to select lars, for a term not exceeding twenty years, at a rate of interest not exceeding ten per cent per annum, payable annually, and for that purpose may issue the bonds of the city, signed by the mayor and clerk and countersigned by the auditor, in such form and in such sums (not exceeding in the aggregate the said sum of ten thousand dollars) as the common council shall direct, and such bonds shall be disposed of under the direction of the common council of said city upon such terms as they shall deem advisable, but at not less than their par value, and the avails shall be applied in the purchase and improvement of a city cemetery or cemeteries, and the necessary appurtenances, and for no other purpose whatsoever: Provided, That said common council shall not borrow a greater Proviso. sum than three thousand dollars for such purpose, unless a • majority of the qualified electors of said city voting thereon, at an election to be held as hereinafter provided, shall vote for such loan. In the event of the determination by the common Committed council of said city to purchase new cemetery grounds as herein tract for provided, it is made the duty of the common council to appoint a committee of five freeholders of said city, one from each of the wards of the city, whose duty it shall be to select a suitable tract of land for cemetery purposes, which tract shall contain not less than thirty acres. Such committee shall Report of report the result of their doings to the common council, and the common council shall, within one month after the making Purchase. of such report, enter into negotiations for and purchase the said tract of land so selected as aforesaid; and when said tract Platting. of land shall be so purchased, it shall be platted and prepared in a manner suitable for cemetery purposes, and the dead shall Removal be removed from the present cemetery of the city to such new from old cemetery at the expense of the city between the months of October and June, and at no other season of the year, and in such manner as the common council shall provide, and no farther interments shall be made or allowed in the cemetery now in use in said city from the time such new grounds shall cemetery. committee. of dead cemetery. Old cemetery to be sold. Special election to vote on cemetery loan. be purchased and prepared for the burial of the dead therein; and when the dead shall be fully removed from the cemetery grounds now in use in said city, it shall be lawful for the common council to sell and convey said grounds, and the moneys received from the sale thereof shall be set aside by said common council as a sinking fund, to be applied in the payment of the debt created against said city by the provisions of this section. The common council of the city shall at some regular meeting provide for holding an election of the qualified electors of said city, and shall cause at least ten days' notice of such election to be given by causing such notice to be published at least once in the week preceding such election in at least two of the newspapers published in said city, and by causing printed notices of such election to be posted up in ten or more of the most public places of said city at least ten days before the time of holding such election. Said council shall provide for holding such election on the same day in each and all the wards of said city at the usual place of holding elections therein. Such election shall be conducted in the same manner, as near as may be, as ordinary city elections in said city; the votes cast shall be by ballot, and those voting in favor of the loan shall have written or printed, or partly written and partly printed, on their ballots the words "For the cemetery loan," and those voting against the loan shall have written or printed, or partly written and partly printed, on their ballots the words "Against the cemetery loan." At the conclusion of such election, and before they adjourn, the inspectors of elections of the different wards of said city shall proceed to canvass and count the votes cast at such election for and against said loan in their respective wards, and shall certify and return the result of such election in such wards to the common council forthwith. The common council of said city shall meet within one week after holding such election and canvass and examine said returns and certificates, and ascertain and determine the result of such election. TITLE VI. drains, etc. paving, etc. dered. SECTION 17. The common council shall have power to cause sewers, common sewers, drains, vaults, arches and bridges, wells and pumps, and reservoirs to be built in any part of the city; to Grading, cause the grading, raising, leveling, repairing, amending, paving, or covering with stone, plank, or other material any street, lane, alley, highway, public grounds, crosswalks, or sidewalks, and to provide for the planting and protecting of Shade trees. shade trees along the sides of the streets and public grounds in said city; to cause any lots, blocks, or land within said city on which or any part of which water shall stand and become stagnant, to be raised, filled up, or drained; and whenever the Expenses of improvecommon council shall order any of the improvements that are ments or mentioned in this section, or any section of title six of this act, and do not determine by resolution that the expenses of