Tri City residents ask county to help fight annexation
MYRTLE CREEK, Ore. -- Tri City residents want the county to help them fight annexation in the city of Myrtle Creek.
Residents made a pitch to the county commissioners Wednesday, to ask for their support in what they say are the city's attempts to get the Tri City area into the city limits.
Danny Wiggins, the owner of Wiggins Market in the unincorporated area south of the city limits, presented the commissioners with over 1,400 signatures from Tri City residents who are asking the county to help them prevent annexation.
He told commissioners that the city annexed the highway to make it easier to annex properties. "Every time they proposed annexation, it was under the guise of just wanting to find out what the interest might be in this action. The residents of Tri City have made it very clear on several occasions that they are firmly opposed to annexation. The Myrtle Creek group set out to annex Tri City without the vote, and used questionable land use practices and subversion."
Myrtle Creek City Council President, Ken Schmidt, says it's never been the council's objective to annex land secretly in the Tri City area. "The people in Tri City apparently don't listen or don't hear, but we've explained it to them numerous times, that to annex anything in Tri City would take a vote of the people in Tri City and Myrtle Creek. 51% of those people would have to say yes before it could happen."
Schmidt said he was in favor of annexing the highway to get to the industrial property and to the airport, which is in the city.
City Administrator Aaron Cubic says the city council has always made it clear, they want the annexation issue to be above board at all times. "The city council is interested in the commercial sector on Highway 99 corridor, and two, the city council is interested in voluntary annexations."
Commissioner Susan Morgan met with the group of Tri City residents Wednesday morning, and she says it was an information-gathering session.
The residents wanted to know if it's possible to un-do the urban growth boundary once it's in place, and they asked about putting out a ballot measure to find out if residents are for or against annexation of the Tri City area.
The Tri City Citizens Alliance has a meeting set for June 9, at the Veteran's Hall in Tri City, and Morgan says she and county planning director Keith Cubic will attend.
