GREENWOOD — Greenwood officials should focus on fixing problems within its boundaries before it considers bringing new tracts into the city, annexation opponents said at a public forum Monday.
About 30 people showed up and four spoke at the 30-minute City Council study session on a plan drawn up over the last year to possibly annex up to 8 acres on the city’s west side.The council heard a report on the plan last week and held the study session Monday to get public reaction to the plan.
The reaction was negative. Of the four people who spoke, all opposed annexation.
The theme of three of the speakers was that Greenwood had infrastructure problems within the city and didn’t need to consider adding more land for which it might not be able to adequately provide services.
Many residents of Shadow Lake, the most populous area outside Greenwood that could be annexed under the council’s plan, believe that Greenwood’s problems could become their problems if their neighborhood becomes part of the city, said Fort Smith attorney Steve Smith, who is representing Shadow Lake residents.
He said the residents believe “that Greenwood should focus its dollars, rather than on annexation, on improving and/or making adequate current infrastructure before itlooks to increase its size.”
One of the Shadow Lake residents, Carol Simpson, said that while Greenwood officials said the city already provides fire and police protection to the more than 100-home neighborhood, they are only supplementing primary protection Shadow Lake gets from the nearby Jenny Lind Fire Department, from the county sheriff’s office and from the neighborhood’s efforts at self-protection.
Simpson also said that the county provides good service in sanding streets and removing fallen limbs during winter storms and filling potholes.
She said she doubted that Greenwood would be able to provide as good service as Shadow Lake is getting now.
“Will the roads [in Shadow Lake] fall into disrepair like many of the streets in Greenwood?” she asked.
Aaron Wirth, who lives outside the southwest limit of the city near U.S. 71, said he liked living in the Greenwood area because of the good schools but outside the city limit because he wanted to avoid dealing with the city’s regulations.
He said there were a lot of undeveloped areas within the city limits that could be developed rather than thecouncil looking for more land to bring into Greenwood.
Charles Elmore lives on 101 acres of agricultural land just outside the city limits. His voice choked with emotion at times as he asked council members whether he was going to be able to continue using the land to raise livestock, sell wood and allow his grandson to practice skeet shooting.
“We have a lot of fondmemories of our land and our grandson and son in law,” he said. “We’ve taken six or seven deer. The grandson took a bobcat with a pellet gun. Is all that going to end?”
If the council goes ahead with annexation, aldermen will take up the necessary ordinances this summer and put the issue on the Nov. 4 election ballot for Greenwood residents and those in the affected areas to vote on.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 04/09/2014