N.Y. Town Law § 187: Exclusion of a fire district from a water supply district

§ 187. Exclusion of a fire district from a water supply district. 1.

Petition. Whenever a fire district shall be located wholly within the

boundaries of a water supply district which shall have no bonded

indebtedness, a written petition as hereinafter provided may be

presented to the town board of the town in which the water supply

district is located asking for the exclusion of the area included in the

fire district from the water supply district. Such petition shall be

signed, and acknowledged or proved in the same manner as a deed to be

recorded, or authenticated in the manner provided in the election law

for the authentication of nominating petitions, by resident taxpayers

owning taxable real property aggregating at least one-half of the

assessed valuation of all the taxable real property of the fire district

owned by resident taxpayers, as such valuations appear upon the latest

completed assessment roll of said town. Such petition shall have

endorsed thereon the approval of a majority of the board of fire

commissioners of such fire district. The town board shall hold a public

hearing upon such petition within the limits of the water supply

district and shall cause a notice thereof to be published and posted in

the same manner provided for hearings held pursuant to section one

hundred seventy-one hereof. Such notice shall contain a description of

the fire district referred to in the petition and specify the time when

and the place where the town board will meet to consider such petition

and to hear all the persons interested in the subject concerning the

same. After a hearing held upon notice as provided hereinbefore, and

upon the evidence given thereat, the town board shall determine whether

it is in the public interest to grant the relief sought. If it is

determined that it be not in the public interest to grant the relief

sought, it shall deny the petition, but if it is determined that it be

in the public interest, it may grant the relief sought by the petition.

2. Filing of determination. Whenever the town board shall adopt a

resolution excluding the area included in a fire district from a water

supply district, the town clerk shall cause a certified copy of such

resolution to be duly recorded in the office of the clerk of the county

in which such fire district is located and a certified copy of such

resolution to be filed with the secretary of the board of fire

commissioners of said district. When so recorded such resolution shall

be presumptive evidence of the regularity of the exclusion of such fire

district from the water supply district. The expense of such recording

shall be a charge against the fire district. The said determination

shall be final and conclusive unless a proceeding for review in the

manner provided by article seventy-eight of the civil practice law and

rules has been commenced within thirty days from the time of filing

thereof.

3. Liability for indebtedness; apportionment of liabilities and

property. If the town board shall grant a petition for the exclusion of

the territory of a fire district from a water supply district and the

territory included within the boundaries of the fire district be so

excluded, such territory within such fire district shall not be relieved

from bearing its proportionate share of any liability or indebtedness

incurred for water supply district purposes while such territory was a

part of such water supply district, and until such liability shall have

been discharged or such indebtedness paid the proportionate share

thereof to which such territory would be liable if it had not been

excluded from the water supply district, in accordance with assessed

valuations as appear on the latest completed assessment roll of said

town, shall be added to the annual budget of the fire district by the

town board.

The proportion of the liability created or the indebtedness incurred

in behalf of the water supply district and payable by a tax against the

property within the fire district which shall be assumed by the fire

district and the apportionment of the personal and real property

belonging to the water supply district shall be determined according to

the relative assessed valuation of the personal and real property in

that portion of the water supply district without the fire district, and

that portion within the fire district, in the following manner: The town

board of the town when acting as a board for the water supply district,

exclusive of a member who may reside in the fire district and the board

of commissioners of the fire district being unable to agree within six

months after the exclusion of the fire district from the water supply

district becomes final upon the proportion of the debt and the

apportionment of the personal and real property, then the supreme court

shall have power to determine such division and to enforce such award,

division and determination as shall be made in the premises in a suit in

equity to be brought in the name of either of said parties.