CHAP. 290 -costs and expenses, how paid. -findings shall be final. -excep tions as to rulings of law. -excep tions shall be -when exceptions shall be entered. thereupon, after hearing, make final decree upon the whole matter, including the transfer of the properties and franchises, jurisdiction over which is hereby conferred with the same power to enforce said decree as in equity cases. All the costs and expenses arising under such petition and appraisal shall be paid and borne as directed by the court in said final decree. The findings of such justice as to such costs and expenses and their apportionment shall be final. In all other matters the justice so making such final decree shall, upon request of any of the parties, make separate findings of law and fact. All such findings of fact shall be final, but any party aggrieved may take exceptions to any rulings of law so made, the same to be accompanied by only such parts of the case as are necessary to a clear understanding of the questions raised thereby. Such exceptions shall be claimed on the docket within ten days after such final decree is signed, entered and filed, and notice thereof has been given by the clerk to the parties or their counsel, and said exceptions so claimed shall be made up, allowed and filed within said time unless further time is granted by the court or by agreement of the parties. They shall be entered at the next term of the law court to be held after the filing of such exceptions and there heard unless otherwise agreed, or the law court shall for good cause order a further time for hearing thereon. Upon such hearing the law court may confirm, reverse or modify the decree of the court below or remand the cause for further proceedings, as it seems proper. During the pendency of such exceptions the cause shall remain on the docket of the court below, marked "law," and decree shall be entered thereon by a single justice, in term time or in vacation, in accordance with the certificate and opinion of the law court. Before the aforesaid plant, property and franchises are transferred in accordance with such final decree, and before the payment therefor, the court sitting in said county of Oxford, by a single justice thereof, as hereinbefore provided, shall, upon motion of any party, after notice and hearing, take account of all receipts and expenditures properly had and incurred by said water companies belonging to the period from and after November first, nineteen hundred and eleven, and all net rents. and profits accruing thereafter, and shall order the net balance due to any party to be added to or deducted from the amount to be paid under such final decree, as the case may be. All findings of law or fact by such single justice at such hearings shall be final. The amount to be paid for the plant of each of the aforesaid water companies shall be paid to the trustee of the mortgage of each respective company and by such trustee CHAP. 290 distributed pro rata upon the outstanding bonds secured by Section 12. All valid contracts, made in good faith, now existing between said defendant companies and any person or corporation for supplying water within the towns named in section one shall be assumed and carried out by said Rumford and Mexico Water District. -vacancy on board of ap how filled. Existing contracts shall be carried out. Water disborrow trict may mon ey and issue Section 13. For accomplishing the purposes of this act, said water district, through its trustees, is authorized to borrow money temporarily and to issue therefor the interest-bearing notes. negotiable notes of the district, and for the purpose of paying or refunding the indebtedness so created, of paying any necessary expenses and liabilities, incurred under the provisions of this act, including the expenses incurred in the creation of the district, in acquiring the property and franchises of the Rumford Falls Light & Water Company, Union Construction Company, the Virginia Spring Water Company and Mexico Water Company, by purchase or otherwise, or in the purchase of acquisition of the property and franchises of said defendant companies, of securing sources of supply, taking water and lands, paying damages, laying pipes, constructing, maintaining СНАР. 290 -may issue bonds. and operating a water plant, and making renewals, extensions, additions and improvements to the same, the said water district, through its trustees, may from time to time issue bonds of the district to an amount or amounts necessary in the judgment of the trustees therefor. Said notes and bonds shall be legal obligations of the water district, which is hereby declared to be a quasi municipal corporation within the meaning of section ninety-six, chapter forty-seven of the revised statutes, and -bonds legal all the provisions of said section shall be applicable thereto. The said notes and bonds shall be legal investments for savings banks. -declared to be quasi municipal corporation. investments for banks. Property exempt from taxation. Water rates. -running expenses. -payment of interest. -sinking fund. -Incidental powers granted. When this act shall take effect. -special meetings. Section 14. The property of said district shall be exempt from all taxation in the town or towns where said water district is located. Section 15. All individuals, firms and corporations, whether private, public or municipal, shall pay to the treasurer of said district the rates established by said board of trustees for the water used by them, and said rates shall be uniform within the territory supplied by the district. Said rates shall be so established as to provide revenue for the following purposes: I. To pay the current expenses for operating and maintaining the water system. II. To provide for the payment of the interest on the indebtedness created by the district. III. To provide each year a sum equal to not less than one-half of one per cent nor more than five per cent of the entire indebtedness created by the district, which sum shall be turned into a sinking fund and there kept to provide for the extinguishment of said indebtedness. The money set aside for the sinking fund shall be devoted to the retirement of the obligations of the district or invested in such securities