As used in this chapter, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

(1) ‘Board’ means the board of directors of a water control district created under the provisions of this chapter.

(2) ‘District’ means a water control district created under this chapter.

(3) ‘Court’ means the county court having jurisdiction over a water control district and includes the board of county commissioners.

(4) ‘Land’ or ‘tract of land’ means real property, together with improvements thereon, whether publicly or privately owned, within a district.

(5) ‘Landowner,’ ‘owner,’ ‘owner of land’ and ‘owner in fee’ are synonymous and mean a person, public body as defined in ORS § 174.109, or the federal government or any agency thereof, owning a tract of land situated within a district, or within the boundaries of a proposed district. The vendee named in a bona fide contract of sale of a tract of land situated within a district shall be considered as a landowner to the exclusion of the vendor. Whenever two or more persons own a tract of land as tenants in common or by entirety, each such person shall be regarded as a landowner. The guardian, administrator or executor authorized to act as such of a person or estate owning land within a district shall be considered a landowner.

(6) ‘Works’ means dams, storage reservoirs, canals, ditches, dikes, levees, revetments, and all other structures, facilities, improvements and property necessary or convenient for draining land, controlling flood or surface waters, or supplying lands with water for irrigation, domestic or other purposes.

(7) ‘Notice by publication’ means the giving of notice by publication in a newspaper defined as a legal publication under the laws of Oregon in each county in which lands within a district are located. A notice of a hearing to be held before the board of a district or the court shall be published once each week for four consecutive weeks making four publications and the last publication of such notice shall be at least 10 days before the date set for the hearing. All other notices required to be published under the provisions of this chapter shall be published once each week for two consecutive weeks making two publications, and the last publication shall be at least five days before the date of the event for which the notice is given. This subsection does not apply to provision of notice for an election.

(8) ‘Engineering plan’ means the plans and specifications for the works to be constructed or purchased within any subdistrict, including such maps, profiles, plans and other data as may be necessary to set forth the location, character of the work, the property benefited, taken or damaged, showing any and all rights of way or other property which may be required for the construction of any works, together with the estimates of the cost of the works and an estimate of the benefits and damages which will accrue to each tract of land within a subdistrict upon the construction or purchase of the works. A project work plan prepared for a subdistrict in cooperation with a soil and water conservation district may be adopted as the engineering plan, even though such project work plan is not the final construction plan, and does not give an estimate of the benefits and damages which will accrue to each tract.

(9) ‘Apportion’ means to determine the proportionate share of any assessment which is to be borne by a tract of land subject to assessment or to determine the proportionate share of any charge which is to be borne by the owner or occupant of a tract of land. The determination shall be made by calculating the percentage ratio of the appraised benefits of a tract of land to the total appraised benefits accruing to all tracts of land, or owners and occupants thereof, subject to the assessment or charge and allocating to the tracts of land, or owners and occupants, the same percentage of the total sum of money to be raised by the assessment or charge.

(10) ‘New assessed valuation’ means the assessed valuation of a tract of land as assessed by the county assessor for the county in which the land is located for the year in which an adjustment of benefits is made by a district.

(11) ‘Original appraised benefits’ means the benefits determined to accrue to a tract of land by an appraisal.

(12) ‘Original assessed valuation’ means the assessed valuation of a tract of land as assessed by the county assessor for the county in which the land is located for the year in which the original benefits were determined.

(13) ‘Record’ means to file a document for recording with the county clerk of each county in which the lands within a district or subdistrict are located. [Amended by 1961 c.186 § 4; 1965 c.623 § 1; 1969 c.691 § 1; 1983 c.83 § 102; 1983 c.350 § 307; 1991 c.459 § 430c; 2003 c.802 § 138]

ORGANIZATION AND POWERS OF DISTRICT