Thought Starter: Give me one reason
More than one person has asked us to “give us one good reason we should vote for the merger.” Here’s one for you: Preserve the value of our homes and the standards of our community.
To date, “Center Grove” has been pretty lucky, people have wanted to move in, we have a great school system and home values, the last couple of years aside, have been rising at reasonable rate. However, we are getting to the point that without some form of incorporation or reorganization with Greenwood, we may not be able to maintain our standard of living. (Bargersville has no interest in merging with the entire areas of unincorporated White River Township.)
A number of years ago Dr. Friga presented a study that supported incorporation. One of his chief concerns was that if we remain unincorporated we will be bitten off in little pieces by either Greenwood or Bargersville. But, they are going to go for what they see to be the more valuable commercial corridors. They have little interest in the housing developments because they bring in a relatively small amount of property tax compared with a large box store or commercial office complex. The result will be a patch-work quilt of unincorporated areas surrounded by incorporated areas. Neither city will want to nor are they obliged to provide services to these “islands of homes.” The County may find it not worth their while to maintain the level of patrols and service they provide now. If you think it takes awhile for the county to get to you subdivision to remove snow now, wait until it is surrounded by city on all sides, I promise you the wait will be even longer.
Under these situations people tend to move out. If they can’t sell their homes, they will rent them out. Generally speaking rental properties are not as well maintained as homes that are lived in by the owner. This, in turn decreases the value of surrounding homes and it is a continuing downward spiral.
Here’s another reason, let’s stop subsidizing the rest of the county. Currently, White River Township pays the lion’s share of property tax in the county. However, just because it comes from us doesn’t mean it is spent on us. No, in fact is it spread across the county to wherever the need is seen as the greatest. Become part (or all) of an incorporated town or city and most of those tax dollars stay in our city. And, because we will be incorporated we will also be eligible for a significant amount of other tax revenues that would flow from the state.
We have sat on our hands and done nothing for too long. Merger with Greenwood is certainly the “easiest” option for us right now. But, if enough of us felt strongly enough about it to get active, we could also self-incorporate. But, no longer do we have the option of doing nothing and expecting the value of our homes and lifestyle not to be affected.
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2 Responses to “Thought Starter: Give me one reason”
We have sat on our hands and done nothing for too long. Merger with Greenwood is certainly the “easiest” option for us right now. But, if enough of us felt strongly enough about it to get active, we could also self-incorporate. But, no longer do we have the option of doing nothing and expecting the value of our homes and lifestyle not to be affected.
What a “stupid” argument!
What are your true motives?
http://centergrovetown.org/self-incorporation/comment-page-1/
NO OFFICIAL POSITION??? HA!!!
Self Incorporation
May 10th, 2009 Leave a comment Go to comments
Self Incorporation is very much a citizen driven process. If we want to become Center Grove, Indiana, we must work together to make it happen. Forming a new town would give us the ability to structure the town in the most logical, efficient manner possible. We do not have to adhere to the “traditional” model of government when we establish things such as how the new town would be divided, e.g. rural and urban districts, how much government we want, and how we obtain our services, just to name a few.
Additionally, we would be able to work with our neighbors to the East and South to develop a mutually agreeable soultion for the future of White River Township. Lately, we have heard many comments about how our money would be spent in the newly re-organized city. With our own town, we can all rest assured that our money would be spent in our community. This is something that we can guarantee. However, none of that can happen without involvement of the citizens. Interested?
The first step towards incorporating as a town is to understand the process that must be followed. Click on the link to find high level outline of the incorporation process: Flow Chart.
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Kitina YOung May 6th, 2009 at 14:12 | #1 Reply | Quote How far along are you in the process? What is the next step? How much cost could we incur in just the process of Incorporation?
admin May 7th, 2009 at 00:31 | #2 Reply | Quote Kitina, thank you for your question. We are still in the initial stages of the incorporation process, which means that we understand the steps necessary for incorporation and are actively seeking other like-minded individuals who are willing to help out. Incorporation is something that must be led by the citizens.
