WM. PRESTON LANE, JR., GOVERNOR. 241

SEC. 23. The Mayor and Town Council shall have the
power to assess against the abutting property and collect
from the owners thereof, whether they be leasehold owners or
owners in fee simple, the cost of roadbeds, sidewalks, curbs,
gutters and street improvements, or any or all, constructed
under the provisions hereof, including the cost of street and
public alley intersections, and all costs for the preparation
of ordinances pertaining to the improvement of any such
street, cost for verification of titles, for service of notice to
owners of abutting property as required by law, cost for
preparation and sending notices to such abutting owners, and
cost of preparation of assessment collection rolls to be sup-
plied for the use of the Treasurer of said town; provided
that before any assessment is levied hereunder, notice in writ-
ing of the proposed assessment shall be sent to all owners of
property, against which the assessment is proposed to be
levied, naming in said notice a time and place when and at
which said owners will be heard. Said notice may be
mailed to the last known address of the owner, or served in
person upon any adult occupying the premises, or in case of
vacant or unimproved property, posted upon the premises.

In case where the construction of said improvements re-
sults in an excessive cost on account of excessive excavation
or an excessive fill or the construction of a drain or culvert
at an expense entirely out of proportion to the improvements
being constructed, the Mayor and Town Council of Forest
Heights may, in its discretion, exclude from the total cost
of such improvements to be assessed upon abutting property
the cost, or any portion thereof, of such excavation, fill,
drain or culvert, and to pay the amount of the costs so ex-
cluded out of any fund properly chargeable with such an ex-
pense; and the determination of the Mayor and Town Council
in any such case shall be final and conclusive, provided, how-
ever, that where the property to be assessed for improvements
under this Act is located at the intersection of two streets
and is what is known as a corner lot, the Mayor and Town
Council shall have the power to make an assessment for the
number of feet in the front of such lot, where the said im-
provements abut the front of such lot, and in case the im-
provements abut the side of such a lot, the assessment made
for such improvements against the lot shall be for one-half
of the number of linear feet of the side of said lot, not to
exceed a total exemption of fifty linear feet, and for the pur-
pose of assessment the short side of such lot shall be con-
sidered the front of such lot, and in cases where the two
sides are equal, the Mayor and Town Council shall determine
which is the front and which is the side of such lot, and such
determination shall be final and conclusive; and provided,