New York Laws
Article 12 - District and Special Improvements
202-B - Increase or Improvement of Facilities.

§ 202-b. Increase or improvement of facilities. 1. Whenever it shall
determine it to be in the public interest, after a public hearing as
hereinafter provided, the town board may acquire or construct on behalf
of a water, water storage and distribution, ambulance, sewer, sewage
disposal or drainage district additional facilities therefor and
appurtenances thereto, other than the construction of a lateral sewer,
drain or water main authorized to be constructed pursuant to section one
hundred ninety-nine, and including additional lands or interests in
lands, or may improve or reconstruct existing facilities and
appurtenances. The town board shall cause a map and plan of the proposed
improvement together with an estimate of the cost to be prepared by a
competent engineer duly licensed by the state of New York. When the map
and plan and estimate of cost has been completed, the town board shall
call a public hearing thereon and cause a notice thereof to be published
and posted in the manner prescribed in section one hundred ninety-three.
Such notice shall describe in general terms the proposed improvement or
the location of the lands to be acquired, shall specify the estimated
expense thereof and state the time when and place where the board will
meet to hear all persons interested in the subject matter thereof. If
the town board shall decide, after such hearing and upon the evidence
given thereat, that it is in the public interest to acquire or construct
the proposed improvement, the board shall direct the engineer to prepare
definite plans and specifications, and to make a careful estimate of the
expense, and, with the assistance of the town attorney or an attorney
employed for that purpose, to prepare a proposed contract for the
execution of the work. Thereupon the said board shall examine such
definite plans, specifications, estimate and the proposed contract, and
may reject the same or make such modifications and changes therein as
shall seem necessary and desirable, and adopt the same and cause the
improvement to be constructed or acquired all in the same manner as
hereinbefore provided for the construction of trunk sewers, drains and
water systems. In case the purchase of lands only is involved, the town
board, if it is determined to be in the public interest, may proceed to
purchase such lands.

In like manner, the town board may, after a public hearing held upon
due notice, replace obsolete, inadequate, damaged, destroyed or worn-out
apparatus and equipment or acquire additional apparatus and equipment.
Any cost or expense incurred pursuant to the authority granted by this
section shall be a charge against the district and assessed, levied and
collected in the same manner as other charges against the particular
district. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the
financing of such cost or expense pursuant to the provisions of the
local finance law.

2. The town board may, on behalf of a park, public parking, ambulance,
lighting, snow removal, refuse and garbage, public dock, watershed
protection improvement district, or beach erosion control district, and
within the limitations of section one hundred ninety-eight of this
chapter, acquire additional apparatus and equipment and replace
obsolete, inadequate, damaged, destroyed or worn-out apparatus and
equipment, and it may construct additional facilities and appurtenances
thereto or reconstruct or replace obsolete, inadequate, damaged,
destroyed or worn-out facilities and appurtenances thereto. Such
expenditure shall be authorized in the manner provided in subdivision
one of this section, except that the map and plan described by said
subdivision one shall not be required. However, nothing herein contained
shall be construed to limit or supersede the provisions of section
seventy-two hundred three of the education law.

3. The permission of the state comptroller shall not be required for
such expenditure, except as hereinafter provided in subdivision five,
nor shall the town board be limited by the maximum amount proposed to be
expended as stated in the petition, or in the final order, if the town
board proceeded under article twelve-A of this chapter, or, in the case
of a water storage and distribution district or sewage disposal
district, the notice of hearing, for the establishment or extension of
the district and the construction of the original improvement, but the
town board shall not incur any expense in excess of the amount stated in
the notice of hearing.

4. The powers hereinbefore provided in subdivisions one and two of
this section may be exercised by the town board on behalf of two or more
districts jointly, provided that such districts are wholly situated in
the town, and whether or not the districts were established for the same
purpose. The notice of hearing shall be published and the hearing held
in the manner provided in subdivision one of this section. The cost,
including both debt service and operation and maintenance, shall be
annually apportioned among the districts by the town board, and the
amounts so apportioned shall be levied and collected in each district as
provided in sections two hundred two and two hundred two-a hereof.

5. In any such district which is located in a town wholly or partly
within the Adirondack park and which contains state lands assessed at
more than thirty per centum of the total assessed valuation of the
district as determined from the assessment rolls of the town, as
completed from time to time, no such expenditure shall be made or
contract let for the purposes authorized in this section, unless the
state comptroller, on behalf of the state, shall consent to such
expenditure.