Municipal mosquito control; costs to owner and municipality

§ 1501. Municipal mosquito control; costs to owner and municipality. 1. Whenever the board of health of a municipality shall determine that any accumulation of water wherein mosquito larvae breed, constitutes a nuisance or a danger or injury to life or health, the owner or owners of the premises on which the breeding place is located shall bear the expense of its suppression or removal, or so much thereof as the local board of health shall determine to be equitable as hereinafter provided.

2. If the local board of health of a municipality shall determine that, owing to the natural conditions which are favorable to the breeding of mosquitoes and owing to the benefit to be secured to the public by the suppression of such conditions, a part of the expense of such suppression or removal shall be borne by the owner of such premises and a part thereof by the municipality wherein the premises are situated, such owner or occupant may proceed to suppress or remove such breeding place and shall be reimbursed by the municipality for such proportion of the reasonable expense of such suppression or removal as the board of health shall have determined should be borne by the municipality.

3. For the purpose of ascertaining the actual cost of such suppression or removal, the board of health of the municipality or its duly authorized agents may at all times have access to the premises whereon the work is being carried on; and the owner of the premises shall furnish to such board of health such information as the board of health may deem necessary or desirable for the purpose of ascertaining such actual cost.

4. If in any such case the owner of the premises shall not proceed, within a reasonable time, to suppress or remove such breeding place, the board of health of the municipality may proceed to suppress and remove the same, and for such proportion of the expense of such suppression and removal as the board of health shall have determined to be equitable, an action may be maintained against such owner, and the same shall become a first lien upon the premises.