§19-21-4. Appointment of engineer; duties and compensation thereof; notice of application to form drainage district.

Immediately after such petition shall have been filed it shall be the duty of the court, or the judge thereof in vacation, to enter upon its records an order appointing an engineer to be selected by the petitioners, provided the engineer whom they select is a qualified and suitable person. If the engineer designated by the petitioners is, in the opinion of the court, not a proper person, the court shall appoint such other engineer as it may deem qualified to perform the duties imposed upon him by this article. Such engineer shall forthwith proceed to ascertain in a general manner the limits of the region which will be benefited by the proposed improvements, and the names of the landowners and the approximate acreage of each landowner's holdings, as nearly as they can be determined without actual survey, and file a report of his findings with the clerk of the circuit court at the earliest date practicable. In his report the engineer shall give a general idea of the improvements required and an approximate estimate of their cost, together with such other suggestions as he may think will be of service to the court in passing on the prayer of the petitioners. For service rendered in this connection the compensation of the engineer shall be fixed by the court.

Immediately upon the filing of the engineer's report, the clerk of the circuit court shall give notice by causing publication to be made as a Class II legal advertisement in compliance with the provisions of article three, chapter fifty-nine of this code, and the publication area for such publication shall be each county in which are situated lands of the proposed district. The last publication shall be made at least fifteen days prior to the first day of the next regular or special term of the circuit court at which such petition is to be heard. Such notice shall be substantially in the following form which shall be deemed sufficient for all purposes of this article: NOTICE OF APPLICATION TO FORM DRAINAGE DISTRICT.

Notice is hereby given to all persons interested in the following described real estate in _________________ county of West Virginia (here describe the property as set out in the petition) that a petition asking that the foregoing lands and other property be formed into a drainage district under the provisions of the statutes of West Virginia, and that the lands and other property above described will be affected by the formation of such drainage district and be rendered liable for taxation for the purposes of paying the expenses of organizing, making and maintaining the improvements that may be found necessary to drain, protect and reclaim the lands and other property in said district, and you and each of you are hereby notified to appear at a term of the circuit court of _______________ county, to be held on the ______ day of __________________, 19_____, at the courthouse thereof, and show cause, if any there be, why such drainage district, as set forth in the petition, should not be organized.

_____________________________________________ clerk of the circuit court __________ County.

The circuit court of the county in which the petition shall have been filed shall thereafter maintain and have original and exclusive jurisdiction coextensive with the boundaries and limits of such district, without regard to county lines, for all purposes of this article.