Jackson aldermen: No interest in Fruitland annexation

Members of the Jackson Board of Aldermen are expressing no interest in the potential annexation of Fruitland -- an issue the aldermen, and Jackson voters, have tangled with in the past.

"I'm speaking for myself, but I'm not in favor of the city going through the [annexation] process again," Alderman Joe Bob Baker said Friday. "It's my sense that a majority of the aldermen feel that way."

Alderman Dave Hitt also said he wasn't in favor of annexing Fruitland, which is designated as an unincorporated community.

"I don't see it happening at all," Hitt said. "I think the other aldermen would concur."

The issue of annexation was discussed by the aldermen at their Oct. 14 meeting in response to a new annexation petition submitted by a group of Fruitland residents known as Friends of Fruitland, who are seeking to incorporate the community into a fourth-class city.

Under state law, the petitioners must be denied annexation by nearby cities that are within 2 miles of Fruitland before any incorporation plans can proceed. The city of Jackson has one year to accept or deny Friends of Fruitland's annexation request from the time it's submitted.

"I think annexation might be taken up for a vote fairly quickly," Hitt said. "There's no reason to hold it up. If Fruitland wants to incorporate, I say more power to them."

City attorney Thomas Ludwig said at the Oct. 14 meeting that if the city of Jackson were to accept the annexation petition, the next steps would be for the city to seek a declaratory judgment from the circuit court that recognizes the validity of the action and hold elections in Jackson and Fruitland on the question of annexation. If the city turns down the request, petitioners would need the approval of the Cape Girardeau County Commission before the incorporation question is put before Fruitland voters.

The group's first annexation request came in 2011, when it attempted to incorporate the Fruitland community into a village. The action prompted the city of Jackson to hold a vote in February 2012 on whether to annex parts of Fruitland; Jackson voters answered "no."

In April, the group was advised by an attorney hired by the county commission that its previous petition was invalid and the incorporation question could not be placed on the ballot because the group did not approach nearby cities with the annexation request. The group also needed to re-collect signatures from residents. The annexation petition also needed to be remapped to include the "original footprint" of the Fruitland community.

Deborah Griffin, senior vice president of Friends of Fruitland, said her group seeks incorporation so Fruitland can't be annexed by the city of Jackson in the future.

"Jackson has nothing to offer us," Griffin said. "They can't bring sewers out here. They can't do anything that we can't do ourselves."

Griffin said incorporation would ward off any attempts by Jackson to turn areas around their homes into an industrial park.

"We want to decide our own growth," she said, "and we want it to be a nice town. Why would anyone want to stand in the way of that?"

If the board of aldermen votes to deny the annexation request, Griffin said Fruitland residents would have to wait for the year after the filing of the petition to expire before they could vote on a measure of incorporation.

"That will give us the time we need to make sure our petition is proper before the county commission looks at it again," she said.

klewis@semissourian.com

388-3635

Pertinent address

Fruitland, Mo.

1 Barton Square, Jackson, Mo.