Jamie Munks
The State Journal-Register
The Springfield City Council Tuesday held a public hearing on the proposed annexation of 48 acres that would become part of Ward 3, on the near east side. Originally on the agenda for final passage Tuesday, aldermen held off on taking action until the Oct. 6 meeting, to “err on the side of caution” and ensure all of the notices to affected property owners meet the minimum 10-day requirement, Corporation Counsel Jim Zerkle said.
Woodside Township Trustee Carroll Sutton urged aldermen to vote against the annexation, calling it “taxation without representation.” The taxes assessed on that land total $78,022, Sutton said.
State law allows municipalities to annex unincorporated land that’s bounded entirely by the municipality, and these 48 acres fall into that category. Opponents charge that property owners will be hit with higher taxes without reaping benefits, but Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin said that every time one of those property owners leaves, they’re traversing city streets and could be using other city services, including in the case of an emergency.
Tax increment financing projects also dominated part of Tuesday’s meeting, as aldermen signed off on new funding and extended an agreement for the Kidzeum project to Sept. 30, 2016, dedicating an additional $316,545 to the proposed downtown children’s museum. The total TIF allocation to the project is $991,545, just under 15 percent of the proposed $6.8 million project cost.
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They also unanimously appointed Barry Helmerichs to be the permanent fire chief, easily passed a city code clarification requiring that any fees for additional waste-hauling services be in writing between haulers and individual households, and designated a public ecommerce zone in the lobby of the Springfield Police Department and just outside the Monroe Street building.
The waste-hauling measure stemmed from a quarterly charge levied by Republic Services on customer bills that city officials believed was already prohibited by existing language; Tuesday’s change was an effort to further clarify the code. City Public Works Director Mark Mahoney advised customers not to pay the additional $3 charge.
The city council was also presented with petitions from local residents and representatives of the Sierra Club demanding more transparency and public input on City Water, Light and Power issues in the future.
Springfield resident John Williams sees a “whole range of issues,” both environmental and financial, facing the utility. He and several others stood in front of Municipal Center West before Tuesday’s meeting, holding a sign aimed at passing traffic that read “Public process for a public utility.”
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 