Section 8. If the department grants the certificate specified in the preceding section, the directors may, within sixty days after the granting thereof, apply to the board of aldermen of each city and to the selectmen of each town where the railroad is to be located to fix the route of the railroad in such city or town, and with such application the directors shall file a copy of the maps and general profile, and, upon request, the other information presented to the department. The board of aldermen and the selectmen shall give fourteen days' notice of the time and place for a hearing on such application by publication thereof in one or more newspapers, if any, published in said city or town; otherwise in such newspaper or newspapers published in the county where the city or town is situated as shall be designated by the department; and written notice of the time and place at which such hearing will be held shall be mailed at least seven days before said hearing by the clerk of the city or town, where the application for locations has been filed, to the owners as determined by the last preceding assessment for taxation of real estate along the public ways or parts of ways upon which it is proposed to construct said line and to the owners of private land upon which the route of the railroad is to be fixed; and said clerk shall make and deliver to the directors at the hearing a certificate setting forth the fact that such notice was published and mailed as herein provided, and such certificate shall be conclusive evidence thereof.