RÉSUMÉ DIGEST
ACT 37 (SB 53) 2023 Regular Session Bernard
Existing law provides for the following powers and authority of the district:
(1)To sue and be sued, and as such to stand in judgment.
(2) To adopt, use, and alter at will a corporate seal.
(3) To acquire by purchase, donation, lease, or otherwise, and to hold and use any
property, real, personal, or mixed, tangible or intangible, or any interest therein
necessary or desirable for carrying out the objects and purposes of the commission;
to sell, lease, transfer, and convey any property or interest therein at any time
acquired by it; and to donate by fee simple title, or otherwise convey, to the United
States any lands, property, movable and immovable, rights-of-way, easements, or
servitudes, or any of them, which the commission may own or acquire by purchase,
donation, or otherwise, for use in connection with the construction, improvement,
and maintenance of the waterway.
(4) After a public hearing, held after not less than 30 days notice printed in the official
journal, to lease any portion of its lands and property except the waterway to any
person, firm, partnership, association, or corporation, public or private, such leases
to run for a term not exceeding 50 years.
(5) To bear the expense, in whole or part, of the relocation, construction and
maintenance of public ways within the lands acquired by the commission.
(6) To effectuate and maintain proper depths of water to accommodate the business of
the commission, and to regulate the use of water from the waterway.
(7) To make and collect reasonable charges for the use of all structures, works, locks,
wharves, anchorages, and special facilities constructed and administered by the
commission, and for any and all services rendered by it, but not for the general right
of passage in the waterway, and to regulate reasonably the fees and charges to be
made by privately owned wharves, docks, warehouses, elevators, and other facilities
located on property owned by the commission or located within the right-of-way of
the waterway when the same are offered for the use of the public.
(8)For capital outlay, including the cost of acquisition of rights-of-way and
compensation for such severance and other collateral damages necessarily incurred
in connection with such acquisition, and for maintenance and operation of the
waterway, to levy an annual tax in an amount not exceeding in any one year six mills
on the dollar of the assessed valuation of all taxable property lying within the district.
(9)(a)To incur nonfunded debt not to exceed in the aggregate the net of the
unpledged estimated alimony revenue for the current year.
(b)To issue certificates of indebtedness due not more than one year after date
and as security therefor pledge not to exceed 75% of the estimated alimony
tax revenue for the current year.
(c) To fund into bonds of the commission from time to time, in such principal
amount as may be necessary for the accomplishment of the capital outlay
purposes required, all or any portion of the five mills capital outlay tax
hereinabove provided for, and to prescribe the conditions and details of such
bonds.
(10)To enter upon any lands, waters, and premises in the state for the purpose of making
surveys, soundings, drillings, examinations, and appraisals, as it may deem necessary
or convenient for the purposes of present law, and such entry shall not be deemed a
trespass nor shall such entry for such purpose be deemed an entry under any
expropriation proceedings which may be pending, provided that five days registered
notice in the case of resident owners and fifteen days registered notice in the case of nonresident owners be given to the owner of record of such lands, waters, or
premises as reflected by the parish assessment rolls, which notice shall be mailed to
the last known address of said owner, as shown on said assessment records. The
commission shall make reimbursement for any actual damages resulting to such
lands, waters, or premises as a result of such activities.
(11) To reimburse the United States for any money spent by it in the acquisition of any
lands, property, servitudes, easements, or rights-of-way for use in connection with
the construction, improvement, or maintenance of the waterway.
(12) To acquire by purchase or donation, but not by expropriation, and thereafter donate
or otherwise convey to the United States any lands, servitudes, or rights-of-way
required by the United States Army, Corps of Engineers for the construction of public
recreation sites along the waterway. The commission shall have no authority under
present law to expropriate property for recreational purposes.
(13) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, to otherwise regulate and be
the regulatory authority of the Cane River Waterway and its use.
New law retains existing law and adds the additional authority to maintain public roads that
are in the road maintenance system of Natchitoches Parish, and provide access to properties
that have frontage on Cane River Lake.
Effective August 1, 2023.
(Adds R.S. 34:3269(14))