We hope you're catching on - because you're next
Annexations are complicated, and even the attorney for the City of La Porte said he missed a step because they are so complex. You can take him at his word or understand he didn’t think anyone would notice he missed our right to remonstrate.. Regardless, we’re slowly understanding how it all works.
If you think because you’re not in the current annexation area, you’re safe, you couldn’t be more mistaken. Before diving into that, let’s rehash how La Porte drew this annexation map.
Do you see that blue line on the left? That’s the city’s contiguous border, with city property on the left side and county property on the right.. How that came about is a whole story in itself, how the city got those property owners to quickly join the city just a couple of months before this annexation started, another time, perhaps another story. Regardless, in annexation terms, that’s the contiguous boundary. The external boundary is all the darker pink lines around the perimeter, which can’t be more than seven times that contiguous boundary; in this annexation, that blue line is about 1.3 miles, and the dark pink perimeter is about 8.5 miles, well within the 1/8 rule set by State statutes.
So here is what happens if people don’t wake up and fight this annexation in the next 30 days. That dark pink line will become the dark blue line as that will all become the city’s new contiguous boundary, and all property around that new boundary is vulnerable to annexation. All the city has to do is find enough supporters to outvote the opposition. It’s simple math. The city needs 51% for a successful annexation. The city will count its supporters and draw a map to include 40% opposition, with 60% supporting annexation, and there is nothing the opposing homeowners can do to stop the city. The city can draw the annexation boundaries in any fashion it likes to pit support against opposition.
The city will be in a constant state of annexation, rinse and repeat. The city domain will spread like cancer in North County if the city gets this current annexation. With each new successful annexation, the city’s contiguous boundary grows larger. The city will meet with support, calculate the opposition, draw the map in the city’s favor, and start another annexation. Piece by piece, the city grows its boundaries. A 30 by 30 plan the Mayor calls it—30,000 population by 2030.
That is precisely what is happening in Southern Indiana. A city initially got a larger land annexation without much fight and is now making mini-annexations off its new boundaries. Monroe County is presently fighting 9 areas of annexation concurrently. The City outspends and wears down the opposition. The best way to defeat this is to stop the snowball before it starts down the hill.
We need your support, even if you’re not in the annexation area. We need donations, advocates for remonstrance, knowledgeable people talking with neighbors, and explaining to supporters of annexation that this isn’t going to go how they expect.
The City of La Porte has a long history of taking decades to fulfill annexation promises. This won’t be any different. Nothing will happen in a few years, as the city promised. New water infrastructure will be lucky to happen in 30 years as the city typically takes 40-plus years to fulfill annexation promises. Talk to your neighbors on McClung Road and ask how long it took them to get water and sewer, which promised to happen in a year back in 1965. There are still about 10 properties waiting for a sewer connection. Talk to your neighbors on Whitehead Road who waited almost 40 years to get the water and sewer pledged to them in the late sixties. The city didn’t connect those residents until 2009, and the Mayor, at the time, still argued the City Council should have waited longer.
The 39N Conservancy District is agreeing to a plan that only protects non-annexed customers for 5 years. The city can terminate water service to those customers after 2029. Chaumieres Pres Du Lac, Legacy Hills, and Johnson Road, you have until 2029 to join the city. Take a look at this 2023 newspaper clipping from the Herald-Dispatch.
Since the beginning of this annexation, we have said that once the city obtains this water system, current hookups will be powerless to stop the city from annexing their properties. The city is making clear that its ambition is to annex all subscriber properties once it owns the 39N water system. They will also annex perimeter property owners if this current annexation is successful.
The time to stop the city is now! We have one month to educate our neighbors, get signatures, and tell the city we don’t want to be annexed. The Conservancy District and the City have already agreed to hand over the water system for what will prove to be empty promises of utility credits. SBOA and DLGF obviously denied the city using utility credits in exchange for money. Now, the 39N board voted to hold off entering into a purchase agreement with the city until AFTER the annexation is over. After the board has any leverage to negotiate anything. The City will tell 39N to buzz off if annexation is successful.
Lastly, the city can’t shut off the district’s water supply, and the city knows it. The City attorney said on November 3rd, the city never said they would shut off residents’ water. Quite a different story than what the Mayor said in January 2023 when he shared a town in Arizona shut off a suburb’s water supply. Ask the Mayor how that worked out last year. The Arizona Governor and legislature took emergency action, telling the Scottsdale mayor to get that water turned back on. That Scottsdale Mayor embarrassed the whole state on a national stage. Is that what Mayor Dermody wants to do? To make a spectacle of himself only to have our Governor, and legislators put him back in his place?
The largest industrial property owner who shared this information with the Mayor is the Mayor’s good friend, Don Berchem. A couple of things about Mr. Berchem that should be disclosed for transparency in this conversation and because the Mayor brought him up.
Mr. Berchem is an Arizona snowbird; that is how he knew of Arizona politics. This speech by the Mayor was to scare residents and support his claim he could disconnect 39N water. The Mayor and Mr. Berchem were all too eager to get this into the public domain.
People should know the mayor parked a fully marked City Police car in front of Mr. Berchem’s home last winter to discourage crime while the Berchems were snowbirding in Arizona. Mr. Berchem owns the property Haynes International leases at the center of 39 North’s “fire flow” issue. Can you now guess why the city approved that factory’s 4000GPM connection in a district with only 1500GPM capacity? It’s not hard to connect the dots.
Residents have no fire flow issue on 39N. Other factories have no fire flow issue on 39N. One factory has a confirmed fire suppression issue, and Mr. Berchem owns it. The Mayor has sold 39N residents a bill of goods, and the city should have NEVER approved that water connection for the Mayor’s friend.
You won’t find a single instance of any City shutting off a conservancy district’s water supply anywhere in the State of Indiana; our lawmakers and courts would never allow a mayor such an overreach of power. Only one Mayor in the entire country has tried this, and it backfired spectacularly. Our mayor and city attorney have recently walked back the threats they made in 2022 to shut off residents’ water. The city attorney now says the city never said they’d shut off water to 39N residents. We suggest he check the Board of Works June 7, 2022, meeting when the Mayor said residents can sign for annexation or the city will take our water and go home.
The context of this exchange is that the Center Township Trustee spoke, explaining she didn’t appreciate the Mayor saying 39N residents aren’t safe. The Mayor responded by scolding the Trustee and even mentioned that she didn’t share with the city where she was moving her office until it was done. He said he respected that when obviously he didn’t because he’s bringing it up when it has no context in this discussion.
The Mayor had repeatedly said homeowners aren’t safe, and our trustee asked him to stop because they have the same fire protection they’ve had for over 50 years, she was getting phone calls from residents frightened, and it’s an insult to her fire department. The mayor couldn’t grasp Lisa’s explanation and concluded that the city would take its water and go home if residents didn’t want to sign for annexation. Clearly, that sounds like a mayor threatening to shut off residents’ water.
We need to stop the 39N annexation, and our first meeting is this Saturday from 8am to 9:30am at Gadget Fix Up, 2402 N State Road 39. We will have people there to answer your questions, take your signature for remonstrance, give you the latest news from our attorney and researchers, and explain how you can help. We hope to see you there. Visit our events calendar for our schedule of events.