Last September, Meeker’s Town Board informally agreed to continue with the process of annexing about eight square miles into the Town’s limits.
That was the consensus of the five Trustees during their meeting. They could only discuss the issue that night, because the agenda didn’t call for taking any action.
They discussed taking a little different approach to the annexation issue. What they talked about was developing a plan which hasn’t been done yet.
It’s been four months since they agreed to continue the process and discussed developing a plan. It doesn’t appear anything has been done regarding a plan or holding a public meeting they talked about.
Trustee and Vice Mayor Aaron Head has suggested possibly patterning a plan after the town of Grove in northeastern Oklahoma developed and using some of that information. That appears to be a positive approach.
Head has been on the town board for a number of years. He was serving as mayor in November of 2018 when Trustees voted to set the boundaries of the annexation. They previously had approved proceeding with it.
He’s the only member from that board who is currently serving as a Trustee.
In April of 2019, Trustees again voted unanimously to continue the process of annexing that area into the city limits.
Former Town Administrator Dickie Walton explained several times, “the purpose is to protect the town’s interests and the Quapaw 15 Project more commonly known as the Lake Project.”
Walton had pointed out that April Burns, an economist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, recommended the guidelines for the borders of the proposed annexation.
Trustees need to determine if the federal and state funding pledged for the Quapaw 15 Project is still on track. If it is, the annexation is still viable.
If it’s not, the annexation may be a mute issue unless they can acquire other funding for the project.
The consensus of the board at that September meeting was that once a plan is developed, a special meeting of the board would be called for discussion purposes only. At that meeting a question and answer session would be held with the public to field some of the concerns they have raised.
Jeff Wilbourn was mayor at that time before he stepped down to become the Town Administrator. He stated then that personally he’d like to see that take place within the next month or two.
It’s been four months now going on five. Still, there has been no plan, no meeting scheduled.
Their idea to develop a plan and hold that public meeting for discussion only is the right way to proceed all right.
It’s time they begin taking the necessary steps to find out about the funding, develop a plan and schedule a meeting and determine if the annexation is still viable.