Mississippi § 51-9-111 - Proceedings after petition filed.

§ 51-9-111. Proceedings after petition filed.

The board of water commissioners shall make a written report on the preliminary study or plans furnished them and shall, within thirty days after receipt of the said study, file such report with the chancery court setting forth their recommendations concerning the proposed water supply district. After the filing of the report of the board of water commissioners, and upon motion of the petitioners, the chancellor shall enter an order fixing the date for a hearing of the cause on the original petition, the exhibit, the report and recommendations of the board of water commissioners, and any answers filed or other pleadings. The chancery clerk shall give notice of such hearing to all persons interested by posting notices thereof at the door of the courthouse of the county or counties in which the district is situated and in at least ten public places in said proposed district, and also by publishing said notice at least once a week for three consecutive weeks in a newspaper published in Hinds County and in a newspaper published in each of the other counties proposed to be included in such water supply district. If there is no newspaper published in any such county, then it shall be sufficient to publish said notice in a newspaper having a general circulation in such county. Such notice shall be addressed to the property owners and qualified electors of such proposed district and all other persons interested, shall state when and in what court said petition was and is filed, shall state the counties included in such district, and shall command all such persons to appear before the chancery court, or the chancellor in vacation, at the Chancery Court Building in the First Judicial District of Hinds County, upon the date fixed by the chancellor to show cause, if any they can, why the proposed water supply district should not be organized and established as prayed for in said petition. The date of such hearing shall not be less than twenty-one days nor more than forty days after the last publication of such notice. It shall be sufficient in describing the lands to be included in the water supply district to name the counties to be included therein in the publication or notice hereinbefore mentioned. If the court or chancellor finds that the notice or publication was not given as provided for in this article, it shall not thereby lose jurisdiction, but the court or chancellor shall order due publication or notice to be given and shall continue the hearing until such publication or notice shall be properly given, and the court or chancellor shall thereupon proceed as though publication or notice had been properly given in the first instance.