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(SENATE BILL NO. 153. APPROVED JUNE 28, 1919.)

AN ACT to amend an Act entitled, "An Act to provide for the drainage for agricultural and sanitary purposes and to repeal certain acts therein named," approved June 27, 1885, in force July 1, 1885, as amended, by amending sections 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 42, 43, 52, 60, 73 and 74, by adding thereto three sections to be known as 79, 80 and 81, and by repealing section 15b thereof.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly: An Act entitled "An Act to provide for drainage for agricultural and sanitary purposes and to repeal certain Acts therein named," approved June 27, 1885, in force July 1, 1885, as amended, by amending sections 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 42, 43, 52, 60, 73 and 74 thereof, and by adding three sections to be known as sections 79, 80 and 81, the amended and additional sections to read as follows:

§ 23. When the classification of lands has been prepared as hereinabove provided, the commissioners shall fix a time for the hearing of objections thereto and upon such classification being filed, the clerk of said drainage district shall give two weeks' notice of the time fixed for such hearing, which notice may be in substance as follows: "TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

"YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED that the commissioners of the
(here insert the name of the drainage district; and in the case
of a sub-district or minor sub-district, give the numbers of the
sections, with township and range, in which it is located) have
filed their classification of lands benefited therein, and that they
will on the....
......day of.
A. D. 19....、
to hear any

at the hour of... ... M., meet at...
and all objections that may be made to the same, when and where
you may appear and be heard, if you see fit.

"Dated this. . . . . . . . day of... ..

A. D., 19.... "Clerk of said District."

Such notice shall be published once each week for two successive weeks in a newspaper in the county in which the drainage district was organized, and a copy thereof shall be posted in ten public places in the drainage district, and a like copy shall be mailed at least ten days before the hearing to each owner of lands so classified who resides outside of the county or counties where such district is situated, and whose postoffice address is known to the commissioners, but the failure to give the proper notice as to any owner of land, or to any commissioner of highways, shall not affect in any way the validity of the special assessment levied on the said classification, except as to the land of the owner thereof

not properly notified or as to the public roads under the jurisdiction of the commissioner of highways not properly notified.

§ 24. The commissioners or a majority of them, shall meet at the time and place fixed for the hearing and shall hear all objections to their classification that may be urged by any person interested. They may adjourn from time to time, or to a future day fixed, as deemed necessary, until all objections have been heard and considered. They shall make public announcement of all such adjournments and cause a notice to be posted thereof at the place of the said meeting, giving the time and place of the said adjourned meeting. After all objections that may be offered have been heard and considered, the commissioners shall, if satisfied that justice requires that their said classification shall be modified, correct the same in accordance with the rights and justice of the matter, which corrections or changes, if any, may be made on the table or map and the commissioners shall thereupon confirm such classification; but if not so satisfied, they shall confirm their classification as originally made and shall enter an order to that effect. All orders made by the commissioners, either correcting or confirming their classification, shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the drainage district within five days from the entry thereof, and any person appearing and urging objections who is not satisfied with the decision of the commissioners in confirming the classification of the lands, may appeal therefrom within ten days after the order of the commissioners is filed, by filing with the clerk of the County Court of the county in which the district was organized, and in which court said appeal shall be tried, a bond with good and sufficient security, to be approved by the clerk or the judge of said court, payable to said drainage district and conditioned for the payment of such tax as may be levied upon the land in question in all costs occasioned by said appeal in case said order of said commissioners shall be affirmed.

25. Appeals taken to the County Court under the provisions of this Act may be heard at any common law or probate term thereof: Provided, that ten days has intervened from the time of taking the appeal and the first day of the term, otherwise such appeal shall be heard at the next term of said court as herein provided, and the cost of such appeal may, at the discretion of the court, be divided between the drainage district and the owner of the land who may appeal from the classification of the commissioners. It shall be the duty of the County Court to cause to be summoned twelve disinterested land owners to meet at the court house at a time set by the court for hearing any appeal or appeals that may be taken from the decision of the commissioners. The said twelve (12) landowners shall be men who have practical knowledge of the costs and benefits of farm drainage, and shall be sworn in as a special jury to try the case on appeal. Should any of the said landowners fail to appear at the time named, or should any of those summoned be rejected under the exercise of the usual right of challenge, the court may cause to be summoned any other qualified landowner, or owners, as required by this section, to fill such vacancy or vacancies, or the case may be tried by six qualified jurors, if both

parties to the suit so agree. Whenever the special jury summoned to hear appeals shall have been sworn in as herein provided, it shall be the duty of the court to lay before them the classification as determined by the drainage commissioners, and they shall examine the same and hear allegations and testimony in opposition to and in support of the same, and may, if requested by either party to the appeal, visit the district and view the lands. If they find the tracts of land in question are marked too high or too low in the classification, they shall correct the errors; but if no injustice has been done, they shall confirm the classification as made by the commissioners. Their final determination shall be made in writing and filed with the records of the court. The classification, when established as herein provided, shall be recorded in the drainage record.