The key to moving the effort forward, i.e. our next step, is to continue educating our citizens about the process in order to gain the support and involvement necessary to incorporate. Support and involvement can include anything from letting us know you are interested in learning more about self-incorporation to the donation of your time and services to help advance the effort. A great example of this is the preliminary financial analysis that has been conducted by one of our local citizens who happens to be an expert in municipal finance. This person offered to help and we couldn’t be more grateful.
If you are interested in helping out, check out our Get Involved page. Here you will find a few ways that you can help out. One is as simple as sending an email to 50names@gmail.com and letting us know you are interested in signing a petition for incorporation. Another could be hosting a neighborhood awareness meeting.
As for the costs, I would love to be able to tell you an exact amount, but at this point we just don’t know yet. Here are a few items required by the Indiana Codes that will have a cost associated with them, but at this point we do not have an estimate for these:
1.) Conduct a survey of the area to be incorporated – this is a service that could be conducted pro bono by a qualified citizen.
2.) Send out a certified mailing to all citizens in the area to be incorporated.
3.) Enumeration (think census) of all citizens and addresses in the area to be incorporated.
As we proceed and gain the support of our citizens for this effort there will be more opportunities to help move this effort forward.
I hope this answers your questions. Please feel free to check back often and ask any question you would like. We’ll do our best to answer honestly and quickly.
mac May 11th, 2009 at 23:16 | #3 Reply | Quote I am for White River Township forming their own community. I think it would be a great thing. I have several family members that live there. I also have family in Bargersville and Greenwood. Now, I have been reading all the stuff circulating about this. Alot of people are against becoming Greenwood. Thats fine. But there reasoning is because of the mayor. The mayor will not be there forever. So alot of people aren’t looking at an option that could potentially benefit them for years to come due to the fact they do not like the “right now.” And Bargersville, just wants the money. Yes Greenwood does also, but Bargersville is just keeping soft spoken about it. That is all any muncipality wants. Money. And White River has alot of it. I have also heard alot of people say that they wanted to stay unincorporated and continue to use the counties services. That is not a viable option either. Because the township is a drain on county resources. The have to merge with one of the two muncipalities or form their own city. The third option would be the best. Assuming they are willing to put forth the money. They already have the fire department. A very fine one at that. They will still need to for a police department. Hire the officers, have a building, get the equipment and so on. They will need a street department. Sanitation department. Human resources department. There are many, many more. The cost will be high to get everything done. And everyone will have to pay higher taxes. I know, I know. No more taxes. But you will have to. That is the only way to pay for everything. Now don’t get me wrong. I have long thought that the township should be their own city. But if that does not happen then think about the other options in the long term. Greenwood has some of the lowest taxes in the state. Bargersville is actually high. And if the two merge all of the things when it comes to taxing and drawing money can be restructured to benifit everyone. Just a few options and other details that most people are overlooking.
Dann Veldkamp May 13th, 2009 at 10:15 | #4 Reply | Quote Mac, I agree with you that whatever the decision it needs to be made for a positive reason and not as a vote “against” a particular town or person. Any of the options can work and that is why I am excited to see the effort that Ryan is making to put the self-incorporation effort on the table. At http://CenterGroveInc.org, that my brother and I edit, we don’t have an official position. We are there to encourage discussion on all the options. But, in the end, we do think it is important for WRT to be incorporated whether through merger, annexation or on our own.
Dann
Comment made on October 7th, 2009 at 1:51 pmThanks for your comment. While I am not 100% sure what point you are making, given that you didn’t provide your name, which is fine, I assume you disagree with the “Thought Starter” and you seem to indicate we are supporting self-incorporation. But, as I’ve told others, as long as we are getting “attacked” from both sides, we must be doing something right. Our primary goal is to get people to think.
As for another position on our position see the first comment on this article: http://www.centergroveinc.org/2009/09/06/set-the-wayback-machine/
Regards,
Comment made on October 7th, 2009 at 7:45 pmDann
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