§ 187. Exclusion of a fire district from a water supply district. 1.
Petition. Whenever a fire district shall be located wholly within the
boundaries of a water supply district which shall have no bonded
indebtedness, a written petition as hereinafter provided may be
presented to the town board of the town in which the water supply
district is located asking for the exclusion of the area included in the
fire district from the water supply district. Such petition shall be
signed, and acknowledged or proved in the same manner as a deed to be
recorded, or authenticated in the manner provided in the election law
for the authentication of nominating petitions, by resident taxpayers
owning taxable real property aggregating at least one-half of the
assessed valuation of all the taxable real property of the fire district
owned by resident taxpayers, as such valuations appear upon the latest
completed assessment roll of said town. Such petition shall have
endorsed thereon the approval of a majority of the board of fire
commissioners of such fire district. The town board shall hold a public
hearing upon such petition within the limits of the water supply
district and shall cause a notice thereof to be published and posted in
the same manner provided for hearings held pursuant to section one
hundred seventy-one hereof. Such notice shall contain a description of
the fire district referred to in the petition and specify the time when
and the place where the town board will meet to consider such petition
and to hear all the persons interested in the subject concerning the
same. After a hearing held upon notice as provided hereinbefore, and
upon the evidence given thereat, the town board shall determine whether
it is in the public interest to grant the relief sought. If it is
determined that it be not in the public interest to grant the relief
sought, it shall deny the petition, but if it is determined that it be
in the public interest, it may grant the relief sought by the petition.

2. Filing of determination. Whenever the town board shall adopt a
resolution excluding the area included in a fire district from a water
supply district, the town clerk shall cause a certified copy of such
resolution to be duly recorded in the office of the clerk of the county
in which such fire district is located and a certified copy of such
resolution to be filed with the secretary of the board of fire
commissioners of said district. When so recorded such resolution shall
be presumptive evidence of the regularity of the exclusion of such fire
district from the water supply district. The expense of such recording
shall be a charge against the fire district. The said determination
shall be final and conclusive unless a proceeding for review in the
manner provided by article seventy-eight of the civil practice law and
rules has been commenced within thirty days from the time of filing
thereof.

3. Liability for indebtedness; apportionment of liabilities and
property. If the town board shall grant a petition for the exclusion of
the territory of a fire district from a water supply district and the
territory included within the boundaries of the fire district be so
excluded, such territory within such fire district shall not be relieved
from bearing its proportionate share of any liability or indebtedness
incurred for water supply district purposes while such territory was a
part of such water supply district, and until such liability shall have
been discharged or such indebtedness paid the proportionate share
thereof to which such territory would be liable if it had not been
excluded from the water supply district, in accordance with assessed
valuations as appear on the latest completed assessment roll of said
town, shall be added to the annual budget of the fire district by the
town board.

The proportion of the liability created or the indebtedness incurred
in behalf of the water supply district and payable by a tax against the
property within the fire district which shall be assumed by the fire
district and the apportionment of the personal and real property
belonging to the water supply district shall be determined according to
the relative assessed valuation of the personal and real property in
that portion of the water supply district without the fire district, and
that portion within the fire district, in the following manner: The town
board of the town when acting as a board for the water supply district,
exclusive of a member who may reside in the fire district and the board
of commissioners of the fire district being unable to agree within six
months after the exclusion of the fire district from the water supply
district becomes final upon the proportion of the debt and the
apportionment of the personal and real property, then the supreme court
shall have power to determine such division and to enforce such award,
division and determination as shall be made in the premises in a suit in
equity to be brought in the name of either of said parties.