Senate Bill No. 565
(By Senators Tomblin, Mr. President, and Wooton,
Chafin, Bailey, Wagner, Plymale and Jackson)
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[Introduced February 19, 1996; referred to the Committee
on Government Organization; and then to the Committee on
Finance.]
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A BILL to amend chapter twenty of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding
thereto a new article, designated article thirteen; and to
amend and reenact section one, article twenty-nine, chapter
thirty of said code, all relating to establishing the
Hatfield-McCoy regional recreation authority and the powers,
goals and duties associated therewith; providing a statement
of legislative purpose and findings; providing definitions;
establishing the Hatfield-McCoy regional recreation
authority; providing for a method of appointment to the
board of the authority; prescribing the terms of
appointment; describing the powers and duties of the
authority; authorizing recreational rangers and describing the duties, powers and limitations of rangers and
prescribing certain law-enforcement authority; limiting the
liability of landowners; and providing criminal penalties
for a violation of the rules promulgated pursuant to this
enactment.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That chapter twenty of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by
adding thereto a new article, designated article thirteen; and
that section one, article twenty-nine, chapter thirty of said
code be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
CHAPTER 20. NATURAL RESOURCES.
ARTICLE 20-13-1. HATFIELD-MCCOY REGIONAL RECREATION AUTHORITY.
§20-13-1. Legislative findings.
The West Virginia Legislature finds that there is a
significant need within the state and throughout the eastern
United States for well-managed facilities for trail-oriented
recreation for off-highway vehicle enthusiasts, mountain
bicyclists and others. The Legislature further finds that under
an appropriate contractual and management scheme, well-managed,
trail-oriented, recreation facilities could exist on private
property without diminishing the landowner's interest, control or profitability in the land.
The Legislature further finds that, with the cooperation of
private landowners who hold large tracts of land, there is an
opportunity to provide such trail-oriented recreation facilities
primarily on private property in the mountainous terrain of
southern West Virginia and that such facilities will provide
significant benefit to the state and to the communities in
southern West Virginia through increased tourism much as white
water rafting and snow skiing benefit the state and communities
surrounding those activities.
The Legislature further finds that the creation and
empowering of a statutory corporation to work with the
landowners, county officials and community leaders, state and
federal government agencies, recreational user groups and other
interested parties to enable and facilitate the implementation of
such facilities will greatly assist in the realization of these
potential benefits.
§20-13-2. Definitions.
Unless the context clearly requires a different meaning, the
terms used herein mean the following:
(a) "Authority" means the Hatfield-McCoy regional recreational authority;
(b) "Board" means the board of the Hatfield-McCoy regional
recreation authority; and
(c) "Participating county" means the counties of Boone,
Lincoln, Logan, McDowell, Mingo, Wayne and Wyoming, and, with the
approval of the board, any other county or counties where trails
and other recreational facilities relating to the Hatfield-McCoy
recreation area are developed in the future with the cooperation
of the county commission.
§20-13-3. Creation; appointment of board; terms.
(a) There is hereby created the "Hatfield-McCoy regional
recreation authority" which is a public corporation and a
government instrumentality existing for the purpose of enabling
and facilitating the development and operation of a system of
trail-oriented recreation facilities for use by off-highway
vehicle enthusiasts, equestrians, mountain bicyclists and others
to be located in southern West Virginia with significant portions
of the trails system being located on private property made
available for use through lease, license, easement or other
appropriate legal form by a willing landowner.
(b) The authority is composed of a board of at least seventeen members who shall be representative of the various
interests involved in the Hatfield-McCoy recreation area project
in the southern region of the state and who shall be appointed as
follows:
(1) The county commission of each of the participating
county, as defined in section two of this article, shall appoint
two members of the board as follows:
(A) One member who shall represent and be associated with a
corporation or individual landowner whose land is being used or
is expected to be used in the future as part of the project.
This member shall be appointed to a four-year term.
