24APPENDIX V.S.A. § 25

The City Council shall have power to regulate, establish, and alter the grade of streets and width of sidewalks, and the construction thereof, and to prescribe the material to be used therein, and also to provide, order, and direct that the sidewalks upon such streets as the City Council shall designate, shall together with the curbing therefor, be constructed in part at the expense of the owner or owners of the lands or buildings adjacent thereto, and in proportion to the benefit conferred, not to exceed one-half, and to assess the lands or buildings of such owner or owners adjacent to or abutting on any such sidewalk so constructed in compliance with such order, such proportion of the cost or expense thereof, such assessment to be apportioned among the owners of such lands or buildings fronting as aforesaid according to their frontage on such sidewalk, and the benefit to be conferred to be made in the manner and in accordance with provisions respecting highways. When such Council shall have made any such assessment, it shall make a report thereof, setting forth its doings in that respect, which report shall be recorded in the City Clerk's office, and, when so recorded, the amount so assessed shall be and remain a lien in the nature of a tax upon the land so assessed until the same shall be paid. Said Council shall have power to assess abutting land owners for a portion of the expense of sprinkling streets, not to exceed one-half, and in proportion to the benefit conferred. Such assessment when made and filed as hereinbefore specified shall be and remain a lien in the nature of a tax upon the land so assessed until the same shall be paid.