§ 15-7-502 — General powers and duties; bonds and contracts generally

(a) Any city or town may:
(i) Construct, reconstruct, improve and extend, or
acquire, improve, extend and operate a sewerage system, within
or without its corporate limits and may apply for and accept
loans or grants or any other aid from the United States of
America or any agency or instrumentality thereof under any
federal law to aid in the prevention and abatement of water
pollution, or may borrow money from any other source;
(ii) Issue its revenue bonds for the purposes
specified in paragraph (i) of this subsection, payable solely
from the revenues derived from the operation of the sewerage
system;
(iii) Enter into contracts and agreements with other
local public bodies covering the joint construction, operation
and maintenance of a sewerage system;
(iv) Accept contributions and other aid from
commercial, industrial and other establishments to aid in the
prevention or abatement of water pollution, and in furtherance
of that purpose enter into contracts and agreements with
commercial, industrial and other establishments covering the:
(A) Collection, treatment and disposal of sewage
and industrial wastes from any commercial, industrial and other
establishments;
(B) Use and operation by any city or town of
sewerage collection, treatment and disposal facilities owned by
any commercial, industrial and other establishment; and
(C) Coordination of the sewage collection,
treatment and disposal facilities of the city or town with the
sewage collection, treatment, and disposal facilities of
commercial, industrial and other establishments.
(v) Provide for the operation as a single enterprise
of its waterworks and sewerage systems;
(vi) Issue refunding revenue bonds to refund, pay or
discharge all or any part of its outstanding sewer revenue
bonds, including interest, if any, in arrears or about to become
due, provided the relevant provisions of this article pertaining
to revenue bonds for sewerage systems are applicable in the
authorization and issuance of refunding revenue bonds, including
their terms and security, the bond ordinance, rates and other
aspects of the bonds, except it is not necessary to submit the
proposition of issuing refunding revenue bonds to a vote of the
people of the city or town.
(b) The bonds specified in paragraph (a)(ii) of this
section may be issued with maturities not exceeding forty (40)
years and in the amounts necessary to provide sufficient funds
to pay all the costs of construction, improvement,
reconstruction, extension or acquisition, extension and
improvements of the sewerage system, including engineering,
legal and other expenses, together with interest to a date six
(6) months after the estimated date of completion. The bonds
shall bear interest at a designated rate or rates payable
annually, semiannually or at other designated intervals and
shall mature at a time or serially at times in regular numerical
order at annual or other designated intervals in amounts
designated and fixed by the governing body. Bonds issued under
the provisions of this article are negotiable instruments and
shall be executed by the mayor and clerk and sealed with the
corporate seal of the city or town. If an officer whose
signature appears on the bonds or coupons ceased [ceases] to be
an officer before delivery of the bonds, the signatures remain
valid and sufficient for all purposes the same as if the officer
had remained in office until their delivery.
(c) Repealed by Laws 1985, ch. 209, § 3.
(d) If the governing body determines to operate its
waterworks and sewerage system as a single enterprise pursuant
to paragraph (a)(v) of this section, it may issue revenue bonds
in the manner provided in this article, payable solely from the
revenue derived from the operation of the combined waterworks
and sewerage system to pay for improvements, additions and
extensions to the combined waterworks and sewer systems. If
there are any outstanding bonds payable solely from the revenue
of the waterworks or sewerage systems, or from the combined
waterworks systems, the new bonds may include an amount
sufficient to retire the outstanding bonds or may be made
subordinate to the outstanding bonds with respect to the payment
of principal, interest and security. Any law which requires that
revenue derived from the operation of a waterworks system by a
city or town applies only to the payment of the principal and
interest of water bonds is inapplicable if the municipality
operates its waterworks and sewerage system as a single
enterprise, and in that case the revenues derived from operation
of the water system may be used to retire either water bonds or
sewerage system bonds.