(65 ILCS 5/11-117-4) (from Ch. 24, par. 11-117-4)
Sec. 11-117-4.
No municipality shall proceed to operate for hire any public
utility for the use or benefit of private consumers or users, or charge for
such consumption or use, unless the proposition to operate has first been
submitted to the electors of the municipality as a separate proposition and
approved by a majority of those voting thereon. The proposition shall be
submitted in accordance with the provisions of Section 11-117-3. But any
municipality, without such submission and approval, may sell for heat,
light or power within or without the corporate limits of the municipality,
electricity generated in any electric lighting plant owned and operated by
the municipality for the municipality's own use. Also any municipality,
without such submission and approval, may sell water within and outside the
corporate limits of the municipality from any water plant owned and
operated by the municipality, and for this purpose shall have power to
acquire by agreement, purchase or condemnation, rights of way not more than
35 miles beyond its corporate limits in the streets, alleys or other public
ways of any city, village or incorporated town or in unincorporated
territory, even though such city, village or incorporated town or
unincorporated territory to be served is not contiguous to the
municipality, convenient and necessary for this purpose and to lay mains
and construct and operate pumping stations, reservoirs and other necessary
appurtenances therein. Provided, further, that where such municipality has
laid mains and constructed and operated pumping stations, reservoirs and
other necessary appurtenances, it may enter into contracts at a higher
water rate than the existing metered rate for like consumers within the
municipality, to allow the municipality to obtain a fair return to cover
the cost of financing, constructing, operating and maintaining the improved
facilities, and in the event such rates are not agreed upon by the parties,
such rates shall be fixed and determined by the circuit court of the county
in which the municipality which has financed, constructed, operated and
maintained the improved facilities is located; but this proviso shall not
impair the right of a municipal corporation to obtain water at the existing
metered rate for like consumers as is provided in Section 26 of "An Act to
create sanitary districts and to remove obstructions in the Des Plaines and
Illinois Rivers", approved May 29, 1889, as heretofore and hereafter
amended.
(Source: Laws 1961, p. 576.)
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