Chapter
119
2006 -- S 2964 AS AMENDED
Enacted 06/16/06
A N A
C T
RELATING TO AN
AMENDMENT OF CHAPTER 330 OF THE PUBLIC LAWS OF 1997 ENTITLED "AN ACT TO
CREATE A SEWER AUTHORITY FOR THE TOWN OF COVENTRY AND TO AUTHORIZE SAID TOWN TO
PLAN, CONSTRUCT, FINANCE, OPERATE AND MAINTAIN SEWAGE WORKS"
Introduced By: Senators
Blais, and Raptakis
Date Introduced: March 23,
2006
It is
enacted by the General Assembly as follows:
SECTION 1. Sections 1, 9, 14 and 23 of Chapter 330 of the public laws of
1997 as
amended
entitled, "An Act to Create A Sewer Authority For The Town Of Coventry And
To
Authorize
Said Town, To Plan, Construct, Finance, Operate And Maintain Sewage Works"
are
further
amended to read as follows:
Sec. 1. The Town of Coventry is authorized and empowered in accordance with the
provisions
of this act, to plan, lay out, construct, finance, operate and maintain sewage
works for
a
part or the whole of its territory and for such purposes to take by eminent
domain or otherwise
any
lands, water rights, rights-of-way, or easements, public or private, in said
town necessary for
accomplishing
any purpose mentioned in this act. Such sewage works may include sewers and
sewer
service connections, pumping stations, sewage treatment works, sewage disposal
works,
and
other works essential to the proper collection and disposal of the sewage of
said town.
As used in this act, unless the context otherwise requires:
"Preliminary plans" shall mean engineering reports which shall
conform to all applicable
state
and federal guidelines and shall include detailed scope and area to be
considered with
recommendations,
preliminary and feasibility investigation, environmental assessment, cost
studies,
economic comparisons of alternatives and all application and pre-application
work and
other
work necessary or desirable before undertaking working plans.
"Working plans" shall mean final design plans of facilities, detailed
construction
drawings,
specifications, detailed estimate of cost of construction, and shall include
all other
engineering
work which may be required or advisable for actual construction of sewage
works.
"Town" means the Town of Coventry.
"Council" means the town council of the Town of Coventry.
"Highways" means any state or other highway and any public street,
alley, park, parkway,
driveway,
bridge or public place.
"Sewage works" means all constructions for collection,
transportation, pumping,
treatment
and final disposal of sewage.
"Common sewer" means a sewer in which all abutters have equal rights
of entrance and
use.
"Force main" means a sewer wherein sewage is moved by pressure.
"Sewer service connection" means a pipe to convey sewage and wastes
from a building to
a
common sewer.
"Sewage" shall mean wastewater, water-carried wastes, or a
combination of them,
discharged
into and conveyed by sewers or intended or customarily so discharged and
conveyed.
Sewage
may be further classified as follows:
"Sanitary sewage" shall mean the common wastewater and water-carried
wastes from
human
dwellings and from toilet and lavatory fixtures, kitchens, laundries, and
similar facilities
of
business and industrial buildings. In general, sanitary sewage shall not
include storm water
from
roofs, yards, streets or open spaces, water from land surfaces or brooks, clean
waste
overflows
from springs, wells, or subsoil drainage, large volumes of clean water from air
conditioning
or other cooling or condensing facilities, clean wastewater from hydraulically
operated
contrivances and those wastes included within the definition of
"industrial wastes" next
following.
"Industrial wastes" shall include the liquid or water-carried wastes
of any industrial
process
not clearly included within the definitions of sanitary sewage, storm water,
cooling water
or
subsoil drainage herein. In general, wastewaters carrying any quantity of oils,
grease, fats,
abrasives,
chemicals, residues of manufacturing processes, wastes from commercial food
preserving
or canning, from slaughterhouses or meat processing plants, and similar
substances,
whether
dissolved, in suspension, or mechanically carried by water, shall be considered
as
industrial
wastes.
"Storm water" shall include the runoff or discharge of rain and
melted snow or other
clean
water from roofs, surfaces of public or private lands or elsewhere. For most
purposes within
the
scope of this act, storm water shall not include the flow of any natural brook,
rivulet or stream
even
if the source of such water is storm runoff from land or other property once
that runoff has
entered
the channel of such brook or natural watercourse. In general, storm water shall
include
only
water which is sufficiently clean and unpolluted to admit of being discharged,
without
treatment
or purification, into any natural open stream or watercourse without offense.
