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Benton voters face no hot annex issues |
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Tuesday, 28 October 2008 |
No controversial annexation issues will be appearing on Benton voters’ ballot on Nov. 4.
“The annexation questions that will be on the ballot have nothing to do with the Salem community,” Benton Mayor Rick Holland said.
“That plan was dropped after Salem residents complained,” he said.
“And it has nothing to do with Northlake,” he added. “We’ve already lost that annexation attempt in a special election. Bryant is doing a lot of annexation, and people are holding signs saying ‘no’ to annexation. Because of that, I’m concerned that the citizens of Benton will confuse that with what we’re doing.
“What we’ll have on the ballot on Nov. 4 are commercial sites that are on Interstate 30 and Highway 5 — places that everyone thought were in the city anyway,” Holland said.
These include Riverside Grocery on Arkansas 5 South, a section of Interstate 30, Mom’s Mobile Home Sales, Ditchwitch, a van conversion business, a transmission shop, all on I-30.
“Then there’s on up to Salem Road and Arkansas 5, the Napa Store, a restaurant, a car dealership, a taxidermist — all these places that when you tell people you’re wanting to annex it, they say they think it’s in Benton anyway.” Holland said.
“We’re trying to recruit other businesses to come to Benton and here we don’t have all of these places that people think are in Benton,” the mayor said.
Holland pointed out that there are “23 acres by the Alcoa exit on the north side of Interstate 30 being cleared off for development and this is not even in the city of Benton. All of this is for potential development.
“One reason it’s important for our city to annex all of these areas is that we get sales tax revenue from these stores, which goes to fund our services, such as police, fire, parks and streets,” he said.
“I hope people remember this when they go to vote,” Holland added. “Bringing all of these areas into the city will do nothing but benefit Benton, as well as the businesses.”
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Razorbacks
