§11-44-88. Procedure for adoption of resolutions, bylaws, or ordinances granting franchises, etc., for use of streets, public highways, etc.; manner in which franchises, etc., extended, enlarged, etc.

No resolution, bylaw, or ordinance granting to any person, firm, or corporation any franchise, lease, or right to use the streets, public highways, thoroughfares, or public property of any city or town organized under the provisions of this article, either in, under, upon, along, through, or over same, shall take effect and be in force until 30 days after the final enactment of the same by the board of commissioners and publication of said resolution, bylaw, or ordinance in full once a week for three consecutive weeks in some newspaper published in said city or town, which publication shall be made at the expense of the persons, firm, or corporation applying for said grant. Pending the passage of any such resolution, bylaw, or ordinance or during the time intervening between its final passage and the expiration of the 30 days during which publication shall be made as above provided, the legally qualified voters of said city or town may by written petition or petitions addressed to said board of commissioners object to such grant. If during said period such written petition or petitions signed by at least a number of qualified voters equal to one for every 300 inhabitants of said city or fraction thereof according to the last federal census shall be filed with the said board of commissioners, said board shall, upon payment or deposit of the estimated election expense as hereinafter provided, forthwith order an election, at which election the legally qualified voters of said city or town shall vote for or against the proposed grant as set forth in the said bylaw, resolution, or ordinance and, pending such election, the said grant shall stand suspended. In publishing the call for said election, the said resolution, bylaw, or ordinance making such grant shall be published at length and in full at the expense of the city or town in some newspaper published in said city or town by at least one publication. The board of commissioners shall, before making such call, furnish to the person, firm, or corporation applying for such grant or franchise an estimate of the expense of the election to be held to consider the same and, if the person, firm, or corporation so applying shall pay to or deposit with the city or town a sum sufficient to cover the cost of such election as so estimated, the board of commissioners shall proceed to call said election, but if the same is not paid to or deposited with said city or town within 30 days after the board makes said estimate of the cost of such election, said election shall not be ordered and the bylaw, ordinance, or resolution shall not be effective. The applicant for any such grant or franchise shall pay to the city or town the expense of such advertisement thereof whether an election is held therein or not and the expense of such election if held; and such bylaw, resolution, or ordinance shall not be valid unless the fact of such payment is noted in the record thereof upon the minute book or other permanent record thereof as kept by said board. Any applicant may withdraw any application before and without incurring the expense of such election, or he may ask and obtain a suspension of the bylaw, resolution, or ordinance until the next regular municipal election, at which time the question of its adoption may be determined by special ballot and without expense to the applicant except for printing the special ballots and advertising the election on such application. If at such election the majority of the votes cast shall be in favor of said ordinance and the making of said proposed grant, the same shall thereupon become effective, but if a majority of the votes so cast shall be against the passage of the said resolution, bylaw, or ordinance and against the making of the said grant, said bylaw, resolution, or ordinance shall not become effective, nor shall it confer any rights, powers, or privileges of any kind, and it shall be the duty of the said board of commissioners, after such result of said election shall be determined, to pass a resolution or ordinance to that effect.

No grant of any franchise or lease or right of use or any other right in, under, upon, along, through, or over the streets, public highways, thoroughfares, or public property of any such city or town shall be made or given nor shall any such rights of any kind whatever be conferred upon any person, firm, or corporation except by resolution or ordinance duly passed by the board of commissioners at some regular or adjourned meeting and published as provided by this section, nor shall any extension or enlargement of any such rights or powers granted be made or given except in the manner and subject to all the conditions provided in this section as to the original grant of same.

(Acts 1911, No. 281, p. 330; Code 1940, T. 37, §99.)