Published: July 05, 2008 04:20 pm            

Public Eye - Sunday, July 6, 2008

Annexation news expected

A committee of four Kokomo City Council members could make an announcement within days on proposed changes to Mayor Greg Goodnight’s annexation plan.

Committee members won’t say what they plan to remove from the plan, although they’ve already promised they won’t add any new areas to the proposal.

Logic, however, leads us to speculate a bit.

Is it likely the council will continue with plans to annex an area like Terrace Meadows, which is almost completely surrounded by the city, on city sewers, and receiving city fire protection?

If so, is it then less likely the council will continue to press for annexation of areas west of 300 West (Malfalfa Road) which currently receive no city services?

We encourage our readers to take a guess at that one.

One of these days ...

Every summer when the Kokomo Common Council sits down to lay out the next year’s budget, the Kokomo Fire Department invariably brings up the need for a new south side fire station.

Fire chiefs have been asking for the new station for close to a decade, but Mayor Greg Goodnight’s annexation plan might finally make that station a reality.

Why a new station? One could point to last week’s fire in the Springmill subdivision off Center Road. Fire crews needed 11 minutes to arrive on scene, simply because the nearest station is at U.S. 31 and East Boulevard.

As a point of comparison, deputy chief Randy Wilson said the department is “on scene” within 4 minutes for 90 percent of city fires.

Unexpected assistance

Democrat Bob Snow is getting help in his campaign for the District 38 seat in the Indiana House from an unlikely source.

When Snow first declared his candidacy he expected to be opposing incumbent Republican Jim Buck. But a lot has changed since February. Buck resigned from the House to complete the two years remaining on Jeff Drozda’s term in the Indiana Senate.

The Republican precinct committeemen for the district last month elected Kokomo businessman Heath VanNatter to complete the remaining seven months on Buck’s term in the House, but then elected Clinton County Auditor Jacque Clements to be on the November ballot.

Craig Dunn, chairman of the Howard County Republican Party, has been critical of Clements’ candidacy and indicated the local party organization would not be helpful in her election campaign.

“The race is really looking promising,” Snow said last week. “Craig Dunn is my best asset.”

Creative financing

During the cash-strapped Miami County Council’s public hearing on the possible implementation of a Local Option Income Tax to provide property tax relief starting in 2009, Councilman Bill Click asked if the city of Peru was looking at borrowing money.

“We’re donating kidneys now,” quipped Peru Mayor Jim Walker.

Last big push for annexation

Former Kokomo Mayor Jim Trobaugh said last week he’d considered annexation during his two terms as mayor, but concluded city taxpayers would pay out more in new services than they’d receive in new tax revenues, at least for the areas most likely to be annexed.

Trobaugh also had the benefit of hindsight, remembering annexation battles during his tenure on city council.

Kokomo had a major annexation push in the 1970s, bringing in the area bounded by Defenbaugh Street, Berkley Road, Lincoln Road and Wabash Street in 1974, and Vinton Woods and Westbrook not long after.

The one that got away, Trobaugh recalled, was Orleans Southwest. Vinton Woods and Orleans Southwest both sued, he said. The city won the Vinton Woods case, and lost the Orleans Southwest case.

        

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