any such improvement shall be defrayed by the city or ward, or as provided by section nineteen of said title six of this act, then such expenses of making any such improvement may be assessed and levied upon the lots, premises, and subdivisions thereof which are in front of or adjoining such streets, sidewalks, drains, sewers, and other improvements that may be ordered by the common council, or upon the lots, blocks, or lands which may be in whole or in part filled up or drained; and the common council shall have power to make all by-laws and ordinances relative to the mode of assessing, levying, and collecting any such tax, and may provide by ordinance for assessing such tax in the general assessment rolls of the city, which tax shall be and remain a lien upon the land, and if not paid the land may be sold therefor in the same manner as provided for ordinary city taxes: Provided, That no lands or property belonging to the State shall be liable to taxation under any of the provisions of this act. Sec. 2. This act shall take immediate effect. Proviso. Sections amended. Boundaries. [ No. 235.] AN ACT to amend an act to incorporate the village of Three Rivers, approved February thirteenth, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, and to amend an act to amend an act to incorporate the village of Three Rivers, approved March twenty-second, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven. SECTION 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, That sections one, two, and three of an act entitled "An act to incorporate the village of Three Rivers," approved February thireenth, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, and section twelve of an act entitled "An act to amend an act entitled 'an act to incorporate the village of Three Rivers"" approved March twenty-second, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, be and are hereby amended to read as follows: SECTION 1. That all that tract of country situate in the township of Lockport, in the county of St. Joseph, and State of Michigan, bounded as follows: Commencing on the township line between the townships of Lockport and Fabius, at a point forty rods north of section corners numbers seven and eighteen, in the township of Lockport, and running thence south on the township line to the west quarter-post of section number nineteen; thence east on the quarter line to the centre of the channel of the St. Joseph river; thence down the channel of the St. Joseph river to the intersection of the south half-quarter line of section number nineteen; thence east on the south half-quarter line to the east line of the west half of the southwest quarter of section number twenty; thence north on the east line of the west half of the west halves of sections number twenty, seventeen, and eight, to a point on said line forty rods north of the section line between sections number eight and seventeen; thence west on a line parallel to the south line of section number eight to the place of beginning, be and the same is hereby constituted a town corporate by the name of the village of Three Rivers, and said village shall be divided into four wards. All that into wards. part of said village lying between Rocky river, St. Joseph Division river, and Portage river shall constitute the first ward, and shall be entitled to three trustees; all that part of said village lying west of Rocky and St. Joseph rivers shall constitute the third ward, and shall be entitled to one trustee; all that part of said village lying east and south of the St. Joseph river shall constitute the second ward, and shall be entitled to three trustees; and all that part of said village lying east of the Portage river and north of the St. Joseph shall constitute the fourth ward, and shall be entitled to one trustee. election. same. Sec. 2. The first annual election for village and ward offi- First cers after the passage of this act, shall take place on the first Monday of May next, and on the first Monday of May annually thereafter, and said election shall be held at such place in each one of the wards as the present common council of said village shall designate, and it shall be the duty of the recorder Notice of to give at least five days' notice of the time and place of holding said election, either by posting written or printed notices in two of the most public places in each of said wards, or by causing the same to be published in a newspaper published in said village; and the inhabitants residing in the several wards officers. having the qualifications of electors under the constitution. may meet in their respective wards and then and there proceed by a plurality of votes to elect by ballot from among the qualified electors residing in said village, one president, one recorder, one treasurer, three assessors, and the number of trustees that their respective ward is entitled to under this act, which trustee or trustees shall be residents of the ward from which they are elected, and who shall hold their offices for one year and until their successors are elected and qualified: Provided, That if an election of such officers shall not Proviso be made on the day when pursuant to this act it ought to be failure to made, the said corporation for that cause shall not be deemed at specified to be dissolved, but it shall and may be lawful to hold such relative to hold electicn time. |