Chap. 45.—An ACT to authorize the council of the city of Fredericksburg to
apportion the expense of street and other local improvements between the
city treasury and the real estate benefited thereby.

Approved January Il, 1900.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That whenever
any street in the city of Fredericksburg shall be laid out or extended, or
any existing street graded, paved, or macadamized, or repaved, or culvert
or sewer built, or curbing put down, the city council shall apportion the
expenses thereof between the city and the owners of the real estate
benefited thereby. Whenever any sidewalk shall be laid, graded, repaired,
or otherwise improved, the whole expense thereof may, in the discretion
of the council, be assessed against the owners of the real estate benefited
thereby.

2. The council, in making the apportionment required by the fore-
going section, shall not assess against the owners of real estate benefited
thereby more than one-half of the expense of such improvements, and
such assessment as shall be made under this act shall constitute a lien on
the said real] estate benefited.

3. The council shal] determine, and shall set forth in an ordinance
adopted by said council what real estate is benefited by the proposed
improvement or improvements, designating the several parcels thereof,
and shall further determine and set forth in said ordinance the mode
of assessment of said real estate for its share of such expense, and shall
then appoint a board of six commissioners, three members thereof from
the council and three citizens not members of said council, who shall
assess the expenses aforesaid upon the property set forth in such ordi-
nance as especially benefited by such improvement or improvements in
accordance with the method of assessment set forth in such ordinance.

4. The said board of commissioners, after they have made such assess-
ment, and before thev have reported the same to the council, shall give
at least ten days’ notice to the owners of the free-hold, or the guardian
or committee of such owner, of the assessment of their respective parcels
of real estate. If there be no such owner, guardian, or committee, within
the city, the notice, instead of being thus served, shall be published
once a week for four successive weeks in some paper published in
said city. And said board shall fix a day for the hearing of the owners
of the said real estate assessed. And any real estate owner or his repre-
sentative may appear before the said board and contest such assessment,
and, if overruled. may appeal within five days thereafter to the corpora-
tion court of said city from the decision of said board, which shall hear
and pass upon such matter without delav and without formal pleadings,
and the decision of said court shall be final.

5. When the board has given to the owners of the real estate assessed
a reasonable time in which to contest their assessments, it shall close its
report as to all assessments not appealed from, and shall return the same
to the council. And such assessments shall be pavable within ninetv
days from the date of the acceptance of said report by the council, and
shall he a lien upon the property upon which they are assessed from the
date of such acceptance.
6. As to any assessment appealed from, the decision of the corporation
court shall be reported to said board, which shall return the same forth-
with to said council, and the amount adjudged by said court shall he
pavable within ninety days from the date of its report to the council, and
shall constitute a lien as aforesaid from the date of such return.

7. There shall be no appeal from the decision of the board after it has
closed its report.

8. This act shall be in force from its passage.