Page images
PDF
EPUB

GENERAL LAWS OF TEXAS.

31

Erath, Crosby and Kaufman be, and the same are hereby exempted from the provisions and operations of Articles 5002 to 5042 inclusive of Chapter 6, Title CII of the Revised Civil Statutes of 1895 relative to the inspection of hides and animals.

SEC. 2. That all laws and parts of laws in conflict herewith be and the same are hereby repealed.

SEC. 3. The fact that the operation of said provisions of law in said county of Val Verde entails a great and unnecessary expense upon the people and the stockraisers of said county of Val Verde and the crowded condition of the calendar creates an imperative public necessity that the Constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days in each House be suspended and this bill be in force and take effect from and after its passage, and it is so enacted.

[NOTE. The enrolled bill shows that the foregoing Act passed the Senate by the following vote, yeas 24, nays 0; was referred to the House, amended and passed by the following vote, yeas 104, nays 0; and that the Senate concurred in the House amendments by the following vote, yeas 27, nays 0.]

Approved February 20, 1909.

Became a law February 20, 1909.

[The foregoing Act was amended by Chapter 60, General Laws, Regular Session of the Thirty-first Legislature, which became a law March 18, 1909.]

NAVIGATION

S. B. No. 43.]

DISTRICTS-AUTHORIZING
TION OF.

CHAPTER 15.

THE FORMA

An Act to authorize the formation, creation and establishment of navigation districts to improve rivers, bays, creeks and streams, to construct and maintain canals and waterways, to permit of navigation or in aid thereof by the commissioners court of the several counties in this State or by navigation boards; to provide for the creation and organization of navigation boards where a city or cities, or part or parts thereof, acting under special charter are included within the limits and boundaries of said navigation districts and defining the powers of such navigation boards; authorizing the ordering and holding of elections for the purpose of voting on the establishment of such districts and authorizing the issuance of bonds and levy of tax, and the issuance of bonds in payment for such improvements and the maintenance thereof and the levying and collecting of taxes for the payment of such bonds and interest and sinking funds thereon; the appointment of navigation and canal commissioners of such navigation districts for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this Act; granting the right of eminent domain to such navigation districts or navigation and canal commissioners and authorizing the navigation and canal commissioners to acquire by purchase, gift or grant for such district, title to any right of way and other property; authorizing the navigation and canal commissioners to employ engineers, assistant engineers and other employees and to employ counsel; to enter into contract for such improvements; to agree or co-operate with the Government of the United States, the proper department or officer thereof for the carrying out of such improvements or the supervision of the same, and for all things necessary for the maintenance of such districts according to the provisions of this Act; and providing for entering upon lands for surveys and for all the purposes of this Act and prescribing penalties for violation of this Act; repealing all laws and parts of laws in conflict herewith and declaring an emergency.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas:

SECTION 1. One or more districts may hereafter be established in the several counties of this State to be known as navigation districts, in the manner hereinafter provided, and such districts may, or may not, include within their boundaries and limits villages, towns and municipal corporations, or any parts thereof. Such navigation districts when so established may make improvement of rivers, bays, creeks, streams and canals running or flowing through such districts or any part thereof and may construct and maintain canals and waterways to permit of navigation or in aid thereof, may issue bonds in payment thereof as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 2. Upon the presentation to the county commissioners court of any county of this State of a petition (accompanied by the deposit provided for in Section 22 of this Act) signed by twenty-five of the resident property tax payers, or in the event there are less than seventy-five resident property tax payers in the proposed district, then by one-third of such resident property tax payers of any proposed navigation district, praying for the establishment of a navigation district, and setting forth the boundaries of the proposed district accompanied by a map thereof, the general nature of the improvement or improvements proposed, and an estimate of the probable cost thereof, and praying for the issuance of bonds and levy of tax in payment thereof and designating a name for such navigation district, which name shall include the name of the

county, said petitioners shall make affidavit to accompany said petition of their said qualification and the said commissioners court, shall, at the same session when said petition is presented, set same down for hearing at some regular term of said court, or at some special session of said court, called for the purpose, not less than thirty, nor more than sixty days from the presentation of said petition, and shall order the clerk of said court to give notice of the date and place of said hearing by posting a copy of said petition, and the order of the court thereon, in five public places in said county, one of which shall be at the court house door of said county, and four of which shall be within the limits of said proposed navigation district, which said notices shall be posted not less than twenty days prior to the time set for the hearing. The said clerk shall receive as compensation for such services, one dollar for each such notice and five cents per mile for each mile necessarily traveled in posting such notices.

7

In the event the boundaries of the proposed district shall include a city or cities, or a part or parts thereof, acting under special charter granted by the Legislature, the hearing of said petition hereinafter provided for, shall be had before the county judge and members of the commissioners court and the mayor and aldermen or commissioners, as the case may be of said city or cities, and said persons shall constitute a board to be known and designated as the navigation board, to pass upon the petition aforesaid. Each individual member of the said board shall be entitled to a vote. A majority in number of the individuals composing said board shall constitute a quorum, and the action of a majority of the quorum shall control.

In the event the hearing of said petition shall be had before the navigation board, the commissioners court of said county shall set the petition down for hearing not less than thirty, nor more than sixty days from the date of the presentation of said petition without reference to any term of the commissioners court, but said hearing shall be held at the regular place of meeting of the commissioners court and notice shall be given of the hearing in the manner and for the time as herein before provided.

