Said municipality may enter into and unite in a contract with the county commissioners of the county in which said bridge is located, upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed upon, for the purchase, appropriation, or condemnation of said bridge. The contract may stipulate that the respective municipality and county shall pay a certain part or portion of the whole purchase price or damages allowed by condemnation proceedings. The amounts to be paid by the county shall be paid into the municipal treasury; and, upon said payment, the municipal treasurer shall be liable therefor, and it shall be held and applied solely for the said purpose or purposes. The said agreements may also provide for and include provisions for the maintenance, repair, and building of the said bridge, after its purchase or condemnation by the said municipality.
Before any county shall enter into any contract with any municipality, as aforesaid, a petition of at least twenty taxpayers of the county, where such bridge is situated, shall have been presented to the court of quarter sessions of said county,--representing that the said bridge is necessary to the accommodation of public travel, and that the payment of tolls over such bridge is burdensome to the traveling public, and that a municipality in said county is desirous of purchasing or condemning, maintaining, and using said bridge, and of entering into a contract with said county whereby the said county shall pay a portion of the cost thereof, and praying the said court for an order authorizing and empowering the commissioners of said county to enter into such a contract with said municipality, upon the terms and conditions set forth in said petition,--and the said court shall have granted the prayer of said petition.
53 P.S. § 2626