WRT Board meets: Real time reporting of meeting
The White River Township board this afternoon and passed one of three resolutions that focused on changing the current reorganization plan. During the meeting I was able to post comments as the action took place. We were unable to stream the meeting but did record it on video. My coverage of the meeting while it was in progress follows. The video will also soon be available.
In its first action the WRT board voted 2 to 1, Joe Acker voted against, to pass a resolution to instruct the White River Township-Greenwood Reorganization Committee (read it here) to consider options other than including all of White River Township in the merger effort. The original resolution mandated that the reorganization plan included all of unincorporated White River Township. Although we don’t have a printed copy of the resolution it appears that the point is to have the reorganization committee to reconsider its current all inclusive plan and consider other options.
In the board’s next action they asked the reorganization committee to seek a court injunction to halt all annexation efforts by Greenwood and Bargersville that began on or after December 8, 2008. The question of the legal standing of the committee’s ability to file such and action is not clear. The committee is not receiving comments from the public and the comments so far are strongly against the idea of an injunction to stop the annexations. A number of southwest WRT rural residents want the annexation currently in process by Bargersville to be able to continue. Apparently fearing that by stopping the annexation the reorganization effort would still be able to include that area in the reorganization effort.
4:40pm: Motion to move ahead with litigation fails, Joe Acker abstain, Mark Messick and John Ebert voted against.
Next the board offered a resolution authorizing the the township, Greenwood, and Bargersville enter into a cooperative agreement to work towards reorganization of the unincorporated areas of White River Township. This action would bring all three government entities to the table to work out a comprehensive plan for all of White River Township. It appears that if this measures is accepted by Bargersville and Greenwood this reorganization committee would replace the current committee and begin a new study.
Joe Acker took the floor to comment on how the residents of rural areas “you folks” don’t understand what has been going on. He went on to say that under the proposed action the only outcome would be a merger of Greenwood, Bargersville and the township. That is not the way the reorganization works. A joint study would allow the committee to come back with any number of options, include portions of the township remaining unincorporated.
Mark Messick responded that although he has attempted to bring Bargersville into the process they have not responded. However based on what he has seen in video on CenterGroveInc.org and news articles Bargersville feels they have been left out and he wants to take the action of passing this resolution to make an open offer for Bargersville to be included in the “new” as yet to approved, reorganization study committee.
Board member John Ebert related his attempts, “a dozen phone calls” to contact Bargersville town council president Steve Welch and Mr. Welch’s response he was sorry but he was too busy to meet. Mr. Ebert said it comes across to him that it is difficult to have open discussions and dialogue when Bargersville won’t communicate. He continued to say that a lot of misinformation has been spread. Mr. Ebert believes that many area residents are short sighted by not want to look at a reorganization plan. He believes that everyone has something they want, and want to go after so that acussing Greenwood of being “greedy” is not accurate. He supports the first resolutions call for a look at a revised area of reorganization but does not appear to be supportive of forming a new committee.
5:10pm Board Votes: Mark Messick voted yes to pass the resolution both John Ebert and Joe Acker voted to not seek a new reorganization effort that would include Bargersville, Greenwood, and White River Township board.
We will continue to update this story throughout the evening and will try to obtain copies of the resolutions and make them available online. We are video taping the meeting and will have the meeting posted to our site later tonight.
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