Title 7, Title 7

The board of directors shall designate a depositary or depositaries to have the custody of the funds of the district, all of which depositaries shall give security sufficient to secure the district against possible loss and shall pay the warrants drawn by the auditor for demands …

(1) Whenever the board of directors considers it necessary for the district to incur a bonded indebtedness, other than for indebtedness to refund bonded indebtedness as provided for in 7-13-2332 or revenue or special indebtedness incurred pursuant to 7-13-2333, it shall by resolu…

The maximum term of bonds shall not exceed 40 years.

(1) The board of directors shall fix a date on which an election is held in accordance with 13-1-504 for the purpose of authorizing the bonded indebtedness to be incurred. (2) The board may order as many as two elections each year if: (a) there are no bids within the amount of ap…

(1) The board of directors shall give notice in accordance with 13-1-108 of the holding of the election. (2) The notice must: (a) state the date of the election; (b) state the hours the polls will be open; (c) describe the boundaries of voting precincts, which may include only th…

Every registered elector owning or residing upon real property within such voting precincts, but no others, shall be entitled to vote at the election.

The secretary of the board of directors, as soon as the result is declared, shall enter in the records of such board a statement of such results.

(1) (a) When the board of directors canvasses the vote of a bond election, the board shall determine the approval or rejection of the bond proposition as provided in subsections (1)(b) through (1)(d) after calculating the percentage of qualified electors voting in the bond electi…

The board of directors may sell or dispose of the bonds issued pursuant to 7-13-2321(2) or 7-13-2328 at times or in a manner that it considers to be to the public interest.

Any bonds issued by any district organized under the provisions of this part and part 22 are hereby given the same force, value, and use as bonds issued by any municipality and shall be exempt from all taxation within the state of Montana.

(1) In addition to the powers granted to a district in this part to finance facilities and improvements, a district may issue general obligation bonds for a term of up to 40 years to: (a) provide funds to pay part or all of the cost of acquisition, construction, or improvement of…

(1) (a) District refunding bonds, issued to provide money to refund outstanding bonded indebtedness, may be issued without a vote of the electorate. In order to issue refunding bonds, the board of directors shall adopt a resolution setting forth the facts regarding the outstandin…

(1) The board of directors of the district may authorize the issuance of bonds payable from all or a portion of the revenue of the district or from special assessments levied against benefited property in the district to finance the acquisition, construction, improvement, or exte…

(1) If more than 60% of a district's customers reside within the city limits of a municipality and the district purchases its water from the municipality, the district may initiate a consolidation plan with the municipality. (2) The consolidation plan must: (a) provide for adjust…

(1) As provided in this section, the board of directors of any district may correct an erroneous property description of land within the district. (2) The board of directors shall by resolution: (a) set forth the current property description and the proposed property description;…

(1) Except as provided in subsection (5), any portion of any county or any municipality, or both, may be added to any district organized under the provisions of part 22 and this part at any time upon petition presented in the manner provided in part 22 and this part for the organ…

(1) Two or more districts organized under the provisions of part 22 and this part may consolidate at any time upon petitions submitted to the board of directors of each district. The petitions must be in the form required for petitions for the organization of districts. Each peti…

Any territory included within any district formed under the provisions of this part and part 22 and not benefited in any manner by such district or its continued inclusion therein may be excluded therefrom by order of the board of directors of such district upon the verified peti…

(1) The petition referred to in 7-13-2343 shall describe the territory sought to be excluded, shall set forth that such territory is not benefited in any manner by said district or its continued inclusion therein, and shall pray that such territory may be excluded and taken from …

(1) Upon the filing of a petition with the secretary of the district, the secretary shall call a meeting of the board of directors of the district at a time not less than 25 days or more than 50 days after the filing of the petition and cause a notice of the filing of the petitio…

(1) If upon such hearing the board of directors determines that it is for the best interests of the district that the lands mentioned in the petition or some portion thereof be excluded from the district or if it appears that such lands or some portion thereof will not be benefit…

From the time of the making of the order of exclusion, the lands so excluded shall be deemed to be no longer included in the district, but such order of exclusion shall not be taken to invalidate in any manner any taxes or assessments theretofore levied or assessed against the la…

(1) The board of directors of any district formed under the provisions of this part and part 22 may itself initiate the proceedings for the exclusion from the district of any land or lands which it may not be for the best interests of the district to be included or which may not …

(1) The board of directors may establish one or more subdistricts within a district to provide for and finance the cost of water or sewer projects, improvements, or extensions that would benefit land in the subdistrict but not other land in the district. Before establishing a sub…

The board administering and operating the district shall submit the minutes of its proceedings for electronic storage as provided in 7-1-204.