"Cooling water" shall include the clean wastewater from air
conditioning, industrial
cooling,
condensing and similar apparatus and from hydraulically powered equipment. In
general,
cooling
water will include only water which is sufficiently clean and unpolluted to
admit of being
discharged,
without treatment or purification, into any natural open stream or watercourse
without
offense.
"Seepage" or "subsoil drainage" shall include water from
the soil percolating into subsoil
drains
and through foundation walls, basement floors, or underground pipes or from
similar
sources.
"Lateral sewer" means a sewer which does not receive the sewage from
any other
common
sewer.
"Submain sewer" means a sewer into which the sewage from two (2) or
more lateral
sewers
is discharged.
"Main sewer" means a sewer into which the sewage from two (2) or more
submain
sewers
is discharged.
"Land" means and includes any land, including building and other
improvements thereon,
estate,
riparial or other right, easement, interest or waterway.
The Town of Coventry may provide for the construction of sewers and for other
sewage
works
for said town and may raise funds therefor by borrowing or otherwise, and for
that purpose
may
issue bonds or notes of the town in accordance with the provisions hereinafter
stated or
under
other authority.
The town council shall provide that annual charges shall be made upon the
owners of the
lands
using the sewage works and that sewer assessments shall be made upon the owners
of lands
for
which the use of sewage works is available. The receipts from annual charges
and sewer
assessments
shall be appropriated for and applied to the payment of the charges and
expenses
incident
to the planning, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of the
sewage works,
and
to the payment of principal costs for any bonds or notes issued for sewage
works,. and any
deficiency
of said receipts in any year for said purposes shall be met by appropriation by
the town
council
and assessment in the regular town tax. The receipts from annual charges shall,
however,
be
held in a separate account and said receipts shall be used solely for the
maintenance and
operations
of the treatment plant. Nothing in this act shall limit or affect the rights or obligations
of
the town of Coventry, including obligations of the town acting by and through
its financial
town
meeting or its town council, to appropriate monies from its regular town tax to
fund its
obligations
under the intermunicipal agreement in wastewater services between the town of
West
Warwick
and the town of Coventry, as amended and restated from time to time, and the
Loan and
Trust
Agreement among the Rhode Island economic development corporation, the town of
Coventry
and J.P. Morgan Trust Company, National Association dated as of December 1,
2003,
as
amended from time to time.
Sec. 9. The council shall determine that proportion of the cost of
constructing, operating
and
maintaining the sewage works, provided for in section 1 of this act, the town
shall pay by
general
taxation and what portions shall be paid by assessments and annual charges
against
individual
parcels of property, and shall pay at least one fourth and not more than
two-thirds of
the
cost of constructing, operating and maintaining said sewage works. Costs not
assessed by
reason
of section 12 or 13 shall be borne by the town in addition to the proportion
determined
above. The council shall prescribe
just and equitable sewer assessment rates on account of the
construction
costs, to be levied against owners of property abutting on that portion of any
highway
in which a common sewer is laid under this act and also rates of annual charge,
on
account
of operating and maintenance costs, to be levied against owners of property
which is
connected
to a common sewer.
Sewer assessments shall be levied at a uniform rate based upon the estimated
cost of
constructing
all sewers, sewer service connections and other sewage works belonging to the
town.
Annual
charges shall be computed according to water consumption or other factors
deemed
equitable
by the council. Such annual charges herein referred to shall be paid annually
by every
property
owner or institution whose property is connected to the town sewage works.
The sewer assessments may be determined according to the number of units for
residential
dwellings and property valuation for non-residential buildings. The council
may, from
time
to time, redetermine the rates fixed for sewer assessments, if construction
costs warrant, and
may
redetermine rates for annual charges if costs so warrant.
The sewer assessments herein referred to shall be paid by every property owner
or
institution
whose property is abutting on that portion of any highway in which a common
sewer is
laid
under this act or is connected to the town's sewage works. Sewer assessments
levied
hereunder
may be paid in as many as twenty (20) annual installments, upon application by
the
property
owner and approval of the council. In the case of installment payments,
interest at a rate
not
to exceed eight percent (8%) per annum, shall be charged annually on the unpaid
balance of
the
total sewer assessment.
