The authority shall perform the functions of planning, establishing, developing, constructing, enlarging, improving, maintaining, equipping, operating, regulating, protecting, and policing such airports, air navigation, railroad, and other facilities as are necessary to serve the people of the district and the public generally. The authority may:
(1) have and enjoy perpetual succession;
(2) adopt, use, and alter a corporate seal;
(3) make bylaws for the management and regulation of its affairs, and define a quorum for its meetings, and appoint such subcommittees as it considers appropriate from within and without the authority to advise the authority;
(4) plan, establish, develop, construct, enlarge, improve, maintain, including the power to establish a reasonable reserve for maintenance, equip, operate, regulate, protect, and police its airports and air navigation facilities under such reasonable regulations as the authority may promulgate;
(5) construct, maintain, and extend runways, terminals, maintenance shops, access roads, parking facilities, utilities systems, concessions, accommodations, and other facilities of whatever nature or kind for the comfort and accommodation of air travelers and air freight; purchase and sell supplies, goods, and commodities as an incident to the operation of its airport facilities; and for all these purposes, the authority may, by purchase, gift, devise, lease, eminent domain proceedings, or otherwise, acquire, hold, develop, and use, as well as lease, mortgage, sell, transfer, and dispose of any property, real or personal, or any interest in it, including easements in or over land needed to prevent airport hazards, or land outside the boundaries of its airports and air navigation facilities necessary to permit the removal, elimination, obstruction-marking, or obstruction-lighting of airport hazards, or to prevent the establishment of airport hazards. However, the authority may not dispose of any interest in real property without first notifying the chairman of each of the governing bodies of Florence, Marion, and Dillon counties and conducting a public hearing which must be advertised not less than seven days before the hearing in a newspaper or newspapers of general circulation in the district. For the purpose of this article, "utilities systems" means only facilities for the connection with and the provision of water or sewer services by the water and sewer systems of the City of Florence, its successors, and assigns;
(6) license, lease, sublease, rent, sell, or otherwise provide for the use of any real or personal property of its airport facilities or of facilities auxiliary to it, including the privilege of supplying goods, commodities, things, services, or facilities at the airport by itself or by any qualified persons or corporations, on terms and conditions as its discretion may dictate. The public may not be deprived of its rightful, equal, and uniform use of its airports and air navigation facilities;
(7)(a) promulgate regulations pursuant to and in accordance with Section 55-9-250 and Federal Aviation Regulations, Part 77;
(b) apply to any court of general jurisdiction within the district for the enforcement of the regulation through the means of mandatory injunctions and other remedial proceedings, and these courts are specifically empowered to render mandatory injunctions and other remedial orders as it appears to them to be just and reasonable;
(8) exercise the power of eminent domain for any corporate function through procedure prescribed in Chapter 2, Title 28;
(9) appoint officers, agents, employees, and servants and prescribe the duties of them, including the right to appoint persons charged with the duty of enforcing the regulations promulgated pursuant to the provisions of this article, fix their compensation, and determine if, and to what extent, they must be bonded for the faithful performance of their duties;
(10) employ or contract for services of a technical or professional nature as may be necessary or desirable to the performance of the duties of the authority;
(11) contract for the construction, erection, maintenance, and repair of the facilities in its charge, through any procedure prescribed by law;
(12) acquire, construct, maintain, equip, and operate connecting, switching, terminal, or other railroads. The term "railroad" includes, but is not limited to, tracks, spurs, switches, terminal, terminal facilities, road beds, rights of way, bridges, stations, railroad cars, locomotives, or other vehicles constructed for operation over railroad tracks, crossing signs, lights, signals, storage, administration, and repair buildings, and all structures and equipment which are necessary for the operation of a railroad; and
(13) develop all of the lands leased by, subleased by, owned by, or under the jurisdiction of the authority.
HISTORY: 1990 Act No. 545, Section 3; 1998 Act No. 365, Section 1, eff June 10, 1998; 2012 Act No. 270, Section 5, eff June 18, 2012.
Effect of Amendment
The 1998 amendment, in item (4), deleted "in accordance with Section 55-9-230" following "police"; in item (5), deleted Darlington County from the list of counties whose chairmen must be notified and made nonsubstantive changes; in item (6), inserted "real or" preceding "personal property"; rewrote item (13); and deleted item (14).
The 2012 amendment deleted the designation "(A)" from the first paragraph; substituted "55-9-250" for "55-9-240" in subsection (7)(a); and made other, nonsubstantive, changes.