By Joseph S. Pete, Daily Journal of Johnson County
Greenwood officials want a committee to put forward a plan to merge the city with the unincorporated Center Grove area, which would make Greenwood the second-largest city in central Indiana.
The city council wants to partner with the White River Township Board to form a study committee that would figure out how the city could extend its services and what it would cost. A White River Township Board member wants to expand the study to determine whether Bargersville should merge with part of the unincorporated area.
The study committee is the first step required by law to start a merger, which residents of both Greenwood and White River Township would have to vote on.
Mayor Charles Henderson said he felt the time was right when the city was negotiating with Bargersville over how to divide land they both want to annex.
Earlier, city officials wanted to hire a professional consultant to do a study, which would have provided more in-depth information of what it would mean to have the city provide services that Center Grove now gets from county government. Plans still call for hiring professionals including a financial adviser, an attorney and possibly an engineering firm to assist members of an appointed study committee.
"I feel that now's the time to do it with everything that's going on," Henderson said.
Greenwood is also locked in a land battle with Bargersville over the annexation of two square miles along State Road 135, where both municipalities have invested in utilities.
Council member Bruce Armstrong said the city would rather study a possible merger. But Greenwood was forced to file a lawsuit against Bargersville and start its own annexation because the town went ahead with plans to expand its border north to Stones Crossing Road.
Bargersville should be involved in any merger study, White River Board president Mark Messick said. Once Greenwood forwards the study committee resolution to the board, it likely will amend it to include Bargersville and send it to both the Bargersville and Greenwood councils, Messick said. Bargersville would then have to decide whether they wanted to explore a merger.
Southern White River Township might be a better fit for Bargersville, while the northern part more strongly identifies with Greenwood. Ideally, both Greenwood and Bargersville could agree on which areas of the township each would merge with before the committee met, Messick said.
Under the state's government modernization law, a merger would eliminate township government, including the trustee position and the board, Messick said.
The White River Citizens United group is pleased to see that discussions are moving forward, member and Johnson County Council member Anita Knowles said.
"This won't be like an annexation, where it's behind closed doors," she said. "This will all be out in public, so the public can be aware and contribute their ideas. We can get more local control and get rid on unnecessary layers of government."
At Monday's meeting, the Greenwood City Council voted unanimously to have the city attorney draft a resolution to convene a study committee. The White River Township Board would have to approve an identical resolution to convene a committee, which would consist of volunteers appointed by the council and the board.
City officials still want to have a professional consultant, likely an attorney, study some information, such as whether the city would get a larger share of sales taxes, cigarette taxes, gas taxes and other revenue streams because of its larger population, Henderson said.
Professional consultants, including a financial adviser and an engineering firm, would be needed to figure out how the city would provide services to the unincorporated area, what it would cost, how much the city's assessed valuation would increase and how much more tax revenue would come in, Henderson said.
Their fees would likely cost between $30,000 and $70,000, based on what similar studies in Zionsville and elsewhere have cost, Henderson said. The city would be responsible for paying for consultants hired by the study committee, but township board members said they'd be interested in paying for part of the cost.
Henderson said the whole process is new to him, but he believes the committee would have discretion over which consultants to hire.
Zionsville budgeted $30,000 for professional fees but ended up spending less than $8,000 because professionals donated their time to the study committee, Knowles said.
City council member Ron Deer wonders if a merger with the Center Grove area would be prohibitively costly.
Henderson said that property taxes the city would get from the area likely would cover only operating expenses.
"(Roads are) high up on my list," he said. "I've thought about how we could do that. I would never put the citizens of this city that we represent out on a limb like that without knowing how we would pay for it. I promise you that."
The largest challenges Greenwood would face in a merger would be improving the roads and the drainage system, Henderson said.
One of the advantages to a merger is that Greenwood won't have to provide all city services to the Center Grove area within three years, as it would have to with an annexation, Henderson said.
Study committee members can negotiate when the city would extend some services, Henderson said. Greenwood won't have to provide all services, such as fire protection, which the White River Township Fire Department provides