The council shall annually certify to the town treasurer all the annual charges
and sewer
assessments
made by it under the authority of this act. Each charge or assessment made by
said
council
pursuant to this act shall be a lien upon the lands, buildings and improvements
upon
which
it is made in the same way and manner as taxes assessed on real estate, but
such liens shall
not
expire until the charge or assessment with all interest, costs and penalties
thereon is paid in
full,
and, if the charge or assessment is not paid as required, it shall be collected
in the same
manner
that taxes assessed on real estate are by law collected. Such annual charges
and sewer
assessments
shall be due and payable at the time the regular town taxes are first due and
payable
next
after the date of receipt by the town treasurer of the aforesaid certificate of
said annual
charges
and sewer assessments from the council. The town treasurer, after receiving a
list of
charges
or assessments under this section, shall forthwith, at the expense of the town,
send to
each
person assessed or charged notice of the amount of his or her assessment or
charge. The
notice
shall substantially identify the person assessed, state the amount of the
assessment or
charge
and refer to the remedy available under section 19 of this act. The notice
shall be mailed
postpaid
and directed to the last known address of the person assessed. If there are
persons whose
addresses
are unknown, a similar notice covering the assessments against such persons shall
be
published
in a newspaper of general circulation in the town and such published notice may
be a
single
collective notice for all such persons. No irregularity in the notice required
by this section
shall
excuse the nonpayment of the assessment or charge or affect its validity or any
proceedings
for
the collection thereof as long as there is substantial compliance with the
provisions hereof. No
deficiency
in the notice to the person assessed shall excuse the nonpayment by others of
the
assessment
or charges assessed against them or affect the validity thereof or any
proceedings for
the
collection thereof. The tax collector shall without further warrant collect
such annual charges
and
assessments in the same manner and at the same time as the regular taxes of the
town are first
payable.
Interest at the rate per annum fixed for nonpayment of town taxes shall be
charged and
collected
upon all overdue charges and assessment from the date they become payable until
paid.
The council may at any time cancel in whole or in part any charge or assessment
to the
extent
the council determines such charge or assessment to have been improperly
imposed.
Sec. 14. The council in behalf of the town may acquire by agreement, purchase
or
condemnation
such land or right or easement in land as may be necessary for the purposes of
this
act.
Whenever the council desires to take any such land or right or easement in land
by
condemnation,
it shall file with the town clerk a plat, description, and statement of such
land or
right
or easement in land to be taken and a statement that such land or right or
easement in land is
taken
pursuant to the provisions of this act.
Upon the recording of said plat, description and statement in the office of the
town clerk,
the
land or easement in land defined in such plat, description and statement to the
extent and
according
to the nature of the interest therein taken, shall vest in the town and shall
be subject to
the
use of the council for the purposes of this act, and said council may thereupon
enter upon and
enjoy
the rights, interests and easements taken as aforesaid; and after the filing of
such plat,
description
and statement, notice of such taking shall be served upon the owners of and
persons
having
an estate in and interested in such land by any police officer of the town of
Coventry
leaving
a true and attested copy of such description and statement with each of such
persons
personally,
or at their last and usual place of abode in this state with some person living
therein,
and,
in case any of such persons are absent from this state and have no last and
usual place of
abode
therein occupied by any person, such copy shall be left with the persons, if
any, in charge
of
or having possession of such land of such absent persons, and another copy
thereof shall be
mailed
to the address of such absent persons if the same is known to said officer; and
after the
filing
of such description and statement, the town clerk of said town shall cause a
copy of such
description
and statement to be published in some newspaper or newspapers published or
circulated
in said town at least twice a week for three (3) successive weeks; and if any
party shall
agree
with said council for the price of the rights, interests or easements so taken,
the same shall
be
paid to him or her forthwith by said council.
The council shall have general authority to represent the town and to make any
agreements
for said town under the authority of this section and to do any acts or things
necessary
or
incidental to executing settlements and agreements, and shall have authority to
agree with the
owner
for the price of land so taken and the same shall be paid by the town treasurer
out of the
proceeds
of bonds or notes issued hereunder or other funds made available for the
purpose, upon
vouchers
approved by the majority of the council and the town treasurer.
