as herein provided, and such suit may either be instituted by and in the name of the city of Charleston as plaintiff, or said city may intervene by petition in any suit pending to sell or enforce liens against any real estate which is subject to such lien for said taxes. The liens herein created shall have priority over all other liens except those for taxes due the state.

Sec. 53. Said liens for city taxes and attendant penalties, as well as for improvement assessments, may also be enforced by certifying the same to the clerk of the county court of Kanawha for certification to the state auditor, and the same may be certified down by said auditor, and sold for the taxes, interest, penalties and commissions thereon, in the same manner, at the same time, and by the same officer as real estate is sold for the taxes, interest, damages, costs and commissions due the state thereon, which officer shall account therefor on settlement with the council, and pay same over to the city treasurer.

ARTICLE XXX.

Money-How Appropriated.

Sec. 54. No money shall be appropriated, and no debt shall be contracted, and no contract authorized, by the city except by an ordinance passed by the council as specified in article twenty-six, and no such ordinance shall be passed except where the funds to meet the same shall have been first provided by levy duly made in accordance with the provisions of this act. And no contract shall be entered into involving or anticipating future levies unless all questions connected with the same shall have been first submitted to a vote of the people and have received three-fifths of all the votes cast for and against the same.

ARTICLE XXXI.

Sewers, Paving and Curbs.

Sec. 55. The council shall have the right to establish the width of any sidewalk along any street, alley or public square or portion thereof, and to require that when such street, alley, square or portion thereof shall be prepared for laying of sidewalks by the setting of curb stones by the city, any owner of ground fronting on

such street, alley or public square shall in such manner as the council may reasonably prescribe, pave the sidewalk adjacent to his property, and in case of the failure or refusal of any such owner to pave the same, to cause the same to be properly paved by the city and levy and collect from such owner the whole cost of such paving adjacent to his or her property, with a penalty of ten per centum added thereto, and in like manner to require the owners of any property adjacent to any paved sidewalk heretofore or hereafter constructed to keep the same in repair, and in default of their doing so, to cause the same to be repaired and to levy and collect from said owners the whole cost thereof, with penalty of ten per cent added thereto. And in all cases of such assessment, whether for the original or the repairing of sidewalks, payment thereof, including said penalty of ten per cent shall be made to the treasurer within thirty days after the completion of the work, and if not so paid the same shall be placed in the hands of the sergeant, who shall have power to collect the same from the owner or owners of any such property by distress and sale in the same manner in which taxes levied for the benefit of the city are authorized to be collected; and, in addition, there shall be a lien upon the real estate against which any such assessment has been levied for paving or repairing sidewalks, as herein provided, which lien may be enforced by appropriate suit in the circuit court of Kanawha county.

Sec. 56. Whenever the council may deem it expedient to cause any street or alley in said city, or portion thereof, to be paved in a permanent manner, it shall order the work done in the following manner and upon the following terms: The contract for such paving shall after due advertisement, in which the council shall reserve the right to reject any and all bids, be let, if let, to the lowest and best bidder. The contractor shall look only to the city for payment of the work and in no sense to the abutting land owners. The total cost of grading and paving any such street or alley, with the exception in the case of a street occupied by street car tracks of the distance between the rails and one additional foot outside of each rail, which portion shall be borne and paid entirely by the street car company operating such street railway, shall be borne by the owners of land abutting upon said street, alley or portion thereof, according to the following plan, that is to say, payment is to be made by all land owners on either side of such portion of a street

or block so paved in such portion of the total cost, less the portion, if any, chargeable to such street railway company, as the frontage in feet of his land so abutting bears to the total frontage of all land so abutting on such street, alley or portion thereof so paved as aforesaid. The cost of such paving chargeable to the abutting owners is not to include any portion or amount paid for curbing or for paving of squares at intersections of streets which shall in all cases be borne and paid by the city.