(B) One member who shall represent and be associated with
travel and tourism or economic development efforts within the
county. The initial appointment shall be for a two-year term,
but all subsequent appointments shall be for a four-year term.
(2) The members of the board appointed under subdivision
one, subsection (b) of this section by the county commissions
shall then appoint three additional board members, at least two
of whom shall represent and be associated with recreational users
of the Hatfield-McCoy trail system. These members shall serve
three-year terms.
(3) The following three persons shall serve as nonvoting
members representing the state: The director of the division of
travel and tourism, the director of the department of natural
resources, and the director of the division of forestry, or their
respective designee.
Any appointed member whose term has expired shall serve
until his or her successor has been duly appointed and qualified.
Any person appointed to fill a vacancy shall serve only for the
unexpired term. Any appointed member is eligible for
reappointment. Members of the board are not entitled to
compensation for services performed as members but are entitled
to reimbursement for all reasonable and necessary expenses
actually incurred in the performance of their duties.
(c) Before the issuance of any revenue bonds or revenue
refunding bonds under authority of this article, each appointed
voting member of the authority shall execute a surety bond in the
penal sum of twenty-five thousand dollars and the officers and
executive director shall each execute a surety bond in the penal
sum of fifty thousand dollars, each surety bond to be conditioned
upon the faithful performance of the duties of his or her office,
to be executed by a surety company authorized to transact business in this state as surety and to be approved by the
governor and filed in the office of the secretary of state.
Premiums on the surety bond shall be paid from funds accruing to
the authority.
§20-13-4. Board; quorum; executive director; expenses.
The governing body of the authority shall consist of the
members of the board and shall exercise all the powers given the
authority in this article.
On the second Monday of July of each even-numbered year, or
as soon thereafter as feasible, the board shall meet to elect a
chairman, secretary and treasurer from among its own members.
The board shall otherwise meet quarterly, unless a special
meeting is called by its chairman.
A majority of the members of the board shall constitute a
quorum, and a quorum shall be present for the board to conduct
business. Unless the bylaws require a larger number, action may
be taken by majority vote of the members present.
The board shall prescribe, amend, and repeal bylaws and
rules governing the manner in which the business of the authority
is conducted and shall review and approve an annual budget.
The board shall appoint an executive director to act as its chief executive officer, to serve at the will and pleasure of the
board. The board, acting through its executive director, may
employ any other personnel deemed necessary and may appoint
counsel and legal staff for the authority and retain such
temporary engineering, financial and other consultants or
technicians as may be required for any special study or survey
consistent with the provisions of this article. The executive
director shall carry out plans to implement the provisions of
this article and to exercise those powers enumerated in the
bylaws. The executive director shall prepare annually a budget
to be submitted to the board for its review and approval.
All costs incidental to the administration of the authority,
including office expenses, personal services expense and current
expense, shall be paid in accordance with guidelines issued by
the board of the authority from funds accruing to the authority.
All expenses incurred in carrying out the provisions of this
article shall be payable solely from funds provided under the
authority of this article and no liability or obligation may be
incurred by the authority hereunder beyond the extent to which
moneys have been provided under the authority of this article.
§20-13-5. 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 mortgage or otherwise grant security interests in its
property;
(4) To procure insurance against any losses in connection
with its property, license or easements, contracts, including
hold-harmless agreements, operations or assets in such amounts
and from such insurers as the authority deems desirable;
(5) To maintain such sinking funds and reserves as the board
determines appropriate for the purposes of meeting future
monetary obligations and needs of the authority;
(6) To sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded, and complain and defend in any court;
(7) To contract for the provision of legal services by
private counsel, and notwithstanding the provisions of article
three, chapter five, the counsel may, but is not limited to,
represent the authority in court, negotiate contracts and other
agreements on behalf of the authority, render advice to the
authority on any matter relating thereto, prepare contracts and
other agreements, and provide such other legal services as may be
requested by the authority;
(8) To adopt, use and alter at will a corporate seal.
