Annexation process chugs along

The city of Havre efforts to annex 14 properties west of the city have slowed, according to two officials who are taking part in the discussion.

“They are moving forward slowly, way too slowly,” said Mayor Tim Solomon.

The city wants to annex the 14 properties, the Holiday Village Mall going west.

City officials say the tax money taken in from those properties will ease the burden on taxpayers in the existing city limits.

But opponents say the city’s efforts to annex the properties have been legally flawed.

The annexation efforts have been going on for more than eight years, and some City Council members charge that opponents are simply delaying the inevitable.

City officials, Hill County commissioners and representatives of the group opposing annexation were to meet last week, but the meeting was delayed.

Solomon said the city found out some new information about two lifts in the sewer system that may be included in the annexation. They wanted the delay to review the information.

Commission Chair Mike Wendland said commissioners were coming to the meeting on Thursday only to find that it had been postponed. No date has been set for another meeting, he said.

He said he thought it was impossible to complete annexation this year. The soonest the process could be completed would be early next year, he said.

Jason Holden, the Great Falls attorney who represents the businesses opposing annexation, is out of town for the week