Town Board members are still debating over what to do about a push to annex
11 acres of land in the Town of Kirkland.
A special New Hartford Town
Board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m., Tuesday on the plan, relating to parcels
in the Cherrywood modular home community on Route 5. The meeting is at Butler
Hall.
Town Supervisor Earle Reed said he is leaning away from annexation,
but Democratic Councilman Rich Woodland says he’s in favor of it.
“I
think we will do the inter-municipal agreement,” Reed said. “An annexation is so
complex.”
Residents who attended a recent public hearing about the matter
seemed to be in favor of annexation, Woodland said.
“The government needs
to solve the problem, not be part of the problem,” he said.
Other board
members reached for comment said they hadn’t made up their minds yet.
The development in question straddles the New Hartford-Kirkland border.
New Hartford erroneously gave building permits for four homes that have been
built on the Kirkland side.
The homes in the 115-acre community for
seniors are linked up with the New Hartford sewer systems. The people who live
there are registered to vote in New Hartford and may even have been paying New
Hartford taxes.
Under such an agreement, the 11 acres would still be part
of Kirkland, but services would be rendered by New Hartford. It’s not yet clear
how compensation would be worked out.
Former development owner Ralph
Humphreys, who is involved with the annexation push, said the move would
simplify a complicated situation.
“An agreement is a living thing and it
has to keep being updated all the time,” he said. “An annexation is once and for
all.”
Kirkland Town Supervisor Robert Meelan said his town was allowing
New Hartford to take the lead in the decision making process.
“If the
annexation doesn’t go through, we are prepared to do an inter-municipal
agreement,” he said.
