J. MILLARD TAWES, GOVERNOR                               839

are found not to be in due form and in accordance with the law
they shall be referred back to the petitioners to be corrected and re-
turned to the County Commissioners at a subsequent meeting. If
the petition and report are found to be in due form and in accord-
ance with the law, the County Commissioners shall appoint a day
for a public hearing upon the report and petition and shall give not
less than ten days' notice of the time and place of the hearing. Such
notice shall be published in a newspaper or newspapers having a
general circulation in the county or counties in which the lands in
the Watershed Association are located. During this time a copy of
the report shall be on file in the office of the Clerk of County Com-
missioners, and shall be open to the inspection of any landowner or
other person interested, and the notices shall so state. A notice of
this and all subsequent hearings shall be sent to the State Drainage
Engineer at least ten days prior to the date of such hearing.

172.    Whenever the lands described in the petition are located in
two or more counties, the Board of County Commissioners of either
ANY OF THE AFFECTED COUNTIES county shall have and may
exercise the jurisdiction herein conferred, but the venue shall lie in
the county in which the petition is filed.

173.    The Clerk of the Board of County Commissioners of the
county in which the petition is filed shall maintain a Watershed
File, in which shall be kept such petitions, motions, orders, reports,
and other exhibits necessary for a complete and continuous record
of the establishment of every Public Watershed Association within
the county.

174. At the hearing, the petitioners, and the affected Soil Con-
servation District or Districts being represented, any person inter-
ested in the matter may appear in person or by counsel and make
known his objection to any part of the report. The County Commis-
sioners may, in their discretion, disapprove the petition and report
and refer them back to the petitioners for amendment in view of
the objections presented, or they may approve the petition and re-
port as submitted or as it may have been amended. Upon approval
of the petition and report the Commissioners shall declare estab-
lished an organization, to be known as the................................................Public

Watershed Association, composed of the owners of all the lands
within the boundaries of the Association.

175.    A Public Watershed Association created under this sub-
title shall be and is hereby constituted a political subdivision of the
State and a public body corporate and politic under the name and

style of the "............................................................Public Watershed Association,"

with the right to acquire and hold property and convey the same, to
sue and be sued, to adopt a seal and to alter it at pleasure, and to
exercise corporate powers.

176.    The County Commissioners shall, within thirty days after
the approval of the petition and report, call together the owners
of all land within the Public Watershed Association for the purpose
of electing a board of directors and determining their rate of com-
pensation. The County Commissioners shall give at least ten days'
notice of the meeting by notices posted at four public places within
the Watershed Association or in the vicinity thereof, stating the