Section 1. That all municipal corporations of this Commonwealth shall have power, whenever it shall be deemed necessary in the laying out, opening, widening, extending, grading or changing grade or lines of streets, lanes or alleys, the construction of bridges and the piers and abutments therefor, the construction of slopes, embankments and sewers, the changing of water courses or vacation of streets or alleys, to take, use, occupy or injure private lands, property or material, and in case the compensation for the damages or the benefits accruing therefrom have not been agreed upon, any court of common pleas of the proper county, or any law judge thereof in vacation, on application thereto by petition by said municipal corporation or any person interested, shall appoint three discreet and disinterested freeholders as viewers, and appoint a time not less than twenty nor more than thirty days thereafter when said viewers shall meet upon the line of the improvement and view the same and the premises affected thereby. The said viewers shall give at least ten days' notice of the time of their first meeting by publication in one or more newspapers of said corporation of the county in which it is situate, and where the publication is in more than one newspaper, one of said newspapers may be in the German language, and by handbills posted upon the premises, or otherwise, as the said court shall direct, having regard to the circumstances of the case.
(1 amended June 12, 1893, P.L.459, No.329)