Hiwasse’s residents still seek to annex

— Hiwasse residents will pursue their plan to merge with the city of Gravette even though Bella Vista has shelved its plans to annex the 6,000-acre community.

Bella Vista’s proposed annexation still remains in the minds of Hiwasse residents, according to Larry Kelly, president of the Hiwasse Community Association.

A voluntary annexation intoGravette seems the best way to forestall a revival of Bella Vista’s annexation plans, Kelly said.

“We had a meeting and we decided to stay the course and annex into the city of Gravette,” Kelly said. “We discussed things and the feeling was that if we didn’t do something like that, we’d be revisiting this whole Bella Vista situation again.”

Bella Vista had planned to annex Hiwasse as part of aspecial election to be held in conjunction with the May 22 party primaries. The city had a three-part annexation plan, with two of the ballot questions dealing with annexation of smaller areas around the perimeter of the city. The third ballot question would have annexed the Hiwasse community into Bella Vista.

State law provides for cities to annex areas through special election in which the people in the area to be annexed and city residents all vote. Hiwasse residents protested the plan, pointing out that even if they voted overwhelmingly against the annexation, Bella Vista’s voters could easily override the wishes of the community.

Hiwasse chose to try to avoid annexation into Bella Vista by filing a petition of voluntary annexation into Gravette with Benton County Court. The County Court, presided over by County Judge BobClinard, has the authority to release land in the unincorporated areas of the county. Clinard ruled Feb. 27 the Hiwasse residents’ petition met the legal requirements and they could proceed.

The law also provides a 30-day waiting period for interested parties to file objections to the voluntary annexation in Benton County Circuit Court. Bryan Vernetti, Bella Vista’s attorney, said the city will appeal and Mayor Frank Anderson indicated that is still the city’s plan.

“The lawyer is still looking at that,” Anderson said. “The City Council gave them the OK to continue looking at that and we have 30 days from the time he ruled to make our decision.”

Anderson said Bella Vista’s decision to drop the Hiwasse annexation now doesn’t commit the city to any future course of action.

“You’re talking about something future city councils would have to look at and I’m not going to speak for them,” he said. “I’ve got two or three years left in office andit’s probably not going to happen in that time.”

Gravette Mayor Byron Warren said his city council has set a special meeting for March 29 to consider the Hiwasse petition. The Gravette City Council already has expressed unanimous support for the annexation in a resolution and Warren said he expects the annexation to be approved.

“We talked about it at our recent committee of the whole meeting and everybody still seems to be on the same path,” Warren said.

Warren said the people in Hiwasse have indicated to him they feel the annexation remains necessary, given the prospect of future annexation efforts by Bella Vista.

“Bella Vista is not done,” he said. “They could try to do the same thing again.”

Warren said he expects his city council would also listen to Hiwasse residents if they expressed a desireto halt the annexation now.

“It’s still totally up to the citizens of Hiwasse what they want to do,” he said.

Kelly said the chance of a future annexation effort by Bella Vista will probably keep Hiwasse residents in favor of the annexation into Gravette. He said some residents are still interested in investigating the possibility of Hiwasse incorporating itself, but that is an uncertain prospect.

“We know things are going to change,” he said. “I suppose it could be done in the future, but it’s hard to project what will happen.”

Hiwasse residents are now waiting to see whether Bella Vista tries to block the annexation into Gravette, Kelly said.

“We have heard some suggestion that may happen, but we haven’t seen any appeal filed,” he said. “If we do, we’ll address it in the proper manner.”

News, Pages 1 on 03/21/2012