§ 37-44-108 — Directors - powers and duties

Colorado § 37-44-108

• Jurisdiction: Colorado
• Title 37: Water and
• Art.: Internal Improvement Districts Law of 1923

Text

(1) The directors, having duly
qualified, shall organize as a board, elect a president from their number, and
appoint a secretary and a district treasurer. The board has power, and it is its duty,
to adopt a seal; manage and conduct the affairs and business of the district; make
and execute all necessary contracts; employ such agents, attorneys, officers, and
employees as may be required and prescribe their duties; and generally perform all
acts as shall be necessary to fully carry out the purposes of this article 44. The
board of directors has power to construct, acquire, purchase, or condemn any
drainage canals, reservoir sites, and such inlet and outlet works as may be
necessary, or to acquire, by condemnation or otherwise, the right to enlarge any
reservoir already constructed or partly constructed and to enlarge the inlet and
outlet works thereof, or to purchase or acquire, by proceedings in eminent domain
or otherwise, any reservoir, drainage system, or irrigation system already
constructed or partially constructed and to enlarge and complete the same
adequate to the needs of the district.

(2) No contract or award or judgment in eminent domain involving a
consideration exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars shall be binding until such
contract, award, or judgment has been authorized, ratified, or the payment thereof
approved at an election in the same manner as is provided for the issue of bonds,
and the necessity of submitting such matters to the approval of the electors shall
not be avoided by entering into more than one contract with considerations of less
than twenty-five thousand dollars where the whole transaction actually involved
more than that amount.

(3) The board also has power to promulgate rules regulating the use of the
water owned and controlled by said district, and all water owned by said district
shall be apportioned and distributed for irrigation to each landowner in proportion
to the benefits to said land as determined by the assessments levied against said
land for irrigation purposes as provided in this article.

(4) The board of directors has the further power to lease or rent the use of
water or to contract for the delivery thereof to settlers thereon or occupants of the
public domain; except that, in such case, the board of directors has the further
power to make a contract on behalf of the district with such settlers or occupants
to the effect that any such settler or occupant, upon receiving full title to his land
and upon the payment of his proportional share of the bond assessment and
maintenance charges as fixed and determined by the board of directors of said
district, shall include his land within said district, and such land upon such inclusion
shall be entitled to all the rights and privileges of other lands of said district and
subject to all of the provisions of this article. Before the execution of such contract,
the board of directors shall cause a notice of such contract to be given for three
successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the
office of the district is required to be located, and a hearing upon said contract and
all objections thereto shall be had as provided in this article.

(5) If upon said hearing the board of directors deems it for the best interest
of the district not to execute said contract, the petition shall be rejected, but, if the
board deems it for the best interest of the district that the contract be executed,
the board shall execute said contract, and, in such case, the contract shall be valid
and binding upon all parties thereto. When such settler or occupant has complied
with said contract and obtained title to his land, upon proof of such compliance and
obtaining of title and without any further notice or hearing of the matter, the board
shall enter an order for the inclusion of said lands as provided in this article. If any
settler or occupant fails or refuses to perform said contract, the board of directors,
if it so elects, may rescind the contract and declare a forfeiture of any payments
theretofore made, in which event said land shall no longer be entitled to any of the
benefits to be obtained under said contract and shall not become a part of the
district.

(6) The board of directors further has full power, in order to protect life and
property within the district, to devise, prepare, execute, maintain, and operate any
and all works and improvements provided for by the plan adopted and, to that end,
may employ and secure men and equipment under the general supervision of the
engineer of the district or, in its discretion, may let contracts for such work either in
the whole or in parts. In order to protect life and property, and in order to drain,
protect, or relieve land, which subject to overflow or washing or which is menaced
or threatened by the normal flow, flood, surplus, or overflow of water of any natural
watercourse, stream, canal, or wash, whether perennial, intermittent, or flood, and
in order to effect the protection of the land and other property in the district, the
board of directors is empowered to clean out, straighten, widen, alter, deepen, or
change the course or terminus of any ditch, drain, sewer, reservoir, watercourse,
pond, lake, creek, or natural stream, in or out of said district, necessary for the
proper protection of the lands in said district from overflow, washing, or drainage
by reason thereof.

Legislative History

Source: L. 23: p. 492, � 6. L. 35: p. 955, � 4. CSA: C. 138, � 22. CRS 53: � 149-5-6. C.R.S. 1963: � 150-4-6. L. 2023: (1) amended, (SB 23-057), ch. 53, p. 192, � 10, effective January 1, 2024.