(1) In addition to the powers which it may now have, any
municipality, without any election of the qualified electors thereof, has power under
this part 4:
(a) To acquire by gift, purchase, lease, or exercise of the right of eminent
domain, to construct, to reconstruct, to improve, to better, and to extend water
facilities or sewerage facilities or both, wholly within or wholly without the
municipality or partially within and partially without the municipality, and to acquire
by gift, purchase, or the exercise of the right of eminent domain lands, easements,
and rights in land in connection therewith;
(b) To operate and maintain water facilities or sewerage facilities or both for
its own use and for the use of public and private consumers and users within and
without the territorial boundaries of the municipality, but no water service or
sewerage service or combination of them shall be furnished in any other
municipality unless the approval of such other municipality is obtained as to the
territory in which the service is to be rendered;
(c) To accept loans or grants or both from the United States under any
federal law in force to aid in financing the cost of engineering, architectural, or
economic investigations or studies, surveys, designs, plans, working drawings,
specifications, procedures, or other action preliminary to the construction of water
facilities or sewerage facilities or both;
(d) To accept loans or grants or both from the United States under any
federal law in force for the construction of necessary water facilities or sewerage
facilities or both;
(e) To enter into joint operating agreements, contracts, or arrangements with
consumers concerning water facilities or sewerage facilities or both, whether
acquired or constructed by the municipality or consumer, and to accept grants and
contributions from consumers for the construction of water facilities or sewerage
facilities or both. When determined by its governing body to be in the public interest
and necessary for the protection of the public health, any municipality is authorized
to enter into and perform contracts, whether long-term or short-term but in no
event exceeding fifty years, with any consumer for the provision and operation by
the municipality of sewerage facilities to abate or reduce the pollution of waters
caused by discharges of wastes by a consumer and the payment periodically by the
consumer to the municipality of amounts at least sufficient, in the determination of
such governing body, to compensate the municipality for the cost of providing,
including payment of principal and interest charges, if any, and of operating and
maintaining the sewerage facilities serving such consumer.
(f) To prescribe, revise, and collect in advance or otherwise, from any
consumer or any owner or occupant of any real property connected therewith or
receiving service therefrom, rates, fees, tolls, and charges or any combination
thereof for the services furnished by, or the direct or indirect connection with, or the
use of, or any commodity from such water facilities or sewerage facilities or both,
including, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, minimum charges,
charges for the availability of service, tap fees, disconnection fees, reconnection
fees, and reasonable penalties for any delinquencies, including but not necessarily
limited to interest on delinquencies from any date due at a rate of not exceeding
one percent per month or fraction thereof, reasonable attorneys' fees, and other
costs of collection without any modification, supervision, or regulation of any such
rates, fees, tolls, or charges by any board, agency, bureau, commission, or official
other than the governing body collecting them; and in anticipation of the collection
of the revenues of such water facilities or sewerage facilities, or joint system, to
issue revenue bonds to finance in whole or in part the cost of acquisition,
construction, reconstruction, improvement, betterment, or extension of the water
facilities or sewerage facilities, or both; and to issue temporary bonds until
permanent bonds and any coupons appertaining thereto have been printed and
exchanged for the temporary bonds;
(g) To pledge to the punctual payment of said bonds and interest thereon all
or any part of the revenues of the water facilities or sewerage facilities or both,
including the revenues of improvements, betterments, or extensions thereto
thereafter constructed or acquired, as well as the revenues of existing water
facilities or sewerage facilities or both;
(h) To enter into and perform contracts and agreements with other
municipalities for or concerning the planning, construction, lease, or other
acquisition and the financing of water facilities or sewerage facilities or both and
the maintenance and operation thereof. Pursuant to any such contracts or
agreements, such municipalities may obligate themselves to make payments in
amounts which shall be sufficient to enable any municipality which finances such
water facilities or sewerage facilities or both to meet its expenses, the interest and
principal payments for its bonds, its reasonable reserves for debt service, operation
and maintenance, and renewals and replacements, and the requirements of any
rate covenant with respect to debt service coverage contained in any resolution,
ordinance, or other security instrument. Such contracts or agreements may contain
such other terms and conditions as the municipalities may determine, including but
not limited to provisions whereby a municipality is obligated to pay for the output,
capacity, or use of any project irrespective of whether such output, capacity, or use
is produced or delivered to the municipality or whether any project contemplated
by any such agreement is completed, operable, or operating, and notwithstanding
suspension, interruption, interference, reduction, or curtailment of the output, use,
or service of such project. Subject to local charter and state constitutional
limitations, such contracts or agreements may also provide that if one or more of
the municipalities default in the payment of its obligations under any such contract
or agreement, the remaining municipalities which also have such agreements shall
be required to accept and pay for, and shall be entitled proportionately to use or
otherwise dispose of, the output, capacity, or use of the project contracted for by
the defaulting municipalities. The obligations of a municipality under such
contracts or agreements shall either constitute special obligations of the
municipality, payable solely from the revenues and other moneys derived by the
municipality from its water facilities, sewerage facilities, or both, and shall be
treated as expenses of operating such facilities or, in the discretion of such
municipality and subject to satisfaction of any requirements of law governing or
limiting the incurrence of debt by such municipality, shall constitute a general
obligation of such municipality. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 6 (3) of
article XI of the state constitution, where such contract or agreement is to
constitute a general obligation of such municipality and where such contract or
agreement provides that the municipality shall be required to accept and pay for
the output, capacity, or use of the project contracted for by a defaulting
municipality, such contract or agreement shall not be entered into unless the
question of incurring a general obligation for such project has been submitted to
and approved at an election conducted by such municipality in accordance with the
election laws applicable to such municipality. Any such municipalities so
contracting may also provide in any contract or agreement for a board, commission,
or such other body as they deem proper for the supervision and general
management of the water facilities or sewerage facilities or both and for the
operation thereof and may prescribe its powers and duties, including the power to
issue revenue bonds pursuant to this part 4, and fix the compensation of the
members thereof. For the purposes of this paragraph (h), municipality means a
municipality as defined in part 1 of article 1 of this title and any other political
subdivision of this state, including any entity formed pursuant to intergovernmental
contract or agreement, authorized by any law of this state to acquire, operate, and
maintain the facilities which are the subject of such contract or agreement.
(i) To make all contracts, execute all instruments, and do all things
necessary or convenient in the exercise of the powers granted in this section, or in
the performance of its covenants or duties, or in order to secure the payment of its
bonds if no encumbrance, mortgage, or other pledge of property, excluding any
pledged revenues, of the municipality is created thereby, and if no property, other
than money, of the municipality is liable to be forfeited or taken in payment of said
bonds, and if no debt on the credit of the municipality is thereby incurred in any
manner for any purpose; and
(j) To issue water or sewer or joint water and sewer refunding revenue bonds
to refund, pay, or discharge all or any part of its outstanding water or sewer or joint
water and sewer revenue bonds issued under this part 4 or under any other law,
including any interest thereon in arrears or about to become due, or for the purpose
of reducing interest costs, effecting a change in any particular year or years in the
principal and interest payable thereon or in the related utility rates to be charged,
effecting other economies, or modifying or eliminating restrictive contractual
limitations appertaining to the issuance of additional bonds or to any municipal
water facilities or sewerage facilities, or both, as provided in section 31-35-412.