Senate Bill No. 327
(By Senator Chafin)
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[Introduced March 13, 1997; referred to the Committee
on Government Organization; and then to the Committee on
Finance.]
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A BILL to establish the "Robert C. Byrd Expressway Authority";
functions; members; appointment; powers and duties;
officers; bylaws; rules and regulations; compensation;
authority as corporate body; and severability.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
ROBERT C. BYRD EXPRESSWAY AUTHORITY.
§1. Expressway authority created; functions.
There is hereby created a Robert C. Byrd Expressway
Authority, to promote and advance the construction of a modern
highway, otherwise known as Corridor G, through Kanawha, Boone,
Lincoln, Logan and Mingo counties and to coordinate with
counties, municipalities, state and federal agencies, public
nonprofit corporations, private corporations, associations, partnerships and individuals for the purpose of planning,
assisting and establishing recreational, tourism, industrial,
economic and community development of the Robert C. Byrd
expressway for the benefit of the region and all West Virginians.
§2. Members; appointment; officers; bylaws; rules and
regulations; compensation.
(a) The authority consists of five voting members and two ex
officio nonvoting members. All members shall be appointed before
the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-eight.
(b) Each of the county commissions of the counties of
Kanawha, Boone, Lincoln, Logan and Mingo shall appoint one voting
member to the commission. The terms of the voting members
initially appointed by a county commission are as follows: One
member from Kanawha, Boone and Lincoln counties shall be
appointed for a term of one year and one member from Logan and
Mingo counties shall be appointed for a term of two years. All
successive appointments are for terms of four years. Any voting
member may be removed for cause by the appointing county
commission.
(c) The two ex officio nonvoting members are the
commissioner of highways, or his or her designee, and the
executive director of the West Virginia development office, or
his or her designee. All terms of ex officio nonvoting members are for four years.
(d) Should a vacancy occur, the person appointed to fill the
vacancy shall serve only for the unexpired portion thereof. All
members are eligible for reappointment.
(e) The authority shall meet annually on the third Monday in
July and monthly on a day and at a time that the authority
designates in its bylaws. A special meeting may be called by the
president, the secretary or any two members of the authority and
may be held only after all members are given notice of the
meeting in writing. The presence of three voting members
constitutes a quorum for all meetings. At each annual meeting of
the authority, it shall elect a president, secretary and
treasurer. The authority shall adopt bylaws, rules and
regulations as may be necessary for its operation and management.
§3. Powers of authority.
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 article, including, but not limited to, the
power:
(1) To acquire, own, hold, and dispose of property, real and
personal, tangible and intangible;
(2) To lease property, whether as lessee or lessor, and to 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) To sue and be sued;
(4) To adopt, use and alter a corporate seal;
(5) To promote economic development and tourism along the
Robert C. Byrd expressway;
(6) To advocate actions consistent with its plan of economic
development and tourism or its provisions to or before any
governmental entity or any private person or entity;
(7) To otherwise act in an advisory capacity with regard to
any aspects of the Robert C. Byrd expressway at the request of or
without the request of any governmental entity or private person
or entity;
(8) To zone property adjacent to the expressway;
(9) To regulate advertising along the expressway; and
(10) To regulate the speed limit on the expressway.
The authority may own any of the real estate or real
property herein described for development and is responsible for
operating or maintaining the parkway.
Each voting member of the authority shall be compensated
monthly by the governing body that appointed him or her, in an
amount to be fixed by the governing body.
§4. Body corporate.
The authority hereby created is a public corporation with
all the powers and duties thereof.
§5. Severability.
If any provision of this act is held invalid, that
invalidity does not affect other provisions hereof which can be
given effect without the invalid provision, and to this end, the
provisions of this act are severable.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to establish the Robert
C. Byrd Expressway Authority.
This local act is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.