Frohna residents also oppose town's name change

FROHNA, Mo. -- Frohna residents want one thing: to remain residents of Frohna.

"Not Frohna-Altenburg, Altenburg-Frohna or Timbuktu," said former Frohna mayor Marvin Scholl. "Not Saxony-this or Saxony-that. We want to remain Frohna."

Scholl was among the handful of residents who presented a petition at Wednesday's board of aldermen meeting voicing residents' opposition to the -- technically -- ongoing consolidation of their city with sister city Altenburg, Missouri.

The similar petitions circulating in Frohna and Altenburg have together garnered roughly 75 percent of the total registered voters in the two cities, which has forced elected officials to reconsider moving forward with the proposed name change.

After a short discussion, in which Frohna Mayor Hank Voelker thanked those in attendance and acknowledged the will of the citizenry is clear, the board said it would take the petition into consideration. The board later emerged from a closed session having resolved not to proceed with consolidation plans. Though city officials from Altenburg and Frohna have ostensibly agreed to abide by the will of their residents, it remains unclear what the next steps will be.

When the Altenburg Board of Aldermen met earlier in the week, they discussed initiating an official ballot measure to effectively negate the one that put the consolidation plans in motion over a decade ago.

However, Altenburg city attorney Tom Hoeh said because both cities voted to consolidate, both would need to vote to deconsolidate as well.

That may become problematic if only Altenburg puts the issue on the April ballot.

Rather than an official ballot measure, Frohna city attorney Phil Dormeyer suggested the next step be submitting a petition for declaratory judgement, which would put the case before a judge for approval.

"Is a formal vote required? No," Dormeyer said. "It would be persuasive, yes. But not necessary for a petition for declaratory judgement."

But not proceeding with the consolidation isn't the same as deconsolidating, either. If officials simply froze the consolidation plan, it may end up looking a lot like the kick-the-can approach that worked fine for most residents since the vote to consolidate took place 13 years ago.

Scholl was Frohna's mayor when the vote to become one town took place, but says even though it passed at the time, the situation has changed.

"When it came up [on the ballot years ago], one of the pros was that we'd only need one mayor," he explained. "But as mayor, we were making a whopping $600. There was maybe $6,000 in attorney fees, but does that justify making 75 percent of the people angry?"

He said the two communities had a system of mutually beneficial cooperation with regard to utilities and other public resources before the original vote and would continue to do so after deconsolidation. Furthermore, residents shouldn't be beholden to the decision, he said, especially when there exists such an overwhelming consensus to the contrary.

"If we made a mistake 13 years ago, let's correct it," Scholl said. "Bury the hatchet and move on."

Before hatchets are buried, the two cities will have to agree on what plan of action to take. And they'll have to do it soon if they want to put the issue on the April ballot; proposals are due to the county clerk by Jan. 27. But they'll meet as separate cities -- Altenburg and Frohna -- for the foreseeable future.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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