and sewers to be built or constructed, and fix or regulate the grade line of streets and sidewalks; and to cause curbs to be set and sags to be made, paved and guttered of such material as the common council may direct. And in the order directing the construction of a sewer or sewers, or such grading, leveling or paving (not including paving or repaving of gutters) they may, in their discretion, provide that a portion of the expense of such improvement, not exceeding one-half thereof, shall be paid out of the city treasury. But after any street, or section of a street, shall have been once graded, or be in process of grading, according to grade line fixed by order of the common council, the grade of the same street or section shall not be changed, except upon the written application of the persons owning a majority part of the property adjoining the same, and when a street has been once permanently improved for which any portion has been paid by the land owners thereon, no part of repaving, grading or improving the same a second or subsequent time shall be charged against the land owners on said street except their proportionate share of the general tax therefor.
c. 
To keep the streets clean and in good order and to pass ordinances requiring the same to be kept clean and in good order, and free from encroachment and injury, and to require the owners and occupants of houses, buildings or lots, to clean the snow and ice from the sidewalks and out of the gutters opposite their premises.
d. 
To require the owners of buildings and lots, on public streets, to make and maintain sidewalks opposite their premises and to prescribe and direct the materials out of which, and the manner in which such sidewalks shall be made, and the time within which they shall be completed, and to regulate the grade, width, shape and construction thereof.
e. 
To lay out, improve and ornament public parks and pleasure grounds, and to pass ordinances and regulations concerning their preservation and use.
f. 
To prevent and summarily remove all obstructions and encroachments in or upon the streets, sidewalks, highways, bridges and public grounds in said city.
g. 
The said Common Council shall have exclusive control of all the storm and sanitary sewers in said city, and it shall not be lawful for any person to interfere with, enter or connect with any of the storm and sanitary sewers in said city without having first obtained permission so to do from the Commissioner of Public Works and all such connections shall be made under the supervision of the Commissioner of Public Works and the said Common Council is hereby empowered to compel any and all owners or occupants of lands on the line of any such storm and sanitary sewers, to enter and connect the drains from such lands into and with such storm and sanitary sewers, whenever the said Common Council shall deem it necessary for the public good, or as a sanitary measure, so to do; and the said Common Council is hereby authorized and empowered to enforce the observance of the provisions of this section, by ordinances imposing suitable penalties for the violation thereof. And the Common Council shall have power to enter upon any land in said city, for the purpose of making surveys, and to construct upon the same any storm and sanitary sewers deemed by them necessary and proper to be constructed, and to acquire the title to any lands or easements therein, for the purposes of such storm and sanitary sewer or storm and sanitary sewers.
[Amended by L. 1916, Ch. 200]
Whenever the common council shall order a sidewalk to be made, altered or repaired, or curbs to be set, they shall give notice to the owner of the premises along or in front of which such sidewalk is ordered to be made, altered or repaired, or such curb to be set, by causing a copy of such order to be delivered to him personally, and left with him; or, in case of his absence from his residence by leaving such copy with a person of suitable age and discretion at his residence; or, in case such notice cannot be served as aforesaid, or such owner is not a residence of said city, or is unknown, then such notice shall be served either by mailing the same to his last known address or by publishing the same once a week for two weeks in a newspaper printed and published in said city. The order directing such sidewalk to be made, altered or repaired, or such curb to be set, shall direct the materials to be used and the manner in which the work is required to be done, and the time within which it is required to be completed. If the owner shall not make, alter or repair such sidewalk, or set such curb, in the manner and within the time specified in the order, or such further time as the common council may, by resolution, allow, the common council shall cause such sidewalk to be made, altered or repaired, or such curb to be set as specified in said order, and all expenses incurred in such construction, alteration or repairs shall be ascertained by the common council and entered in their minutes, and, together with the costs of collecting the same, and interest thereon at the rate of six per centum per annum, shall be a lien on the lot in front of which said walk shall have been made, altered or repaired, or such curb set, and a charge against the owner thereof, but the common council, before entering such cost upon their minutes, shall give notice to the owner or agent of such premises that an opportunity will be given such owner or agent to be heard regarding such improvement before said common council at least twenty days previous to the time of entering such expense upon their minutes. Such notice may be served or given in the same manner, as provided in this section for the service of the order requiring such work to be done, and when such charge is so ascertained and entered upon said minutes the same may be collected by action in the name of the city, or by sale of the premises in the manner provided by the provisions of the fifth title of chapter five hundred and seventy-two of the laws of nineteen hundred and two and the acts amendatory thereof for the sale of property for taxes imposed for city purposes. The expense of making, paving, repairing gutters and sags therein shall be wholly paid from the city treasury.
