Sec. 7. (a) Contracts for public improvements authorized by this chapter shall be let according to the statutes authorizing municipalities to make and finance public improvements.

     (b) As soon as any contract for the construction of a public improvement has been let, the municipal works board shall:

(1) carefully compute the entire cost of the project, including payments made and to be made to the contractor and all incidental costs, expenses, and damages paid and incurred according to law; and

(2) prepare and make out an assessment roll listing the assessments against the properties benefited.

In determining and fixing the amount of assessments, the giving of notice of assessments, the holding of public hearings, and the making of final determinations, subject to the right of appeal from those determinations, the municipal works board is governed by the street and sewer improvement statutes.

     (c) Assessments made under this chapter are liens on the properties benefited from the time of the letting of the contract and shall be collected in the manner provided by law for the collection of Barrett Law assessments. However, the municipal works board shall fix a period of not more than five (5) years within which the assessments shall be paid. Any property owner liable for an assessment may elect to pay it in annual installments over the period of time fixed by the municipal works board by executing a waiver in the manner provided by the street and sewer improvement statutes.

     (d) All payments of assessments and all payments made by the municipality for public improvements under this chapter shall be made into the general improvement fund.

[Pre-Local Government Recodification Citation: 18-6-3-5.]

As added by Acts 1981, P.L.309, SEC.90.