CHAP. 106 It shall be the duty of the assessors of Rockland, when the city has constructed any public drain or common sewer, to determine what lots or parcels of land are benefited by such drain or sewer, and to estimate and assess upon such lots and parcels of land, and against the owners thereof, or persons in possession, or against whom the taxes thereon shall be assessed, whether said person to whom the assessment is made shall be the owner, tenant, lessee or agent, and whether the same is occupied or not, such sum not exceeding such benefit as they may deem just and equitable toward defraying the expenses of constructing and completing such drain or sewer, the whole of such assessment not to exceed two-thirds of the cost of such drain or sewer, and such drain or sewer shall forever thereafter be maintained and kept in repair by said city. The city council, after the completion of a drain or sewer by the city, shall file with the assessors the location of such drain or sewer, with a profile description and detailed cost of the same, showing the lots or parcels of land adjacent to and benefited by the same, and the names of the owners of such lots or parcels of land. Any person may enter his private drain into any such public drain or common sewer, while the same is under construction and before the same is completed, and before the assessments are made, by obtaining a permit in writing from the city council; but the person so entering shall pay his assessment when the amount is fixed by the assessors; but after the same is completed no person shall enter the same until he has obtained a permit in writing from the city clerk and countersigned by the city treasurer. The price of such permit shall be five dollars, payable to the city treasurer at the time of issuing said permit. All permits given to enter any such drain or sewer shall be recorded by the city clerk before the same are issued. Whenever it shall appear to the board of health of the city of Rockland, that any cellar or lot of land lying in said city within two hundred feet of any public drain or common sewer constructed or maintained by said city, or that any private drain draining into the gutter of any street, way, lane or alley, or upon neighboring property within said city, or into so-called Lindsey brook or any branch or tributary thereof, is a public nuisance, said board of health shall give notice thereof in writing to the owner or occupant of said premises, and request said owner or occupant to abate said nuisance within such reasonable time as said board of health shall direct; and if said owner or occupant shall not, within the time specified by the board of health, abate such nuisance, the city council shall have the power to connect the premises with the public drain or common sewer, and the property shall be liable for the expense thereof in addition to the assessment fixed by the assessors. If said amount is not paid it shall be added to the assessment of taxes by the assessors, but the owner, or person CHAP. 106 in possession, or person against whom the taxes are assessed, shall have all the rights and privileges guaranteed to him by the general law, relating to the assessment and collection of taxes. For the construction or repair of any public drain or common sewer, the city of Rockland shall have authority to enter upon any lands in said. city, and take the same for said purposes, and to lay said sewer over, across and through said lands, when in the opinion of the city council it is for the public interest to do so. Said city council shall within thirty days after such taking, file in the registry of deeds for Knox county, a description of the land so taken and the course of said drain or sewer. All damages occasioned by reason of any such taking shall be determined by said city council, by first giving not less than seven days' written notice in hand, or by leaving at the last and usual place of abode of the owner, tenant, lessee or agent, or by publishing a like notice in one or more of the city papers, designating the time and place of hearing, the last publication of which shall not be less than seven days prior to the time of hearing. The city council shall, within five days after such hearing, file their return with the city clerk, stating the amount of damages allowed for each lot or parcel of land so crossed. Any person not satisfied with the amount of his award may within ten days after such hearing, by request in writing given to said clerk, have the damages determined by arbitration and if the award determined by arbitrators be unsatisfactory to either party, the party aggrieved shall have the right to appeal to the supreme judicial court in which the same proceedings shall be had as in case of damages for lands taken for highways. This act shall not apply to or affect any public drain or common sewer constructed previous to nineteen hundred and twelve. The city of Rockland is hereby authorized and empowered to enter upon and clear of obstructions and to improve, widen and deepen, straighten or change the course of the channel of any brook or stream or any part or parts of same within the limits of the city, and for such purpose said city is hereby authorized from time to time to purchase or take and hold so much land on each side of any brook or stream therein as may be deemed necessary. When lands are taken otherwise than by purchase, the proceedings shall be as provided in section nine of chapter one hundred of the private and special laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and all laws additional thereto and amendatory thereof, relating to drains and common sewers in Rockland. It shall be unlawful for any owner of abutting land on any brook or stream in said city, or other person to divert or change the channel of any such brook or stream, or to construct walls or embankments on the sides CHAP. 106 thereof or cover over same in such manner as to obstruct or divert the flow of water therein without first obtaining permission so to do from the city council of said city, which permission and order shall be in writing, specifying the manner and conditions of such change or method of construction, and no person shall deposit in any such brooks or streams any offal, rubbish, or material of any kind which shall obstruct the free passage of water or tend to pollute the same. The city of Rockland is hereby empowered to enact such by-laws or ordinances and fix such penalties for violation of same as may be deemed necessary in relation thereto. The city council shall have the right to charge uniform rates for all persons draining into such sewer. Sec. 22. Appeals from assessments of damages. All of the rights, powers and duties now provided for in section nineteen, relating to laying out, widening or altering any street or way, shall apply to assessments made and provided for in sections twenty and twenty-one. Sec. 23. Sidewalks reserved exclusively for persons traveling on foot; existing sidewalks. So much of the several streets in said city as shall be appropriated and reserved as sidewalks, agreeably to the provisions