Increase and improvement of facilities

§ 268. Increase and improvement of facilities. 1. Whenever the board
of supervisors shall determine it necessary to acquire additional lands
or interests in lands or to acquire or to construct (1) water rights,
wells, reservoirs or basins in order to maintain an adequate source of
water supply, (2) water quality treatment units or devices and related
apparatus and equipment, (3) additional trunk, interceptor and outfall
sewers, pumping stations, sewage treatment and disposal works and
appurtenances, street lateral sewers, or other facilities, (4)
additional drains, pumping stations, or other improvements or to perform
other work of a permanent nature such as dredging, widening or
straightening of streams and water courses, or, (5) refuse disposal and
incinerator plants, including all necessary facilities and equipment
appurtenant thereto; or whenever the board of supervisors shall
determine it necessary for the proper maintenance and service of such
facilities to increase, improve or reconstruct the facilities thereof,
including the acquisition of additional lands, or interests in land
therefor, the board of supervisors shall cause a map and plan of the
proposed improvement together with an estimate of the cost to be
prepared by the county engineer or an engineer duly licensed by the
state of New York. When the map and plan and estimate of cost have been
completed, the board of supervisors shall call a public hearing thereon
and cause a notice thereof to be published and posted in the manner
prescribed in section two hundred fifty-four. Such notice shall describe
in general terms the proposed improvement or the location of the lands
to be acquired, shall specify the estimated expense thereof, and, if
zones of assessment have been established in such county district, shall
specify the proposed allocation of the cost thereof as between such
zones. Such notice shall further state the time when and the place where
the board will meet to hear all persons interested in the subject matter
thereof. After such hearing and upon the evidence given thereat, the
board of supervisors shall determine (a) whether it is in the public
interest to acquire or construct the proposed improvement; and (b) if
zones of assessment have been established in such county district, the
allocation of the cost thereof as between such zones. If the board of
supervisors shall decide that it is in the public interest to acquire or
construct the proposed improvement, the board of supervisors shall
direct the administrative head or body to proceed with the improvement
in the manner provided by section two hundred sixty-two. In case the
purchase of lands only is involved, the board of supervisors may cause
such lands to be purchased for the district.

In Suffolk county, notwithstanding any other general or special law to
the contrary, a sewer district may construct excess capacity for the
treatment and disposal of sewage and scavenger waste from outside the
district if the district has one or more executory contracts with other
districts, municipalities or corporations, public or private, that wish
to avail themselves of such excess capacity.

2. In like manner, the board of supervisors may, after the public
hearing held upon due notice, replace obsolete, inadequate, damaged,
destroyed or worn out apparatus and equipment or acquire additional
apparatus and equipment.

3. Whenever it is proposed or required that the county in which a
district is located shall finance an expenditure or contract for the
purposes authorized in this section by the issuance of the bonds, notes,
certificates or other evidences of indebtedness of the county therefor,
or shall assume the payment of annual installments of debt service on
obligations issued to finance the cost of facilities, pursuant to
section two hundred sixty-two of this article, and the cost to the
typical property or, if different, the cost to the typical one or two
family home is above the average estimated cost to the typical
properties or homes for similar types of expenditures as may be annually
computed by the state comptroller, no such expenditure shall be made or
contract let, unless the state comptroller, on behalf of the state,
shall consent to such expenditure.