1026 ARTICLE 25

and lateral branches, if necessary, of the proposed improvement, and there
is filed therewith a bond for the amount of fifty dollars per mile for such
mile of the ditch or proposed improvement, signed by two or more sureties
or by some lawful and authorized surety company, to be approved by the
Board of County Commissioners and conditioned for payment of all costs
and expenses incurred in the proceedings in case the board does not
grant the prayer of said petition, the said clerk shall issue a summons to
be served on all the defendant landowners who have not joined in the
petition and whose lands are included in the proposed drainage districts.
The summons may be served by publication as to any defendants who can-
not be personally served as provided by law. When a mortgage is held on
land within the proposed drainage district, notice shall be given to the
holders of mortgages in all respects as is provided in sections 85-111 for
defendant landowners, and they shall have the right to appear before the
commissioners in person or by counsel. Upon the return day the said
Board of County Commissioners shall appoint a disinterested and com-
petent civil and drainage engineer who shall be recommended by the State
drainage engineer (or if there is no drainage engineer then by the state
roads engineer), and two resident freeholders of the county or counties in
which said lands are located as a board of viewers to examine the lands
described in the petition and make a preliminary report thereon. When the
lands proposed to be drained and created into a drainage district are located
in two or more counties the Board of County Commissioners of either
county shall have and exercise the jurisdiction herein conferred, and the
venue shall be in that county in which the petition is first filed.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 86. 1912, sec. 81C. 1912, ch. 656, sec. 3.

87. The Board of Viewers appointed under section 86 shall at once
proceed to make a careful and thorough examination of the lands described
in the petition, and other land if necessary to locate properly such improve-
ment or improvements as are petitioned for, along the route described in
the petition or any other route answering the same purpose if found
more practicable or feasible, and shall see that the lands of all who desire to
come within the drainage district have been included within said district,
and they may make surveys necessary to determine the boundaries and ele-
vation of the several parts of the district, and to enable them to form a
tentative plan for development, and shall make and return to the clerk of
the Board of County Commissioners, to be placed on public file in his office
within thirty days, unless the time shall be extended by the board, a written
report which shall set forth:

1. Whether the proposed drainage is practicable or not.

2. Whether it will benefit the public health or any public highway or be
conducive to the general welfare of the community.

3. Whether the improvement proposed will benefit the lands in question
sufficiently to warrant the probable expenditure.

4. Whether or not all the lands that will be benefited are included in the
proposed drainage district.

They shall also file with their report a map of the proposed drainage
district, showing the location of the ditch or ditches, or other improvements
to be constructed with an approximate estimate of the cost, and the lands
with the owners' names so far as they can be learned, that will be affected
thereby, and such other, information as they may have collected that will
tend to show the correctness of their findings.