Placing oil and gas leases on market by board.

Whenever in the opinion of the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund there shall be a demand for the purchase of oil and gas leases on any area, tract, or parcel of the land so owned, controlled, or managed, by any state board, department, or agency, then the board shall place such oil and gas lease or leases on the market in such blocks, tracts, or parcels as it may designate. The lease or leases shall only be made after notice by publication thereof has been made not less than once a week for 4 consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation published in the vicinity of the lands offered to be leased, the last publication to be not less than 5 days in advance of the sale date. Such notice shall be to the effect that a lease or leases will be offered for sale at such date and time as may be named in said notice and shall describe the land upon which such lease, or leases, will be offered. This notice may be combined with the notice required pursuant to s. 253.115. Before any lease of any block, tract, or parcel of land, submerged, or unsubmerged, within a radius of 3 miles of the boundaries of any incorporated city, or town, or within such radius of any bathing beach, or beaches, outside thereof, such board, department, or agency, shall through one or more of its members hold a public hearing, after notice thereof by publication once in a newspaper of general circulation published at least 1 week prior to said hearing in the vicinity of the land, or lands, offered to be leased, of the offer to lease the same, calling upon all interested persons to attend said hearing where they would be given the opportunity to be heard, all of which shall be considered by the board prior to the execution of any lease or leases to said land, and the board may withdraw said land, or any part thereof, from the market, and refuse to execute such lease or leases if after such hearing, or otherwise, it considers such execution contrary to the public welfare. Before advertising any land for lease the form of the lease or leases to be offered for sale, not inconsistent with law, or the provisions of this section, shall be prescribed by the board and a copy, or copies, thereof, shall be available to the general public at the office of the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund and the advertisements of such sale shall so state.