(a) Before any improvement is made as provided in this act, the governing body of each participating city shall pass an ordinance and the governing body of each participating township shall adopt a resolution authorizing the making of the improvement and, if bonds are to be issued, directing the issuance of bonds to pay all or part of municipality‘s share of the cost of the improvement. The ordinance or resolution shall specify the nature and extent of the improvement to be made and shall recite the contract entered into by the participating municipalities and corporations and that such improvement is made in accordance with plans and specifications approved by the secretary of health and environment and on file in the office of the clerk of the municipality for inspection. The ordinance or resolution shall not take effect and be in force unless and until the governing body of such municipality submits the ordinance or resolution to a vote of the electors of the municipality, at a regular election or at a special election called for such purpose, and a majority of the legal electors voting at such election vote in favor of the ordinance or resolution. The governing body of the municipality shall have power to call such election. The election shall be called, noticed, conducted and canvassed in the manner provided by law for bond elections under the provisions of the general bond law, except that the ballots used when voting upon the ordinance or resolution, as the case may be, shall contain these words: “For the ordinance” or “For the resolution,” as the case may be, (stating the nature of the proposed ordinance or resolution), and “Against the ordinance” or “Against the resolution,” as the case may be, (stating the nature of the proposed ordinance or resolution).

(b) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section, any city of the second class which has heretofore entered into a contract with a corporation or other municipality as authorized or validated by the act of which this section is amendatory may issue general obligation bonds of the city without an election in an amount not to exceed $75,000 for the purpose of enlarging, repairing, improving or extending the city’s waterworks system, and no statute limiting the bonded indebtedness of a municipality shall apply to such bonds and such bonds shall not be considered in determining the total bonded indebtedness of such municipality for the purpose of applying any statute limiting the bonded indebtedness of such municipality, except that before issuing such bonds the governing body of the city shall publish once in the official city paper the ordinance providing for the issuance of such bonds and if, within 30 days after the date of publication, there is filed with the city clerk a petition signed by 10% of the legal electors of the city protesting the issuance, the governing body shall submit the question of issuing such bonds to a vote of the electors of the city in the manner provided by the general bond law.