N.Y. Town Law § 202-b: Increase or improvement of facilities

§ 202-b. Increase or improvement of facilities. 1. Whenever it shall

determine it to be in the public interest, after a public hearing as

hereinafter provided, the town board may acquire or construct on behalf

of a water, water storage and distribution, ambulance, sewer, sewage

disposal or drainage district additional facilities therefor and

appurtenances thereto, other than the construction of a lateral sewer,

drain or water main authorized to be constructed pursuant to section one

hundred ninety-nine, and including additional lands or interests in

lands, or may improve or reconstruct existing facilities and

appurtenances. The town board shall cause a map and plan of the proposed

improvement together with an estimate of the cost to be prepared by a

competent engineer duly licensed by the state of New York. When the map

and plan and estimate of cost has been completed, the town board shall

call a public hearing thereon and cause a notice thereof to be published

and posted in the manner prescribed in section one hundred ninety-three.

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 state the time when and place where the board will

meet to hear all persons interested in the subject matter thereof. If

the town board shall decide, after such hearing and upon the evidence

given thereat, that it is in the public interest to acquire or construct

the proposed improvement, the board shall direct the engineer to prepare

definite plans and specifications, and to make a careful estimate of the

expense, and, with the assistance of the town attorney or an attorney

employed for that purpose, to prepare a proposed contract for the

execution of the work. Thereupon the said board shall examine such

definite plans, specifications, estimate and the proposed contract, and

may reject the same or make such modifications and changes therein as

shall seem necessary and desirable, and adopt the same and cause the

improvement to be constructed or acquired all in the same manner as

hereinbefore provided for the construction of trunk sewers, drains and

water systems. In case the purchase of lands only is involved, the town

board, if it is determined to be in the public interest, may proceed to

purchase such lands.

In like manner, the town board may, after a public hearing held upon

due notice, replace obsolete, inadequate, damaged, destroyed or worn-out

apparatus and equipment or acquire additional apparatus and equipment.

Any cost or expense incurred pursuant to the authority granted by this

section shall be a charge against the district and assessed, levied and

collected in the same manner as other charges against the particular

district. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the

financing of such cost or expense pursuant to the provisions of the

local finance law.

2. The town board may, on behalf of a park, public parking, ambulance,

lighting, snow removal, refuse and garbage, public dock, watershed

protection improvement district, or beach erosion control district, and

within the limitations of section one hundred ninety-eight of this

chapter, acquire additional apparatus and equipment and replace

obsolete, inadequate, damaged, destroyed or worn-out apparatus and

equipment, and it may construct additional facilities and appurtenances

thereto or reconstruct or replace obsolete, inadequate, damaged,

destroyed or worn-out facilities and appurtenances thereto. Such

expenditure shall be authorized in the manner provided in subdivision

one of this section, except that the map and plan described by said

subdivision one shall not be required. However, nothing herein contained

shall be construed to limit or supersede the provisions of section

seventy-two hundred three of the education law.

3. The permission of the state comptroller shall not be required for

such expenditure, except as hereinafter provided in subdivision five,

nor shall the town board be limited by the maximum amount proposed to be

expended as stated in the petition, or in the final order, if the town

board proceeded under article twelve-A of this chapter, or, in the case

of a water storage and distribution district or sewage disposal

district, the notice of hearing, for the establishment or extension of

the district and the construction of the original improvement, but the

town board shall not incur any expense in excess of the amount stated in

the notice of hearing.

4. The powers hereinbefore provided in subdivisions one and two of

this section may be exercised by the town board on behalf of two or more

districts jointly, provided that such districts are wholly situated in

the town, and whether or not the districts were established for the same

purpose. The notice of hearing shall be published and the hearing held

in the manner provided in subdivision one of this section. The cost,

including both debt service and operation and maintenance, shall be

annually apportioned among the districts by the town board, and the

amounts so apportioned shall be levied and collected in each district as

provided in sections two hundred two and two hundred two-a hereof.

5. In any such district which is located in a town wholly or partly

within the Adirondack park and which contains state lands assessed at

more than thirty per centum of the total assessed valuation of the

district as determined from the assessment rolls of the town, as

completed from time to time, no such expenditure shall be made or

contract let for the purposes authorized in this section, unless the

state comptroller, on behalf of the state, shall consent to such

expenditure.