(1) Any contiguous area situated within any county of the state, and not being situated within the corporate boundaries of any existing municipality, and having no adequate water system, sewer system, garbage and waste collection and disposal system, or fire protection facilities serving such area, may become incorporated as a water district, as a sewer district, as a garbage and waste collection and disposal district, as a fire protection district, as a combined water and sewer district, as a combined water and garbage and waste collection and disposal district, as a combined water and fire protection district, or as a combined water, sewer, garbage and waste collection and disposal and fire protection district, in the manner set forth in the following sections.
(2) If the certificated area of a nonprofit, nonshare corporation chartered under the Mississippi Nonprofit Corporation Act for the purpose of owning and operating rural waterworks lies in one (1) county, the corporation may become incorporated as a water district in the manner set forth in Section 19-5-153(3). If the nonprofit, nonshare corporation’s certificated area lies in more than one (1) county, the procedure in Section 19-5-164 shall be used.
(3) Whenever a majority of the landowners of any such district, excluding lands owned by the state, shall sign and file with the clerk of the chancery court by which such district was organized, or in the county in which such district was organized, a petition for the dissolution of such district, it shall be the duty of the clerk to give notice thereof by publishing the notice for three (3) consecutive weeks in a newspaper published in the county, or in each of the counties in which lands of the district lie.
Such notice shall be addressed to all persons interested in the district and shall command them to appear before the chancery court at a place named within the chancery court district on a day certain in term time, or before the chancellor in vacation, not earlier than twenty (20) days nor more than sixty (60) days after the date of the first publication of the notice, and show cause, if any they can, why the district should not be dissolved. Upon the first publication of such notice, all proceedings of every kind of the district and of the commissioners of the district shall be discontinued until the hearing of such cause as herein provided.
Such chancery court, or the chancellor thereof in vacation, shall take jurisdiction of such cause and shall hear the same on the return day thereof in the same manner as other causes in chancery.
If upon the hearing of such cause it appears that it is to the best interests of the landowners of the district that such district be dissolved, such court or chancellor shall enter an order dissolving the district, decreeing that no further expenses or indebtedness be incurred or contracted by the commissioners of such district.
The commissioners of such district shall immediately and within ten (10) days thereafter deposit with the clerk of the court in which the proceedings are pending all papers, records, and documents of the district.
If it appears that it is not to the best interests of the landowners of the such district that it be dissolved, the chancellor or chancery court shall so decree.
If it appears to the chancery court or chancellor that it is to the best interests of the district that it be dissolved and the decree is entered accordingly, the costs of the proceeding, including solicitors fees as might be allowed by the court, shall be assessed and taxed by the court to be collected on an acreage basis on the lands within the district; and thereafter the district shall be dissolved and shall have no further powers or authorities under the law whatsoever.
If such district is not dissolved, such costs, attorneys fees, and expenses as may be involved shall be assessed against the petitioners; and the district shall be absolved from any liability on account thereof.
Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to impair or affect any contract or other obligation of any such district, but persons holding claims against such district shall, on notice of the dissolution thereof as provided herein, file any such claims as they may have against such district. If the court should decree that such district should be liquidated, all of the claims shall be passed upon by the chancery court or chancellor, as the case may be, and if found just, a levy shall be made upon the lands upon an acreage basis as hereinabove provided, in order to liquidate and pay such indebtedness as may be found due and owing by the district.