Powers of the commission

The commission shall regulate the commerce and traffic within the district in such manner as may, in its judgment, be for the best interest of the state. Title to all property and improvements thereon operated by the commission shall vest in the State of Louisiana. The commission is hereby vested with authority to: 1. Employ such officers, agents and employees as it deems necessary for the performance of its powers and duties and prescribe the powers and duties and fix the compensation of such officers, agents and employees. 2. Contract, upon such terms as it may agree upon, for legal, financial, engineering and other professional services necessary or expedient in the conduct of its affairs. 3. Utilize the services of the other executive departments of the state upon mutually agreeable terms and conditions. 4. Own, construct, acquire, operate and maintain docks, wharves, landings, elevators, sheds, warehouses, basins, locks, canals and all other property, structures, equipment, facilities and works of public improvement necessary or useful for port, harbor and/or terminal purposes. 5. Maintain proper depths of water at all wharves and landings, and dredge and maintain shipways, channels, slips, basins and turning basins. 6. Establish harbor lines within the port area by agreement with the Corps of Engineers of the United States. 7. The commission shall not deny permission for the acquisition, construction, installation, or operation of any privately owned facilities within the port area which are approved by the U.S. Corps of Engineers, the governing authority of the parish or parishes within which the port area is located, the Louisiana Department of Public Works and the Board of Commissioners of the Fifth Louisiana Levee District. The construction and operation of any such privately owned facilities within the port area shall be subject to reasonable rules and regulations of the commission which are applicable to both public and private facilities and the operation thereof. The fact that privately owned or operated facilities within the port area are or may be in competition with the public facilities owned, constructed, acquired, operated or proposed by the commission shall not be used as a basis for denial, prohibition, or discriminatory regulation of the privately owned facilities by the commission. 8. Construct, own, operate and maintain terminal rail facilities and other common carrier rail facilities for the purpose of rendering rail transportation to and from the facilities to be erected, owned and operated by the commission in both intrastate and interstate commerce. 9. The Madison Parish Port, Harbor and Terminal District and the Madison Parish Port Commission may acquire by expropriation, in accordance with the expropriation laws of the state, any properties necessary for the benefit and advantage of regulating commerce and traffic within their respective jurisdictions and districts; provided, however, that they shall not have the right to expropriate minerals or mineral rights, and their powers of expropriation shall not apply or extend to any existing publicly or privately owned wharf, dock, warehouse, elevator or other facility or industrial structure constructed on or adjacent to any navigable waterway, natural or man made, or to the replacement, improvement and operation thereof by the owners, lessees, permittees or the successors and assigns thereof. Should the properties expropriated hereunder cease to be used for the purposes for which they were expropriated, such properties shall revert to the original land owner or his heirs or assigns, provided such land owner or his heirs or assigns shall reimburse said district or commission, or its successor, in the full amount originally paid by the district or commission for such land. 10. Acquire by purchase, lease or otherwise, industrial plant sites and necessary property or appurtenances therefor, and acquire or construct industrial plant buildings, with necessary machinery and equipment, within the district. 11. Receive, by gift, grant, donation or otherwise, any sum of money, aid or assistance from the United States, the State of Louisiana or any political subdivision of either of them. 12. Provide such light, water, police protection and other services for its facilities as it deems advisable. 13. Establish and charge reasonable fees, rates, tariffs or other charges for the use of all facilities administered by it and for all services rendered by it. 14. Charge a reasonable fee to each vessel arriving in the port area in ballast or carrying cargo of any kind. 15. Charges for each copy of any certificate issued by it or by any of its officers or employees for inspecting hatches, surveying cargo or making other surveys or inspections of vessels in the port area, but it shall furnish, without charge, to the master of each such vessel one copy of all surveys upon his vessel or cargo. 16. Make and enter into contracts, leases and other agreements with railroads, trucking companies, barge lines and with any and all companies interested in the transportation, storage and shipping of goods and other products, whether by rail, truck line, barge line, ocean going vessels or otherwise, for the use of facilities administered by the commission, or any part or portion thereof, for a period not exceeding forty years; provided, however, that no exclusive franchise shall be granted to any carrier. The commission may lease or sub-lease for processing, manufacturing, commercial business purposes, lands or buildings owned, acquired or leased as lessee by it, which leases may run for any term not exceeding forty years at a fixed rental, but may run for a term not exceeding ninety-nine years provided the lease shall contain a clause or clauses for readjustment of the rentals upon the expiration of a primary term of forty years, and may ratify, confirm and approve any such leases heretofore granted by their governing authorities, whether as lessor or lessee. 17. Do any and all things necessary or proper for the government, regulation, development and control of the business of the district.