The Commissioner of Public Works, President of the Board of Aldermen, and the Mayor shall constitute the Board of Highway Commissioners and shall have the same power to lay out, alter, resurvey, and discontinue streets and highways as is vested by law in selectboards of towns except as otherwise provided herein.
(a)
Streets and highways in the City may be laid out, opened, accepted, and established by the Board of Highway Commissioners, provided the owners having a majority of the frontage on the proposed street or highway file their petition therefor with the Clerk of the City. Such petition shall be accompanied by a monumented survey, with a plan of said street satisfactory to the Board of Highway Commissioners, and further provided that the signers of the petition shall do or have done all construction and improvements relative thereto as required by the Board of Aldermen.
(b)
All streets or highways in said City of less than three rods in width heretofore deeded or dedicated to the City for public highways and heretofore accepted, and all such streets or highways laid out or opened by it, are hereby declared to be legal streets and highways; and all acts, votes, and resolutions of the City in respect thereto are hereby declared to be legal and valid.
In case the Board of Highway Commissioners shall decide to discontinue any street or highway in the City, any person owning or interested in the lands abutting said street who is dissatisfied with such decision may within 60 days thereafter institute proceedings that shall have the same effect, be conducted in the same manner, and subject to the same conditions and provisions as if such person were dissatisfied with the laying out, altering, or resurveying of any street or highway in the City.
The said Board of Highway Commissioners shall have the power to raise or lower the surface of any street or highway of the City. The same proceedings shall be had in respect to awarding damages to the abutting owners upon such street or highway that they shall suffer by reason of the raising or lowering of the street or highway as herein provided in laying out or altering streets or highways.
Whenever under the provisions of this charter the Board of Highway Commissioners is required to give notice of the time and place of any examination or hearing before it touching the laying out, altering, or discontinuing any street or public highway in the City, or the award of any damages therefor, a citation shall be issued, signed by the Board and containing the name of all persons to whom notice is to be given.
(a)
The citation shall be made at least 21 days prior to the time appointed for such examination or hearing, except when otherwise specially provided for in this charter.
(b)
Service of the citation may be accepted by any or all persons therein named, by endorsing their acceptance in writing thereon.
(c)
The citation may be served by any sheriff or constable in this State upon any person therein named residing or being in this State, in the same manner as an ordinary writ of summons.
(a)
The citation may be served by the sheriff or constable upon a person not an inhabitant of this State by leaving a true and attested copy of the citation with his or her return endorsed, with, or at the residence of, his or her known agent or attorney, if he or she has one in this State; and if not, with, or at the residence of the occupant of the land to which such hearing may appertain. If there is no such occupant, then the copy of the citation shall be by the sheriff or constable left at the office of the Clerk of the City for the persons so owning or interested in such land.
(b)
The City Clerk shall mail to the last known post office address of such person, in a registered package, a true and attested transcript of the copy so left with him or her, which shall be certified by him or her under the Seal of the City. The City Clerk shall certify under the Seal of the City all his or her doings touching the copy so left him or her by the sheriff or constable and shall attach to the certificate all registry receipts pertaining to the copy received by him or her.
The return of the sheriff or constable upon the original citation, and the certificate of the Clerk and the receipts, shall be prima facie evidence of the service of the citation as herein provided. The citation and return thereon, with the certificates of the City Clerk and the receipts shall be made part of the record of the proceedings and shall be filed in the office of the City Clerk.
(a)
If at any stage of the proceedings before the Board of Highway Commissioners or in any proceedings subsequent thereto, it shall appear that any person owning or interested in such land shall not have been duly notified, the Board of Highway Commissioners or other tribunal in or before which such proceedings shall be pending, shall cause a citation to be served upon the persons not notified as herein provided, and shall cause the proceedings to be postponed to such time as will permit such citation so issued to be served in the manner provided herein for the service of original citations in such matters. Commissioners appointed by the county court or by a justice of the peace or agreed upon between the parties shall have the same power to issue citations that the Board of Highway Commissioners has, which citation shall be served in the same manner as if issued by the Board of Highway Commissioners.
(b)
The Board of Highway Commissioners before which such proceedings are pending may cause such further notice to be given by citation, publication, or in any other manner prescribed by it in an order for that purpose. A copy of such order, citation, notice of publication, or other notice, which shall have been delivered to such landowner in person and verified by the affidavit of the person delivering the same, shall be prima facie evidence of such further notice.
No proceedings instituted by the Board of Highway Commissioners under the citation, nor any proceedings subsequent and pertaining thereto, shall be void on account of any failure to give notice to any person or persons interested therein or shall for that reason be dismissed, but such proceedings shall be suspended till such person or persons are duly notified; whereupon the same proceedings shall be had in the same manner and with the same effect as if such person had been duly notified by the original citation. If the person so notified shall appear he or she may be heard upon all matters therein pending in which he or she is interested.