2023 Vermont Statutes › Title 24 Appendix - Municipal Charters › Chapter 123 - Town of Hardwick › App § 903. Sewage collection and disposal; duties of Selectboard

§ 903. Sewage collection and disposal; duties of Selectboard
It shall be the responsibility of the Selectboard, acting as sewer commissioners, to provide adequate collection and disposal for domestic and industrial sewage within those parts of the Town served by a Town-owned sewage collection and distribution system. In order to implement the authority, the Selectboard shall have, in addition to those powers enumerated in the general laws of this State with respect to sewage disposal, the following powers:
(1) Whenever the public health or convenience shall require the construction of a common sewer or sewers in the Town, the Selectboard is authorized and empowered to construct sewers and to replace the same from time to time when necessary, and may take the land of individuals and corporations on making compensation for the lands so taken for construction or replacement of a common sewer or sewers, and the Selectboard shall proceed in the same manner as is prescribed by law for selectboards in taking for public highways and in awarding damages for the taking of land, and the Selectboard shall make a return of their doings to the office of the Town Clerk and Treasurer who shall record the same in the Town records and the Town may also lay pipes along and across the streets, alleys, lanes, and highways in Hardwick.
(2) The Selectboard shall have the power by ordinance and regulations to require any building owner to connect to and use any sewer drain or line installed and maintained along and across the streets, alleys, lanes, and highways of the Town that abut or adjoin that building.
(3) The Selectboard, in making, installing, maintaining, or repairing sewers and drains, shall have the power, on giving 12 days’ notice to the parties interested of the time and the place of hearing, to assess the owner or owners of land or lands benefited by access to sewers and drains, so much of the expense of making altering or repairing the same as the Selectboard shall judge those lands to be benefited by access to sewers and drains.
(4) When the Selectboard enters upon lands under the authority and for the purpose stated in subdivision (3) of this section, the Selectboard shall give 12 days’ notice to all persons owning or interested in those lands when the Selectboard will hear and consider the question of assessments for benefits, or both. And in all cases when either assessments are made or damages are allowed, the Selectboard shall make a report of the Selectboard’s doings, which report the Board shall cause to be filed in the office of the Town Clerk and Treasurer, who shall record the same in the Town records.
(5) When any person shall be dissatisfied with the decision of the Selectboard in the award of damages for laying, making, altering, or repairing any sewer and drain, or in any assessment for benefits of the same, those persons may petition a court of competent jurisdiction for a reassessment of related damages or benefits. The petition shall be served on the Town Clerk and Treasurer within 60 days after said award of damages or assessment for benefit shall be filed in the Town Clerk and Treasurer’s office, and the petition shall not delay the making or repairing of the sewer or drain, or sidewalk or culvert, or laying the water pipe.
(6) The Selectboard, as aforesaid, may make and adopt such bylaws and regulations concerning the management and use of such sewers and drains and appurtenances not inconsistent with law as it may deem expedient, including the fixing and collecting of sewer use and benefit rates, and assessments and said sewer use and benefit rates so fixed shall, until paid, be and remain a lien upon the premises of the parties so furnished with sewer service in like manner as real estate is by law held for other taxes.
(7) The charges and rates for sewage service shall be a lien upon real estate, wherever located, furnished with such service in the same manner and to the same effect as taxes are a lien upon real estate under 32 V.S.A. § 5061. The owner of such property furnished with sewage service, wherever located, shall be liable for such charges and rates. (Amended 2021, No. M-17 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. June 7, 2022.)