(a) Each authority is given power and authority as follows:

(1) To make and adopt all necessary bylaws, rules, and regulations for its organization and operations not inconsistent with law;

(2) To elect its own officers, to appoint committees, and to employ and fix the compensation for personnel necessary for its operation;

(3) To enter into contracts with any person, governmental department, firm, or corporation, including both public and private corporations, and generally to do any and all things necessary or convenient for the purpose of acquiring, equipping, constructing, maintaining, improving, extending, financing, and operating an intermodal facility including, without limitation, railway-highway terminals, highway-railway terminals, shipping facilities, railroad sidings, turnouts, spur branches, switches, yards tracks, bridges and trestles, parks for industrial facilities, buildings, warehouses, utilities, highways, roads, streets, roadways and approaches, bulk loading and unloading facilities, elevators, tipples, compresses, refrigeration storage plants, transfer equipment, and related improvements and facilities as it may deem feasible for the expeditious and efficient handling of freight, commerce, and passengers to and from any other part of the state or any other state and foreign countries to best serve the region in which it is located;

(4) To assume the rights and responsibilities of the municipality with respect to all existing and future permits and franchises with public utilities for the supplying of public utility service to be intermodal facility;

(5) To delegate any authority given to it by law to any of its officers, committees, agents, or employees;

(6) To apply for, receive, and use grants-in-aid, donations, and contributions from any source, including, but not limited to, the federal government, or any agency thereof, and the State of Arkansas, or any agency thereof, and to accept and use bequests, devises, gifts, and donations from any person, firm, or corporation;

(7) To acquire lands and hold title thereto in its own name;

(8) To acquire, own, hold, lease as lessor or as lessee, sell, encumber, dispose of, or otherwise deal in and with any facilities or real, personal, or mixed property, wherever located;

(9) To borrow money and execute and deliver negotiable notes, mortgage bonds, other bonds, debentures, and other evidences of indebtedness therefor, and give such security therefor as shall be requisite, including giving a mortgage or deed of trust on its properties and facilities in connection with the issuance of mortgage bonds;

(10) To raise funds by the issuance and sale of revenue bonds in the manner and according to the terms set forth in this chapter;

(11) To expend its funds in the execution of the powers and authorities given in this chapter and to invest and reinvest any of its funds pending need therefor;

(12) To apply for, receive, and use loans, grants, donations, technical assistance, and contributions from any agency of the federal government or the State of Arkansas;

(13) To constitute the authority, or a committee thereof, as improvement district commissioners and to create and operate an improvement district, composed of the area encompassed within the jurisdictions of the participating governing bodies, upon the petition of persons claiming to be two-thirds (2/3) in value of the owners of real property in the area, as shown by the last county assessment. The improvement district shall be for the purpose of financing the construction, reconstruction, or repair of the regional intermodal facilities. The creation and operation of an improvement district shall, to the extent consistent with this chapter, be in accordance with the procedures established by the laws of this state for the creation and operation of municipal improvement districts;

(14) To enforce all rules, regulations, and statutes relating to its intermodal facilities;

(15) To plan, establish, develop, construct, enlarge, improve, maintain, equip, operate, and regulate its intermodal facilities and auxiliary services and facilities, and to establish minimum building codes and regulations and to protect and police the intermodal facilities and other facilities of the authority, in cooperation with the law enforcement agencies and officers having jurisdiction in the area where the facilities of the authority are located;

(16) To levy and collect a tax or fee, which tax or fee shall be levied upon and collected from the shippers, transporters, or other users loading or unloading freight, commerce or passengers at the terminal or other facilities of the authority, and the authority is empowered to make reasonable classifications of such shippers, transporters, or users for this purpose;

(17) To receive real and personal property from the United States for intermodal facilities and related purposes, by donation, purchase, lease or otherwise, and subject to such conditions and requirements relating thereto as the United States may require and to which the authority may agree;

(18) To apply to the proper authorities of the United States pursuant to appropriate law for the right to establish, operate, and maintain foreign trade zones within the area of jurisdiction of the member municipalities and/or counties and to establish, operate, and maintain such foreign trade zones;

(19) To promote, advertise, and publicize the authority and its facilities; provide information to shippers, transporters, users, operators and other commercial interests; and to represent and promote the interests of the authority; and

(20) To take such other action, not inconsistent with law, as may be necessary or desirable to carry out the powers and authorities conferred by this chapter and the intent and purposes of it.

(b) The enumeration of these powers shall not limit or circumscribe the broad objectives and purposes of this chapter and the broad objectives of developing to the utmost, intermodal facilities and necessary and desirable related facilities or properties, in order to stimulate commercial development.

(c) Nothing herein, however, authorizes this authority or any municipality, county, or state to provide, directly or indirectly, basic local exchange service.