CHAP. 60 nated; in such case, however, the trustee so appointed shall hold office for the unexpired term of the trustee whose office is made vacant. From and after the organization of the board of trustees as above provided, and the transfer to said Auburn Water District of the water system as provided in section two of this act, the rights and powers of the Auburn Water Commissioners to the control and management of said water system shall cease and terminate. Sec. 5. Organization of board; seal; by-laws; trustees to elect superintendent, treasurer and clerk, and employ other agents, etc.; annual report. Said board of trustees shall organize by electing one of their number president at a meeting to be held within thirty days after this act takes effect, and annually thereafter in the month of March subsequent to the appointment by the city council of the city of Auburn of one trustee as herein provided. Said trustees shall adopt a corporate seal and such by-laws as are necessary for their own convenience and the proper management of the affairs of said Auburn Water District. Said trustees shall choose annually a superintendent, treasurer and clerk, and employ from time to time such other officers, agents and servants as they deem necessary. Said officers, agents and servants shall perform such duties as shall be designated by the trustees, and be subject to removal by the trustees at all times. The treasurer and clerk shall give such bond as the trustees may require. Said trustees shall annually, in the month of March, compile and print a statement of the condition of the property and finances of said district, with an account of all receipts and expenditures. Sec. 6. Powers; municipal court of Auburn given jurisdiction to enforce by-laws. Said Auburn Water District shall have power to adopt by-laws, not inconsistent with the general laws of the state, to prevent pollution of the water of Lake Auburn and to preserve the purity of said water, and may prescribe penalties for the violation thereof, which said by-laws shall have the same force and effect as municipal ordinances, and the municipal court of the city of Auburn shall have jurisdiction of violations thereof. Said Auburn Water District shall have power and authority to complain by bill in equity to the supreme judicial court to enjoin, prevent or restrain any persons, firms or corporations from polluting the water of Lake Auburn, provided such pollution shall tend to corrupt or impair the quality of the water of said Lake Auburn for domestic purposes, or render it injurious to health. Sec. 7. Right of eminent domain conferred. The said Auburn Water District, for the purposes of its incorporation, is hereby authorized to take and hold, as for public uses, by purchase, eminent domain, or otherwise, any land or interest therein, or water rights necessary for erecting and CHAP. 60 maintaining dams, for collecting, storing and holding water, for flowage, for power for pumping its water supply through its mains, for reservoirs, for guarding against pollution and for preserving the purity of the water and water shed, for laying and maintaining pipes, aqueducts and other structures, for taking, distributing, discharging and disposing of water and for rights of way or roadways to its sources of supply, its dams, power and pumping stations, reservoirs, mains, pipes, aqueducts, structures and lands. Sec. 8. Plans of location to be filed in registry of deeds; may correct locations and file new descriptions; notice to be given of all entries. In exercising from time to time the right of eminent domain conferred upon it by law, the said Auburn Water District shall file in the office of the county commissioners of Androscoggin county and cause to be recorded in the registry of deeds in said county plans of the location of all lands or interests therein or water rights, to be taken, with an appropriate description and the names of the owners thereof, if known. When for any reason the district fails to acquire property which it is authorized to take and which is described in such location, or if the location so recorded is defective and uncertain, it may at any time correct and perfect such location and file a new description thereof; and in such case the district is liable in damages only for property for which the owner had not previously been paid, to be assessed as of the time of the original taking, and the district shall not be liable for any acts which would have been justified if the original taking had been lawful. No entry shall be made on any private lands, except to make surveys, until the expiration of ten days from such filing, whereupon possession may be had of all said lands or interests therein or water rights so taken, but title thereto shall not vest in said district until payment therefor. Assessment of damages by county commissioners; procedure on appeals. If any person sustaining damages by any taking as aforesaid shall not agree with said district upon the sum to be paid therefor, either party, upon petition to the county commissioners of Androscoggin county, may have said damages assessed by them; the procedure and all subsequent proceedings and right of appeal thereon shall be had under the same restrictions, conditions and limitations as are or may be by law prescribed in the case of damages by the laying out of highways. Sec. 10. Authorized to erect and maintain pumping stations, dams, etc. Said Auburn Water District is hereby authorized to erect, construct and maintain all power and pumping stations, dams, reservoirs, mains, aqueducts, structures, roadways and fixtures necessary and convenient for its corporate purposes. CHAP. 60 Sec. 11. Authorized to lay pipes in streets. Said Auburn Water District is hereby authorized to lay in and through the streets, roads, ways and highways of the city of Auburn and across private lands therein, and to maintain, repair and replace all such pipes, mains, aqueducts and fixtures as may be necessary and convenient for its corporate purposes; and whenever said district shall lay any pipe, aqueduct or main in any street, road or way it shall cause the same to be done with as little obstruction as practicable to the public travel, and shall at its own expense without unnecessary delay cause the earth and pavement removed by it to be replaced in proper condition. Sec. 12. Crossings of railroad regulated. In case of any crossing of any railroad, unless consent is given by the company owning or operating such railroad as to place, manner and conditions of the crossing, within thirty days after such consent is requested by said district, the public utilities commission shall determine the place, manner and