(1) A district may be dissolved as provided in 7-13-2352 or this section. (2) Upon receipt of a petition to dissolve the district, signed by more than 50% of the property owners of the district, the board of directors shall set a date for a public hearing on dissolution of the di…

(1) The board of directors may, after notice is given as provided in 7-1-2121, hold a hearing for dissolution of the district if: (a) the district has no facilities; (b) the district provides no services; (c) the board is not a party to any existing contracts and is not engaged i…

A television district organized under Title 7, chapter 11, part 10, or the former provisions of this part may not perform any acts or take any steps to construct or operate community antenna systems, commonly known and referred to as cable TV systems.

(1) A television district may construct and operate a broadcast FM translator facility (88 to 108 megahertz) as provided in this section. (2) (a) A request to provide FM translator services may be initiated by a petition signed by at least 51% of the registered electors who are r…

As used in this part, the following definitions apply: (1) "District" means a district authorized in 7-13-3002 to provide a system. (2) "Local government" means a consolidated form of local government provided for in Title 7, chapter 3, parts 11 through 13. (3) "System" means a p…

Whenever the public convenience and necessity may require, in order to construct a water supply, sanitary sewer, or storm sewer system within a local government that would serve the inhabitants of the local government, the governing body may create a district to provide the syste…

(1) Before creating a district, the governing body shall pass a resolution of intention to create the district. (2) The resolution must designate: (a) the proposed name of the district; (b) the necessity for the proposed district; (c) a general description of the territory or lan…

In all resolutions, notices, orders, and determinations subsequent to the resolution of intention and notice of improvements, it is sufficient to briefly describe the work or the district and to refer to the resolution of intention for further particulars.

(1) The governing body shall give notice of the passage of its resolution of intention to create the district. (2) The notice must be published as provided in 7-1-2121. A copy of the notice must be mailed to every person, firm, or corporation or the agent of the person, firm, or …

(1) At any time within 30 days after the date of the first publication of the passage of the resolution of intention, any owner of property liable to be assessed for the system may make written protest against the proposed system. (2) The protest must be in writing and be deliver…

If protests against the proposed system are received from the owners of 50% or more of the area in the proposed district, further proceedings may not be taken by the governing body.

(1) At the next regular meeting of the governing body after the expiration of the time within which protest may be made, the governing body shall hear and pass upon all protests, and its decision is final and conclusive. (2) In determining whether or not sufficient protests have …

(1) Before ordering any of the proposed improvements, the governing body shall pass a resolution creating the district in accordance with the resolution of intention introduced and passed by the governing body. (2) The governing body has jurisdiction to order improvements immedia…

(1) The members of the governing body are ex officio commissioners of the district formed under the provisions of this part and have jurisdiction over the system within the district. The governing body is responsible for the proper functioning and maintenance of the system. (2) T…

(1) The governing body may by resolution make changes in the boundaries of a district as they consider reasonable and proper but may not delete any portion of the proposed area if the deletion will create an island of included or excluded lands. (2) The governing body may not del…

The records of the district pertaining to the collection of the operation and maintenance tax levied and the records of the district pertaining to expenditures for construction of the system must be kept and maintained in the office of the treasurer of the local government where …

To defray the cost of installing and maintaining the system under the provisions of this part, the governing body shall adopt the following method of assessment: (1) The governing body shall assess the entire cost of the improvements against the entire district. (2) Each lot or p…

Whenever any lot, piece, or parcel of land belonging to the United States fronts upon the proposed work or improvement or is to be included within the district, the governing body shall in the resolution of intention declare that the lots, pieces, or parcels of land must be omitt…

Nothing in 7-13-3013 permits the assessment of the cost of the system against the lands remaining in the district after a boundary change at a higher rate per square foot than the rate per square foot that would have been assessed if the entire cost of the improvements as estimat…

(1) To defray the cost of making improvements in the district, the governing body shall by resolution levy and assess a tax upon all property in the district created for the purpose of the system by using as a basis for the assessment the method provided for by this part. (2) The…

(1) A notice, signed by the local government clerk and stating that the resolution levying a special assessment to defray the cost of making the improvements is on file in the office of the clerk and is subject to inspection, must be published as provided in 7-1-2121. (2) The not…