for such grading in each locality from the residents who are personally interested in the good condition of such roads. The county board, highway commissioner or other proper authority shall have full authority to exercise supervision and superintendence over all the road improvement under this act, and shall take care that the same is done in a thorough and workman-like manner, under proper conditions of weather for securing the best results. It shall whenever possible secure the co-operation of the adjoining counties in joint improvement of county line roads.

Sec. 3. Repeal.-All acts and parts of acts in conflict with this act are hereby repealed.

Approved, April 11, 1917.

CHAPTER 184.

(House Roll No. 387.)

[Introduced by Messrs. Richmond, Lovely, Goodall, Hopkins, Craddock, Keegan, Schneider and Jelen.]

AN ACT authorizing County Boards of counties containing, now or hereafter, one hundred and fifty thousand, or more, population, to pave, repave, macadamize, gravel, curb or gutter public roads, highways or boulevards, outside the corporate limits of the cities or villages in such county; and for such purpose to create road improvement districts and levy special assessments therein and issue road district improvement bonds to defray, in part, the cost of such improvements; and to issue general county bonds and use other funds, including government aid, for to defray the remainder of such cost, and to declare an emergency.

Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Nebraska:

Section 1. County road-paving of. The Board of County Commissioners of any county containing now or hereafter, one hundred and fifty thousand, or more, population, shall have power to grade, pave, repave, macadamize, gravel, curb or gutter any public road, highway or boulevard outside the corporate limits of the cities and villages of such county, and for such purpose to create road improvement districts embracing all lands, tracts and lots abutting upon, adjacent to or in the vicinity of such road

Ch. 184

Cost-Specifications

415

improvement deemed especially benefited thereby, including any property owned by any school district or any other public municipality or quasi municipality, body or corporation, except the county itself, and if any street railway or interurban railway or other railway company or corporation is occupying, either along or across, any road, highway or boulevard, proposed to be improved, with its single or double tracks, then such railway company or corporation shall pay and be charged with that portion of the cost of making such improvement in the spaces lying between any such double tracks and between the rails of each track and for one foot outside the outer rail of such double track, and if it be a single track then with the cost between the rails of such single track and one foot outside each rail thereof, and the county board is authorized to make such improvement within such railway track spaces and recover the cost thereof from any such railway company or corporation in a civil suit therefor; but such railway company or corporation, if it so chooses, may unite with the county at the time it makes any such improvement and simultaneously and as the county work proceeds, improve such railway spaces itself with the same material and in accordance with the plans and specifications for such improvement used by the county, or such railway company may use such material for such railway spaces as the county board may agree to. If the road, highway or boulevard to be improved is so located that part of its width lies, at any point, within the corporate limits of any city or village, then such improvement district shall not include property within the limits of such city or village, but the county shall not improve the portion or width of the road, at such point, lying outside the city or village limits unless the city or village unites with the county in making such improvement and pays or makes provision for paying its proportion of the cost of the improvement, at such point, to the county or to the contractor doing the improvement work.

Sec. 2.

Same-estimate of cost-district notices.-Whenever the county board shall, by resolution, declare the necessity for the making of any such road or boulevard improvement and the creation of such road improvement district it shall require the county surveyor to make an estimate and report of the probable cost thereof and if the proposed improvement be paving or repaving or macadamizing, such estimate shall show the probable cost of the various suitable materials with which such improve

ment could be made, and if upon consideration of such report and estimate the board shall determine to proceed with the making of the improvement and the creation of such district, it shall require the county surveyor to make and file with the board in the county clerk's office an accurate chart or map of the proposed road improvement district showing the road proposed to be improved and naming, in general terms only, the kind of improvement proposed to be made and also the description of the lands, tracts and lots proposed to be embraced in such district and the acreage of each tract of land and the area of each lot, and, thereupon the board shall publish once in some newspaper of general circulation in such county, a notice addressed generally, and not by name, to the owners of all the tracts of lands and lots described upon said chart or map and also describe in such published notice, that the Board proposes to create the road improvement district. shown upon such chart or map and proposes to embrace therein the lands, tracts and lots described in such published notice, and that unless a majority of all acreage described in such chart or map and in such published notice shall file written protests against the creation of such improvement district within thirty days after the publication of such notice the board will proceed to finally create such improvement district, and such notice shall state also that each protestant must accurately describe in such written protest the land, tract or lot for which he protests. The acreage in the entire district shall be ascertained by adding and taking into account the entire area of all the lands, tracts and lots in the district and the acreage protesting shall be ascertained by adding and taking into account the entire area protesting, and if, within said thirty days, a majority of the acreage in the district, signed for and described by the record owners thereof, shall protest then the board shall not create the district, but upon a failure of such majority acreage to protest, within the said time, the power to create the improvement district and to proceed with the making of the improvement shall exist in the board.

