610 LAWS OF MARYLAND.

tract for paving or curbing, re-paving or re-curbing the same
shall be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder complying
with the call for bids, whether bids are asked for for one or
more than one kind of pavement/ reserving to the Board of
Awards the right to reject all bids and to call for new bids.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the said commission
hereby created shall be the agent of the Mayor and City Council
of Baltimore to acquire by gift, purchase, lease, whatever the
duration of the lease, or other methods of acquisition, or by
condemnation, any private property whatsoever, including
streets, avenues, lanes and alleys, right or interests, fran-
chises, privileges or easements, that may be rquired to open,
widen, extend, straighten, close, grade or pave any street,
avenue, lane or alley, or to broaden any sidewalk, and as soon
as the title to the property acquired as set forth herein has
been certified by the City Solicitor, said commission shall have
the same conveyed to the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore,
and no ordinance shall be requisite to the validity of such con-
veyance; said streets, avenues, lanes and alleys so conveyed
shall become public highways, subject to all ordinances and
resolutions relating to streets, avenues, lanes and alleys in
the City of Baltimore; that authority is hereby conferred upon
the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore to provide by ordi-
nance or ordinances the proceeding for condemnation of prop-
erty as herein set forth by the said commission.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted. That no expenditure shall
be made by said commission for the grading, paving or im-
provement of said sidewalks in the annex portion of said city,
but the same shall be done at the expense of the owner or
owners of the property upon and along the streets, avenues,
lanes or alleys on which such sidewalks are to be established,
widened, graded, paved or otherwise laid out and improved;
and the said commission in its discretion is authorized and
empowered to require said property owners to grade, pave and
improve said sidewalks at their expense, or upon their failure
to do so the commission may do such work itself and assess
said property for the cost and expenses of such work, and the
procedure and rights and powers of the commission with re-
spect to such work and to such assessments and the collection
thereof shall be that now or hereafter prescribed by law in
relation to the duties of a similar nature with which the City
Engineer and other officers of the city are now or may be
respectively clothed, or the procedure and the rights and
powers of said commission may be such as may be provided
for the very purpose by any lawful ordinance or ordinances of
the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, which said ordinance
or ordinances the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore is