# Title 50 — Public Welfare

## Chapter 50-17 — Public Works - Contracts With Federal Government

### § 50-17-01. Governor authorized to enter into agreements with president of United

States for unemployment relief purposes.
The governor, in the name and on behalf of the state of North Dakota, may enter into such
contracts or agreements with the president of the United States as the president may deem
necessary or advisable in carrying out the provisions of the act of the Congress of the United
States entitled "An Act for the relief of unemployment through the performance of useful public
work, and for other purposes", approved March 31, 1933, and any other act of Congress
amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto.
### § 50-17-02. State accepts provisions of agreement - Conditions.

The contracts or agreements made by the governor under the provisions of section
other conditions or provisions as the governor may deem necessary or advisable to enable this
state to secure the benefits to which it may be entitled under any act of the Congress of the
United States providing for the relief of unemployment. The state of North Dakota accepts,
assents to, and promises to perform such contracts or agreements.
### § 50-17-03. State derives profit - Proceeds divided with federal government.

If, as a result of any conservation work projects on state, county, or municipally owned land,
the state derives a direct profit from the sale of any such land or the products thereof, the
proceeds must be divided equally between this state and the federal government until the
federal government has been repaid the amount of its investment in such work, computed at the
rate of one dollar per man per day, with a maximum limitation of three dollars per acre [.40
hectare] of land purchased.
### § 50-17-04. When work may be done on privately owned land.

No work is to be done on privately owned land under the provisions of this chapter except
as may be necessary in the public interest for regional or statewide forest protection against fire,
insects, and disease or simple flood control measures to arrest gully erosion and flash runoffs at
the headwaters of streams.
### § 50-17-05. Work done on private land - Contract with landowner.

When, under the provisions of this chapter, the public interest requires work to be done on
privately owned land as provided in section 50-17-04, the state shall assume responsibility for
the reasonable protection of work done by the landowner or otherwise and shall agree that if a
contract with the landowner is obtained, such contract shall provide that this state reserves the
right to remove, at its option and without recompense to the landowner, any structure or other
thing of removable value resulting from the work done, including products of trees planted to
arrest erosion.
### § 50-17-06. Work done on private land - Duty of landowner.

A landowner, under a contract provided for in section 50-17-05, may be required to protect
soil-saving dams and other works and to practice specified cultural methods for the prevention
of soil erosion. If the landowner fails to meet these requirements, the conservation commission
may cause to be constructed such terraces and other works as will repair the damage done
through the landowner's noncompliance with the contract. The cost of such construction must
be collected, paid, and accounted for as a special state charge against the land specified as the
basis of the original contract and must be paid into the conservation fund and used as a
revolving appropriation to carry out the provisions of this section.

### § 50-17-07. Contract with private landowner - Notice to mortgagee and lienholder.

Whenever any contract is entered into by this state or the United States or any agency
thereof, with a private landowner, as is provided for in section 50-17-05, the following must be
deemed constructive notice of such agreement to any mortgagee of or lienholder upon the lands
conveyed thereby:
1. Recording of such contract in the office of the recorder of the county in which the land
involved is situated;
2. Posting of a copy of the contract in the office of the county auditor of the county in
which the land involved is situated; and
3. Mailing a copy of such contract by registered or certified mail to any mortgagee or
lienholder of record at that person's address as shown by the record, or, if not so
shown, to that person's last-known post-office address. Such copy must be mailed by
the recorder of the county where the land is situated within five days after the
recording of the instrument.
### § 50-17-08. Notice - Mailing - Notation by recorder prima facie evidence.

At the time of the mailing of the notices of a contract executed under the provisions of
section 50-17-07, the recorder shall make a marginal notation giving the name and address of
each addressee to whom the same was sent and the date of mailing. Such notation must be
prima facie evidence in all courts that the copies were sent by registered or certified mail in
accordance with such notation.
### § 50-17-09. Contract for work on private land - Mortgagee must object.

If a mortgagee or lienholder of lands which are covered by a contract executed under the
provisions of section 50-17-07 fails to object to such contract by serving a written notice of such
objection upon the conservation commission within four weeks after the recorder has mailed the
copy of the contract to the mortgagee or lienholder, the mortgagee or lienholder must be
deemed conclusively to have assented to such agreement.
