GRAVETTE — About 50 area residents gathered in a large red building on the Danny and Becky Boling Farm Thursday night to organize an effort to defeat the city of Gravette annexation measure on the November ballot.
“I don’t know how they got this by us,” said area resident and landowner Bert Johnson during his opening remarks at the meeting, “but the purpose of this meeting is to see what we can do to stop this annexation.”
Holding up stacks of meeting minutes he had obtained from the city under the Freedom of Information Act, Johnson said the planning commission’s minutes were less than detailedin recording discussions regarding the annexation measure now set to be on the ballot. He said the lack of detail may be the reason no one was aware of the annexation plans until it was too late to keep it off the ballot.
“When I first read about this in the Westside Eagle Observer, I was shocked to see my land was part of the (proposed) annexation,” said land and business owner Jackie Queen - Queen owns a clothing store along U.S. Highway 72, east of Gravette, and was upset that the proposed annexation would take in a portion of her land and divide it, with some inside the city and some outside. She also voiced her opposition to the additional sales tax her customers would have to pay if her clothing store was annexed.
Many of the affected land owners were not even notified, Queen said. Some of the landowners received a card notifying them of the annexation measure and some didn’t, she said.
“It’s already on the ballot,” Queen said. “Our focus now is to defeat the annexation measure on the ballot,” indicating that other legal steps might be taken later if the measure is adopted.
Because a portion of the proposed annexation area takes in 300 feet on each side of a road or highway, a complaint of many landowners was that a part of their land was included in the annexation measure but not all, and if their home was outside the proposed annexation area, they could not even vote on the measure.
“They’re canceling out most of us,” said Virgil Jasper. “If you don’t sleep on the property, you don’t vote on the property,” he said, explaining that the annexation would take in part of many landowners’ properties but stop short of the house so the landowners have no vote on the annexation issue.
The group discussed using signs, petitions, a FaceBook campaign, newspaper ads and mass mailing to reach the Gravette voters, but a primary focus will be going door to door in Gravette and urging voters to vote down the annexation measure on the November ballot.
“We need to make a passionate plea to leave us alone,” Queen said. She urged those in attendance to “get a fire going to get Gravette voters to be neighborly and Christian and leave us out of their city limits.”
“We don’t live in the city because we choose not to live in the city,” Queen said.
Queen said on voting day, affected landowners would measure the proper legal distance from polling places and be there to let voters know they oppose the measure.
“I will let people see my face and see my pain so they know I don’t want to be annexed into Gravette,” Queen said.
James Denver, a mayoral candidate in Gravette, said he wanted people to know that his view is that annexation should be voluntary and not forced.
A second mayoral candidate and current council member, Byron Warren, said there was no opposition when the measure was brought before thecouncil.
“I wish I would have known there was so much opposition to the annexation,” Warren said, adding that he would not have voted for it in the council meeting had he known.
According to the city ordinance which placed the annexation measure on the ballot, the city of Gravette must provide to the annexed areas within three years of the date the annexation is officially approved and certified in the election - code enforcement, sanitation service, street maintenance, police protection and fire protection. The ordinance states the city would immediately assume responsibility to provide those services if the annexation is approved and becomes final.
Some at the Thursday night meeting questioned how the city would be able to maintain their roads when it doesn’t even own a road grader. No estimate was given as to the cost to the city to provide services to the added land areas.
Many in attendance signed up to have signs opposing the annexation placed on their properties.
Another meeting for those opposed to the opposition was set for 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 14, at the same location.
News, Pages 1 on 10/06/2010