The authority shall have all powers necessary for the performance of its purposes and duties, including but not limited to, the power to:
1. Have perpetual succession as a public authority.
2. Adopt rules under chapter 17A for the regulation of its affairs and to carry out its duties and responsibilities. The authority is an agency as that term is defined in chapter 17A and is subject to the provisions of chapter 17A.
3. Sue and be sued in its own name.
4. Exercise the power of eminent domain.
5. Acquire railway facilities, whether located within Iowa or a contiguous state, directly or through an agent, by purchase, lease, lease-purchase, gift, devise or otherwise. The authority shall not submit a bid to acquire a railway facility if any railroad company or person is negotiating for the facility's purchase and if the railroad company's or person's offer exceeds the net salvage value set by the trustee by at least fifteen percent and the offer is for a segment which originates and terminates at the intersection of another railroad mainline or is for a segment which connects to a mainline if the facility is a branchline. However, even if a railroad company or person is negotiating for a facility's purchase, the authority may submit a bid for the acquisition of the railway facility upon approval of a resolution by the state transportation commission stating that the best interests of the state and the transportation needs thereof might not be served by the railroad company's or person's offer or negotiation. However, the commission shall not adopt such a resolution if the competing railroad corporation or person files with the state department of transportation an enforceable undertaking to operate the facility for a period of five years after its purchase.
6. Determine the location of and select any railway facility to be provided financial assistance under this chapter and acquire, construct, reconstruct, renovate, rehabilitate, improve, extend, replace, maintain, repair and lease the facility, and to enter into contracts for any of these purposes.
7. Enter into contracts, including partnership agreements, with any person for the ownership, operation, management or use of a railway facility. Provisions shall be made in any contract or partnership agreement entered into by the authority that any additional jobs which may result from the ownership, operation, management, or use of a railway facility shall be offered, when practicable, to qualified former employees of the Milwaukee Road or Rock Island railroad companies.
8. Designate an agent to perform its powers under subsections 6 and 7.
9. The authority may sell or convey any of the railway facilities upon terms and considerations acceptable to the governing board.
10. Issue obligations for any of its purposes and refund the obligations, all as provided for in this chapter. However, the total principal amount of obligations outstanding at any one time shall not exceed two hundred million dollars.
11. Invest or deposit moneys of the authority, subject to an agreement with bondholders or noteholders, in a manner determined by the authority, notwithstanding chapter 12B or 12C.
12. Fix, revise, charge and collect rates, rents, fees and charges for the use of any railway facility or any portion of a facility that is owned or financially assisted by the authority alone or in any other association with any other person and contract with any person in respect to a facility.
13. Mortgage all or any portion of its railway facilities, whether then owned or thereafter acquired, in connection with the financing of the particular railway facility or any portion of the facility.
14. Extend financial assistance for the purpose of providing for project costs. Make interest-free loans for rehabilitation of railway tracks, roadbeds, or trestles to persons which have repaid in part the original loan from the authority which was made for the purpose of the acquisition or rehabilitation of railway tracks, roadbeds, or trestles. However, an interest-free loan to a person shall not exceed the amount repaid of the original loan made to that person and one-half of the amount of the interest-free loan repaid to the authority shall be credited to the general fund of the state.
15. Extend financial assistance to refund, retire, or refinance obligations, including obligations running to the federal government, mortgages or advances issued, made or given for the project cost of a railway facility which costs were incurred for railway facilities undertaken and completed prior to or after May 20, 1980, when the governing board finds that this financial assistance is in the public interest.
16. Have and alter a corporate seal.
17. Receive and accept from any person or governmental agency loans, guarantees or grants for or in aid of project costs and receive and accept grants, gifts and other contributions from any source.
18. Own a railway facility under this chapter alone, in partnership, or in any other association with any person if necessary or beneficial to preserve part of a railway system, upon the determination, after consultation with the department, that the railway facility is necessary or beneficial to the railway system, to be relinquished to nonauthority ownership or operation as soon as economically practicable.
19. Temporarily operate a railway facility under this chapter if sufficient need exists or there is an emergency situation as determined by a majority of the board.
20. Serve as a general or limited partner in a partnership formed to purchase, renovate, and operate a railway facility.
21. Enter into agreements with persons to develop, equip, furnish, or otherwise develop and operate railway facilities, and make provision in the agreements for railway facilities and governmental actions, as authorized by this chapter and other laws.
22. Enter into appropriate arrangements and agreements with a governmental agency for the taking or the providing by that governmental agency of a governmental action.
23. Acquire property interests subject to the limitations on purchases provided in subsection 5, in rail lines to ensure continued rail use and preserve abandoned rail lines for future railroad use.
[C81, § 307B.7; 81 Acts 2nd Ex, ch 3, § 7, 8]
83 Acts, ch 121, § 1; 84 Acts, ch 1230, § 3
C93, § 327I.7
94 Acts, ch 1107, §58
Referred to in § 327H.18, 327I.10, 327I.20
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