Sardis agrees to

stop annexation

By Myra Bean

A misunderstanding about whether the Town of Sardis Board of Alderman would continue to consider annexation caused a cross purpose of exchanges in Tuesday’s special called meeting.    

                                                                                                                                    

At the Panola Partnership member dinner last week, executive director Joe Azar praised the Sardis Board for approving to rescind the annexation, according to Mayor Lula Palmer.

Then Palmer was asked to sign a letter on city letterhead for the industries in the industrial park to that effect. She told them she would not sign it and that was not what the board approved.

The board approved a letter to send to Azar which clarifies what was said to him about the board not taking any annexation action until the board can ask for a local and private bill for next state legislature session.

The statement sent to Azar by Alderman Michael Price read: “The city of Sardis does not intend to annex any property located in the territory named as the industrial park until all attempts to exempt existing companies from city taxes have been exhausted through the legislative process by 2020.”

Board attorney Tommy Shuler said the letter was pointless but go ahead and send it anyway.

Chris Watson presented the findings from the study at the board meeting. Watson found, “This is a reasonable annexation.” Bridge and Watson looked at the financial feasibility of covering the 550 acres the city owns.

With annexation, it would generate a positive cash flow, Watson said. He did not go into the 12 factors.

In 2004, the city was looking to annex some area south and west which included the Greenhill area. It went all the way to the Supreme Court but the board rescinded the ordinance and stopped the annexation.

Sardis Lake Project

Without giving away much information, the board approved for Waggner to apply for a $500,000 Rural Development Authority (RDA) grant. The grant will cover market research, project impact, financial feasibility, hydrology and master plan update. It has to be submitted by March 29.

Clean Up Day

The board set Saturday, April 6, as clean up day. Each board member will get trash bags, gloves and needed items to clean up their wards.

Street Overlay

The board went through and named some street which will benefit from the overlay with funds from the BP 2002 award.