Last September, the Gardner City Council adopted a Consent for Annexation for the Hillsdale Water Treatment plant, located at 22705 South Moonlight Rd., in Miami County.
The Gardner City Council voted to start the process of annexing the city’s water treatment plant during a Sept. 3 meeting. At that time, Ryan Denk, city attorney, told council members that because the property was owned by the city, it did not have to go before the Miami County Commissioners and could be approved by the city council at the next meeting.
Miami County commissioners apparently disagreed, and the property has yet to be annexed by the City of Gardner. It will next be considered Jan. 15.
According to posted minutes from the Gardner Sept. 16 meeting, “Attorney Denk said no, the initial communication with Miami County was that an island annexation has to go before the county commissioners, except on city-owned land. If it’s city-owned property, we approve a consent or petition to ourselves. At the next meeting, you’ll approve an ordinance, and per Kansas Statute KSA 12 5282, an ordinance is all that’s needed, not county commission approval.”
Miami County Commissioners had a different interpretation.
According to an article in the Miami County Republic, Rob Roberts, Miami County commission chair, asked Denk, “How do you folks explain the fact that you began building your project prior to even receiving any oversight from the county and prior to us even having your annexation request?” Roberts asked. “Is it because you just simply don’t want to be under the county’s jurisdiction?”
Denk replied that the annexation petition was filed before the work began
(Read more: Gardner News)