ORS 261.161: Hearing by county governing body; notice; determination of boundaries.

(1) After certification of a petition, or passage of the resolution when the formation, annexation or consolidation proposal is by resolution of the county governing body, the county governing body shall, within 10 days, fix a date for a hearing on the boundaries described in the electors’ petition or resolution of the county governing body for inclusion in the proposed or established district. The hearing shall be held by the county governing body not less than 60 days nor more than 90 days after certification of the petition or passage of the resolution. Notice of the hearing, stating the time and place of the meeting, together with the electors’ petition, when applicable, without the signatures attached, shall be published at least two times prior to the date of the meeting. The first publication shall not be more than 25 days nor less than 15 days preceding the hearing and the last publication shall not be more than 14 days nor less than eight days preceding the hearing. Notice of the hearing, and all other publications required by this chapter, shall be published in at least one newspaper of general circulation in the proposed or established district. The hearing may be adjourned from time to time, but shall not exceed four weeks in total length. Public testimony shall be taken at the hearing. (2) Based upon the record of the hearing prescribed in subsection (1) of this section on the proposed boundaries and, if district formation is proposed, the report of the Director of the State Department of Energy under ORS 261.151, the county governing body within 10 days of the last date of hearing shall determine the boundaries of the proposed or established district. (3) No lands shall be included in the boundaries fixed by the governing body lying outside the boundaries described in the electors’ petition unless the owners of that land request inclusion in writing before the hearing under subsection (1) of this section is completed. (4) An electors’ petition shall not be denied by a county governing body because of any deficiency in the description of the boundaries of the proposed district, but the county governing body shall correct those deficiencies. [1979 c.558 §13]