24-499. Dissolution of districts having no bonded indebtedness; petition, notice and hearing; resolution; funds, disposition; county commissioners' powers as to dormant districts.
Whenever two-fifths (2/5) of the taxpayers residing within the boundaries of any drainage district organized under K.S.A. 24-401 to 24-457, and acts supplemental thereto, which district has no outstanding bonded indebtedness, shall file their written petition with the board of directors of such drainage district requesting the said board of directors of the drainage district to disorganize and dissolve said drainage district, the said board of directors, upon finding such petition sufficient, shall within thirty (30) days designate a time and place for a public meeting of such board of directors to be held within sixty (60) days thereafter to consider such petition and shall give notice thereof to the owners of land within the drainage district by publication of a notice for two (2) weeks in the official county newspaper, the first publication to be not less than twenty-one (21) days prior to the date set for said hearing. Such board of directors shall hold said meeting and all owners of real estate situated within the drainage district and all other parties may attend and shall be heard by said board of directors as to any reasons why such drainage district should or should not be disorganized or dissolved.
After such hearing the board of directors shall have power to adopt a resolution providing that such drainage district (naming it) shall or shall not be disorganized and dissolved and shall file certified copies of such resolution with the secretary of state and the county clerk of the county wherein the drainage district is located. Upon adoption of a resolution to disorganize and dissolve such a drainage district it shall thereupon cease to exist and function except as to distribution of funds on hand, if any. If there be funds, then on hand, not in excess of one thousand dollars ($1,000), the same shall be apportioned on basis of acreage and transferred to the general funds of the townships wherein said drainage district existed, or if in a sum of excess of one thousand dollars ($1,000), the same shall be on basis of the assessed valuation of tangible property, real and personal, assessed in such drainage district in each township in which all or a portion of said drainage district is located, and for year in which the last general revenue levy for said district was levied and extended; and such residue funds of the drainage district shall be transferred and paid over to the township board of highway commissioners, or to the board of county commissioners if in a county where the county road unit system has been adopted. Such funds shall be received by such township board of highway commissioners, or by the county commissioners, as the case may be, and shall (1) be placed in a special fund and used by said commissioners for the purchase of rock or gravel, and for the distribution of rock or gravel to be applied by them, upon public highways within said drainage district boundaries and within said township and county where said drainage district, or a part thereof, is located, or (2) if authorized by the drainage district board, such funds may be placed in the general fund of the township or the county, as the case may be. Where any such drainage district has become dormant and otherwise failed to elect officers and ceased to function as a drainage district, the board of county commissioners of the county wherein the drainage district, or greater area thereof, is located, shall have the same authority herein above conferred upon the board of directors of any such drainage district and shall act herein as if they were in fact the board of directors of the drainage district.
History: L. 1949, ch. 249, § 1; L. 1953, ch. 193, § 1; L. 1965, ch. 240, § 1; April 19.