of section nineteen, shall be taken and deemed to be reserved exclusively for the accommodation, convenience and use of persons traveling on foot; and said city shall not be liable for any injury or damage done or occasioned in consequence of any cart, carriage, wagon, truck or other vehicle, or any team or animal striking against any of the said sidewalks or the posts or trees set or placed to defend the same. The several sidewalks on the streets in said city, as at present established or used, or as they may be established at the acceptance of this act, shall be taken and deemed to be the proper and lawful reservation for that purpose, until altered or otherwise established by the proper authorities. Sec. 24. Permits to obstruct streets for building and repairing; penalty for obstructing without license. The mayor and city council may on such terms and conditions, as they may think proper, license any person or corporation to place in any street, for such time as may be necessary, any materials for making or repairing any street, sidewalk, cross-walk, bridge, water course or drain, or for erecting, repairing, moving or finishing any building or fences, or for laying or repairing gas or water pipes. And such material or building so placed by virtue of any license obtained as aforesaid shall not be considered an incumbrance or nuisance in such street; and the city shall not be liable for any damage occasioned by such materials or buildings. Any person or corporation occupying or using any of the streets in the city for the purposes aforesaid, without first obtaining a license therefor, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding twenty dollars for each offense, to be recovered on complaint for the use of the city. CHAP. 106 Sec. 25. Ordinances regulating erection of garages, junk shops and wooden buildings. The city council are hereby authorized and empowered to pass any ordinance or ordinances regulating or forbidding the erection of public garages, junk shops, or wooden buildings on any street or streets in said city, when they may deem it necessary or conducive to the public safety. Sec. 26. Fiscal year; reports of city officials. The municipal fiscal year shall end on the second Monday in November. And the reports of all city officials shall be completed and made to the city council át a meeting to be held on the third Monday of November. And the city treasurer shall cause to be published in all the city papers issued during the week prior to the first Monday in December, an accurate summary of the reports of all officials receiving or disbursing moneys of the city, and a statement of the condition of the several appropriations. Sec. 27. Appropriations of money regulated. No appropriation of moneys for any purpose shall be made without a majority vote of the members of the city council. Sec. 28. Ordinances regulating use of vehicles and width of tires. The city council may make and establish such ordinances or regulations as they may deem for the public good, for the regulation of the use of vehicles in said city, and also prescribe the width of tire that shall be used. Sec. 29. Existing ordinances remain in force. All city ordinances not inconsistent herewith shall remain in full force and effect. Sec. 30. Provision for local referendum; form of ballots; conduct of election. This act, when passed by the eighty-first legislature granting a city charter to the city of Rockland, shall be submitted for approval or rejection to the qualified voters of the city of Rockland at an election to be held the second Monday in September in the year A. D. nineteen hundred and twenty-three, and warrants shall be issued for such election in the manner now provided by law for the holding of municipal elections, notifying and warning the qualified voters of said city to meet in the several ward meetings of said city, there to cast their ballot concerning the selection of this charter for the city of Rockland, and if same be accepted to act as a repeal of chapter four hundred eighty-two of the private and special laws of eighteen hundred and eighty-five. Said ballot shall be in form provided by law when a constitutional amendment is submitted to the vote of the people. The provisions of law relating to the preparation of voting lists for municipal elections shall apply to such election and said election shall in all other respects be conducted as municipal elections in said city are now conducted by law, and the CHAP. 107 results thereof shall be determined in the manner now provided by law for the determination of the election of mayor. If a majority of the valid ballots deposited as aforesaid shall favor the adoption of the new charter, then this act shall take effect as herein provided and the mayor shall forthwith make proclamation of the fact. Sec. 31. Elective officers to serve out terms; first election under charter; existing charter repealed. Provided, however, that the elective officers holding office at the time of this charter is accepted by the voters of Rockland shall continue to hold their office for the term for which they were elected, and the first city election under this charter shall be held on the first Monday of March in the year A. D. nineteen hundred and twenty-four, and the term of office of all officers elected for the first time under the provisions of this charter shall expire on the first Monday of January in the year A. D. nineteen hundred and twenty-six, and this charter shall become effective on the second Monday of March in the year A. D. nineteen hundred and twenty-four, and the repeal of chapter four hundred and eightytwo of the private and special laws of eighteen hundred and eighty-five, shall take effect on said date. Approved April 4, 1923. Chapter 107. An Act Validating the Action of the Town of Wells and of Ogunquit Village Corporation, and Validating the Issuance of a Series of Bonds by the Town of Wells. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine, as follows: Sec. 1. Doings at special meeting of town of Wells, ratified. The action of the inhabitants of the town of Wells at a special meeting in said town held on October third, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, in relation to the issuance of a series of its bonds amounting in the aggregate to the sum of thirty-two thousand dollars for the purpose of constructing a sewer and road within the limits of the Ogunquit Village Corporation, be ratified and declared to be legal and valid. Sec. 2. Doings of Ogunquit Village Corporation made valid. The action of the Ogunquit Village Corporation in voting to comply with the stipulations and conditions contained in said vote of the town of Wells passed October third, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, be confirmed and declared to be valid. Sec. 3. Bond issue of town of Wells legalized. The series of five per cent sewer and road bonds issued by the town of Wells dated October fifteenth, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, and amounting in the aggregate to the sum of thirty-two thousand dollars, issued by said town of Wells |