Live report of WRT self-incorporation presentation to Greenwood common council
The following article was written in real time during Monday’s common council meeting. More details will follow later.
Greenwood City Building, June 15, 2009 – 7pm: Center Grove self-incorporation is listed as the third item of business on the agenda. Ryan will begin his presentation soon.
7:03 the mayor has just introduced Ryan Rhoten (pronounced “wroten”). Council member Bruce Armstrong cut off Ryan’s opening comment and stated it is inappropriate for them to look a this issue at this time since the merger study is underway.
Ryan says he is here to present some information he has gathered at the request of a number of WRT citizens to explore the option of incorporation under Indiana Code 36-5-1 which states a new city/town adjacent to an existing city must get the consent of the adjacent community before it can incorporate. Although the step would take place at the end of the process. The self-incorporation effort, led by Rhote would like to see the council adopt a resolution/ordinance that would state they would not enforce the 3 mile buffer zone before citizens invest time and their own money [not taxpayer funds of any kind] to fully explore the incorporation option.
Legal council says that any action could adversely affect the current litigation against Bargersville. [Greenwood is currently suing Bargersville over the proposed Bargersville annexation of land along SR 135.]
“You have put the cart before the horse” by doing this while the merger study is underway another council member stated.
Council member Bruce Armstrong stated “that five years ago he approached the prominent members of WRT and and found no interest.” He therefore concluded that there is still no interest.
Ron Deer states that the public only has the option of merger right now. Ryan and those interested in self-incorporation have to move ahead with the incorporation process on their own. The merger committee cannot look into incorporation. “You are asking us to make a decision without all the facts.” Did not offer anything the council is doing to discover the facts needed to decide of the buffer zone should be enforced.
If you enforce the three mile buffer zone it will kill incorporation Rhoten stated. Which is why we would like your reaction at this time. Ron Deer continued that if the merger fails the council would then consider if they would allow an incorporation within the three mile limit. As president of the council he feels it would be inappropriate for the council to act now.
Council members believe that the community meetings at the high school and Community Church of Greenwood indicated that people wanted to study merger not incorporation. [The results are on the White River Citizens United website and differ from the council persons recollection significantly.]
Mayor Henderson then explained that the request for reorganization came from the WRT board. The board did not have the resources to develop the proposal so Greenwood developed the proposal but only because the WRT board asked them to do so.
Rhoten ended the presentation by thanking the council for their time and candor.
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3 Responses to “Live report of WRT self-incorporation presentation to Greenwood common council”
I agree with the City Councilman. Why would the Council entertain this question at this time? Any question on enforcement of the 3 mile zone would only be germane if there were an actual plan to react to,and the speaker wasn’t a resident of Greenwood. This was a pointless waste of time, though it may have made a political point: there is no political representation for unincorporated WRT, except for 1 County Commissioner and a couple County Council members.
Comment made on June 16th, 2009 at 4:02 pmI have to disagree with you, Mr. Heller. I think Mr. Rhoten was doing what was in the best interest of the Council and the citizens of White River Township. Concerning the Council, he was publicly acknowledging his leadership of an effort that the Mayor is on record as supporting, at least in concept. There is nothing in the law that says a Reoganization effort and Incorporation effort cannot happen at the same time. As far as the citizens of WRT, he was simply attempting to minimize the risk of the Incorporation effort.
I’m not saying that the actions of the Council were without cause, but I do think they acted with unnecessary rudness and they did not allow Mr. Ryan to present his case. As a resident of WRT, and someone who will be directly affected by the Councils actions concerning the Reorganization, he did, in my opinion, have a standing in front of the Council. As far as who else was attending, we’ve all been reminded again and again that Incorporation is a citizen driven effort and public officials have a very small part to play until the very end of the process.
Comment made on June 16th, 2009 at 10:17 pmDoes Mr. Rhoten have standing? Who determines that? He has stepped and begun the first steps to provide a study of self-incorporation, has taken a leadership role. Self-incorporation has to be lead by residents, not government.
Comment made on June 18th, 2009 at 11:01 pmMr. Rhoten contacted the Greenwood council, was very clear what is presentation was about and was granted a spot on the agenda. Greenwood provided accepted his role and agreed to listen. Instead of listening and asking questions, they interrupted his presentation before he got two sentences into it. They didn’t ask questions, in most cases they attacked. In some cases they made valid points. I never expected the Greenwood council to agree with the mayor’s stated position of supporting whatever the citizens of White River Township want. I never expected them to agree to an ordinance a this time agreeing to wave the three mile buffer zone. I understand they have sued Bargersville and that complicates things. But they agreed to put him on the agenda thereby agreeing to hear him out. That is the least they could of done.
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