233.325. 1. Whenever a petition, signed by the owners of amajority of the acres of land owned by residents of the countyresiding within the district proposed to be organized, andsetting forth the proposed name of the district, and giving theboundaries thereof and the number of acres owned by each signerand the names of other owners of land residing within suchboundaries so far as known, and the number of acres owned by eachso far as known, and praying for the organization of a specialroad district in accordance with sections 233.320 to 233.445,shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the countycommission thirty days before the beginning of the next regularterm of said commission, the said clerk shall give notice by atleast three publications in some weekly newspaper printed in thecounty, or by at least five handbills put up at public placeswithin the district, of the presentation of said petition, and ofthe date of the beginning of the next regular term of the countycommission at which the same may be heard. Said notices shallcontain the names of at least three signers of said petition andset out the boundaries of said proposed district, and shallnotify all resident owners of land in said proposed district, whomay desire to oppose the formation thereof to appear on the firstday of such regular term of the county commission and file theirwritten remonstrance thereto.
2. All resident landowners owning land within the proposeddistrict may join in one remonstrance, or each such owner mayfile his separate remonstrance, and each remonstrance shall be inwriting and shall state specifically and separately the objectionor objections of the remonstrators to the formation of suchproposed road district, and shall be filed in said countycommission with the clerk thereof on or before the first day ofsaid regular term.
3. On the first day of said term of the county commission,or as soon thereafter as its business will permit, the countycommission shall hear such petition and remonstrance, and maymake any change in the boundaries of such proposed district asthe public good may require and make necessary, and if after suchchanges are made it shall appear to the county commission thatsuch petition is signed or in writing consented to by the ownersof a majority of all the acres of land owned by residents of thecounty residing within the district as so changed, the countycommission shall make an order incorporating such public roaddistrict, and such order shall set out the boundaries of suchdistrict as established.
4. If no remonstrance shall have been filed, or allremonstrances filed are overruled by the county commission, thecommission shall determine whether such petition has been signedby the owners of a majority of the acres of land owned byresidents of the county residing within the district, and if so,shall make an order incorporating the district with theboundaries given in the petition, or such boundaries as may beset forth in an amended petition signed by the owners of amajority of the acres of land owned by residents of the countyresiding within the district, affected thereby; and such amendedpetition may be filed at any time before the making of the orderestablishing a road district, but the boundaries proposed for thedistrict shall not be so changed as to embrace any land notincluded in the notice given by the clerk unless the ownerthereof shall in writing consent thereto, or shall appear at thehearing, and is notified in an open meeting of the countycommission of such fact and given an opportunity to file or joinin a remonstrance.
5. Whenever an order is so made incorporating a public roaddistrict, such district shall thereupon become, by the namementioned in such order, a political subdivision of the state forgovernmental purposes with all the powers mentioned in thissection and such others as may be conferred by law.
(RSMo 1939 § 8837)Prior revisions: 1929 § 8177; 1919 § 10938