as savings banks are allowed to hold. Section 16. All incidental powers, rights and privileges necessary to the accomplishment of the main object herein set forth are granted to the public municipal corporation hereby created. Section 17. This act shall take effect when approved by a majority vote of the legal voters of that portion of said water district comprised by the Rumford Falls Village Corporation, and by a majority vote of the legal voters of that portion of said water district comprised by that part of the town of Mexico designated in section one, at special meetings respectively in the Mexico section and in the Rumford Falls village section. of said water district, to be held on the third Monday of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and CHAF. 290 meetings, eleven, unless at a prior meeting of said legal voters of said Rumford Falls Village Corporation, a proposition of the said Rumford Falls Light and Water Company to perfect its water system so that it can in a reasonable manner perform all the duties imposed upon it under its charter, is accepted by a majority vote of said voters present and voting at said meeting. Said special meetings shall be called respectively by the select- -special men of the town of Mexico and the assessors of the Rumford how called. Falls Village Corporation, and shall be called, warned and conducted according to the law relating to municipal elections, provided, however, that the assessors of said Rumford Falls Village Corporation shall not be required to prepare for posting and the clerk of said town of Mexico and the clerk of said Rumford Falls Village Corporation shall not be required to post new lists of voters, but the selectmen of the town of Mexico shall prepare a list of the legal voters residing within the limits of that part of Mexico, included with said water district and described in section one. For the purpose of registration of voters, said board of assessors of the Rumford Falls Village Corporation and the selectmen of the town of Mexico shall be in session at their respective offices the secular day next preceding said special election. The clerk of the Rumford Falls Village Corporation and the clerk of the town of Mexico shall reduce the subject matter of this act to the following questions: "Shall the Act to incorporate the Rumford and Mexico Water District be accepted?" and the voters shall indicate by a cross placed over the words "yes" or "no" their opinion of the same. The result of the balloting in each case shall be respectively declared by the assessors of said Rumford Falls Village Corporation and the selectmen of the town of Mexico, and certificates thereof shall be filed by the clerk of said Rumford Falls Village Corporation and the clerk of said town of Mexico with the secretary of state. Section 18. Should the legal voters of the Mexico section of said water district at such special election refuse to approve the act incorporating said water district, then that portion of said town of Mexico described in section one, together with the inhabitants thereof shall not become a portion of said water district, but if the Rumford Falls Village Corporation section of said water district, shall approve said act to incorporate said water district by. a majority of the legal voters at said special election, then the territory within said Rumford Falls Village Corporation and the people within the same shall constitute the water district hereby created, and shall be empowered with all the rights, privileges and franchises conferred by -registration of voters. form of be submit question to ted. In case voters of Mexico secapprove act ing water tion refuse to incorporat district. CHAP. 291 Sections 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, when null and void. When this act shall take effect. this act, and shall be authorized to proceed in all acts, matters and things necessary to carry out the purposes of this act, as if it applied from its inception only to that part of the town of Rumford known as the Rumford Falls Village Corporation together with the people within the same, and the refusal to approve this act upon the part of the Mexico section aforesaid, shall in no sense defeat the purposes of this act. As early as may be after said special election, the municipal officers of said towns of Mexico and Rumford, if said act has been approved by both the Mexico section and the Rumford Falls Village section of said water district, shall respectively meet and choose their respective members of the board of trustees for said. water district as provided in section nine, but if said act shall not be approved by the Mexico section of said water district and shall be approved by the Rumford Falls Village section, then the municipal officers of said town of Rumford shall as soon as may be thereafter meet and choose three members, who shall constitute the board of trustees for said water district. Section 19. Sections two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight shall be inoperative, null and void unless the said water district shall first acquire by purchase or by the exercise of the right of eminent domain as in this act provided, the plant, property and franchises, rights and privileges of the Rumford Falls Light and Water Company, Union Construction Company, Virginia Spring Water Company, and in case the legal voters of the Mexico section of said water district shall vote to accept this act, of the Mexico Water Company. Section 20. This act shall take effect in ninety days after the final adjournment of the legislature, so far as necessary to empower the calling and holding of the elections authorized in section 'seventeen herein provided for. Approved March 31, 1911. Merger authorized. Chapter 291. An Act authorizing the merger of Consolidated Electric Light Company of Maine and Portland Lighting & Power Company with Portland Electric Company. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine, as follows: Section I. Portland Electric Company is authorized to merge Consolidated Electric Light Company of Maine and Portland Lighting & Power Company with and in said Portland Electric Company in the manner and on the terms and conditions hereinafter stated. |