The Board of Trustees of the Village of East Rockaway
may, for the purpose of arresting and preventing damage to property within
the village resulting from floods or erosion, construct drains, culverts,
dams and bulkheads and dredge channels and regulate watercourses, ponds and
watering places within or without the village. Power and authority is hereby
conferred upon the Board of Trustees of a village, in the name of the village,
to acquire property necessary for such public improvements, whether located
within or without such village, by purchase or by condemnation in the manner
provided by the condemnation law. No property shall be acquired or such a
public improvement constructed without the corporate limits of a village,
except with the consent of the governing board or body of the city, town or
village in which such property is situated or such public improvement is proposed
to be constructed. Such consent may only be given after a public hearing held
within such city, town or village, pursuant to notice published at least once
and at least 10 days prior to the hearing in a newspaper having general circulation
in the municipality in which the hearing is to be held. Consent given by the
governing board or body by any such municipality shall not impose a liability
against the city, town or village, and the maintenance and repair of any such
improvement shall remain the responsibility of the village making the improvement.
The cost of the work, including the acquisition of property, shall be a charge
against the village, except that in respect to improvement, wholly within
the village or that part thereof located therein, the work may be done wholly
at the expense of the village or of the owners of the property benefited or
partly at the expense of each as a local improvement, but such construction
or regulation or dredging shall not be wholly at the expense of the owners
of the property benefited unless consented to in writing by the owners of
at least 2/3 in the amount of the assessed valuation of the taxable real property
against which the improvement is to be assessed. All provisions of § 22-2200
of this Act are hereby made applicable to such construction or regulation
or dredging and the financing thereof, in the event the Board of Trustees
should so determine. The term "property," as used in this section, is defined
to include lands, structures, rights in lands, including lands underwater,
riparian rights and any and all other things and rights usually included within
said town, and shall include also easements, rights-of-way, uses, leases,
licenses and any and all interests in such property less than full title.