§ 227-4. 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.