As used in this article, the following terms
shall have the meanings indicated:
SIDEWALK SPACE
That portion of a street between curb lines and adjacent
property lines.
It shall be unlawful for the occupant of any
lot or lots, or the owner of any vacant lot or lots within the corporate
limits, to allow snow, sleet, mud, ice or other substance to remain
on their sidewalks. All sidewalks shall be cleaned within five hours
after the cessation of a storm, unless the storm or fall of snow shall
have taken place during the night, in which case the sidewalk shall
be cleaned before 8:30 a.m. the following day. In the event that the
owner fails to clean the sidewalk the Director of Public Works shall
notify him personally, or by attaching a written notice to the property,
to immediately clean said sidewalks. Failure to do so shall give the
Director of Public Works the option of cleaning the sidewalk and charging
the expense against the property to be recovered by proper action
in the name of the municipality or by special assessment.
If 3/5 of the record resident abutting owners
in fee simple of property, subject to the assessment for sidewalk
improvements, petition the Council to make the same, the Council may
proceed in all things as though such construction had been ordered
by it. Upon the petition of any freeholder, who is an abutting owner
in fee simple of property subject to assessment for sidewalk improvements,
the Council may order permanent sidewalks built in accordance with
this article upon the freeholder making, executing and delivering
to the municipality an agreement to the effect that the petitioning
freeholder will pay the engineering fees and all other incidental
construction costs which until paid shall be a perpetual lien upon
the real estate abutting which the freeholder desires such sidewalk
to be constructed and that the petitioner gives and grants to the
municipality the right to assess and levy the costs of such sidewalk
improvement and promises to pay such costs with interest. The total
cost of such improvement shall be levied, allocated, financed and
specially assessed as provided by law.
The Public Works Director shall certify to the
Council a detailed schedule of all sidewalks laid, widened or rebuilt
and the cost of the same from which the Council may be aided in determining
the amount to be assessed as a special assessment against each lot
or piece of ground. The Public Works Director shall certify such other
facts as may be necessary to enable the Council to make the proper
assessment. He shall also certify to the Council the acceptance of
any sidewalk so improved or what other action he has taken with reference
to the sidewalk. The cost of improvements provided for in this article
shall then be assessed by the Council meeting as a Board of Equalization,
following notice of such sitting at least 10 days prior thereto, by
publication in a newspaper having general circulation in the municipality.
Such assessment shall be made and collected as provided by law.