§ 4. Sewers, compensation for land taken
(a) The legal voters of the Village at a meeting duly warned and holden for that purpose,
may vote to construct and maintain for the benefit of the Village a common sewer or
sewerage system and extend the same through the highways, streets, and lanes of the
Village, and when necessary to obtain suitable grades, connections, water supply,
outlets for flushing, and discharges, may construct and extend the same through lands
of persons or corporations lying within or without the Village, upon paying suitable
compensation or damage therefor, and for such purposes may take the land of any individual
or corporation.
(b) In taking land for sewage purposes, the trustees shall proceed in the same manner
as prescribed by law for the selectboard in taking lands for highways, and in awarding
damages therefor, and returns shall be made to the Clerk of the Village.
(c) When any person or corporation shall be dissatisfied with the decision of the trustees,
either as to the necessity for or extent of the taking, or as to the award of damages
for land taken for such sewer or drain, they may petition the Windham County Superior
Court for a rehearing in the premises, and any such number of persons aggrieved may
join in the petition; but such petition shall not delay the laying or repairing of
such sewer or drain, where the petition is for a reassessment of the damages only;
such petition shall be served on the Clerk of the Village within 60 days after the
trustees shall have filed their returns in the Village Clerk’s office, and not less
than 12 days before the term of Court to which it is made returnable. The proceedings
shall be had in Court on the petition as are provided by law in case of petitions
or appeals from the proceedings of the selectboard in laying out highways, except
as herein provided; and the commissioners appointed by the Court shall notify one
of the trustees of the Village of the time and place when they will hear the matter.
(d) When the public health requires it, the local Board of Health of the Village may order
that any hotel, dwelling house, or other building in the Village shall be connected
with the public sewer, and shall give notice in writing to the owner thereof of the
order, and if the owner neglects or refuses to comply with the order within a reasonable
time, the owner shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars nor less than ten
dollars, upon complaint of the State’s Attorney of the County of Windham, the Grand
Juror of the Town of Whitingham, or the Health Officer of the Village, who for this
purpose is constituted a prosecuting officer.
(e) The trustees of the Village may assess annually the owner of any building connected
with the sewer the sum as they shall think just, by a sewer rental to be paid by the
owner thereof within 30 days after notice in writing is delivered to the owner, the
owner’s agent, or tenant if the owner resides out of the Village, or if the owner
resides out of the Village and has no tenant or agent therein, then by mail to the
owner at the owner’s last known post office address, which assessment shall be a lien
in the nature of a tax. Appeals may be had in the same way and the same proceedings
as in appeals above set forth in relation to taking lands for the sewer or drain.