Any owner of or person entitled to any estate in or interested in any part of
the land in
which
such fee, rights, interests or easements are so taken who cannot agree with
said town for
the
price such fee, rights, interests or easements so as taken in which he or she
is interested as
aforesaid,
may, within one (1) year from the filing of the plat, description and statement
referred
to
in this section of this act, apply by petition to the superior court in and for
the county of Kent,
setting
forth the taking of such fee, rights, interests or easements in his or her land
and praying for
an
assessment of damages by a jury. Upon the filing of said petition the court
shall cause twenty
(20)
days' notice of the pendency thereof to be given to said town by serving the
town treasurer of
said
town with a certified copy thereof, and may proceed after such notice to the
trial thereof, and
such
trial shall determine all questions of fact relating to the value of such fee,
rights, interests or
easements
and the amount thereof, and judgment shall be entered upon the verdict of such
jury
and
execution shall be issued therefor.
In case any owner of or person having an estate in or interested in such land,
shall fail to
receive
personal notice of the taking as aforesaid, and shall fail to file the petition
as provided in
this
section, said court in its discretion may permit the filing of such petition
subsequent to said
period
of one (1) year from the filing of such description and statement; provided,
such person
shall
have no actual knowledge of the taking of such fee, right, interest or easement
in season to
file
such petition.
If any lands, or any fee, rights, interests or easements therein, in which any
infant or other
person
not capable in law to act in his or her own behalf is interested, are taken by
said council
under
the provisions of this act, said superior court, upon the filing thereof any
such petition by or
in
behalf of such infant or other person, may appoint a guardian ad litem for such
infant or other
person,
and such guardian may appear and be heard in behalf of such infant or other
person; and
such
guardian may also with the advice and consent of said superior court may
prescribe, release
to
said town or council all claims for damages for the fee, rights, interests or
easements in the
lands
of such infant or other person. Any lawfully appointed, qualified and acting
guardian of the
estate
of such infant or other person with the approval of the court of probate within
this state
having
jurisdiction to authorize the sale of lands within this state of any such
infant or person,
may,
before the filing of any such petition, agree with said council upon the amount
of damages
suffered
by such infant or other person by any such taking and may, upon receiving such
amount,
release
to said town or council all claims of damages of such infant or other person
for such
taking.
Any damages assessed as the result of petition to the superior court shall be
paid by the
town
treasurer provided, however, that nothing in this act shall authorize the
council to condemn
any
portion of the land or right-of-way of any railroad, street railway or other
public service
company,
except for the purpose of crossing the same below grade and of building and
maintaining
necessary manholes at such crossing in such manner as not to render unsafe, or
to
impair
the usefulness of such land or right-of-way for railroad or street railway
purposes or the
purposes
of such other public service company. If said council and such railroad, street
railway or
other
public service company are unable to agree as to the method of the construction
and
maintenance
of such sewer and manholes at any such crossing, either party may apply to the
division
of public utilities for a determination thereof, and, after hearing, such sewer
and
manholes
shall be constructed and maintained in such method and manner as may be ordered
by
said
division. Either party aggrieved by such order of said division may appeal to
the supreme
court.
Prior to any taking hereunder, the council shall provide specific funds for
payment of
compensation,
the use of such funds for such purpose shall be fixed obligation of the town, and,
payable
from assessments and annual charges; provided, that notwithstanding anything to
the
contrary
herein, the council may determine that the full faith and credit of the
town shall be
deemed
pledged to pay such compensation.
Sec. 23. This act shall not affect any other power which the town may have
under any
other
provisions of law to incur indebtedness.
Sections
8.18 and 8.19 of the Coventry Home Rule Charter shall not apply to capital
improvement
programs or projects for the sewage works, if the town finances such programs
or
projects
through the issuance of bonds or notes as local government obligations payable
from
wastewater
system revenues, assessments and annual charges pursuant to title 46-12.2 of
the
general
laws, and not as general obligations secured by the full faith and credit and
taxing power
of
the town.
SECTION
2. This act shall take effect upon passage.
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LC02791
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