The county clerk shall enter and record the proceedings of the navigation board in a record book kept for this purpose which record shall be a public archive.

The duties and powers herein conferred upon the county judge and members of the commissioners court and upon the mayor and aldermen or commissioners of cities and upon the county clerk and other officers are made a part of the legal duty of said officials which they shall render and perform without additional compensation, unless otherwise provided herein.

SEC. 3. Upon the day set by said county commissioners for the hearing of said petition, any persoon who has taxable property within the proposed district or who may be affected thereby, may appear before the said court or navigation board as the case may be, and contest the creation of said district, or contend for the creation of said district, and may offer testimony in favor of or against the boundaries of the said.

district, to show that the proposed improvement or improvements would or would not be of any public utility and would or would not be feasible or practicable and the probable cost of such improvement or improvements, or as to any other matter pertaining to the proposed district. Said county commissioners court or navigation board, shall have exclusive jurisdiction to hear and determine all contests and objections to the creation of such districts, and all matters pertaining to the creation and establishment of the same and shall have exclusive jurisdiction in all subsequent proceedings of the district when organized, except as hereinafter provided, and may adjourn hearing on any matter connected therewith from day to day and all judgments or decisions rendered by said court or navigation board in relation thereto shall be final, except as herein otherwise provided.

SEC. 4. If at the hearing of said petition it shall appear to the commissioners court or navigation board as the case may be, that the proposed improvement is feasible and practicable, that it would be a public benefit and a public utility, and if the court or navigation board as the case may be shall approve the boundaries of the proposed district as set out in said petition, then the court or navigation board shall so find and shall also find the amount of money necessary for said improvement or improvements and for all expenses incident thereto, and shall determine whether to issue bonds for said full amount or in the first instance for a less amount, and shall specify the amount of bonds to issue, the length of time the bonds shall run and the rate of interest said bonds shall bear and cause its findings to be recorded in the records of the commissioners court or minutes of the navigation board as the case may be. If the court or navigation board shall find that the proposed improvement is feasible and practicable, that it would be a public benefit and a public utility, but does not approve the boundaries of the proposed districts as set forth in the petition, the court or navigation board shall so find and shall also find the amount of money necessary for said improvement, or improvements and for all expenses incident thereto and shall determine whether to issue bonds for said full amount or in the first instance for a less amount and shall specify the amount of bonds to issue, the length of time the bonds shall run and the rate of interest said bonds shall bear and cause its findings to be entered of record, together with a map thereof. Providing however that before any change is made by said court or navigation board as the case may be of the boundaries, notice and a hearing thereof shall be given and had as provided for in Section 2 of this Act. If the court or navigation board shall find that the proposed improvement is not feasible or practicable. or that it would not be a public benefit or public utility and that the establishment of such navigation district is therefore unnecessary, then the court or navigation board shall enter such findings of record and dismiss the petition at the cost of petitioners, but the order dismissing said petition shall not prevent or conclude the presentation at a later date of a similar petition.

SEC. 5. After the hearing upon the petition, as herein provided, if the court or navigation board, as the case may be, shall find in favor of

the petitioners for the establishment of a navigation district according to the boundaries as set out in said petition, or as changed or modified as above provided by the said court or navigation board, the commissioners court of said county shall order an election in which order provision shall be made for submitting to the qualified property tax paying voters resident in said district whether or not such navigation district shall be created and whether or not a tax shall be levied sufficient to pay the interest and provide a sinking fund sufficient to redeem said bonds at maturity, said order specifying the amount of bonds to be issued together with the length of time the bonds shall run and the rate of interest said bonds shall bear as said matters have been determined by the commissioners court or navigation board as the case may be under the provisions of Section 4 of this Act. Said election to be held within such proposed navigation district at the earliest legal time, at which election there shall be submitted the following propositions and none other: "For the navigation district, and issuance of bonds and levy of tax in payment thereof." "Against the navigation district, and issuance of bonds and levy of tax in payment thereof." Provided that said bonds shall not exceed in amount one-fourth of the assessed valuation of the real property of such district as made by the last annual assessment thereof for State and county taxation.

SEC. 6. Notice of such election stating the time and place of holding the same, shall be given by the clerk of the county court by posting notices thereof in four public places in such proposed navigation district and one at the court house door of the county in which such district it situated, for thirty days prior to the date set for the election. Such notices shall contain the proposition to be voted upon as set forth in Secion 5 of this Act, and shall also specify the purpose for which said bonds are to be issued, and the amount of said bonds and shall contain a copy of the order of the court ordering the election.

SEC. 7. The manner of conducting said election shall be governed by the election laws of the State of Texas, except as herein otherwise provided. None but resident property tax payers who are qualified voters of said proposed district shall be entitled to vote at any election on any question submitted to the voters thereof by the county commissioners court at such election. The county commissioners court shall create and define by an order of the court the voting precincts in the proposed navigation district and shall name a polling place or places within said precincts taking into consideration the convenience of the voters in the proposed navigation district, and shall also select and appoint the judges. and other necessary officers of the election, and shall provide one and one-half times as many ballots as there are qualified resident property tax paying voters within such navigation district. Said ballot shall have printed thereon the words and none others: "For the navigation district, and issuance of bonds and levy of tax in payment thereof." "Against the navigation district, and issuance of bonds and levy of tax in payment thereof."

SEC. 8. Every person who offers to vote in any election held under the provisions of this Act shall first take the following oath before the

« PreviousContinue »