No sidewalk shall be constructed or laid unless a joint committee of the City Council, at least seven days before the hearing in relation thereto, shall give notice in writing to the several owners of any land or buildings adjoining or in front of which the sidewalk is proposed to be laid of the intention of the City Council to act upon such laying out and shall in such notice appoint a time and place for meeting and hearing all persons interested therein, which notice shall be served by leaving the same at the usual place of abode of the persons owning any land or buildings adjoining or in front of which the sidewalk is proposed to be laid or by delivering the same to such owner in person, or to his tenant or authorized agent. If the owner has no such place of abode within the City, and no tenant or authorized agent therein known to the committee, or if, being a resident within the City, he is not known as such to the committee, such notice shall be given by posting the same in some public place within the City at least seven days before the time of hearing.
At the time and place appointed and after notice given as provided in § 243-24, the committee shall meet and hear all parties interested claiming to be heard, and, if requested, shall proceed to view the premises upon or in front of which the sidewalk is proposed to be laid, and it shall report to the City Council whether the common convenience and necessity require that the same should be laid. If it reports in favor of building the sidewalk, in whole or in part, it shall also report whether the street in which the sidewalk is proposed to be laid needs to be first widened, straightened or altered; what portion of such sidewalk, if any, is in front of vacant lands and at whose expense such portion ought to be built; the dimensions of such proposed sidewalk; the materials of which it shall be constructed; and the names of such persons, if any, as have appeared before it and claimed to be heard thereon before the City Council.
After receiving the report required in § 243-25 and after the same shall have remained seven days at the office of the City Clerk for inspection, the City Council may proceed to order a sidewalk to be constructed, provided that if any party, either before the committee or to the City Clerk, before the expiration of the term of seven days, shall have given notice that he claims a hearing before the Council, the Council shall appoint a time and place for such hearing, in convention, and meet accordingly and hear any such party claiming to be so heard before deciding upon the subject matter of the report.
[Amended 12-23-2008]
Every sidewalk which the City Council may order to be constructed shall be built by the Commissioner of Public Works of such materials, dimensions and general description as the City Council may prescribe. It shall be the duty of the Commissioner to keep an account of all expenses and outlays incurred in building such sidewalk, and he shall report the same in writing within 30 days from the finishing of the sidewalk to the Auditor, with the names of the persons owning estates adjoining the sidewalk and chargeable with any part of such expenses, and also the length of the sidewalk adjoining each estate.
No flagstones, edgestones, concrete nor sidewalks of edgestones and cinders shall be laid for any person, where the expense of the labor and materials therefor is to be charged to such person, unless the same shall first be ordered to be laid by the City Council.
All sidewalks accepted by the City Council are to be kept in repair by the City, with the exception that all repairs of the same which may be rendered necessary by reason of any defect or insufficiency in any buildings adjacent to the sidewalk, or from any cause within the control of the owner of such building, shall be made by the owner or tenant of such building or, if he neglects to do so, by the Commissioner of Public Works on behalf of the City at the expense of such owner.
The City Council, in making sidewalk assessments, may apportion the payment thereof in five annual payments, each payment to be not less than 20% of the total assessment.