The county board in any county in this state having thirty-six hundred inhabitants or more or in which the taxable value of the taxable property is twenty-eight million six hundred thousand dollars or more may issue and sell bonds of such county in such an amount as the county board may deem advisable for the construction or acquisition of an indigent hospital, a home for aged or infirm persons, a county community hospital, a mental health clinic, a clinic or facility to combat mental retardation, a public health center, a medical complex, multiunit housing, or a similar facility required to protect the health and welfare of the people and to purchase suitable equipment for the same. Such bonds shall bear interest at a rate set by the county board. No bonds shall be issued until the question of the issuance of the bonds has been submitted to the voters of such county at a general election or a special election called for such purpose. The issuance of such bonds shall be approved by a majority vote of the electors voting on such proposition at any such election. Such election may be called either by resolution of the county board or upon a petition submitted to the county board calling for an election. Such petition shall be signed by the legal voters of the county equal in number to ten percent of the number of votes cast in the county for the office of Governor at the last general election.