Public Hearing…Third time’s the charm (We hope)
There have been at least six public hearings on the various permutations of the reorganization proposal between Greenwood and White River Township (WRT). But, I have yet been to a single meeting where the proposal was actually distributed. Both Greenwood and WRT leaders rather rely on sites such as this one and their official site to distribute the proposal than make them easily available at the meetings. This pattern was repeated at tonight’s meeting where the White River Township Board voted 3-0 to place the proposal before the voters on the November ballot.
Before the meeting WRT residents requested that the testimony provided at the two earlier meetings be put into the public record of this meeting. The Board voted on the request and the motion passed unanimously. A clarifying question came from the audience asking if the meeting tonight was concerning the entire resolution or only the amendments to the earlier resolution. While the public notice limited the focus to the changes to the resolution, Board Chair Mark Messick said while he wanted the comments to focus on the changes, he was expecting and open to comments about both the changes and the proposal in its entirety.
Nicolas Kile, attorney for the town of Bargersville, was the first to move to the podium. He said the amended plan contains a “veiled threat” of litigation against Bargersville. He quoted Greenwood Mayor Henderson’s recent comments that he opposed further lawsuits. He then went on to explain how, in his legal opinion, there are no grounds for a lawsuit and any litigation against Bargersville would be “frivolous.” This would allow Bargersville to counter sue to reclaim any attorney’s fees.
Ed Woods, a resident of northern WRT, spoke against the merger. He noted an article in the Daily Journal that the city of Greenwood would have the ability to force homeowners in the area under the proposed merger to hook up to city sewer and abandon their septic systems. Such a move would be costly to the resident who would have to change. He urged the board to vote against the merger. Municipal governments have always had the ability to force residents on to sewers; Greenwood has not chosen to do so in the past and currently has no plans to do so. Mayor Charles Henderson has promised not to do so unless it became a public health issue such as the on-going problems that Smith Valley might create.
Bill Heller spoke in favor of the process, as district from the merger. He appreciated the requirement that the voters of Greenwood and WRT get to vote whether or not to adopt the resolution. Ironically, the only way for those opposed to the proposal to vote against it is for the Board (and the Greenwood Common Council) to vote “yes” to put it on the November ballot. The following speaker reinforced the point that if the Board did not vote “yes” the proposal would live for at least another year and possibly becoming effective without the voice of the voters.
One resident said “it’s all about the money.” He asserted the primary driver for the proposed merger is to raise revenue for Greenwood, to help with their current financial difficulty. Based upon the applause, many of those attending agreed with his assessment.
Andi Robinson suggested that self-incorporation would be a better option than merger. She believes that this needs to be further investigated. The challenge is finding the citizens willing to put out the time, effort and money needed to get such a movement off the ground.
A resident asked why Bargersville was not included in the discussion. The Board explained that there were numerous informal discussions with discussions with Bargersville leaders. At one point, late in the process with Greenwood, Bargerville submitted a proposal that was very different from the proposal being discussed and placed some limitations on how they would participate. Nick Kile spoke again stating that Bargersville’s resolution offered to enter into reorganization talks for the unincorporated area of White River Township “at least up to Stones Crossing Road.” He went on to say that Bargersville was willing to look at annexation of a larger area.
Dann Veldkamp stated that the Bargersville resolution was more constricting than an open discussion of the entirety of WRT. Mr. Veldkamp stated that he personally met with Bargersville town officials, Cindy Jarvis and Steve Welch and that they told him they have no interest in taking control of any area in which they don’t control the sewers. You can find the Bargersville resolution in the documents section of our site.
Board member John Ebert said that after a lunch with Steve Welch he asked how Bargersville might be included in the process. He followed this conversation with six phone messages, none of which were returned. He suggested that this indicated that Bargersville’s had a very limited interest participating in the reorganization process.
John Griffen spoke in favor of the merger. The advantages as he saw them was an opportunity to recapture more of our tax dollars, as cities get more returned from the state than unincorporated areas. He also spoke of the advantages of living in an area that has a plan for urban growth, unlike the non-existent County plan which still looks at WRT as primarily rural. Finally, he talked about how citizens of WRT would have a chance to guide the future of the community through participation in the various boards and advisory committees.
It is the current understanding of the Board that every resident of White River Township of voting age will have a chance to vote on the proposal. Those residing in Bargersville will vote as members of WRT, those living in the portion of Greenwood which is also part of WRT will vote as residents of Greenwood. The two votes are independent and the voters of both Greenwood and WRT will have to approve the measure in order for it to take effect. This is the current best understanding of how the vote will be handled. It is possible that officials at the county or state level could make a different ruling before Election Day.
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