Prairie Grove voters will decide Tuesday if the town will grow by about 800 acres.
Polls open at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday for an annexation special election. The question is whether the city will absorb a strip of land at its southern edge.
At A Glance
Prairie Grove Special Election
What: Voters will decide whether to add 800 acres to the town’s southern edge.
When: 7:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Tuesday
Where: First Baptist Church, 219 N. Pittman St.
If the proposal passes, the nearly finished, 4-mile U.S. 62 bypass through and around town will be in the city. All Prairie Grove voters can participate, as can the 18 registered voters within the unincorporated area.
Mayor Sonny Hudson and other city officials said absorbing the bypass would be good for the city because businesses are lining up to set up shop along the new roadway.
"If we didn't need to go that direction, we wouldn't be," Hudson said this week. "Especially something new like that, there's going to be a lot of growth. We have put it off for several years just waiting for it to get closer."
The annexation fits another approved in 2006 like a puzzle piece. The city extended its limits with a mile-long projection along the highway.
Hudson said property value along the bypass are increasing, signalling potential buyers are circling the area.
Hudson and Larry Oelrich, public works director, said people living in the area would benefit from joining Prairie Grove.
The city will provide police and fire services and residents will pay less for water, Oelrich said. Higher property taxes would be offset by those savings, he added.
For example, taxes on 80 acres of farmland will cost $30 or $40 more annually and land with a house would cost $150 more, Oelrich said. Meanwhile, water would cost $180 less and a $50 fee for fire assessments would go away.
"This is in no way a revenue generator for us," Oelrich said.
The county doesn't enforce code for single-family dwellings but Prairie Grove does, meaning houses in the area would also be safer, Hudson said. County planning director Juliet Richey said that was mostly accurate.
"Like if you were just going to buy a piece of land to build yourself a home, we do not have building permits like they do in the city," Richey said. That home still must follow county fire rules, however.
Oelrich also said Prairie Grove police can respond quicker to an emergency.
Between five and seven Washington County Sheriff's Office deputies patrol the entire county at any given time, said Kelly Cantrell, spokeswoman. Deputies already alert local police if they're far away, she added.
Two property owners said they're skeptical an annexation would help them.
"There's no benefit to me as a property owner to be annexed," Frank Ditmar told the City Council at a February meeting. He has deliberately lived outside city limits for 40 years, he said.
"It's real easy for you to have opinions and you have nothing at stake in those opinions," Ditmar added.
Fawnita Aman, whose 200 acres of pasture include 40 in the annexation area, agreed. It could be decades before the area is actually developed, she said.
"I think it's just ridiculous that they want to take this into the city," she said. "We just need to get as many people to vote against it as we can."
NW News on 04/06/2014