(9) To make, amend, repeal and adopt bylaws for the
management and regulation of its affairs;
(10) To appoint officers, agents and employees, and to
contract for and engage the services of consultants;
(11) To make contracts of every kind and nature and to
execute all instruments necessary or convenient for carrying on
its business, including contracts with any other governmental
agency of this state or of the federal government or with any
person, individual, partnership or corporation to effect any or
all of the purposes of this article;
(12) Without in any way limiting any other subdivision of this section, to accept grants and loans from and enter into
contracts and other transactions with any federal agency;
(13) To maintain an office at such places within the state
as it may designate;
(14) To borrow money and to issue its negotiable bonds,
security interests or notes and to provide for and secure the
payment thereof, and to provide for the rights of the holders
thereof, and to purchase, hold and dispose of any of its bonds,
security interests or notes;
(15) To sell, at public or private sale, any bond or other
negotiable instrument, security interest, or obligation of the
authority in such manner and upon such terms as the authority
considers would best serve the purposes of this article;
(16) To issue its bonds, security interests and notes
payable solely from the revenues or other funds available to the
authority thereof, and the authority may issue its bonds,
security interests or notes in such principal amounts as it
considers necessary to provide funds for any purpose under this
article, including:
(A) The payment, funding or refunding of the principal of,
interest on or redemption premiums on, any bonds, security interests or notes issued by it whether the bonds, security
interests, notes or interest to be funded or refunded have or
have not become due;
(B) The establishment or increase of reserves to secure or
to pay bonds, security interests, notes or the interest thereon,
and all other costs or expenses of the authority incident to and
necessary or convenient to carry out its corporate purposes and
powers. Any bonds, security interests or notes may be
additionally secured by a pledge of any revenues, funds, assets,
or moneys of the authority from any source whatsoever;
(17) To issue renewal notes or security interests, to issue
bonds to pay notes or security interests and, whenever it
considers refunding expedient, to refund any bonds by the
issuance of new bonds, whether the bonds to be refunded have or
have not matured except that no such renewal notes may be issued
to mature more than ten years from the date of issuance of the
notes renewed and no refunding bonds may be issued to mature more
than twenty-five years from the date of issuance;
(18) To apply the proceeds from the sale of renewal notes,
security interests of refunding bonds to the purchase, redemption
or payment of the notes, security interests or bonds to be refunded;
(19) To accept gifts or grants of property, funds, security
interests, money, materials, labor, supplies or services from the
federal government or from any governmental unit or any person,
firm or corporation, and to carry out the terms or provisions of,
or make agreements with respect to, or pledge any gifts or
grants, and to do any and all things necessary, useful, desirable
or convenient in connection with the procuring, acceptance or
disposition of gifts or grants;
(20) To the extent permitted under its contracts with the
holders of bonds, security interests or notes of the authority,
to consent to any modification of the rate of interest, time of
payment of any installment of principal or interest, security or
any other term of any bond, security interest, note, contract or
agreement of any kind to which the authority is a party;
(21) To sell security interests in the loan portfolio of the
authority. The security interests shall be evidenced by
instruments issued by the authority. Proceeds from the sale of
security interests may be issued in the same manner and for the
same purposes as bond and note venues;
(22) To promulgate rules in accordance with the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, as
necessary to implement and make effective the powers, duties and
responsibilities invested in the authority by the provisions of
this article and otherwise by law, including regulation of the
conduct of persons using the recreational facility;
(23) To construct, reconstruct, improve, maintain, repair,
operate and manage recreational trails, trailheads and related
facilities and projects at such locations within the state as may
be determined by the authority;
(24) To exercise all power and authority provided in this
article necessary and convenient to plan, finance, construct,
renovate, maintain and operate or oversee the operation of
recreational trails, trailheads and related facilities and
