1. Any property, real or personal, necessary for the public use of the town or city, or the inhabitants thereof, may be condemned and appropriated in the manner provided in this section.

2. The board of county commissioners shall appoint one referee, and the claimant or claimants, or owner or owners of the property sought to be condemned, shall appoint one referee; and in the event the two referees so appointed shall not agree in the valuation of the property or the interest or interests claimed therein, then the two so appointed shall select a third referee, and the decision of the majority of such three, as to the valuation of the property or the interest or interests therein by them appraised, shall be reported to the board of county commissioners, and shall be by them regarded as final and binding, unless the party deeming himself or herself aggrieved by the decision of such referees shall appeal therefrom to the district court of the proper county within 30 days after notice of such decision shall have been served upon the party.

3. Upon the tender, in lawful money of the United States, of the sum named as the value of such property interest or interests to the claimant or claimants, or owner or owners thereof, or agent or attorney thereof, such property, or the interest or interests therein appraised, shall become and be the property of the town or city, and the board of county commissioners may, at any time after 20 days’ notice, cause the sheriff of the county to remove all persons and obstructions from such property, in case the same be real, and may take immediate possession of the condemned property, whether the same be real or personal.

4. In case the claimant or claimants, or owner or owners of property sought to be condemned, as herein provided, shall refuse or neglect, when required by the board of county commissioners, to appoint a referee to value such property, then the board of county commissioners shall constitute a board of appraisers of such property, and their valuation of the same shall be final and binding, subject to right of appeal, as hereinbefore provided; but no act of condemnation of property, or of any claim of interest therein as herein provided, shall be deemed or held as an admission on the part of the town or city, or the inhabitants thereof, of the legality of the asserted claim thereto or right therein.

5. In the condemnation of property, as provided in this section, the referees or county commissioners, as the case may be, shall consider whether the proposed improvement, for which the property is so condemned, will be of any benefit to the person or persons owning or claiming the property or some interest therein, and if they find that the same will be a benefit to such person or persons, they shall estimate the value of such benefit to the person or persons and deduct the amount thereof from the estimated value of the property or interest therein condemned.

[Part 1:48:1881; A 1889, 43; 1903, 55; 1919, 408; 1943, 65; 1951, 455]