Effective 28 Aug 1939

245.245. Board to appoint inspectors — duties and powers of inspectors. — 1. It shall be the duty and the privilege of the board of supervisors to employ or appoint inspectors for the purpose of policing, guarding and inspecting all levees constructed under the provisions of sections 245.010 to 245.280, and the number of such inspectors shall be determined by the board of supervisors, as conditions and emergencies may require from time to time.

2. Said (and such) inspectors shall have the right at any time to take up and impound any and all stock, animals, or fowls, found upon or running upon any levee constructed or supervised under the provisions of sections 245.010 to 245.280; and before the owner of any such animal or animals, stock or fowls, shall be entitled to recover possession of the same, he shall pay to said levee district the penalty or amount fixed by the board of supervisors. Any and all members of the board of supervisors, and all inspectors employed by them, shall at all times in guarding or patrolling any levee constructed or supervised under the provisions of sections 245.010 to 245.280, shall have the same rights and authority in making arrests of persons, and in impounding animals, as is now accorded any sheriff or other peace officer of this state.

3. It shall be the further duty of said inspectors to report at such times as the board of supervisors may require, the condition of the levees, or other works of the district assigned to each inspector by the board; to make such examinations of all levees during high water periods, as may be directed by the board of supervisors; and upon any emergency, or danger to the levee, or other works of the district, of which the inspector has charge, he by order of the board of supervisors, may call out all able-bodied men over sixteen years of age, and under fifty years, within the district, and compel such persons to perform such work as said inspector may deem necessary to be made, in order to protect the levees, grades, or other works of the district. Any person who shall refuse to perform any such work assigned to him by said inspector, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon affidavit made before any associate circuit judge of the county, by the inspector, or any other person, that the offender has defaulted in obeying such call or summons of said inspector, said associate circuit judge shall issue a warrant for the arrest of such offender, and upon conviction before said associate circuit judge, upon information or any other modes provided by law for the trial of cases of misdemeanor, he shall be fined any sum not less than twenty nor more than one hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail, not less than fifteen nor more than sixty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the associate circuit judge. For every day's work any person shall perform under such requisition, he shall be paid the sum of one dollar and fifty cents out of the funds of the district, if demanded by him.

4. The provisions of this section shall apply, so far as necessary, to levee districts organized under sections 245.285 to 245.545.

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(RSMo 1939 § 12533)

Prior revisions: 1929 § 10943; 1919 § 4637