800

LAWS OF MARYLAND.

improving any of the streets of the town outside the usual order,

and which may entail extraordinary expenses, the same may be

met by levying an additional tax not to exceed ten cents on the

one hundred dollars worth of taxable property within the limits

of the said town, but this additional tax shall not be laid of tener

than once in every five years, and not then unless the emergency

requires, and the said be consented to by at least five members of

the board so ordering; provided, that all real estate included in

the limits of the town, and used exclusively as farming lands,

shall be exempt from assessment or taxation for municipal pur-

poses until new streets shall be laid out and opened up through

the same, but when streets or alleys shall be laid out and graded

through said real estate, the land abutting on said streets or alleys

when laid out by the owner thereof for building lots or sites, to

the distance or depth of said building lots shall be assessed and

taxed for municipal purposes, the same as other property in said
town is now taxed; the assessment of property shall be on the same

valuations as for county purposes.

SEC. 418. The btirgess and commissioners shall have authority

to require all property holders to make sidewalks in front of their

premises, and keep the same in repair where such premises front

on any public street of the town; the burgess and commissioners

may prescribe the proper grade and require the curbing to be set

in accordance therewith; and such material used as shall secure

a safe, solid and convenient foot- way to the public; and the

Sidewalks.

burgess and commissioners may also require the property holders

to make a paved gutter or Avater-way outside the curbing the

length of his premises and according to such grades and specifi-

cations as the board shall furnish, if the work be not done within

three months from the date of notification, the burgess and com-

missioners may order the same done at the expense of the owners

of the different lots in front of which the same shall be done,

and the costs thereof shall be a lien against the property and

collected as other town taxes are collected; provided, no action

shall be taken to enforce the making of gutters until the corpo-

ration shall be ready to grade and macadamize the street where

such work is required to be done.

SEC. 419. The burgess and commissioners may level, grade and

macadamize the streets and alleys or any of them, in whole or in

part, and cause bridges or culverts to be made over the water

courses or hollows in said streets or alleys and crossing places, of

stone or otherwise at convenient points over the same; they shall

Grade

have exclusive jurisdiction over the streets and alleys in said

street, &c

town, to keep the same in repair and in a cleanly condition at all

times, may provide a judicious system for lighting the same, and

make all or any changes or improvements thereon as shall inure

to the public convenience and benefit, within the means author-

ized and prescribed by the charter.