588 LAWS OP MARYLAND. [CH. 341

all taxes so levied shall be a lien on any and all property
of the person against whom they may be levied. All taxes
are due and payable the first day-of July in each and every
year, and if not paid before the first day of September shall
bear interest at the rate of one per centum per month until
paid.

57A. (Street Improvements.) The Town Council shall
cause to be constructed, reconstructed, surfaced, or resurfaced,
in such cases as they may determine to be necessary for the
public benefit, with the written consent or upon the petition
of the owners of 51 percent of the front footage abutting upon
any proposed improvements, sidewalks, curbs, gutters and
street improvements, storm drainage, and sewerage, in any of
the streets of said town, the materials to be determined by a
vote of a majority of the owners of the front footage, con-
senting or petitioning, and shall assess the costs thereof upon
the land abutting said improvements, but no corner lot im-
proved on two sides shall be assessed for more than one-half
of the total number of feet abutting upon said improvements.
Any proposed improvements under this section, the estimated
cost of which shall exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00), shall
be done by contract, which contract shall be let by the said
Town Council to the lowest bidder by sealed bids opened at a
public meeting designated by said Town Council for that pur-
pose. The Town Council shall hold a public hearing to deter-
mine the necessity for said improvements and the materials
with which said improvement are to be made, and shall hold
another public hearing after said improvements are made, at
which they shall submit the costs, which shall include the cost
of financing and collecting and the cost of any public inter-
sections, at such meeting, and after a hearing shall determine
the amount per front foot to be so assessed. Said assessments
shall be a lien upon said abutting property and shall be pay-
able in all cash or in forty or less equal installments, semi-
annually, over a period of twenty years from the date of said
assessment, or a lesser period as determined by the Town
Council, with interest on deferred installments not exceeding
six percent per annum. Such assessment if in default shall be
collected as town taxes are collected and the property subject
to such assessment shall be sold if such assessment was a
town tax.

The Town Council may, for the purpose of paying for such

improvements, borrow, from time to time, an the credit of the

Town, the total of which shall not at any time exceed the

total sum of six per cent. (6%) of the assessed valuation of

all property in said Town as shown on the County assessment