Section 66802 - Fire hydrants and water supply(a) The board of supervisors may place, replace, operate, maintain and repair or contract with water companies or municipal authorities for the placing, replacing, operating, maintaining and repairing of fire hydrants to water mains, maintaining pressures approved by fire insurance underwriters along highways, streets, roads and alleys within the township or provide for or acquire a water supply system equipped to supply sufficient water for the protection of property from fire. The moneys necessary for providing or acquiring these fire protection services may be obtained by one of the following methods: (1) The board of supervisors may annually assess the cost of fire protection by an equal assessment upon all property, whether or not exempt from taxation by existing law, within seven hundred and eighty feet of any fire hydrant based upon the assessment of property for county tax purposes.(2) The board of supervisors may annually assess the cost of fire protection by an equal assessment on all property, whether or not exempt from taxation under existing law, abutting upon highways, streets, roads and alleys within seven hundred and eighty feet of any fire hydrant in proportion to the number of feet the property abuts any water main or within seven hundred and eighty feet of any fire hydrant on the water main. The board of supervisors may provide for an equitable reduction from the frontage of lots at intersections or where, due to the irregular shape of lots, an assessment of the full frontage would be inequitable.(3) The board of supervisors may pay the cost for fire protection out of the general township fund. If the board of supervisors elects to pay the cost of fire protection services out of the general fund, any special fire protection districts and annual assessments shall be abolished. All moneys in the separate accounts for the special fire protection districts shall be paid into the general fund.(b) When assessments are made under this section, no assessment shall be made against any farmland or an airport which is privately owned and which is not open nor intended to be open to the public; but vacant lots between built-up sections, either tilled or not tilled, are not farmland.(c) All assessments for fire protection shall be collected by the tax collector under section 3301(a).(d) The assessment may be billed on the annual real estate tax bill for township purposes if authorized by the board of supervisors.1933, May 1, P.L. 103, No. 69, § 1802. Reenacted and amended 1995, Nov. 9, P.L. 350, No. 60, § 1, effective in 180 days.