BENTON COUNTY — Benton County Judge Bob Clinard denied a request to let a handful of Hiwasse residents annex their land into Gravette as many of their neighbors did earlier this year.

Clinard held a County Court hearing Tuesday on the petition for annexation and took the request under advisement, announcing his decision Friday.

The effort to have the Hiwasse community - which has been recognized as a settled community in Benton County for more than a century - annexed into Gravette was prompted by an effortby Bella Vista to annex the area through election.

State law allows cities to annex areas in an election in which the voters of the area to be annexed and the voters in the city would be counted together.

Given the relative size of the two communities, with Bella Vista having more them 25,000 residents and Hiwasse only a few hundred, Hiwasse residents chose to pre-empt the Bella Vista annexation vote by petitioning for annexation into Gravette.

That request was granted by Clinard after a hearing in February.

While February’s annexation concerned nearly 6,000 acres, Tuesday’shearing was over the future of about 800.

Larry Holloway, who represented the petitioners, said they were motivated by the same concern prompting the earlier annexation.

“We always felt we were part of the Hiwasse community,” Holloway said at the hearing. Bryan Vernetti, an attorney representing Bella Vista, argued the annexation petition was technically deficient because the petitioners didn’t properly identify themselves as trustees of land owned by various trusts.

Vernetti also argued state law blocks the annexation of land by cities unless certain conditions are metand those conditions aren’t present in this instance.

Clinard agreed in his order the request didn’t meet requirements set out in state law and Bella Vista has declared the city has no interest in annexing the property, unlike the other case where the annexation request was granted. Clinard also noted an interested property, a local church, sent a letter to his office objecting to the annexation. None of the property owners in the earlier case lodged any objection.

“It was a difficult decision because you’re dealing with people’s lives and property,” Clinard said. “You do the best you can and try to be fair to everyone.”

Community, Pages 10 on 07/04/2012