[Amended by L. 1922, Ch. 613]
When the council shall, on its own motion, determine that it will be advisable to lay out, open, alter, widen, extend, contract, level, pave, curb, gutter or grade any street, or construct, flag or widen any sidewalk, or construct or rebuild any sewer, aqueduct or bridge, except as specified in section one hundred and ten of this act, or establish any public park, market or place, or install any approved or ornamental system of lighting as a local improvement or whenever persons owning at least one-third of the number of feet on the line of any such proposed improvement shall, by petition in writing, request the council to order the same, it shall cause a tentative estimate of the total expense to be made, and a map to be made by the city engineer showing its estimate of the probable area of assessment for the benefits of such proposed improvement, together with all other necessary maps, profiles or drawings, which maps and estimates shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the council at least five days before the day set for the hearing. It shall fix a time for a public hearing at which it will consider the advisability of said improvement, and hear all reasons for or against the same and direct notice to be published thereof.
The clerk of the council shall publish, twice in each week for two weeks previous to the said hearing, a notice which shall contain a description of the proposed improvement, the estimated expense thereof, and shall state that a map, showing the probable area of local assessment will be prepared and filed with him at least five days before said hearing for public inspection.
The council shall, at the time and place specified, hear all persons interested for or against the proposed improvement as to any questions involved therein, and within two months after said hearing the council shall finally determine such proposition; and at any time before the completion of such improvement said council shall have the power to make any changes advantageous to the taxpayers of the city.
[Amended by L. 1922, Ch. 613; L.L. No. 1-1927; repealed by L.L. No. 1-2009]
[Repealed by L. 1922, Ch. 613]
[Amended by L. 1922, Ch. 613]
After any street or section thereof shall have been once graded by direction of the council, the grade shall not be changed, except upon written application of persons owning a majority in frontage of the property adjoining the same; when a street has been once permanently improved, any portion of the expense of which improvement has been paid by the land owners thereof, no part of the expense of repaving, grading or improving the same at a subsequent time shall be charged against an owner on said street excepting his proportionate share of the general tax therefor.
[Repealed by L. 1922, Ch. 613]
[Amended by L. 1922, Ch. 613; L.L. No. 1-1929; L.L. No. 1-1938]
Whenever any of the foregoing improvements relating to streets, et cetera, shall have been made, the council shall ascertain the total expense thereof, including the estimated interest which may accrue on any certificates of indebtedness issued or to be issued therefor and the sums paid or agreed to be paid for any interest in land that may be necessary and except in the case of street paving, may fix and determine an amount to be paid by the city on account thereof which shall not exceed fifty per centum of the total expense; in the case of the expense of street paving the council shall ascertain the total expense thereof, including the sums or items aforesaid, and shall deduct from said total a sum equal to the actual cost of paving any intersection or intersections, twenty per cent (20%) of the balance thus determined shall be assessed against the properties deemed to be benefited as hereinafter provided and the remaining eighty per cent (80%) together with the total expense of paving such intersection or intersections, shall be assessed upon the city; and the council shall fix a limit or district of assessment beyond which the assessments therefor shall not be extended; it shall enter in the minutes the amount of such expense, and a description of such limit or district and shall then cause a warrant to be issued to the commissioner of assessment and taxation directing him to assess the said amounts, less the part, if any, which it may have ordered to be paid by the city at large upon the real estate benefited by the said improvement. Said commissioner shall thereupon assess the amount specified in said warrant as therein directed and make a return to the council under his signature wherein he shall briefly describe by street and number as shown on the assessment map each parcel of real estate on and in respect of which any assessment is made, and the amount assessed upon the same. The clerk shall thereupon cause a notice to be published once a week for two weeks or served personally upon all parties interested, that such assessment has been made and filed, and that the council, at a regular meeting named in said notice, not less than fourteen days after the first publication thereof, will hear any objection which may be made to any assessment, and that in the meantime the report may be examined without expense by any person. At the time specified the council shall hear any objection made to said assessment, and shall review the same, and may adjourn the hearing from time to time, and alter, correct, modify or amend any assessment and confirm the same as so corrected.
