§ 202-b. Increase or improvement of facilities. 1. Whenever it shall determine it to be in the public interest, after a public hearing as hereinafter provided, the town board may acquire or construct on behalf of a water, water storage and distribution, ambulance, sewer, sewage disposal or drainage district additional facilities therefor and appurtenances thereto, other than the construction of a lateral sewer, drain or water main authorized to be constructed pursuant to section one hundred ninety-nine, and including additional lands or interests in lands, or may improve or reconstruct existing facilities and appurtenances. The town board shall cause a map and plan of the proposed improvement together with an estimate of the cost to be prepared by a competent engineer duly licensed by the state of New York. When the map and plan and estimate of cost has been completed, the town board shall call a public hearing thereon and cause a notice thereof to be published and posted in the manner prescribed in section one hundred ninety-three. Such notice shall describe in general terms the proposed improvement or the location of the lands to be acquired, shall specify the estimated expense thereof and state the time when and place where the board will meet to hear all persons interested in the subject matter thereof. If the town board shall decide, after such hearing and upon the evidence given thereat, that it is in the public interest to acquire or construct the proposed improvement, the board shall direct the engineer to prepare definite plans and specifications, and to make a careful estimate of the expense, and, with the assistance of the town attorney or an attorney employed for that purpose, to prepare a proposed contract for the execution of the work. Thereupon the said board shall examine such definite plans, specifications, estimate and the proposed contract, and may reject the same or make such modifications and changes therein as shall seem necessary and desirable, and adopt the same and cause the improvement to be constructed or acquired all in the same manner as hereinbefore provided for the construction of trunk sewers, drains and water systems. In case the purchase of lands only is involved, the town board, if it is determined to be in the public interest, may proceed to purchase such lands.

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In like manner, the town board may, after a public hearing held upon due notice, replace obsolete, inadequate, damaged, destroyed or worn-out apparatus and equipment or acquire additional apparatus and equipment. Any cost or expense incurred pursuant to the authority granted by this section shall be a charge against the district and assessed, levied and collected in the same manner as other charges against the particular district. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the financing of such cost or expense pursuant to the provisions of the local finance law.

2. The town board may, on behalf of a park, public parking, ambulance, lighting, snow removal, refuse and garbage, public dock, watershed protection improvement district, or beach erosion control district, and within the limitations of section one hundred ninety-eight of this chapter, acquire additional apparatus and equipment and replace obsolete, inadequate, damaged, destroyed or worn-out apparatus and equipment, and it may construct additional facilities and appurtenances thereto or reconstruct or replace obsolete, inadequate, damaged, destroyed or worn-out facilities and appurtenances thereto. Such expenditure shall be authorized in the manner provided in subdivision one of this section, except that the map and plan described by said subdivision one shall not be required. However, nothing herein contained shall be construed to limit or supersede the provisions of § 7203 of the education law.

3. The permission of the state comptroller shall not be required for such expenditure, except as hereinafter provided in subdivision five, nor shall the town board be limited by the maximum amount proposed to be expended as stated in the petition, or in the final order, if the town board proceeded under article twelve-A of this chapter, or, in the case of a water storage and distribution district or sewage disposal district, the notice of hearing, for the establishment or extension of the district and the construction of the original improvement, but the town board shall not incur any expense in excess of the amount stated in the notice of hearing.

4. The powers hereinbefore provided in subdivisions one and two of this section may be exercised by the town board on behalf of two or more districts jointly, provided that such districts are wholly situated in the town, and whether or not the districts were established for the same purpose. The notice of hearing shall be published and the hearing held in the manner provided in subdivision one of this section. The cost, including both debt service and operation and maintenance, shall be annually apportioned among the districts by the town board, and the amounts so apportioned shall be levied and collected in each district as provided in sections two hundred two and two hundred two-a hereof.

5. In any such district which is located in a town wholly or partly within the Adirondack park and which contains state lands assessed at more than thirty per centum of the total assessed valuation of the district as determined from the assessment rolls of the town, as completed from time to time, no such expenditure shall be made or contract let for the purposes authorized in this section, unless the state comptroller, on behalf of the state, shall consent to such expenditure.