projects at such locations within the state as may be determined
by the authority;
(25) To exercise such other and additional powers as may be
necessary or appropriate for the exercise of the powers herein
conferred;
(26) To exercise all of the powers which a corporation may
lawfully exercise under the laws of this state;
(27) To provide for law enforcement within the recreational facilities by appointing rangers as provided in section six of
this article;
(28) To develop, maintain and operate or to contract for the
development, maintenance and operation of a system of
recreational trails and appurtenant facilities, including trail
head centers, parking areas, camping facilities, picnic areas,
recreational areas, historic or cultural interpretive sites and
other facilities which make up the Hatfield-McCoy recreation
area;
(29) To enter into contract with landowners and other
persons holding an interest in the land being used for its
recreational facilities to hold those landowners and other
persons harmless with respect to any claim in tort growing out of
the use of the land for public recreation or growing out of the
recreational activities operated or managed by the authority from
any claim except a claim for damages proximately caused by the
willful or malicious conduct of the landowner or other person or
any of his or her agents or employees;
(30) To assess and collect a reasonable fee from those
persons who use the trails, parking facilities, visitor centers
or other facilities which are part of the Hatfield-McCoy recreation area, and to retain and utilize that revenue for any
purposes consistent with this article;
(31) To cooperate with the states of Kentucky and Virginia
and appropriate state and local officials and community leaders
in those states to connect the trails of the West Virginia
portion of the Hatfield-McCoy recreation area with similar
recreation facilities in those states;
(32) To enter into contracts or other appropriate legal
arrangements with landowners under which their land is made
available for use as part of the Hatfield-McCoy recreation area;
and
(33) To directly operate and manage recreation activities
and facilities within the Hatfield-McCoy recreation area.
§20-13-6. Hatfield-McCoy recreation area rangers.
The board is hereby authorized to appoint bona fide
residents of this state to act as Hatfield-McCoy recreation area
rangers upon any premises which are part of the Hatfield-McCoy
recreation area, subject to the conditions and restrictions
hereinafter imposed. Before performing the duties of ranger,
each person so appointed shall qualify therefor in the same
manner as is required of county officers by the taking and filing of an oath of office as required by section one, article one,
chapter six of this code and by posting an official bond as
required by section one, article two, chapter six of this code.
No ranger may have authority to carry a gun or other dangerous
weapon unless specifically authorized by the board and until a
license therefor has been obtained in the manner prescribed by
section two, article seven, chapter sixty-one of this code.
It is the duty of any person so appointed and qualified to
preserve law and order on any premises which are part of the
Hatfield-McCoy recreation area, the immediately adjacent property
of landowners who are making land available for public use under
agreement with the authority, and on streets, highways or other
public lands utilized by the trails, parking areas or related
recreational facilities, and other immediately adjacent public
lands. For this purpose, the ranger shall be deemed to be a law-
enforcement officer in accordance with the provisions of section
one, article twenty-nine, chapter thirty of this code, and, as to
offenses committed within any such area, have and may exercise
all the powers and authority and shall be subject to all the
requirements and responsibilities of a law-enforcement officer.
The assignment of rangers to the duties authorized by this section may not supersede in any way the authority or duty of
other peace officers to preserve law and order on such premises.
The salary of all such rangers shall be paid by the board.
The board shall furnish each ranger with an official uniform
to be worn while on duty and shall furnish and require each
ranger while on duty to wear a shield with an appropriate
inscription and to carry credentials certifying the person's
identity and authority as a ranger.
The board may at its pleasure revoke the authority of any
ranger. The executive director shall report the termination of
employment of a ranger by filing a notice to that effect in the
office of the clerk of each county in which the rangers' oath of
office was filed, and in the case of a ranger licensed to carry
a gun or other dangerous weapon, by notifying the clerk of the
circuit court of the county in which the license therefor was
granted.
§20-13-7. Bonds not a debt of the state.
