(a) The council of any municipal corporation owning a system of waterworks or gas or electric plants may sell the system or either of them, together with the right to operate them when they shall determine by resolution adopted by a majority vote of the council that it would be for the best interest of the town or city that the sale be consummated.
(b)
(1) Before any sale shall be consummated, a petition shall be filed with the council within one (1) year after the adoption of the resolution, signed by a majority in value as shown by the last county assessment of the owners of real property within the town or city proposing to make the sale, asking that the sale be made and stating the minimum price at which the sale shall be made, which shall in no event be a sum less than the amount necessary to pay all the outstanding secured indebtedness against the plant or system.
(2) Upon the filing of this petition, the council of the city or town shall give notice by publication once a week for two (2) weeks in a newspaper published in the county in which the city or town may lie, advising the owners of real property within the city or town that on a day therein named the council of the city or town will hear the petition and determine whether those signing it constitute a majority in value of the owners of real property.
(3) At the meeting named in the notice, the owners of real property within the city or town shall be heard before the council, which shall determine whether the signers of the petition constitute a majority in value. The finding of the council shall be conclusive unless within thirty (30) days thereafter suit is brought to review its action in the chancery court of the county in which the city or town lies.
(4) In determining whether those signing the petition constitute a majority in value of the owners of the real property within the city or town, the council and the chancery court shall be guided by the records of deeds in the office of the recorder of the county and shall not consider any unrecorded instrument.