The secretary must give notice of the hearing, mail notices to listed property owners when addresses are known, and file the notice and affidavit; interested persons may inspect the report and object, and some damage claimants must file claims by the stated deadline.
Sec. 57.267. NOTICE OF HEARING. (a) After the commissioners of appraisement file their report with the secretary of the board, the secretary shall publish notice of the time and place of the hearing on the report. (b) The notice shall be published in a newspaper published in each county in which any part of the district is located, or in which any land lies that will be in any way affected by the proposed engineer's report. The notice shall be published once a week for two consecutive weeks before the date of the hearing. (c) The notice shall be in substantially the following form: To the owners and all other persons having any interest in land lying in ___ County, take notice, that a copy of the engineer's report of the ___ Levee Improvement District has been filed in the district's office and that the commissioners of appraisement have been appointed to assess benefits and damages accruing to land or other property inside or outside the levee improvement district which will be benefited, taken, damaged, or affected in some way by the carrying out of the engineer's report. The report of the commissioners of appraisement has been filed in my office at ___, and all interested persons may examine the report and make an objection to all or any part of the report. A person who claims damage to his land and to whose land no damages have been assessed in the report must file a claim for damage in my office on or before ___, ___. A person who fails to make an objection or to file a claim for damages is deemed to have waived his right to object or claim damages. The commissioners of appraisement will meet on ___, ___, to hear and act on objections to their report and claims for damages. ____________________ Secretary, Board of Directors __________ Levee Improvement District (d) The secretary shall mail written notice to each person whose property is listed in the report of the commissioners of appraisement, if the office address is known. This notice shall state in substance: (1) that the report of the commissioners of appraisement assessing benefits and damages accruing to land and other property because of the engineer's report for the district has been filed in the district's office; (2) that all persons interested may examine the report and make objections to it in whole or in part; and (3) that the commissioners of appraisement will meet on the day and at the place named to hear and act on objections to the report. (e) The secretary, on the day of the hearing, shall file in his office the original notice, with his affidavit, which shall show the manner of publication and the names of all persons to whom notices have been mailed. The affidavit shall state that the secretary could not with reasonable diligence ascertain the post-office addresses of those affected to whom no notices were mailed. (f) The secretary shall file copies of the notice and his affidavit with the commissioners of appraisement and with the clerk of the commissioners court of jurisdiction. Acts 1971, 62nd Leg., p. 110, ch. 58, Sec. 1, eff. Aug. 30, 1971. Amended by Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 248, Sec. 50, eff. June 18, 2003.