Services OK'd for proposed annexation

FORT RECOVERY - Village council members on Monday night approved an ordinance to provide services to owners of 30.481 acres of land near state Route 49 and Sharpsburg Road in Gibson Township, upon annexation.

Council members approved the legislation as an emergency measure after suspending the rules, doing away with the need for three readings. Councilman Dave Kaup, who owns 7.912 acres of the affected land, abstained from both related votes.

If the annexation is approved, the affected residents would receive water, sanitary sewer and storm sewer services; police protection; curbside brush and leaf removal; access to curbside trash and recycling pickup; and access to the village's utility aggregation program, according to the ordinance.

A total of 21 people - including husbands and wives who are counted separately - own property in the proposed annexation area. The petitioners in support of the annexation represent seven of the 12 affected properties.

Mercer County Commissioners set a public hearing for 7 p.m. Dec. 3 in the first-floor conference room of the Mercer County Central Services Building in Celina.

County commissioners must grant or deny the annexation petition within 30 days after the public hearing.

According to the Ohio Revised Code: "The board's decision rests in part on whether the proper annexation procedures were followed, but the board is also required to find that the area to be annexed is not too large, that the map or plat of the area is accurate and that annexation would serve the general good of the territory to be annexed."

The commissioners' decision may be appealed. The annexation petition also must be accepted or denied by village council members if county commissioners approve.

Property owners Dillan and Paige Schulze and Lavern and Jane Weitzel have objected to the annexation at past council meetings.

Dillan Schulze again addressed council on Monday night, telling them he won't be able to afford the increased property taxes on his 7.761 acre parcel at 890 Sharpsburg Road if it is annexed. A frustrated Schulze, who has spoken at several meetings, said he will continue to address council and write letters if need be to make his view be known.

Schulze said he doesn't understand why, in a small community, village officials are trying to force property owners into an annexation they don't want.

"What's the real reason why we're doing this? What's the real reason? There's got to be something else," he said.

Mayor Roger Broerman said if officials exempted Schulze from the annexation the first unincorporated island in Fort Recovery would be created.

"We're setting a precedent with whatever we do with you, so down the road what's going to stop the next person - or in this annexation process where's there's actually two islands being created if we didn't pursue this - what's to say that they wouldn't come to us and say the same thing?" Diller said.

Schulze said his property is nearly 10 acres and he doesn't see why leaving it unincorporated would create a problem.

"If you're in an island, we're going to try to go through the process to annex because we don't want to have islands," Diller said.

Diller also said nobody wants Schulze to be forced to sell his home.

Councilman Dave Bretz asked if Schulze could sell some of his land so he wouldn't have to sell his home.

Schulze replied a smaller lot wouldn't allow him to use the property as he intended when he purchased it.