GAS — “You’re welcome here,” Darrell Catron, Gas mayor, told about 30 people who live between Iola and Gas Tuesday evening.
Catron’s invitation came near the conclusion of a public meeting Gas called to discuss Iola’s possible annexation of residential properties in the Burris, Country Club Heights and Country Club Lane additions, all along the north side of U.S. 54 east of Rock Creek.
Those areas, plus the development north of the former Haldex Brake plant at the northwest corner of Iola, have been highlighted by Iola council members for annexation.
The Gas meeting also included residents who live south of U.S. 54, who have not been mentioned in Iola’s plans.
If Gas were to propose annexing properties west of its city limit, “we’d include you, too,” Catron told the southside group.
“I don’t think you have anything to worry about today, but you might later on,” he told the residents, after Ross Albertini, city attorney, outlined ways annexation could be accomplished.
Albertini said a city could take in up to 21 contiguous acres unilaterally, land platted and adjacent to a city, land a city owned and if landowners wanted to be annexed, even if the properties weren’t adjacent.
NONE OF THE residents who might be affected spoke favorably about annexation.
Richard Burris, leading public discussion, said he had contacted people living in the affected areas north of U.S. 54 and “80 percent are against it,” he said. “I think if I’m able to contact everyone, at least 95 percent will be opposed.”
When the area first was developed in the 1960s, Iola asked whether owners wanted to annexed, “and we didn’t,” Burris said. “I’ve spent my life paying off my house and this is where I want to live, in the country.”
Mark Henry, a councilman, observed that Gas “is not trying to annex anyone. We’re not pushing for annexation,” although earlier council members did discuss annexation of five properties at the northwest edge of town.
Catron noted that the area Iola has targeted has an accumulative valuation of about $1.6 million, which would double the valuation of Gas but increase Iola’s only by about 5 percent.
“You’d have little impact on Iola, but you’d actually lower our tax levy,” by doubling the tax base, he said. “We’d welcome you with open arms.”
Residents of the area east of Gas paid property taxes on a levy of just under 153 mills this year. Iolans’ levy was 174.5 mills, Gas residents’ a smidgen less than 173 mills.