§ 26. The commissioners by resolution shall order such amount of money to be raised by special assessment upon the lands of the district as may be necessary, and such amount shall be apportioned among the several tracts in the name of the owner when known, according to acreage of each and its figure of classification on the graduated scale, so that each tract may bear its equal burden in proportion to benefits. They shall make out a special assessment roll hereinafter designated tax list, setting down in separate columns the owners' names, when known, and when unknown stating unknown, a description of the land, the number denoting the classification, the tax, the damages allowed, if any, or any other credit to be given to the owner. The balance of tax over credits or of damages or other credits over the tax showing the amount due to the district by each land owner on the separate tracts, or due to the land owner by the district, shall be set down, in final columns. When completed the list shall be filed with the town clerk. The tax list may be substantially as follows:

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If any land owner or any commissioner of highways has not been properly notified in accordance herewith of the hearing in reference to the classification of the lands and public roads, this shall not affect the validity of the tax or special assessment so levied against any land or the public roads except the tax or special assessment levied against the particular tract or tracts of land whose owner has not been properly

notified, or the road in reference to which the commissioner of highways has not received the proper notice.

§ 29. It shall be competent for the commissioners to order the tax to be paid in installments of such amounts and at such times as will be convenient for the accomplishment of the proposed work; otherwise the whole amount of such tax shall be payable thirty days after such confirmation, and shall upon a certified copy of the tax list or the appropriate part thereof being filed for record in the office of the recorder of deeds of the county where the land lies, be a lien upon the lands assessed until paid; and such taxes shall draw interest until they are paid, and such interest may be collected and enforced as part of the taxes. The payment of an installment of any assessment or judgment therefor shall be an estoppel against any objections to succeeding installments of the same assessment against that tract which might have been urged against such prior installment. No writ of error to review any judgment or order entered under this Act shall be brought after six months from the entry of such judgment; nor shall the organization of the drainage district or its jurisdiction over any lands therein be subject to attack by quo warranto or otherwise after the confirming of any assessment thereon.

§ 42. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to forbid the land owners within the district to more completely drain their lands by using the common drains as outlets to lateral drains; and the owners of lands outside the drainage district, or in other drainage districts, may connect with the ditches of the district already made, by the payment of such amount as they would have been assessed if originally included in the district, or if such connection shall by increase of water, require an enlargement of the district ditches, then the outside owners of land so connecting, or other drainage districts, as may be, shall pay the costs of such enlargement. If individual land owners outside the district shall so connect, they shall be deemed to have voluntarily applied to be included in the district, and their lands benefited by such drainage shall be treated, classified and taxed like other lands within the district. Drainage commissioners may, at any time, enlarge the boundaries of their district by attaching new areas of land which are involved in the same system of drainage and require for an outlet the drains of the district made or proposed to be made, as the case may be, upon petition of as great a proportion of the land owners of the area to be added as is required for the original district. All changes thus made in the district shall be duly noted and shown upon the map and recorded in the drainage record.

If, after the organization of any drainage district the commissioners thereof shall be of the opinion that there are lands lying outside of such drainage district, as organized, which are or will be benefited by the work done in said drainage district, or by work ordered to be done therein, such lands, in case they are not included in any other drainage district, shall be deemed to have made voluntary application to be included in said drainage district, by the work of which they are or will be benefited; and thereupon the commissioners shall prepare a petition

setting forth a description of such lands or land benefited, giving the name of the owner or owners thereof, if known, and the postoffice address of such owner, together with a general description of the drain or ditch, if any, making connection with the ditches of such district; such petition shall be filed in the County Court of the county where such district was organized. The court shall fix a day when the court will hear such petition and thereupon the commissioners shall give ten days' notice thereof, which notice shall embrace a copy of the petition and service thereof shall be by delivering a copy thereof to each owner named therein, or by publishing a copy thereof in some newspaper in the county where said lands, or the greater part thereof lie, or by posting ten copies thereof in ten of the most public places in or near the land sought to be annexed to the drainage district, the certificate of the publisher or the affidavit of the person delivering or posting such notices shall be evidence thereof. At the time fixed, or at a time continued from such time fixed, the court shall hear said cause, and if judgment is rendered in favor of petitioners, a copy of the petition, and proof of service thereof, together with order of judgment thereon, shall be delivered to the clerk of the drainage district, who shall file and record the same in the drainage record, and upon entry of such judgment the lands described in the said petition shall be deemed a part of the district and subject to all provisions of this Act. Every land owner whose land is thus annexed to any drainage district shall have a right to appeal from the order of the County Court annexing said land to the said drainage district, to the Circuit Court of the said county, upon filing a bond in a sum to be fixed by the judge of the County Court, the said appeal to be prayed within ten (10) days after the order has been entered by the court annexing the said land to the said drainage district. Land annexed to a drainage district under any of the provisions of this section shall be classified and assessed with the other lands therein, unless such classification shall have already been made, in which event the lands so annexed to the district shall be classified proportionately to such established classification with like proceedings in reference to assessment and right of appeal.

§ 43. Sub-districts may be formed by owners of land in main districts for the purpose of local or more minute drainage in the manner provided in this Act for the organization of main districts. Such sub-districts shall have the right to use the ditches of the main district for outlets; or in drainage districts organized or proposed to be organized which have one or more lateral drains or proposed drains which are independent of each other, except as to the main drain or outlet, and which do now or will drain separate areas within said district, it shall be and may be lawful for the commissioners, at their option, to divide the districts into as many sub-districts as there are separate areas for the purpose of making assessments of benefits for the work to be done in said sub-district; such division may be made so as to form one or more such districts at the same time, or from time to time as the commissioners may deem expedient: Provided, the formation of sub-districts on either method as above provided shall not operate

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