278.100. Establishment of soil and water conservation districts. - Missouri Statutes

Establishment of soil and water conservation districts.

278.100. 1. Whenever the state soil and water districtscommission shall receive from any county or any township ortownships thereof a petition declaring that the saving of thesoil and water in that county or in the specified township ortownships is in their opinion a public necessity, said petitionbeing signed by not less than twenty-five land representatives ineach township or by fifty percent of the land representatives, ifthere are less than fifty land representatives in any township inthe area covered by the petition, the soil and water commission,when satisfied that such petition is valid, shall call for andconduct within the area described by such petition, a publichearing of land representatives within that area, on the questionof establishing that area as a soil and water conservationdistrict. If from this hearing it shall appear to the soil andwater commission that there is a general desire for establishingas a soil and water district the county or the specified townshipor townships, the commission shall without delay determine by asurvey of the conditions of farm land in the county or specifiedtownship or townships whether the establishment of that area as asoil and water conservation district is actually necessary andadministratively feasible. Upon reaching a favorable conclusionon these matters, the commission shall call for and conduct, orcause to be conducted, a referendum by ballot of landrepresentatives within that area, on the question of establishingthe county or the specified township or townships as a soil andwater conservation district.

2. If a majority of all land representatives voting in thisreferendum, do vote in favor of this establishment, and if in thejudgment of the soil and water commission the total number ofvotes cast does amount to a substantial expression of opinion,the soil and water commission shall at once declare the county ortownship, or townships thereof, as specified by the referendum,to be established as a soil and water conservation district; butif these provisions are not met, the soil and water commissionshall at once declare the question of establishment to have beenlost, although another referendum on this question may be calledby the soil and water commission for this area at any time aftertwo years from the date of this declaration, provided thecommission meanwhile has received evidence of a more generaldesire for the establishment of a soil and water district forthis area. Subsequent to the establishment of a township ortownships as a soil and water district any other township ortownships in the same county may be added to this soil and waterdistrict by the procedure used for the first establishment.

(L. 1943 p. 839 § 4, A.L. 1961 p. 31)