88.29 Referral of petition to board; examination of lands; hearing by board.

(1) Upon receipt of a petition for organization of a drainage district the court or judge by order shall refer the petition to the drainage board and order the board to report thereon.

(2) When a petition has been so referred to the board, the board, with the aid of an engineer having the qualifications specified in s. 88.21 (5), shall examine the lands described in the petition and all other lands that the board believes will be benefited or damaged by the proposed work and shall consider whether the drains as proposed in the petition are satisfactory.

(3) The board also shall hold a hearing on the petition to ascertain the sufficiency of the signers and to hear all interested persons who desire to be heard for or against the petition.

(4) The board shall fix a time and place of the hearing on the petition, on or conveniently near the lands described in the petition, and shall give notice of the hearing as provided in s. 88.05 (2) (b) to the persons specified in s. 88.05 (4) (c).

(5) The notice shall describe the lands involved and may be in substantially the following form:

“Notice is hereby given that the drainage board of .... County will meet on the .... day of ...., .... (year), at .... o'clock, .... M. at the (here describe the place of meeting) to consider the petition filed in the circuit court of .... County to drain lands among which are the following: (here describe the lands described in the petition). All persons interested may appear and be heard on the petition.

Dated ....

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Drainage Board".

(6) The board may adjourn the hearing to a time and place that it considers convenient or necessary. The board shall either make a public announcement of the time and place of the adjournment or give notice as provided in s. 88.05 (2) (b) to the persons specified in s. 88.05 (4) (a) and also by publication of the notice once in the vicinity in a newspaper qualified under ch. 985, such publication to be not more than 20 days nor less than 10 days before the date set for the adjourned hearing.

History: 1979 c. 175 s. 50; 1993 a. 456; 1997 a. 250.