(1) Whenever the board of county commissioners of any county which has a population of at least three thousand is presented with a petition signed by five hundred resident registered qualified electors, or by fifty percent of the resident registered qualified electors of such county, at least two hundred fifty of whom are residents of other than the county seat or town where it is proposed to locate such public hospital, asking that a public hospital board be appointed and that an annual tax be levied for the establishment and maintenance of a public hospital at a place in the county named therein, and which petition shall specify the maximum amount of money proposed to be expended in purchasing or building said hospital, such board of county commissioners shall have the power to create, by resolution, such public hospital board, to levy such tax, and to appropriate to such public hospital board the funds for purchasing or building such hospital and for maintaining the hospital, as well as the power to turn to the control and maintenance of such public hospital board any public or other hospital then being conducted by the board of county commissioners. Said tax shall not exceed three mills on the dollar for each year.

(2)If it is proposed in such petition, or in a petition later filed with like number of resident registered qualified elector signers, to create an indebtedness of the county for purchasing, erecting, or enlarging of buildings or equipment for such public hospital, then the board of county commissioners shall submit such question in the manner provided by law for creating debt for erecting public buildings and, if the vote authorizes it, shall issue such bonds, so authorized, as the public hospital board requests. In those counties having a population of less than three thousand, a public hospital board may be created by the petition of not less than fifty-one percent of the resident registered qualified electors or two hundred such resident registered qualified electors, regardless of where they live in the county. In such counties, an annual levy of not to exceed five mills on the dollar shall be assessed to purchase, build, and maintain such a county hospital.