[Added by L.L. No. 1-1935]
Whenever a local improvement of nature specified in section one hundred nine of the charter shall be undertaken through or by authority of the Civil Works Administration of the Federal Government, or the Works Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, or under the authority of the Temporary Emergency Relief Act of the state of New York, or under any other relief authority of the local, state and/or federal government, that portion of the cost which the city bears, whether for materials and labor, or both, may be assessed against the property benefited upon order of the common council. If the council determines that the city's portion of the cost of a proposed local improvement shall be assessed against the property benefited, it shall so order by resolution and cause a tentative estimate to be made setting forth the total expense and cost of the improvement as estimated and setting forth an estimate of the city's portion of such cost, and a map to be made showing its estimate of the probable area of assessment for the benefit of such proposed improvement, together with all other necessary maps, profiles or drawings, which maps and estimates shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the council at least five days before the day set for the hearing, shall fix the time for public hearing at which it will consider the advisability of the improvement, and hear all reasons for or against the same and direct notice to be published thereof, such notice to be published in the manner and to contain the information as provided in section one hundred nine. In addition the notice shall contain the estimated portion of the city's cost of the improvement. The proceedings upon the public hearing and in the matter of the assessment and collection of the city's portion of the cost of the improvement shall be the same as is specified in connection with the hearings and assessments for local improvements generally, with the exception that the council shall, in connection with an assessment hereunder, ascertain the total of the city's portion of the cost, including the estimated interest which may accrue on any certificate of indebtedness issued or to be issued therefor, and the sums paid or agreed to be paid for any interest in land that may be necessary, and shall enter in its minutes the amount of such cost to the city. The council shall then direct the assessment and assess such cost against the limit or district benefited in the manner provided by this charter in connection with assessments for local improvements generally.
[Repealed by L. 1922, Ch. 613]
[Amended by L. 1922, Ch. 613, § 1; L.L. No. 2-1929; L.L. No. 3-1933; L.L. No. 3-1940; L. 1943, Ch. 710, § 498; L. 1943, Ch. 712, § 177.00, Schedule A; L. 1945, Ch. 339, § 1; L.L. No. 5-1954; L.L. No. 4-1968; L.L. No. 3-1969]
a. 
The Council, upon confirming any of the assessments referred to in this article, may provide in the resolution confirming the same that said assessments, or any of them, may be paid in not more than twelve substantially equal annual installments, to be collected in the manner provided in this act for the collection of taxes for city purposes, except as hereinafter specified. When such assessments are paid by installments, the first installment shall be due and payable within thirty days after the confirmation of such assessments by the Common Council, which date of confirmation shall become the anniversary date of the payment of the remaining installments in succeeding years. Interest at the rate of six per centum per year on all unpaid principal balances shall be paid annually on such anniversary dates. It is provided, however, that the owner of any premises assessed who may have chosen to pay his assessment by installments may pay any or all installments remaining unpaid with accrued interest thereon at any time prior to the date for payment of the final installment, but in the event the owner of any premises shall become delinquent in payment of his assessment or any installment thereof, the principal balance together with interest, shall thereupon immediately become due and payable and may be collected by the sale of such land or premises.
b. 
There is hereby established for the City a special fund which shall be operated under the supervision and control of the City Treasurer into which the proceeds of the sale of bonds and the assessments collected shall be paid for any physical public betterments or improvements financed through such fund as hereinafter provided. The Common Council may determine and require, by resolution, that the financing of the construction of any physical public betterments or improvements, heretofore or hereafter authorized, whether or not including the acquisition of land or rights in land therefor, the cost of which is required by ordinance, resolution or local law to be paid completely by assessments upon the property benefited or partially by assessments upon the property benefited and the balance by assessments upon the City, shall be through the aforesaid special fund, into which the proceeds of the sale of bonds and the assessments collected are paid and out of which the cost of any such betterments or improvements is paid and such bonds are redeemed, whether or not interest thereon is paid from such fund. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this charter, the Common Council, upon the completion of any such physical public betterments or improvements or at any time prior thereto, may determine to issue, pursuant to the local finance law, the obligations of said City in such an amount as said Council may estimate to be sufficient to pay the entire cost of any such physical public betterments or improvements.
