Section 37-44-108 - Directors - powers and duties(1) The directors, having duly qualified, shall organize as a board, elect a president from their number, and appoint a secretary and a district treasurer. The board has power, and it is its duty, to adopt a seal, manage and conduct the affairs and business of the district, make and execute all necessary contracts, employ such agents, attorneys, officers, and employees as may be required, and prescribe their duties, and generally perform all acts as shall be necessary to fully carry out the purposes of this article 44. The board of directors has power to construct, acquire, purchase, or condemn any drainage canals, reservoir sites, and such inlet and outlet works as may be necessary, or to acquire, by condemnation or otherwise, the right to enlarge any reservoir already constructed or partly constructed and to enlarge the inlet and outlet works thereof, or to purchase or acquire, by proceedings in eminent domain or otherwise, any reservoir, drainage system, or irrigation system already constructed or partially constructed and to enlarge and complete the same adequate to the needs of the district.(2) No contract or award or judgment in eminent domain involving a consideration exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars shall be binding until such contract, award, or judgment has been authorized, ratified, or the payment thereof approved at an election in the same manner as is provided for the issue of bonds, and the necessity of submitting such matters to the approval of the electors shall not be avoided by entering into more than one contract with considerations of less than twenty-five thousand dollars where the whole transaction actually involved more than that amount.(3) The board also has power to promulgate rules regulating the use of the water owned and controlled by said district, and all water owned by said district shall be apportioned and distributed for irrigation to each landowner in proportion to the benefits to said land as determined by the assessments levied against said land for irrigation purposes as provided in this article.(4) The board of directors has the further power to lease or rent the use of water or to contract for the delivery thereof to settlers thereon or occupants of the public domain; except that, in such case, the board of directors has the further power to make a contract on behalf of the district with such settlers or occupants to the effect that any such settler or occupant, upon receiving full title to his land and upon the payment of his proportional share of the bond assessment and maintenance charges as fixed and determined by the board of directors of said district, shall include his land within said district, and such land upon such inclusion shall be entitled to all the rights and privileges of other lands of said district and subject to all of the provisions of this article. Before the execution of such contract, the board of directors shall cause a notice of such contract to be given for three successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the office of the district is required to be located, and a hearing upon said contract and all objections thereto shall be had as provided in this article.(5) If upon said hearing the board of directors deems it for the best interest of the district not to execute said contract, the petition shall be rejected, but, if the board deems it for the best interest of the district that the contract be executed, the board shall execute said contract, and, in such case, the contract shall be valid and binding upon all parties thereto. When such settler or occupant has complied with said contract and obtained title to his land, upon proof of such compliance and obtaining of title and without any further notice or hearing of the matter, the board shall enter an order for the inclusion of said lands as provided in this article. If any settler or occupant fails or refuses to perform said contract, the board of directors, if it so elects, may rescind the contract and declare a forfeiture of any payments theretofore made, in which event said land shall no longer be entitled to any of the benefits to be obtained under said contract and shall not become a part of the district.(6) The board of directors further has full power, in order to protect life and property within the district, to devise, prepare, execute, maintain, and operate any and all works and improvements provided for by the plan adopted and, to that end, may employ and secure men and equipment under the general supervision of the engineer of the district or, in its discretion, may let contracts for such work either in the whole or in parts. In order to protect life and property, and in order to drain, protect, or relieve land, which subject to overflow or washing or which is menaced or threatened by the normal flow, flood, surplus, or overflow of water of any natural watercourse, stream, canal, or wash, whether perennial, intermittent, or flood, and in order to effect the protection of the land and other property in the district, the board of directors is empowered to clean out, straighten, widen, alter, deepen, or change the course or terminus of any ditch, drain, sewer, reservoir, watercourse, pond, lake, creek, or natural stream, in or out of said district, necessary for the proper protection of the lands in said district from overflow, washing, or drainage by reason thereof.Amended by 2023 Ch. 53, § 10, eff. 1/1/2024.L. 23: p. 492, § 6. L. 35: p. 955, § 4. CSA: C. 138, § 22. CRS 53: § 149-5-6. C.R.S. 1963: § 150-4-6.2023 Ch. 53, was passed without a safety clause. See Colo. Const. art. V, § 1(3). For eminent domain proceedings, see articles 1 to 7 of title 38 .