214                               LAWS OF MARYLAND                       CH. 164]

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That Section 657 (b) of Article 43 of the Annotated Code of
Maryland (1967 Supplement), title "Health", subtitle "Sanitary
Districts", be and it is hereby repealed and re-enacted, with amend-
ments, to read as follows:

657.

(b) Whenever any water supply or sewerage project in any
sanitary district or sanitary districts shall have been completed
by March 31st, in any one year, regardless of when said construc-
tion was commenced, then the said commission shall fix and levy
a benefit charge as of the first day of July of the year in which
the project was completed upon said water main or sewer, in
accordance with the classification or subdivision thereof, and shall
in writing, notify all owners of said properties into which class
and subdivision their respective properties fall and the charge
determined upon, naming also in said notice a time and place,
when and at which time said owner will be heard. Such 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 a
vacant or unimproved property posted upon the premises.

In Allegany County, any other section or subsections of this
article to the contrary notwithstanding, whenever any water supply
or sewerage project in any sanitary district or districts shall be
completed, the Commission shall from that time be authorized to fix
the annual benefit assessment in the manner provided for herein
and shall be authorized to levy and collect a pro rata benefit charge
for the remainder of the current fiscal year if any then remaining
and, thereafter, shall levy and collect the annual benefit assessment
charge in the manner provided for herein.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That this Act is hereby de-
clared to be an emergency measure and necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public health and safety and having been passed
by a yea and nay vote supported by three-fifths of all the members
elected to each of the two Houses of the General Assembly, the
same shall take effect from the date of its passage.

Approved April 10,1968.

CHAPTER 164
(Senate Bill 642)

AN ACT to add a new subsection 1 (E) to Chapter 496 of the Acts
of the General Assembly of 1966, to follow immediately after
subsection 1 (D) thereof, amending the law giving the Board of
Public Works power to acquire certain properties and the improve-
ments thereon located in or near the City of Annapolis, in order
to authorize the Board to acquire other properties located in or
near the City of Annapolis, and relating generally to the purposes
and procedures for such acquisition.