[Repealed by L. 1922, Ch. 613]
[Repealed by L.L. No. 1-1933]
[Repealed by L. 1922, Ch. 613]
[Amended by L. 1911, Ch. 699]
All authority, rights, powers and duties given to or imposed upon the trustees of the said village of Middletown, or of the president of the said trustees, or the assessors, clerk, treasurer or collector of said village, and all rights-of-way and property, real and personal, heretofore acquired and now owned, enjoyed or possessed by the village or city of Middletown, and by any law of this state, which shall have taken effect prior to the time when this act shall take effect, concerning or in relation to the construction of a sewer or sewers in said village, or city, and acquiring the property necessary to be taken for that purpose, and the assessment and collection of the expenses thereof, and the management and keeping in repair of said sewer or sewers when constructed, and said property and streams where taken for the purpose of drainage and sewerage, are hereby vested, respectively, in the city of Middletown and in the mayor, common council, commissioner of assessment and taxation, clerk, treasurer and collector authorized to be elected or appointed under this act, so that the powers, authority and rights given in said laws, or acts to the trustees of the village or city of Middletown shall be exercised by the common council of the city of Middletown, and the powers given in the said acts or laws to the president of said trustees, shall be exercised by the mayor of said city; and all powers given in and by said acts or laws to the assessors, clerk, treasurer, and collector of said village, respectively, shall be exercised by said officers of the said city of Middletown. All property, real and personal, and rights heretofore acquired and now held, owned and enjoyed by the village or city of Middletown, its officers, agents, employees or servants, pursuant to chapter two hundred and two of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, entitled "An act to amend chapter forty-six of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-two, entitled 'An act to amend an act, entitled An act to amend and consolidate the charter of the village of Middletown,' passed March thirty-one, eighteen hundred and sixty-six," passed April nineteen, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, are hereby transferred to and vested in the city of Middletown, its common council, officers, agents, servants and employees, and no right, property, privilege or power acquired by said above mentioned act, or duly imposed, shall in any manner be affected by the passage of this act.
[Amended by L. 1911, Ch. 699; L. 1922, Ch. 613]
To the end that the said city of Middletown may be provided with and have sufficient and proper drainage and sewerage, the said common council is hereby authorized and empowered to agree for and to purchase and take conveyances for, in the name of said city, any real estate and right-of-way, over any real estate, and the right to use any stream running through said city which may be a tributary of the stream heretofore taken, and now used and possessed by said city, known as Monhagen creek, or any part of such tributaries, for the purposes of such drainage and sewerage to any suitable and proper place and for sewerage and garbage disposal plants and works; and in case said common council does not agree for the purchase of such real estate, or rights-of-way, or rights to use such streams for the purposes aforesaid, from any of the owners of such real estate, or of the lands through or along which said streams run, the said common council may acquire the title and right to the same or any part thereof, for the purposes aforesaid, as provided in this act.
[Amended by L. 1922, Ch. 613]
In case said common council shall not agree with any owner or owners, respecting any lands or rights which they may desire to acquire for the purposes aforesaid, or with the owner or owners of any lands through or along which the aforesaid streams run, for the right to use the same for such purposes, then said common council shall cause a survey and map to be made of the lands intended to be taken or entered upon for said purposes, including the lands through or along which said streams pass, by which the land of each owner or occupant thereof intended to be taken or used, or through or along which said streams pass, shall be properly designated, which map shall be duly signed by the surveyor making the same and by the mayor of said city, and shall thereupon be duly filed in the office of the clerk of Orange county. Any of the members of said common council, and any of the officers, agents and employees or servants thereof, may enter upon any lands for the purpose of making such examination as may be proper, with a view to such drainage and sewerage, and making said survey and map, doing no unnecessary damage, however, thereto. In case of such failure to agree or in case such agreement cannot be made by reason of the disability of any of the owners of said property, the common council may direct that such property be acquired by proceedings instituted for the condemnation thereof in the manner provided by the condemnation law for the condemnation of real property, and the provisions of this act relative to title pending condemnation shall apply.
[Repealed by L. 1922, Ch. 613]
[Amended by L. 1922, Ch. 613]
Any sum of money necessary to pay for said lands, rights or awards, and the cost of said improvement, including the necessary expenses incurred by said common council in connection therewith, shall be raised by tax, to be assessed upon all the real and personal property in said city, according to the valuation of the city assessment-roll of the current year, which said tax shall be assessed by the said common council at some meeting thereof. The said tax or assessment shall be raised and collected in the same manner that special taxes are directed to be raised and collected under the provisions of title five of this act, and as if the same had been voted as a special tax by the electors of said city, at an election held pursuant to this act; and the provisions of the sections of said title five relating to taxes or assessments, shall be equally applicable to the tax which said common council are herein authorized to assess at some meeting thereof as aforesaid.
[Repealed by L. 1922, Ch. 613]