N.Y. County Law § 268: Increase and improvement of facilities

§ 268. Increase and improvement of facilities. 1. Whenever the board

of supervisors shall determine it necessary to acquire additional lands

or interests in lands or to acquire or to construct (1) water rights,

wells, reservoirs or basins in order to maintain an adequate source of

water supply, (2) water quality treatment units or devices and related

apparatus and equipment, (3) additional trunk, interceptor and outfall

sewers, pumping stations, sewage treatment and disposal works and

appurtenances, street lateral sewers, or other facilities, (4)

additional drains, pumping stations, or other improvements or to perform

other work of a permanent nature such as dredging, widening or

straightening of streams and water courses, or, (5) refuse disposal and

incinerator plants, including all necessary facilities and equipment

appurtenant thereto; or whenever the board of supervisors shall

determine it necessary for the proper maintenance and service of such

facilities to increase, improve or reconstruct the facilities thereof,

including the acquisition of additional lands, or interests in land

therefor, the board of supervisors shall cause a map and plan of the

proposed improvement together with an estimate of the cost to be

prepared by the county engineer or an engineer duly licensed by the

state of New York. When the map and plan and estimate of cost have been

completed, the board of supervisors shall call a public hearing thereon

and cause a notice thereof to be published and posted in the manner

prescribed in section two hundred fifty-four. Such notice shall describe

in general terms the proposed improvement or the location of the lands

to be acquired, shall specify the estimated expense thereof, and, if

zones of assessment have been established in such county district, shall

specify the proposed allocation of the cost thereof as between such

zones. Such notice shall further state the time when and the place where

the board will meet to hear all persons interested in the subject matter

thereof. After such hearing and upon the evidence given thereat, the

board of supervisors shall determine (a) whether it is in the public

interest to acquire or construct the proposed improvement; and (b) if

zones of assessment have been established in such county district, the

allocation of the cost thereof as between such zones. If the board of

supervisors shall decide that it is in the public interest to acquire or

construct the proposed improvement, the board of supervisors shall

direct the administrative head or body to proceed with the improvement

in the manner provided by section two hundred sixty-two. In case the

purchase of lands only is involved, the board of supervisors may cause

such lands to be purchased for the district.

In Suffolk county, notwithstanding any other general or special law to

the contrary, a sewer district may construct excess capacity for the

treatment and disposal of sewage and scavenger waste from outside the

district if the district has one or more executory contracts with other

districts, municipalities or corporations, public or private, that wish

to avail themselves of such excess capacity.

2. In like manner, the board of supervisors may, after the public

hearing held upon due notice, replace obsolete, inadequate, damaged,

destroyed or worn out apparatus and equipment or acquire additional

apparatus and equipment.

3. Whenever it is proposed or required that the county in which a

district is located shall finance an expenditure or contract for the

purposes authorized in this section by the issuance of the bonds, notes,

certificates or other evidences of indebtedness of the county therefor,

or shall assume the payment of annual installments of debt service on

obligations issued to finance the cost of facilities, pursuant to

section two hundred sixty-two of this article, and the cost to the

typical property or, if different, the cost to the typical one or two

family home is above the average estimated cost to the typical

properties or homes for similar types of expenditures as may be annually

computed by the state comptroller, no such expenditure shall be made or

contract let, unless the state comptroller, on behalf of the state,

shall consent to such expenditure.