§ 239-24. Sewer and sewage system

(a) The legal voters of the Village at a meeting duly warned and held for that purpose may vote to construct and maintain for the benefit of the Village a common sewer or a 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 damages therefor; and for this purpose may take the lands of individuals or corporations.

(b) Pursuant to the vote of the Village, the trustees shall lay out and construct the sewer and system of sewerage, and extend the same from time to time as voted by the Village, and after they are constructed, they shall be under the care and control of the trustees, who shall maintain, repair, and flush the same when necessary, and for those purposes may take the lands of an individual or a corporation; and the trustees shall proceed in the same manner as is prescribed by law for a selectboard in taking lands for highways, and in awarding damages therefor. When a person or corporation shall be dissatisfied with the decision of the trustees in the award of damages for land taken for the sewer or drain, the person or corporation may petition the Bennington County Superior Court for a reassessment of the damages or compensation, and any number of persons aggrieved may join in the petition, but the petition shall not delay the laying or repairing of the sewers or drain. The petition shall be served on the Clerk of the Village within 60 days next after the award of damages shall be filed in the Clerk's office. The proceedings shall be had in the Court on the petition as are provided by law for the reassessment of damages for land taken for highways, except as herein provided, and the commissioners therein provided by the Court shall notify one of the trustees of the Village of the time and place when they will hear the matter.

(c) Unless otherwise provided by the Village, when the trustees by vote of the Village, as provided in this section, build or extend its sewer they may draw their orders on the Treasurer of the Village in payment therefor, and when repairs are made on the sewer, they may draw their order on the Treasurer therefor.

(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 $100.00 or less than $5.00, upon complaint of the State's Attorney or a grand juror of the Town of Manchester.

(e) The trustees of the Village may assess annually the owner of a building connected with the sewer the sum as the trustees shall think just, as a sewer rental, to be paid by the owner thereof within 60 days after notice in writing delivered to the owner, or if the owner resides out of the Village, to the tenant of the owner, or if the owner resides out of the Village and has no tenant, sent by mail to the owner at the last known post office address. The sum shall be a debt in favor of the Village against the owner of the building and may be recovered in an action of debt and shall also be a lien on the building and the land on which it stands and so much around it as is reasonably required for occupying the same. (Added 1943, No. 183, § 24.)