AN ACT to regulate the construction and protection of railway crossings in the county of Kings. Passed April 19, 1871. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: cross certain avenues, under same. SECTION 1. No railway upon which locomotive steam Railroads to shall be used, or is or shall be authorized or intended to be used as a motive power, hereafter constructed across or above the Flatbush avenue, Ocean avenue, Coney Island plank road, Coney Island boulevard, Franklin avenue boulevard, the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth avenues, in any of the towns in the county of Kings, shall be constructed on the same grade with any of such roads or avenues, but the grade of every such railway shall be constructed either under such roads or avenues or above the same by a sufficient bridge or viaduct, and when constructed above any such road or avenue, the length of such bridge or viaduct shall be the full width of the graded surface of such road or avenue, and shall be ele- Elevation over vated so that there shall be an open space of at least grade. twelve feet in the clear above the grade thereof. Length of bridge when constructed over road. State Engineer place and manner of crossing to establish on application. § 2. It shall be the duty of the State Engineer and Surveyor, on the application of any railway corporation, and upon proof of the due service of written notice of such application on the Highway Commissioners of the town in which any of the said roads or avenues shall be located, and other public officers or persons interested therein, to hear the parties relative thereto, and to ascertain and determine the practicability of constructing such railway in the manner prescribed by the first section of this act, and to establish the proper place for such crossing, and the manner in which the same shall be made, whether above or below such road or avenue, and the plans and specifications for the construction thereof, and shall cause proper maps and drawings Maps thereof; thereof respectively to be made, approved and signed by him, one copy of which shall be filed in the office of said State Engineer and Surveyor in the city of Albany, and one other copy thereof shall be filed in the office of the Clerk of the County of Kings; and thereupon such Railway to be road or avenue and railway shall be filed in the office according of the Clerk of the County of Kings; and thereupon thereto. such road or avenue and railway shall be constructed how filled. constructed by such railroad corporation at its own costs and charges with the respective grades, and according to the plans and specifications so to be approved and established, and within the period of time to be specified in writing neer to fix time by the State Engineer and Surveyor, who may, however, from time to time, extend the same, but not beyond one year from the date fixed in said certificate. State Engi for construc tion. Work; how done, if railways neglect. §3. If such railway corporation shall refuse or neglect to reform such road or avenue, in accordance with the plans and specifications that shall be approved and established by the State Engineer and Surveyor in manner aforesaid, within the time for that purpose limited by the said State Engineer and Surveyor, then it shall be the duty of the Highway Commissioners of the town in which such crossing shall be located, or the special Commissioners appointed by law for the construction of such highway, if any, or the person or persons interested in such road or avenue, to perform the work of reforming such road or avenue in accordance with such plans and specifications, and all the cost and expenses (including the fees and expenses of the State Engineer and Surveyor) he or they shall be put to on account thereof, may be recovered by an action against such railway corporation in any court of this State. § 4. It shall be the duty of every railway corporation operating a railway by steam power, in the county of Kings, to station a flagman by day or signal man by night at all places where such railway crosses a public highway, on the same grade thereof, whenever so required by the Supervisor and Highway Commissioners, or a majority of them, of the town where such crossing is located. And in case of the neglect or refusal of said railway corporation to station a flagman or signal man at any crossing within ten days after such requisition, it shall be the duty of such Highway Commissioners to appoint such flagman or signal man; and the wages of such flagman or signal man so appointed by said Commissioners, not exceeding three dollars per day, may be recovered from said railway corporation in an action brought by such supervisor, or his successor in office, or by such flagman or signal man, in any court of this state. 5. This act shall take effect immediately. AN ACT to facilitate mortgage loans on land authorized to be sold, forming a portion of Prospect Park, in the city of Brooklyn. Passed April 21, 1871. