ACQUISITION, ADMINISTRATION, AND SALE OF MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

(a) A conservation district may purchase machinery, equipment, seed, seedlings, fertilizer, fish for stocking farm ponds, or other supplies or conservation materials essential for the purposes of a conservation district program and make them available to owners and occupiers of land in the conservation district. The conservation district shall provide for maintaining, insuring, storing, and repairing the machinery and equipment. (b) The district may charge a fee for the use of machinery and equipment owned by the district that is calculated to pay the costs of deterioration and replacement of the machinery and equipment. (c) A conservation district may make any purchase of machinery or equipment through the comptroller under the terms and rules provided by law for purchases by the state or political subdivisions. (d) A conservation district may charge persons who own or occupy small amounts of land nominal amounts for projects benefiting them if the directors determine it to be in the interest of the general welfare. (e) A conservation district may sell on open bids any machinery or equipment considered obsolete or having served its purpose. The funds earned or acquired by a conservation district from a source other than the state or earned or acquired from the operation or sale of machinery or equipment acquired from a source other than the state shall be deposited in a trust fund account of the conservation district and used for purposes considered by the directors to be in the best interest of the conservation district. (f) A conservation district shall use proceeds from the sale of any fertilizer, seed, seedlings, fish for stocking farm ponds, or other supplies or conservation materials to reimburse the conservation district for the costs of the materials and administration of the program and may fix the sale prices accordingly.