Sec. 3. Plans and specifications of improvements.-Upon the final creation of such road improvement district the board shall require the county surveyor to make and file with it, for its approval, full and definite plans and specifications for the road improvement which plans and specifications shall cover all kinds. of material usually used and suitable for paving, repaving,

Ch. 184)

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macadamizing, gravelling, curbing and guttering roads or boulevards and shall also show the forms for bids for the doing of the work and of the contract and bond of the contractor, and if the board approves such plans and specifications the same shall be placed on file in the county clerk's office and, thereupon, the board shall publish a notice for at least ten days in some newspaper of general circulation in such county inviting bids for the doing of such work and stating that plans and specifications for the doing of the work are on file in the county clerk's office for inspection. All such work shall be done by public competitive bidding and let to the lowest responsible bidder and the board may make such further regulations as it may deem proper respecting the making of bids and may reserve in the notice to bidders the right to reject all bids.

Sec. 4. Assessment of benefits-costs.-For the purpose of defraying not to exceed ten per cent of the total cost of any such work, including any cost to the county of inspecting such work as the same is being performed and for final acceptance and all other county expenses incident to the proceedings to do and the doing of such work, the county board shall have power to levy, and shall levy, special assessments upon all lands, ` tracts and lots within such district to the extent each tract or lot may be deemed and determined to be specially benefited by such road improvement, and the board shall prepare or cause to be prepared a schedule or map showing the lands, tracts and lots proposed to be assessed and the amount proposed to be assessed against each tract or lot and shall publish a notice once in some newspaper of general circulation in such county addressed to the owners generally, and not by name, of all such tracts and lots described in such published notice and upon such schedule or map and stating the amount proposed to be assessed upon each tract or lot in such notice, and also stating in such notice that the board will meet at an hour and upon a day named in such notice to hear and pass upon all written protests which may be filed by such land or lot owners against the proposed levy of such assessments. The day named in such published notice shall not be less than ten days after the publication thereof, and the board at such meeting, or at any adjournment thereof, to a certain hour and day, shall hear and pass upon all such protests and shall then equalize and finally assess and levy upon the lands, tracts and lots such amount as

the board shall deem and find each tract, or lot was specially benefited by such road improvement.

Sec. 5. Same-bonds-tax. Such special assessments shall be certified by the board to the county clerk, when finally levied, and shall be placed upon the tax roll and tax books of the county and be collected as other taxes are collected, and they shall be a lien upon the real estate on which they are assessed from the date of the levy, provided, however, that only one-tenth of such assessments shall become due and delinquent in fifty days from the date of the levy, one-tenth in one year, one-tenth in two years, one-tenth in three years, one-tenth in four years, onetenth in five years, one-tenth in six years, one-tenth in seven years, one-tenth in eight years, and one-tenth in nine years, and each of such installments, except the first, shall draw interest at seven per cent per annum from the date of levy until due and delinquent and after delinquency interest at the rate of one per cent per month until paid, but all of such installments may be paid. at any time on any land, tract or lot; and for the purpose of making immediate payment of the cost of such improvement to be realized from such special assessments the board shall have power to issue and sell bonds of the county to be called Road District Improvement Bonds of District No.- payable in not exceeding ten years from date and to bear interest not exceeding seven per cent per annum, or said board may issue county warrants, as other county warrants are issued, to be called Road District Improvement Warrants of District No. and to be payable in the order of their priority in accordance with their number and date of issue and to be issued in such denominations and amounts as the board may deem advisable, and said special assessments as they are collected shall constitute a sinking fund for the payment of such bonds or warrants and interest.

Sec. 6. Protest-appeal.-Any person who files such written protest with the board shall have the right to appeal from the assessment levied upon his land or lot to the district court by filing within twenty days from the day of such final levy a bond with the county clerk and to be approved by him conditioned for the payment of all costs and by filing, within said time in said court, a transcript of the proceedings before said board, so far as such proceedings affect appellant's property, and it is hereby made the duty of such clerk to furnish to any person proposing to take an appeal such transcript upon the appellant