1. Maple River WRD-Garsteig Embden maintenance assessment district

WHEREAS, currently the District's sole source of revenue for purposes of operating and maintaining the Garsteig-Embden Improvements is its general fund, which the District generates by levying up to an annual maximum of four mills across all real property within the District's jurisdictional boundaries. WHEREAS, the District recognizes the significance of the Garsteig-Embden Improvements for properties that benefit from them, and the importance of preserving the Garsteig-Embden Improvements for the benefit of landowners in the watershed, the District's general fund is insufficient to finance the proper operation and maintenance of the Garsteig-Embden Improvements, especially since the District relies upon its general fund to finance most of its other operations. WHEREAS, not all real properties within the District's jurisdictional boundaries directly benefit from the Garsteig-Embden Improvements and, therefore, utilizing the District's already limited general fund for purposes of operating and maintaining the Garsteig-Embden Improvements is not equitable. WHEREAS, Section 61-16.1-40.1 of the North Dakota Century Code provides a process under which a water resource district responsible for the operation and maintenance of an improvement constructed by a federal agency may create a federal project maintenance district to generate revenue for purposes of operating and maintaining the improvement for the benefit of real property within the watershed benefitted by the improvement. WHEREAS, the District has concluded the properties that benefit from the Garsteig-Embden Improvements are the properties that should finance the operation and maintenance of the Garsteig-Embden Improvements, and that levying maintenance levies against all benefitted properties is an equitable manner of generating maintenance revenues, as opposed to utilizing general fund dollars generated from all properties within the District's jurisdictional boundaries. WHEREAS, in a Resolution entitled RESOLUTION REGARDING CREATION OF THE GARSTEIG-EMBDEN MAINTENANCE DISTRICT AND SETTING HEARING, approved by the District on April 3, 2014, the District declared the necessity to create the GARSTEIG-EMBDEN MAINTENANCE DISTRICT, a federal project maintenance district in accordance with Section 61-16.1-40.1, to generate maintenance revenue from those properties that benefit from the Garsteig-Embden Improvements to finance adequate and proper operation and maintenance of the Garsteig-Embden Improvements. WHEREAS, the District conducted the statutory proceedings necessary regarding the creation of the GARSTEIG-EMBDEN MAINTENANCE DISTRICT, including a public hearing the District conducted on June 5, 2014, preceded by all requisite notices in accordance with Section 61-16.1-40.1. -2-