conditions of such crossing; and all work within the limits of such railroad location shall be done under the supervision and to the satisfaction of such railroad company, but at the expense of the district. Sec. 13. May issue bonds and borrow money and issue notes; bonds and notes legal investment for savings banks. The Auburn Water District is hereby authorized, with the permission of the city council of the city of Auburn first obtained, and under the further permission and direction of the public utilities commission, to issue bonds for the purpose of paying or refunding the indebtedness assumed by said district in the acquisition of the property and rights of the Auburn Water Commissioners and the city of Auburn in the creation of said district, and from time to time for the further purpose of the purchase or acquisition of other property and rights, of making extensions, additions and improvements to its water system and to the existing sources of water supply and of securing additional sources of such water supply. Said Auburn Water District is also authorized to borrow money for temporary purposes and to issue therefor the interest-bearing negotiable notes of the district, which said notes shall be payable not later than one year from the date thereof. Said notes and bonds shall be legal obligations of said Auburn Water District, which is hereby declared to be a quasi-municipal corporation within the meaning of section one hundred and five, chapter fifty-one, of the revised statutes, and all the provisions of said section and acts amendatory thereof shall be applicable thereto. Said notes and bonds shall be legal investments for savings banks. Every issue of bonds shall be payable within a term of thirty years. Sec. 14. Bonds, how payable; sinking fund may be created. Bonds CHAP. 60 issued by said Auburn Water District under authority of this act shall be payable in such annual installments as will extinguish each issue in thirty years from its date; and the amount of such annual installment in any year shall not be less than the amount of the principal of said issue payable in any subsequent year; or in lieu of such provision for serial payments, said Auburn Water District shall create a sinking fund by setting aside annually from its income such amount as shall be sufficient with interest accumulations to extinguish and pay at maturity any issue of bonds which contain no provision for serial payment as aforesaid. The money so set aside shall be devoted to the purchase or retirement of the obligations of said district, or invested in securities legal for savings banks in the state of Maine. Sec. 15. Property exempt from taxation. The property, rights and franchises of said district shall be forever exempt from taxation. Sec. 16. Rates, how established and paid. All individuals, firms and corporations, other than the city of Auburn, shall pay to the district the rates established by the board of trustees for the service and water used by them. Said rates shall be uniform within the territory supplied by the district and subject to the approval of the public utilities commission. Sec. 17. Local referendum provided for; form of ballots. This act shall take effect when approved by a majority of all legal voters of the city of Auburn voting at a special meeting to be held on the second Monday in September in the year nineteen hundred and twenty-three. Said meeting shall be called, held and conducted and the results thereof determined in the manner provided for municipal elections in said city of Auburn. The city clerk of the city of Auburn shall prepare suitable ballots upon which shall be printed the following question: "Shall the act to incorporate the Auburn Water District, enacted by the people of Maine at the eighty-first legislature in the year nineteen hundred and twentythree, be accepted?" with the words. printed and arranged thereunder substantially as printed herein. The voters shall indicate their choice by a cross placed in the appropriate square. Sec. 18. Act to take effect for purposes of election 90 days after adjournment of legislature. This act shall take effect in ninety days after the final adjournment of the legislature, so far as necessary to empower the calling and holding of the special meeting authorized in section seventeen herein. Approved March 16, 1923. TOWN OF FOREST CITY—DEXTER GOOD TEMPLARS' HALL. Chapter 61. 475 CHAP. 61 An Act to Repeal the Act Incorporating the Town of Forest City. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine, as follows: Sec. 1. Incorporation of town of Forest City repealed; corporate existence to continue for certain purposes. The act entitled "An Act to incorporate the Town of Forest City," approved February fifteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, is hereby repealed; provided, however, that the corporate existence, powers, duties and liabilities of said town shall survive for the purpose of prosecuting and defending all pending suits and causes of suits to which said town is or may be a party, and all needful processes growing out of the same, and for the further purpose of providing for the payment of all or any judgments, which may be rendered against such town. Sec. 2. Unexpended school funds, how disposed of. All funds unexpended for school purposes at the time when this act is effective out of amounts raised by said town for school purposes or out of amounts paid by the state for school purposes, shall be paid by the treasurer of said town or such other person in whose custody such funds may be, to the treasurer of state. Such amounts, so received, shall constitute a fund for school purposes of which the income only shall be expended and applied for the schooling of children resident within the limits of the present town. Sec. 3. Act effective March 1, 1924. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after the first day of March in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and twenty-four. Approved March 16, 1923. Chapter 62. An Act Relating to the Good Templars' Hall in Dexter. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine, as follows: Sec. 1. Selectmen authorized to convey Good Templars' hall to Plymouth Lodge, I. O. O. F. The selectmen of Dexter, in their capacity of trustees under chapter forty-eight of the private and special laws of eighteen hundred and eighty-one, are hereby authorized to convey to Plymouth Lodge of Dexter, Number Sixty-five, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, all the interest in them vested as trustees as aforesaid in that building in Dexter, which contains the Good Templars' hall in Dexter, including their interest in the lot on which it stands. |