BALTIMORE COUNTY. 627

hereby empowered and directed to establish a proper and reasonable
charge for connection with said water supply, sewerage and drainage
systems so to be constructed, purchased, or established as aforesaid, and
to fix an annual assessment on all properties, improved and unimproved,
binding upon a street, road, lane, alley or right of way in which a water
main, sewer or drain has been built. The said annual assessment shall
be made upon the front foot basis, and the first payment shall be col-
lectible during the year that the construction is started on the water sup-
ply, sewerage, or drainage system, or in which the systems are purchased
or acquired. The Commissioners, for the purpose of assessing benefits,
shall divide all properties fronting upon a street, lane, or alley, in which
a water pipe or sanitary sewer is to be laid, into four classes, namely:
First, Agricultural; Second, Small Acreage; Third, Industrial or Busi-
ness, and Fourth, Subdivision property; and the benefit charges shall
be fixed and levied in accordance with the above classification, provided,
however, that no front foot benefit charge shall be levied against any
Agricultural property until such property is connected with said water
pipe or sanitary sewer, and provided, further, that when connected, the
length of Agricultural property to be assessed shall be limited to 150 feet.
The Commissioners shall change the classification of properties, from
time to time, as said properties change in the uses to which they are put.
The Commissioners shall be empowered and directed to make a charge
upon every building and place having a connection with the sewerage
system under their control, said charge to be an annual sewerage service
charge. All assessments and charges shall be uniform for each class of
property throughout any subdistrict, shall be subject to change annually
and shall be collected by the Treasurer of Baltimore County excepting
the water service rates, which shall be collected as already specified in
Section 332. For those water supply systems not falling under the pro-
visions of Sections 331 and 332, but constructed and operated by the Com-
missioners, water service rates shall be established by the Commissioners.
All front foot assessments shall run for an equal term of years; provided,
liowever, that any property owner may, at his option within one year
from the time said front foot assessment or benefit charge is levied, extin-
guish the same by the payment in cash, in one sum, of the proportion of
the estimated coat of the project of which the construction abutting upon
his property is a part, represented by the number of front feet with which
he is assessed, with interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum, from
the date of said levy, less any annual payment that may have been made
thereon. The Commissioners, however, in estimating said cost for the
purpose of extinguishment, may add thereto a reasonable margin to pro-
tect themselves against possible changes in the cost of construction and
the loss of interest. All sums received under such plan of extinguishment
shall be preserved intact by the Treasurer of Baltimore County, less the
payment of the proportion of interest and sinking fund properly charge-
able to the amount so received, and used for future construction. The said
assessments and charges shall be and constitute a lien upon the property