Pennsylvania Statutes Title 53 P.S. Municipal and Quasi-Municipal Corporations § 53401. Power to grade, pave, curb, etc., public highways;  cost and expense of;  assessments;  highway defined;  ordinance

All incorporated towns shall have power, without petition of property owners, to grade, pave, curb, macadamize, and otherwise improve public highways, or parts thereof, which are now or may hereafter be laid out and opened in any of said incorporated towns, and collect, in the manner hereinafter provided, two-thirds of the cost and expense of the same from the owners of real estate bounding or abutting on such highways, by an equal assessment on the feet front bounding or abutting as aforesaid.  The word “highways” includes streets, lanes, avenues, alleys, courts, squares, and public places.  The assessment shall be estimated by the street commissioner, or person in charge of said work, or other competent authority designated by the council of said incorporated town.  The ordinance authorizing and directing such improvement shall be adopted and enacted by the affirmative vote of two-thirds of all members comprising the council of the incorporated town, and shall be presented to the burgess or chief executive of the incorporated town for his approval.  If the burgess or chief executive approve the ordinance, he shall sign it.  If he shall not approve, he shall return it, with his objections, to the council at the next regular meeting thereof, when the objections shall be entered at large upon the minutes.  At the next succeeding regular meeting of council after the return of the ordinance, the council shall proceed to a reconsideration thereof.  If, after such consideration, all of the members elected to the council shall vote to pass the ordinance, it shall then be of as full force and effect as if the burgess or chief executive had signed it.  In such case, the vote of the members of the council shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names and votes of the members shall be entered in the minutes.  If such ordinance shall not be returned by the burgess or chief executive at the next regular meeting of council after it has been presented to him, it shall likewise be of as full force and effect as if he had signed it.  No such ordinance shall be enacted in less than thirty days from the date of its introduction, and, in the meantime, copies of said ordinance shall be published in a newspaper in said incorporated town or circulating therein, once a week for two weeks, and by at least five handbills posted along the proposed improvements ten days before the final passage in council of such ordinance.