WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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Monroe County Commissioners are thanking employees and officials who did work in recent months related to the proposed annexation of nearly 10,000 acres of County property into the city of Bloomington. The Commissioners meeting on Friday came just less than a week after state legislators effectively barred the city from annexing property for the next five years. Many County officials had been concerned about the annexation.
The president of the Board of Commissioners, Julie Thomas, says a lot of work was dedicated to studying the potential effects: “It was a massive project. We had members of the Redevelopment Commission helping; we had members of the Planning Commission helping. We had people from all over assisting us, and it was a good thing. I want to say ‘thank you’ to everyone. Clearly, we are going to continue working, just at a slower pace – which is refreshing. We will continue working, because we recognize that in five years, this could happen, and we need to be prepared.”
Members of the public also expressed relief about the cancelled annexation during the Commissioners’ meeting. Resident Paul White Sr., who was a candidate last year for a position on the Board, thanked the Commissioners for their work on the issue.
White also defended the state legislature, which faced criticism for cancelling the annexation process through a last-minute legislative maneuver that did not allow for debate: “There are some who claim that the state was interfering, or ‘overreaching’ if you will, into our local affairs. The state was representing the citizens of not just Monroe County, but of the entire state. They did that like they are elected to do.”
About 15,000 County residents would have become residents of the city of Bloomington if Mayor John Hamilton’s annexation proposal had been approved.
