(a)
(1) Before any street is paved, the commissioners on the board of improvement for a municipal improvement district may give notice to waterworks companies, gas companies, and other public service corporations of their intention to pave the street. They shall, in the notice, fix a reasonable time in which the public service corporations shall make excavations, for the purpose of laying down the service pipes and conduits to the property line.
(2) Thereafter, it shall be unlawful for the public service corporations or for any individual to make any excavations in the streets, except upon condition of restoring the streets to their condition as they were before the excavation was made, and paying to the commissioners of the district, or, in case of their discharge, to the city or town, twenty-five dollars ($25.00) for each excavation.
(b)
(1) The sum of twenty-five dollars ($25.00) shall be paid before the work of excavation is begun.
(2) If the work of excavation is begun without this payment, the commissioners of the district or, in case of their discharge, the city or town may recover the sum of fifty dollars ($50.00) from the party undertaking the excavations, together with all costs and a reasonable attorney's fee, to be taxed by the court.