48-3186. Sale of lands under resolution of exclusion; disposition of proceeds; execution of mortgage by entrymen or lessees of state lands

A. The lands conveyed to the district pursuant to section 48-3185 shall be sold by the district at public sale when irrigation water is available for the lands and after the district obtains title thereto. The proceeds of the sale shall be paid into the district treasury. When the lands so conveyed are improved, the board of directors shall appraise the value which the improvements add to the land, and upon sale of the land the district shall pay to the landowner the appraised value of the improvements.

B. All sales of land made by the district under the resolution of exclusion shall be held at the door of the courthouse of the county in which the major part of the lands within the district is located. The notice of sale shall be published twenty-four consecutive times in a daily newspaper, or five consecutive times in a weekly newspaper, of general circulation in the county in which the sale is held, and by similar publication in the county in which the land to be sold is located if such lands are in a county other than the county where the sale is held.

C. As soon as practicable after any of the lands are sold the proceeds of the sale, less the necessary expenses of sale, and an amount equivalent to the district taxes per acre, plus six per cent per annum, which has been levied on other lands in the district between the date of the resolution of exclusion and the sale of the lands by the district, shall be divided among the owners of record at the date or dates of sale of the lands excluded from the district in proportion to the acreage of each as set forth in the resolution of exclusion adopted by the board of supervisors.

D. No owner of such excluded lands shall be paid such money until in consideration of the payment thereof he conveys to the district a good and marketable title, free of all taxes and encumbrances, to his excluded land, or if the land is held under a desert or homestead entry or under contract with the state, a mortgage is executed. Such mortgage shall be governed by the same provisions as mortgages executed by similar landowners on included land.

E. An owner of lands excluded from the district who is a successful bidder at the sale of any of the parcels of land sold by the district may be credited upon the purchase price the proportionate amount due him by reason of the conveyance to the district of his excluded land and the sale thereof.