Revenue bonds and revenue refunding bonds of the Hatfield-
McCoy regional recreation authority issued under the provisions
of this article may not be deemed to constitute a debt of the
state or of any political subdivision thereof or a pledge of the faith and credit of the state or of any political subdivision,
but the bonds shall be payable solely from the funds herein
provided therefor from revenues. All such bonds shall contain on
the face thereof a statement to the effect that neither the state
nor any political subdivision thereof is obligated to pay the
bond or the interest thereon except from revenues of the
recreational project or projects for which they are issued and
that neither the faith or credit nor the taxing power of the
state or any political subdivision thereof is pledged to the
payment of the principal or the interest on the bonds.
§20-13-8. Criminal penalties.
Any person who violates any of the rules promulgated by the
board under authority of this article is guilty of a misdemeanor,
and, upon conviction thereof, shall for each offense be fined not
more than five hundred dollars.
§20-13-9. Provisions severable.
The several sections and provisions of this article are
severable, and if any section or provision hereof is held
unconstitutional, all the remaining sections and provisions of
this article shall nevertheless remain valid.
§20-13-10. Effective date.
This bill shall be effective immediately upon enactment.
CHAPTER 30. PROFESSIONS AND OCCUPATIONS.
ARTICLE 29. LAW-ENFORCEMENT TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION.
§30-29-1. Definitions.
For the purposes of this article, unless a different meaning
clearly appears in the context:
"Approved law-enforcement training academy" means any
training facility which is approved and authorized to conduct
law-enforcement training as provided in this article;
"Chief executive" means the superintendent of the
department
of public safety state police; the chief conservation officer,
department division of natural resources; the sheriff of any West
Virginia county; or the chief of any West Virginia municipal
law-enforcement agency;
"County" means the fifty-five major political subdivisions
of the state;
"Exempt rank" means any noncommissioned or commissioned rank
of sergeant or above;
"Governor's committee on crime, delinquency and correction"
or "governor's committee" means the governor's committee on
crime, delinquency and correction established as a state planning agency pursuant to section one, article nine, chapter fifteen of
this code;
"Law-enforcement officer" means any duly authorized member
of a law-enforcement agency who is authorized to maintain public
peace and order, prevent and detect crime, make arrests and
enforce the laws of the state or any county or municipality
thereof, other than parking ordinances, and shall include those
persons employed as security officers at state institutions of
higher education in accordance with the provisions of section
five, article four, chapter eighteen-b of this code, although no
such institution
shall may be deemed a law-enforcement agency.
The term also includes those persons employed as rangers by the
Hatfield-McCoy regional recreation authority in accordance with
the provisions of section six, article thirteen, chapter twenty
of this code, although the authority may not be deemed a law-
enforcement agency. As used in this article, the term
"law-enforcement officer" does not apply to the chief executive
of any West Virginia law-enforcement agency or any watchman or
special conservation officer;
"Law-enforcement official" means the duly appointed chief
administrator of a designated law-enforcement agency or a duly authorized designee;
"Municipality" means any incorporated town or city whose
boundaries lie within the geographic boundaries of the state;
"Subcommittee" or "law-enforcement training subcommittee"
means the subcommittee of the governor's committee on crime,
delinquency and correction created by section two of this
article; and
"West Virginia law-enforcement agency" means any duly
authorized state, county or municipal organization employing one
or more persons whose responsibility is the enforcement of laws
of the state or any county or municipality thereof:
Provided,
That
no neither the Hatfield-McCoy regional recreation authority
nor any state institution of higher education
shall may be deemed
a law-enforcement agency.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to establish a quasi-
governmental body termed the Hatfield-McCoy Regional Recreation
Authority to assist in the development of recreational trails for
public use on private property in southern West Virginia and to
coordinate the development of economic opportunities, tourism and
recreation associated with the recreational use of the trails.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
§20-13 is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring
have been omitted.