§1953. Rights and powers of the commission

A. The commission shall exercise the powers herein conferred upon it within the district consisting of wards 6, 7 and 8 of Tangipahoa Parish as the boundaries and limits of said wards are presently fixed by law.

B. The commission may authorize a reasonable travel allowance for its members in the performance of their official duties, and it may employ such officers, or agents, and employees, as it may find necessary in the performance of its duties, and may prescribe their duties, powers and compensation of such officers, agents and employees. The commission may, upon such terms as it may agree upon, contract for legal, financial, engineering and other professional services necessary or expedient in the conduct of its affairs, and may upon terms and conditions mutually agreeable, utilize the services of the other executive departments of the state.

C. The commission shall have the authority to own, construct, operate and maintain docks, wharves, sheds, elevators, locks and slips, laterals, basins and warehouses, recreational facilities such as fishing piers, marinas, docks, wharves, and all other property, structures, equipment and facilities including belts and connecting lines of railroads and works of public improvements necessary or useful for port, recreational, harbor and terminal purposes; to dredge and maintain shipways, channels, slips, basins and turning basins; to establish, operate and maintain in cooperation with the federal government, the state of Louisiana, and its various agencies, subdivisions and public bodies, navigable waterway systems to acquire, by right of eminent domain, purchase, lease or otherwise, the land that may be necessary for the business of the district, including industrial plant sites and necessary property or appurtenances therefor, and to acquire or construct industrial plant buildings with necessary machinery and equipment within said districts; to lease or sublease for processing, manufacturing, commercial, recreational and business purposes lands or buildings, owned, acquired or leased as lessee by said district, which lease may run for any term not exceeding forty years at a fixed rental but may run for a term not exceeding ninety-nine years, provided they shall contain a clause or clauses for readjustment of the rentals until the expiration of a primary term of forty years; to borrow from any person or corporation using or renting any land or dock or warehouse on any facility, or any recreational facility of said district, such sums as shall be necessary to improve the same according to plans and specifications approved by the governing authority and to erect and construct such improvement and agree that the loan therefor shall be liquidated by deducting from the rent, dock, wharf, toll charges or other charges payable for such property a percentage thereof to be agreed on, subject, however, to any covenants or agreements made by the holders of revenue bonds issued under the authority hereinafter set forth.

D. The commission shall have authority to make and enter into contracts, leases and other agreements with operating companies, railroads, trucking companies, barge lines and with any and all companies interested in the transportation, storage and shipping of goods and other products, whether by rail, truck line, barge line, ocean going vessels or otherwise for the use of facilities administered by the commission or any part or portion thereof, for a period of time not exceeding forty years. No exclusive franchise, however, shall be granted to any carrier.

Added by Acts 1962, No. 299, §1. Amended by Acts 1968, No. 4, §2; Acts 1970, No. 228, §1, emerg. eff. July 2, 1970, at 1:05 P.M.; Acts 1972, No. 497, §1.