Fruitland representatives say annexation not an option

Fruitland residents seeking to incorporate as a village told the Jackson Board of Aldermen that annexation by the city was not an option.

Representing Fruitland during Monday night's study session were Tim Sutterer and Tommy Petzoldt. Sutterer told the board that regardless of an impending decision from Jackson on whether the city would accept a petition to annex Fruitland -- filed as a requirement of state law in December -- he and others were already circulating their own petition among residents for incorporation.

He said 90 percent of people in the area he and other representatives had talked to voiced their opposition or signed a petition opposing the annexation by Jackson.

Sutterer said it is the will of the residents to incorporate so they can try to preserve the community as a rural, residential area. Two companies, Strack Excavating and Heartland Materials, are seeking to build limestone quarries near Fruitland. The area is now listed as an unincorporated community.

The discussion with the aldermen was a follow-up to a July 6 meeting between Jackson city administrator Jim Roach and city attorney Tom Ludwig with residents. According to Roach, the discussion was held to give board members the information to decide if they want to move forward with annexation.

In order for an annexation to occur, the city would need to accept the petition before Dec. 13, hold a public hearing for Fruitland residents on supply of utilities, pass an annexation ordinance and hold a vote in which the annexation was approved by a majority of Jackson voters and residents in the area of Fruitland to be annexed. If annexation did not pass, another vote would be held, and a two-thirds majority of voters in Jackson and Fruitland combined would have to vote in favor.

Ludwig said the soonest a vote could be placed on the ballot would be April. A second vote, if necessary, could be held in August. Sutterer said the bottom line was that Fruitland residents do not want to be annexed.

Roach said the city must be getting mixed messages from the people Sutterer and other representatives are also talking to. He said while the information Fruitland opponents have been gathering is solicited, the city is getting unsolicited interest from others who live in the area.

Roach said the position of the city staff is that aldermen should move forward with annexing Fruitland.

Jackson Mayor Barbara Lohr said the city has always expected areas along the Jackson city boundary to ask for annexation and that the city also expected annexing the area would be a slower process.

"I think we would be doing an injustice to our citizens if we did not attempt to annex because it is an area that we have looked to for some time," Lohr said.

eragan@semissourian.com

243-6635

Pertinent address:

101 Court St., Jackson, MO

Fruitland, MO