ALBERT C. RITCHIE, GOVERNOR. 793

shall not exceed at any one time seven per cent, of the as-
sessed valuation of the property in said City, unless special
authority for such excess has either heretofore been given,
or shall in the future be given, by some special Act of the
General Assembly of Maryland.

The said Mayor and Councilmen of Frostburg shall have
and are hereby given express power and authority to bor-
row from time to time, if and as needed, for its immediate
and usual corporate purposes, such sum or sums of money
as may be necessary for such purposes, and to pledge the
faith and credit of the City therefor; provided, however,
that such sum or sums of money hereby authorized to be
borrowed shall not exceed in the aggregate the total un-
collected estimated receipts for the current fiscal year; pro-
vided further, that any sum or sums of money so borrowed,
and the interest due thereon, in pursuance of the authority
hereby given, shall be repaid out of the taxes levied, col-
lected or due and the interest paid thereon for the current
fiscal year in which such sum or sums of money were bor-
rowed, and/or from any other corporate income (other
than Water Department income) due in such current fiscal
year.

And the said Mayor and Councilmen of Frostburg shall
have the further power and authority, in case of an emer-
gency, to borrow such sum of money as may be necessary
for the immediate relief and the protection of the inhabit-
ants of the City of Frostburg during such emergency, not
to exceed in the aggregate, however, the sum of Twenty
Thousand Dollars; provided, however, that if said Mayor
and City Council shall decide that an emergency does exist,
it shall pass a resolution or ordinance so stating, and there-
after it shall file a petition in the Circuit Court for Alle-
gany County, setting forth the existence of such emergency,
its nature, the estimated amount of money needed for its
relief and the proposed means of repayment. Upon the fil-
ing of such petition, it shall be the duty of any Judge of
said Court, to whom such petition shall be presented, to
forthwith pass an Order directing that at least five days'
notice of the filing of such petition, and of its substance,
object and purpose, be immediately given by publication
thereof in one or more newspapers published in the City of
Frostburg, and fixing a time to be set forth in said notice
for a hearing thereon in said Court as soon thereafter as
may be, at which hearing any citizen who is a taxpayer
may appear and be heard. The proceedings in reference
thereto at such hearing shall be informal; and, if after such
hearing, the Court shall pass an Order authorizing the bor-