WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE — The Fayette County Commissioners met on July 15 to hear from attorney Michael P. McNamee as agent for the petition for annexation on application of owners for Jefferson Township property to be annexed into the Village of Jeffersonville.

To observe the hearing, attendees numbered between 25 and 30 people. As more persons came in, more chairs were brought in to accommodate the crowd.

A total of 429.918 acres — approximately 418.9413 owned by Robert D. Coe, et al., 8.9367 acres owned by Linda L. Mellott, and 2.04 acres owned by Bennie and Brenda Self, a total of 14 parcels in Jefferson Township — are under consideration to be annexed into the Village of Jeffersonville.

Nine parcels are on Fent Road, one parcel on State Route 729, and four parcels on State Route 734 encompass this acreage.

McNamee presented his case to the commissioners stating that all adjacent property owners were notified by mail of this hearing for annexation, and submitted an affidavit thereto. McNamee also presented an affidavit of publication showing two dates in June and one date in July where the Record-Herald published notice of the hearing and listed the property owners desiring this annexation.

A notice was delivered to the clerk and Jefferson Township Trustees, and the clerk and Jeffersonville Council members, pursuant to law, regarding the annexation and the hearing to be held at the Fayette County Commissioners office.

A letter written by former Fayette County Engineer, Steven G. Luebbe, dated May 9, 2024, was submitted wherein Luebbe approved the plat of the proposed annexation of the property into the Village of Jeffersonville. Luebbe’s only comment was regarding Fent Road. “Since not all of the roadway will get incorporated into the Village, we recommend that some sort of maintenance agreement be worked out up front between Jeffersonville and Jefferson Township.” McNamee said that had been done subsequent to the letter.

Attorney David Kiger, Roger Spahr of the Jeffersonville Council, Mike Kirchner, Jeffersonville mayor, Morgan Pentzer representing the Fayette County Engineer’s Office, Greg McCune representing the Fayette County Zoning Office, David Martin, the developer for the land, a majority of the Coe family, and other interested parties all attended the hearing.

Pursuant to the law, the village is required to pass a resolution stating what services will be provided to the landowners after annexation takes place. On June 20, a resolution was passed by the Village of Jeffersonville stating their consent to the proposed annexation and will provide the following services to that acreage: sanitary sewer services, water services, street maintenance, zoning/code enforcement services, police protection at the level provided to all residents within the village, fire protection at the level provided to all residents within the village, road maintenance, and snow and ice removal the same as other village residents.

“To the extent that any street or highway is divided or segmented by the boundary line between the township and the Village that creates a road maintenance problem, the Village agrees to and shall assume the maintenance of those portions of the street or highway for which a maintenance problem was caused by the annexation or to otherwise correct the problem.”

This section of the resolution conforms to the agreement Luebbe requested in his letter. This resolution was signed by the mayor and clerk of Jeffersonville and submitted to the commissioners.

After the hearing, where any attendee was welcome to speak to the commissioners on this issue, the commissioners said they would put this matter on their agenda to consider and possibly approve this proposed annexation. No specific calendar date was set for this matter as yet.