Pat Tepoorten

Wyoming Township Reporter

The plan for the consolidation of Wyoming Township and the city of Wyoming has taken an unexpected turn.

At the Tuesday, May 3 town board meeting, Chairman Roger Elmore, along with city officials, had planned to hire legal representation to create a proposal to present to the citizens of both entities.

It was hoped the proposal could be put together for less than $10,000 and would allow residents to make an informed decision regarding consolidation before the city or the township expended much larger amounts of money to create a charter city agreement, the most likely avenue for consolidation.

Having met with city officials and representatives of the law firm of Rinke Noonan, a firm experienced with consolidations, Elmore said in an interview on Sunday the situation has changed.

One of the prime objectives of the township is the creation of taxing districts within the charter city that would protect future former township residents from accumulated city debt.

Those taxing districts however, are a new idea, without precedent in previous consolidation agreements.

What legal experts are saying is that the inclusion of those taxing districts make it impossible to create a simple informational proposal for minimal amounts of money, Elmore said. Rather, the only way to be able to answer all of the potential questions from concerned residents is to actually create the official agreement.

Creating that agreement is expected to cost around $60,000, which is expected to be split evenly between the city and the township, Elmore said.

May 19th meeting

According to Elmore, the town board supervisors will be apprised of this situation and have given their blessing to a 7 p.m., Thursday, May 19 meeting at Wyoming Elementary School.

Still, rather than being a fairly specific outline of how the consolidation will be accomplished, the meeting will be for the purpose of seeking approval from residents of both the city and the township to move forward and create the final agreement.

Residents of the township and city will be allowed to ask questions or voice concerns regarding the proposed merger, and a straw poll will be taken using different colored ballots for township and city residents.

In the area of taxing districts, Elmore reported the Wyoming Township Planning Commission has simplified the districts greatly.

It has been proposed that the township be split into two distinct zones, residential and commercial. From there they will be further separated into ìwith city services,î and ìwithout city services.î

As ìwithout city servicesî zones have those services made available to them, zoning, and therefore annual taxes, will change to reflect the upgrade.

Elmore pointed out in the past that to not consolidate would leave the township at the mercy of its neighbors, which undoubtedly will seek annexations in the future.

The cost of fighting those annexations would far exceed the cost of consolidation and the only other option, to simply allow any future annexations, could ultimately spell the end for the township.

Given the recent history of the township with annexation, and misgivings about the future, Elmore noted, ìthis is a good time to do this.î

If the residents of both the city and township approve moving forward with the creation of the charter city agreement through the straw poll on May 19th, it wonít be the last time that they are asked to weigh in on the decision to consolidate.

Elmore said that once the agreement was drafted, he believed there will be another public meeting to include residents of both entities, which will seek their final approval before the township and the city enter into the agreement.

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