When the paving of any street, or alley, or portion thereof, shall have been let to contract, and the work done as herein before provided, it shall be the duty of the city engineer to cause the several frontages abutting thereon to be measured and to calculate the assessment upon each and every land owner so abutting and to certify the same to the council, showing the proper amount to be determined as provided in the foregoing plan. It shall be the duty of the council to examine and compare such assessment, amounts and names so certified to it and thereupon said council shall give notice by publication for two successive weeks in some newspaper published in said city that an assessment under this section is about to be laid against abutting property for paving done on said streets or alleys, describing the location of such paving, and any owner or owners thereof shall have the right to appear before said council within three weeks from the first publication thereof and move said council to correct any apportionment or assessment excessive or improperly made as charged, which corrections said council shall have the power to make, and if found to be correct or when corrected by the council as aforesaid it shall enter the same, together with a description of the lots of land as to location, frontage, depth and ownership, so far as the same may be ascertained, upon its records and to enter in its records that such owners and lots be assessed and chargeable with the amounts so ascertained to be borne by them, respectively, and when so approved, certified and entered of record, the same shall be and constitute an assessment against said owners and lots for such respective amounts. And it shall be the duty of the council to immediately certify such assessment to the treasurer for collection as herein provided. And a copy of said order shall be certified by the recorder to the clerk of the county court of Kanawha county, who shall be required to record and index the same in the proper trust deed book in the name of each person against whose property assessments appear therein.

The amount so assessed against any land owners as aforesaid shall be paid in four payments as follows: that is to say, onefourth of said amount shall be paid to the city treasurer before the first day of May or the first day of November, whichever shall come first after said work is completed and said work is certified as aforesaid, and one-fourth of said amount before the first day of the one of said months next following the time herein fixed for the third payment aforesaid; provided, however, that any abutting owner so liable for any portion of the cost of such paving shall have the right at any time after the same is certified as aforesaid to the treasurer for collection to anticipate and discount the payment on any or all of such installments to such owner and allow him six per cent per annum discount on any or all installments, the payment of which is so anticipated computed from the date of payment to the date fixed for the maturity of each of such installments, respectively.

To each of such installments of assessments remaining unpaid in the treasurer's hands on the days herein specified for the payment thereof, a penalty of ten per centum shall be added and any assessments so remaining unpaid in the treasurer's hands on such date shall be taken up by the council on such settlements had with the treasurer on such dates, and thereupon such council shall place such assessments with the penalty added thereto, in the hands of the city sergeant, to be treated and considered, and payment thereof enforced, in all respects as herein before provided for the collection of any other taxes due the city, and they shall be a lien upon the property liable therefor the same as for other taxes, which lien may be enforced in the same manner as provided for other taxes.

The liens herein before provided for shall have priority over all other liens except those for taxes due the state and city and shall be on a parity with other taxes and assessments due the city. Whenever any such assessments for paving, sewerage or sidewalks shall be paid to the treasurer he shall deliver to the party paying the same a release of the lien therefor, which may be recorded in the county court clerk's office as other releases or liens, and whenever any such assessments shall not be in the hands of the treasurer for collection, but the same shall be shown to the satisfaction of the city auditor to have been paid in full to any officer entitled to receive the same, such auditor may in like manner execute a release of such lien, which release may in like manner be recorded.

ARTICLE XXXII.

Sewers.

Sec. 57. Whenever the city council shall order the construction of any public sewer in said city, the owners of the property abutting upon any street in which such sewer shall be constructed shall be charged with and liable for sewerage assessment, as follows: When said sewer is completed, the city engineer shall report to the council in writing the total cost of such sewerage and a description of the lots of land as to the location, frontage, depth and ownership liable for such sewer assessment, so far as the same may be ascertained, together with the amount chargeable against each lot and owner, estimated on the basis of one dollar per foot for inside lots, and one dollar and twenty-five cents per foot for corner lots, frontage measures on said sewer being considered, except that such estimate as to corner lots fronting thereon and having a greater depth than one hundred and fifty feet shall be estimated at one dollar and fifty cents per foot frontage; and thereupon said council shall give like notice by publication as is required in case of street paving assessments, and the same rights shall exist as to the persons and property affected and the same duties as to corrections by said council as are prescribed with reference to paving, which report shall, in like manner be examined by the council and if found to be correct or corrected as aforesaid, and such estimated assessments to be a fair and equitable apportionment of the cost of such sewer, it shall enter an order upon its records setting forth such location, depth, ownership and said amount of such sewer assessment, against each, respectively, calculated as aforesaid, and the entry of such order shall constitute and be an assessment for such proportion and amount so fixed therein against such respective owners and lots, and if after such advertisement, notice and hearing, said council. shall find that such apportionment at such rate is unjust or inequitable it shall ascertain, fix and assess the cost thereof among and upon the abutting owners, respectively, fairly and equitably, and in like manner assess and enter the amounts so fixed, respectively, upon its records, and the council shall in either event thereupon certify the same to the treasurer for collection, and certify a copy of such order to the county clerk of Kanawha county, who shall record the same in the proper trust deed book and index the same in the name of each owner of any such lot so charged with