Discussions about Summit’s possible annexation of an area west of town resumed Tuesday night under a new town council that seemed agreeable to the possibility of more tax revenue and a lower fire rating for more residents and businesses.
Mike Slaughter of Slaughter & Associates of Oxford has been working with Summit about the proposed annexation and last appeared in town hall in January 2020, before three of the four current councilmen took office.
“We can’t be stagnant. We’ve got to move forward,” said Councilman Joe Lewis, the only member of the council who had heard Slaughter’s proposal before.
The area Summit is considering taking in is west of Interstate 55, starting at Robb Street Extension to the south and going north to include the Seventh Day Adventist Church, New Heights Baptist Church, Southwest Distributors and Shawn Mart. It would cross Highway 98 and go along Old Brookhaven Road and Tidwell Drive in the east and take in Buckey Moore Road and Greentree Lane in the west.
The area under review includes eight businesses and seven single-family houses.
“It’s not heavily populated. It’s more commercial than it is residential,” Slaughter said.
Lewis, serving as mayor pro tem for Mayor Percy Robinson, who was out sick, said he saw Slaughter at a convention last fall and invited him to return to Summit to pitch the annexation plan to the new council members.
“This is one of your growth areas, right across the interstate,” Slaughter said.
Much of the decision will rest on whether it’s worth it to the town to take in more property, which will add to the tax base but require a lot of expensive services.
Slaughter said the area should bring in an additional $60,000 a year in property taxes.
Estimated expenditures would create a $22,836 deficit in the first year, slight revenues of $1,205 in Year 2 and $194 in Year 3 and deficits of $873 and $1,998 in years 4 and 5.
However, the data Slaughter provided doesn’t include sales tax revenues, which he said would likely turn deficits into black ink. Slaughter blamed a lack of sales tax data for the incomplete calculations.
“The number we’re not really seeing is our sales tax that would help more than pay for that on down the road,” Slaughter said.
The town would be required to provide police and fire protection, as well as street maintenance, but the only additional personnel required to meet the demand would be an additional public works employee, Slaughter said.
A more expensive burden would be providing water and sewer. While the North Pike Water Association would continue to provide water to the area, Summit would have to supply fire hydrants and water lines for them in order for the area to receive the benefits of a lower fire rating and the savings on insurance rates that come with that. The town is rated a Class 6, while the proposed area of annexation is a Class 7.
Total estimates to bore under I-55 to provide water lines come to $376,150, and sewer would cost $659,649, according to estimates Dungan Engineering calculated in 2020. Slaughter said the town could finance that work through general obligation bonds, which would be paid back over 20 to 30 years.
Lewis said councilmen on the previous board, which first heard Slaughter’s proposal, had concerns about the cost of the annexation, and he noted Southwest Distributors, which is located in the proposed annex, did not support being taken in by the town.
Slaughter said the next step is for the council to adopt an ordinance supporting the annexation and direct him to draw up a legal description of the area, which would cost $15,000 to $20,000, and he would file it in chancery court. If anyone is opposed to it, they’d contest the annexation plan in court, he said.
“You adopt that ordinance, file that petition in chancery court and then opponents will surface,” Slaughter said. “The burden of proof is on the town to prove it’s reasonable.”
“Frankly, I think we could just ask Rob Belote and Ron Craddock and they would tell us straight-forward,” board attorney Ben Gilbert said, referring to the owners of Southwest Distributors and the On the Run Exxon in the proposed area of annexation.
Planning Commission member Dr. Tom Carey said the panel supported the proposed annexation when it was first being discussed.
“This is what the planning commission recommended several years ago and the prior board recommended this, and I’m excited about it,” he said.
