A CHARTER ORDINANCE ALLOWING THE CITY OF HESSTON, KANSAS, TO ADOPT K.S.A. 13-1904: PROVIDING SUBSTITUTE AND ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS ON THE SAME SUBJECT; CONTROL AND REGULATION OF RAILROADS ON STREETS.

Section 1.  The City of Hesston, Kansas, by the powers vested in it by Article 12, Section 5 of the Constitution of the State of Kansas, hereby elects to adopt and make applicable to it K.S.A. 13-1904, all as hereinafter set forth in this charter ordinance.  K.S.A. 13-1904 provides for control and regulation of railroads on streets but is not applicable uniformly to all cities.

Section 2.  The provisions of K.S.A. 13-1904 shall apply to the City of Hesston in this manner:

       Control and regulation of railroads on streets.  The city council shall have power by ordinance to require all street and other railway companies to keep the streets and alleys over which they run properly drained, and to light the same wherever deemed necessary, and to require all street and other railway companies to construct and keep in repair, to their full width, all viaducts, and all crossings over all ditches used by them, and to construct and maintain drains and culverts where crossed by any line of said railways on all streets and alleys over which they run, to direct and control the laying and construction of railway tracts, turnouts, and switches, and to regulate the grade of the same, and to require them to conform to the grade of the streets and alleys of said city as they may be hereafter or are now established; and the cost of such improvements shall be a lien upon the property and franchises of any such company, and may be assessed and taxed against the property in the same manner as other taxes are levied.  Said council shall have power by ordinance to require any railroad company or street railway company to pay the cost of grading, paving, repaving, draining and repairing of such streets and alleys used or occupied by such railroad or railway company, and such cost shall be a lien upon the property and franchises of the company, and shall be assessed and taxed against the same like other taxes.

       The portion of the street or alley so used or occupied by such railway companies shall be deemed to be the space between their tracks and 18 inches on the outside of each of their rails, and all the space between two or more tracks, turnouts, and switches.  Any railroad company or street-railway company occupying any street or alley already occupied by any other such company, in addition to paying for paving or repaving as provided for in the next preceding paragraph, shall pay one-half the cost of paving or repaving between the tracks of said two roads.

(06-10-85)