§ 156-93.1. Maintenance assessments and contracts; engineering assistance, construction equipment, etc.; joint or consolidated maintenance operations; water-retardant structures; borrowing in anticipa
Article 7A.
Maintenance.
§ 156‑93.1. Maintenance assessments andcontracts; engineering assistance, construction equipment, etc.; joint orconsolidated maintenance operations; water‑retardant structures;borrowing in anticipation of revenue.
(a) The board of drainage commissioners may annually levymaintenance assessments in the same ratio as the existing classification of thelands within the district. The amount of these assessments shall be determinedby the board of drainage commissioners of the district. The proceeds of theseassessments shall be used for the purpose of maintaining canals of the drainagedistrict in an efficient operating condition and for the necessary operatingexpenses of the district. Notice of the meeting at which the board of drainagecommissioners determines the amount of the annual levy shall be mailed to theowners, as shown on the county tax records, of all property subject toassessment, or shall be published once a week for two successive calendar weeksin a newspaper having general circulation in the area. The notice shall besent or published not more than 30 days nor less than 10 days prior to themeeting, and shall state the time, place, and purposes of the meeting. Anyinterested person has the right to be heard at the meeting prior to thedrainage commissioners taking any action on the proposed assessment. In theevent that any interested and aggrieved party disagrees with the saidassessment, he may, within 20 days of the mailing of the notice of theassessment, file with the clerk for the county wherein the proceeding ispending, a notice specifically setting forth his objection. The Secretary ofthe District shall file in the records of the proceeding a certificationsetting forth the date of the mailing of the notice of the annual maintenanceassessments. The clerk shall thereupon notify the senior resident superiorcourt judge of such district who shall set the objection down for hearing atthe earliest possible time. The court shall hear the matter upon theobjections duly set forth in the notice of objection.
The board of drainage commissioners shall have the authority to employengineering assistance, construction equipment, superintendents and operatorsfor the equipment necessary for the efficient maintenance of the canals, or themaintenance may be done by private contract made after due advertisement asrequired for the original construction work.
(b) The board of drainage commissioners of a drainage districtmay join with the commissioners of one or more districts for the purpose ofemploying engineering assistance, equipment, superintendents and equipmentoperators for the maintenance of the canals in the several districts desiringto coordinate their maintenance operations and the drainage districts desiringto coordinate a common maintenance force may have a common office with thenecessary employees for the furtherance of the joint operations formaintenance. The districts may coordinate their work without regard to countylines.
(c) The board of commissioners of a drainage district may,individually or jointly with the commissioners of other drainage districts,purchase, lease, rent, sell, or otherwise dispose of at public or private sale,equipment for the original construction or maintenance of the canals in theindividual or joint districts or the said drainage districts may make contractswith private construction firms for the maintenance and construction of theircanals. Contracts made with private construction companies are to beadvertised as provided for the contract for the original construction of thecanals.
The drainage districts may use the equipment owned by them for thepurpose of maintenance of the canals and the construction of extensions to thesystem of canals in the individual or several drainage districts.
(d) The drainage districts desiring to consolidate theirmaintenance services and equipment may set up a board composed of one memberfrom each district for the purpose of control and use of the personnel andequipment employed on a joint basis, and in all matters coming before the jointboard, the representative of each district shall have a voting strength equalto the proportionate acreage of his drainage district as compared with thetotal acreage of the combined districts.
(e) The collection of the annual maintenance assessments shallbe made by the county tax collector. The board of county commissioners of thecounty in which a drainage district is located shall upon the request of theboard of drainage commissioners of the said district cause to be shown on thetax statement or notice issued by the county to its taxpayers the amount duethe drainage district by the landowners in the same manner as other specialassessments are shown thereon. This amount shall be collected by the countytax collector in the same manner as county taxes and deposited to the credit ofthe district in which the land is located.
(f) The provisions for maintenance as set forth in this Articleand elsewhere in this Subchapter III shall include water‑retardantstructures and the operation of such.
(g) The board of commissioners may borrow money in anticipationof revenue from maintenance assessments, as hereinbefore provided for, fromwhich assessments the loan shall be repaid. The amount which the commissionersmay borrow shall not be limited to the revenues anticipated for any one year. The terms and provisions of such loan shall be approved by the clerk of thesuperior court which approval shall be requested in the form of a petition andorder in the proceeding by virtue of which the district was organized. Theproceeds of said loan shall be used only for purposes set forth in Article 7Aof Chapter 156. (1949, c. 1216;1959, c. 597, s. 4; 1961, c. 614, s. 8; 1989 (Reg. Sess., 1990), c. 959, s. 4;1991, c. 634.)