Vermont § 24 - Sewer and sewage system

§ 24. Sewer and sewage system

• (a) The legal voters of the Village at a meeting duly warned and held for that purpose
  may vote to construct and maintain for the benefit of the Village a common sewer or
  a sewerage system and extend the same through the highways, streets, and lanes of
  the Village, and when necessary to obtain suitable grades, connections, water supply,
  outlets for flushing, and discharges, may construct and extend the same through lands
  of persons or corporations lying within or without the Village, upon paying suitable
  compensation or damages therefor; and for this purpose may take the lands of individuals
  or corporations. (b) Pursuant to the vote of the Village, the trustees shall lay out and construct the
  sewer and system of sewerage, and extend the same from time to time as voted by the
  Village, and after they are constructed, they shall be under the care and control
  of the trustees, who shall maintain, repair, and flush the same when necessary, and
  for those purposes may take the lands of an individual or a corporation; and the trustees
  shall proceed in the same manner as is prescribed by law for a selectboard in taking
  lands for highways, and in awarding damages therefor. When a person or corporation
  shall be dissatisfied with the decision of the trustees in the award of damages for
  land taken for the sewer or drain, the person or corporation may petition the Bennington
  County Superior Court for a reassessment of the damages or compensation, and any number
  of persons aggrieved may join in the petition, but the petition shall not delay the
  laying or repairing of the sewers or drain. The petition shall be served on the Clerk
  of the Village within 60 days next after the award of damages shall be filed in the
  Clerk’s office. The proceedings shall be had in the court on the petition as are provided
  by law for the reassessment of damages for land taken for highways, except as herein
  provided, and the commissioners therein provided by the court shall notify one of
  the trustees of the Village of the time and place when they will hear the matter. (c) Unless otherwise provided by the Village, when the trustees by vote of the Village,
  as provided in this section, build or extend its sewer they may draw their orders
  on the Treasurer of the Village in payment therefor, and when repairs are made on
  the sewer, they may draw their order on the Treasurer therefor. (d) When the public health requires it, the local Board of Health of the Village may order
  that any hotel, dwelling house, or other building in the Village shall be connected
  with the public sewer, and shall give notice in writing to the owner thereof of the
  order, and if the owner neglects or refuses to comply with the order within a reasonable
  time the owner shall be fined not more than $100.00 or less than $5.00, upon complaint
  of the State’s Attorney or a grand juror of the Town of Manchester. (e) The trustees of the Village may assess annually the owner of a building connected
  with the sewer the sum as the trustees shall think just, as a sewer rental, to be
  paid by the owner thereof within 60 days after notice in writing delivered to the
  owner, or if the owner resides out of the Village, to the tenant of the owner, or
  if the owner resides out of the Village and has no tenant, sent by mail to the owner
  at the last known post office address. The sum shall be a debt in favor of the Village
  against the owner of the building and may be recovered in an action of debt and shall
  also be a lien on the building and the land on which it stands and so much around
  it as is reasonably required for occupying the same. (Added 1943, No. 183, § 24.)