Hagedorn Industrial Park landowners work toward annexation

After a failed attempt to annex property from the Hagedorn Industrial Park in April, a group of landowners started over again with the petition process with hopes of getting approval in October.

Troy Larson, Lewis & Clark Regional Water System executive director, is one of the property owners leading the charge for annexation. His company’s building is on Monty Street in the Hagedorn Industrial Park. When the group submitted petitions for annexation in April, they came up just short of the 75 percent of assessed value - with 74.8 percent - in favor of annexation for the city council meeting April 16.

“We were at, I believe, 78 percent. You may recall right before the meeting with the city council there were four landowners that changed their minds. Not that they were against annexation, but they wanted more time to consider other alternatives. That’s why there was no action, we’re no longer at the 75 percent,” he said.

After the April 16 city council meeting and a Hagedorn Road District meeting in May, the group of landowners started over again with their petition to be annexed into the city of Tea. Larson plans to submit petitions by Oct. 1 with the hope of being on the Oct. 21 city council meeting agenda.

He estimates that they will have 83 percent of the assessed value in favor of annexation by then.

“We feel very good that that won’t change. We also feel good that in our understanding in talking to some of the folks that were opposed to it before that both sides now agree that the best path forward in terms of making permanent road improvements is to turn it over to the city and let the city do it,” Larson said. “That doesn’t mean that the other side supports annexation. They just believe that with all that has taken place, that the best route forward would be for the city to do this work instead of the road district trying to undertake this endeavor.”

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