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: SECTION I. It shall be lawful for the several savings banks, insurance and trust companies of this State to make mortgage loans upon such portions of Prospect Park, in the city of Brooklyn, as the Brooklyn Park Commissioners are authorized to sell, notwithstanding any lien of bonds issued by said city, for the purchase and improvement of said park; provided, however, that the lands so to be mortgaged are otherwise unencumbered, and that the loans so to be made shall not exceed the amounts which such institutions are now authorized by law to loan on real estate. § 2. This act shall take effect immediately. Width of avenue. Northerly sidewalk. Three Commissioners to be appointed to assess amount to be paid for land. to be sworn. AN ACT supplementary to an act entitled, "An Act to widen and improve Franklin avenue, in the town of Flatbush," passed May tenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine. Passed April 27, 1871, three-fifths being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Franklin avenue, in the town of Flatbush, in the county of Kings, is hereby widened to the width of one hundred feet from the Flatbush turnpike road, westerly to the circle at the south-westerly angle of Prospect Park, and shall be opened to that width throughout its whole length by adding nineteen feet and sixteen one-hundredths of a foot in width to the northerly side of the said avenue, as the same was widened by an act entitled, "An Act to widen and improve Franklin avenue, in the town of Flatbush," passed May tenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine. And for the purpose of police and repair, the northerly sidewalk of said widened avenue shall be and remain under the exclusive charge and management of the Brooklyn Park Commissioners. § 2. For the purpose of determining the amount to be paid to the owners and others interested in the land required to be taken for the said widening, the said Brooklyn Park Commissioners shall apply to the Supreme Court at a special term thereof to be held in the Second Judicial District, upon a motion of not less than ten days, to be published in two daily newspapers, printed in the city of Brooklyn, for the appointment of three Commissioners Commissioners of Estimate and Assessment, which Commissioners, after having been duly sworn, shall estimate the expenses of the widening hereby directed to be made, and the damages that may be sustained by the owners of land and other persons to be affected thereby, and shall also apportion and assess the same, together with the expenses of the subsequent improvement thereof, as they shall deem just and equitable, upon any lands or premises to be benefited by the said improvements within a district of assessment to be fixed by the said Park Commissioners previous to the laying of the said assessment; and they shall receive four dollars a day for each day necessarily spent in the discharge of their duties. Their fees. § 3. After the appointment of such Commissioners and the fixing of the said district of assessment, all the provisions of the fifth, sixth and seventh sections of the act specified in the first section of this act, and of the laws therein referred to, so far as they are not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, except that the duties required of the Board of Assessors, as specified in the said seventh section, are now hereby required to be performed by the said Commissioners of Estimate and Assessment, instead of by the said Board of Assessors, shall apply to regulate and govern the duties and authority of the Park Commissioners in relation to the opening of the avenue hereby widened and the improvement thereof as well as the proceedings and duties of the said. Commissioners of Estimate and Assessment, and the confirmation of all reports which they or either of them shall make thereupon, and also the laying of all assessments for the said opening and the subsequent improvement thereof, and the lien thereon; and the carriage-way of the said widened avenue shall be laid out fifty feet wide, anything to the contrary in the act above referred to notwithstanding. After assessbe vested in Park Commis ment powers to sioners. Collector of be appointed. To give bond if required. assessments to tion. § 4. The said Brooklyn Park Commissioners are hereby authorized to appoint a collector of all assessments to be laid under this act, as well as of all assessments heretofore laid, under the act specified in the first section of this act. And the said collector shall give bonds, if required, to the said Park Commissioners, for the faithful performance of his duties, and shall pay all moneys when collected to said Park Commissioners, who, upon the collection of such assessments, shall pay them over to the several persons entitled to receive the same. He shall be entitled to a compensation of one per cent. on His compensaall sums that shall be paid to him within thirty days after the first publication of the notice next hereinafter referred to, after which time he shall be entitled to a compensation of five per cent. on the moneys thereafter to be collected by him, and in either case, such compensation shall be paid by the party assessed over and above his assessment. The amount assessed against the city of Brooklyn, under this act mentioned in the first section of this act, shall be levied and collected as a tax upon said city in the same manner as the annual taxes in said city are levied and collected, and shall be paid over to the said Park Commissioners. 85. Immediately after the appointment of the said collector, he shall give ten days' notice of a time and place where he will attend to receive payment of the said assessment, which notice shall be inserted twice a week for two weeks, in two newspapers published in the Amount assessed against the city of Brooklyn to be raised by tax. |