The Department of Transportation shall manage all real and personal property acquired by the state for railroad purposes and shall secure all income available from those properties. The secretary of transportation may negotiate, enter into, execute, and issue leases, licenses, easements, or other agreements as may be necessary to provide for the use of any property or facility not used directly in rail operations. Prior to any sale, except a sale for railroad purposes, of state–owned railroad property, the state shall provide the lessee of any railroad property affected by the sale and, if there is no lessee, the owner of any property abutting railroad property with written notice of the proposed sale. The state shall give the lessee or abutting owner sixty days from the notice to purchase the property at not less than its appraised value. No vacation, change, relocation, or sale of state–owned railway property as provided in this chapter diminishes any existing right of use enjoyed by any public utility, municipally–owned utility, or cooperative utility which provides electricity, gas, water, or telephone service.

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Source: SL 1981, ch 12, § 1; SL 1986, ch 23; SL 1996, ch 20, § 11.