The Authority, as a public corporation and governmental instrumentality exercising public powers of the state, may exercise all powers necessary or appropriate to carry out the purposes of this chapter, including the power to:

1. Acquire, own, hold and dispose of property, real and personal, tangible and intangible; provided that, the Authority shall not acquire such property through the exercise of the power of eminent domain;

2. Lease property, whether as lessee or lessor, and acquire or grant through easement, license or other appropriate legal form, the right to develop and use property and open it to the use of the public;

3. Mortgage or otherwise grant security interests in its property;

4. Procure insurance against any losses in connection with its property, license or easements, contracts, including hold-harmless agreements, operations or assets in such amounts and from such insurers as the Authority considers desirable;

5. Maintain such sinking funds and reserves as the board determines appropriate for the purposes of meeting future monetary obligations and needs of the Authority;

6. Sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded, and complain and defend in any court;

7. Adopt, use, and alter at will a corporate seal;

8. Make, amend, repeal, and adopt bylaws for the management and regulation of its affairs;

9. Make contracts of every kind and nature and execute all instruments necessary or convenient for carrying on its business, including contracts with any other governmental agency of this state or of the federal government or with any person, individual, partnership, or corporation to effect any or all of the purposes of this chapter;

10. Accept grants and loans from and enter into contracts and other transactions with any federal agency;

11. Maintain an office at such places within the state as it may designate;

12. Borrow money and issue bonds, security interests, or notes and provide for and secure the payment of the bonds, security interests, or notes and provide for the rights of the holders of the bonds, security interests, or notes and purchase, hold, and dispose of any of its bonds, security interests, or notes;

13. Accept gifts or grants of property, funds, security interests, money, materials, labor, supplies, or services from the federal government or from any governmental unit or any person, firm, or corporation and to carry out the terms or provisions of or make agreements with respect to or pledge any gifts or grants and to do any and all things necessary, useful, desirable, or convenient in connection with the procuring, acceptance, or disposition of gifts or grants;

14. Enter into contract with landowners and other persons holding an interest in the land being used for its recreational facilities to hold those landowners and other persons harmless with respect to any claim in tort growing out of the use of the land for public recreation or growing out of the recreational activities operated or managed by the Authority from any claim except a claim for damages proximately caused by the willful or malicious conduct of the landowner or other person or any of his or her agents or employees;

15. Assess and collect a reasonable fee from those persons who use the trails, parking facilities, visitor centers, or other facilities which are part of the Southwest Regional Recreation Area and to retain and utilize that revenue for any purposes consistent with this chapter;

16. Adopt rules to regulate the use and maintenance of the Southwest Regional Recreation Area;

17. Cooperate with the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia and appropriate state and local officials and community leaders in those states to connect the trails in Virginia with similar recreation facilities in those states; and

18. Exercise all of the powers that a corporation may lawfully exercise under the laws of the Commonwealth.

2008, cc. 645, 648.