Section 11: Revenue bonds for project costs; interim receipts or temporary bonds; issuance; agreement for consolidation of indebtedness by participating municipalities authorized
Section 11. (a) Any city or town which is a member of the New England power pool, acting by its municipal light board, when authorized by a two-thirds vote as defined in section one of chapter forty-four, may, subject to the approval of the department under this chapter, borrow money by the issue of its revenue bonds for project costs, or its share of project costs, of electric power facilities scheduled for commencement of commercial operation after January first, nineteen hundred and seventy-five. Such project costs may include all costs, whether incurred prior to or after the issue of bonds or notes hereunder, of acquisition, site development, construction, improvement, enlargement, reconstruction, alteration, machinery, equipment, furnishings, nuclear fuel, demolition or removal of existing buildings or structures, including the cost of acquiring any lands to which such buildings or structures may be moved, financing charges, interest prior to and during the carrying out of any project and for a reasonable period thereafter, planning, engineering, finance advisory and legal services, administrative expenses, prepayments under contracts made pursuant to section three or four, the funding of notes issued for project costs as hereinafter provided, such reserves for debt service or other capital or current expenses as may be required by a trust agreement or resolution securing notes or bonds, and all other expenses incidental to the determination of the feasibility of any project or to carrying out the project or to placing the project in operation.
(b) The bonds of each issue shall mature at a time or times not exceeding forty years from their dates of issue and may be made redeemable before maturity with or without premiums. Subject to the provisions of this chapter and to the terms of the department's approval and of the authorizing vote, the board shall determine the date or dates of the bonds, their denomination or denominations, the place or places of payment of the principal and interest, which may be at any bank or trust company within or without the commonwealth, their interest rate or rates, maturity or maturities, redemption privileges, if any, and the form and other details of the bonds. The bonds shall be signed by the city or town treasurer, shall be countersigned by the mayor or city manager, as the case may be, of a city or by a majority of the selectmen of a town either manually or by facsimile, and shall bear the seal of the city or town or a facsimile thereof. Any coupons attached thereto shall bear the facsimile signature of the city or town treasurer.
(c) In case any officer whose signature or a facsimile of whose signature shall appear on any bonds, coupons or notes issued under this chapter shall cease to be such officer before the delivery thereof, such signature or such facsimile shall nevertheless be valid and sufficient for all purposes the same as if he had remained in office until after such delivery.
(d) The bonds may be issued in coupon or in registered form, or both, and provision may be made for the registration of any coupon bonds as to principal alone and also as to both principal and interest, for the reconversion into coupon bonds of bonds registered as to both principal and interest, and for the interchange of registered and coupon bonds. Subject to the provisions of this chapter and to the terms of the department's approval and of the authorizing vote, the board may sell the bonds in such manner, either at public or private sale, and for such price, as it may determine will best effect the purposes of this chapter.
(e) Prior to the preparation of definitive bonds, the city or town may issue interim receipts or temporary bonds, with or without coupons, exchangeable for definitive bonds when such bonds shall have been executed and are available for delivery.
(f) Upon the votes of two or more municipalities authorizing the issue of revenue bonds in conformity with the provisions of this chapter, including approval of the department as to each of said municipalities, or notes in anticipation thereof, for project costs of the same facilities, said municipalities may enter into an agreement for the consolidation of the indebtedness so authorized and the issuance of such revenue bonds, or notes in anticipation thereof, by one such municipality on behalf of itself and one or more others if the authorizing votes provide for such consolidation. The agreement for consolidation shall require the participating municipalities, severally and not jointly, to provide the funds necessary to pay their respective shares of the principal and interest on the bonds or notes so issued. Such obligation of each participating municipality shall be payable solely from the funds provided therefor under this chapter and may be secured in the same manner as bonds or notes issued separately by it under this chapter.
(g) Bonds or notes issued under this chapter by a member of the New England power pool shall not be deemed to have been unauthorized by reason of any invalidation of any of the provisions of the New England power pool agreement.