JOHNSON - Aldermen voted to hire an attorney versed in municipal law and attempt to meet with Fayetteville officials about a proposed deannexation of Johnson property into Fayetteville.
A land trust, WG Land Co., and some landowners near Zero Mountain are poised to deannex from Johnson into Fayetteville at the urging of the Fayetteville administration.
Total acreage in the annexation area is 420 acres, Johnson officials said.
The council hired attorney Tom Kieklak of Springdale. Kieklak is the former Northwest Arkansas legal representative for the Arkansas Municipal League.
Fayetteville's proposal would gain residents in the area an improved road, Van Asche Drive, but cost residents of Johnson 18 percent of its city - all on the south side, said Johnson Mayor Lonnie Barron.
"One of the things I'm assuming they're saying is that we can't provide the landowners with water and sewer," Barron said.
adsonar_placementId=1332013;adsonar_pid=930767;adsonar_ps=-1;adsonar_zw=300;adsonar_zh=180;adsonar_jv='ads.adsonar.com';
Fayetteville has provided the south side of Johnson with water and sewer for 50 years, Barron said.
Vernon Sisemore, Johnson's police chief, said the move amounts to extortion.
"What they're doing is not letting them tie into the water system if they don't come in to Fayetteville," Sisemore said.
Barron said the land company would first have to petition Johnson for services the city allegedly couldn't provide.
"The one thing Fayetteville wants is a route to Steele Crossing (near the Northwest Arkansas Mall)," Barron explained. "That's their cash cow."
While council members are willing to negotiate, they also appeared resolved to fight.
"I remember a day when the city of Johnson worked closely with the city of Fayetteville," said Alderman Bob Fant. "We worked to get rid of one-lane bridges to help people get to the mall. Our whole council would go to their meetings. It was beneficial to both cities."
That was a different administration, Fant continued.
"It seems the attitude of this administration is 'We're going to take what we want,'" Fant added. "'We want to get our tax base up and we don't care if we hurt the smaller towns.'"
Alderman Buddy Curry said losing 18 percent of Johnson is a death warrant for the city.
"Their tax base is down, so they're going to steal a part of the city of Johnson," Curry said. " I say we fight them with every penny we've got."
Barron said he'd asked both Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody and Gary Dumas, director of operations, to attend Tuesdays' Johnson City Council meeting.
"They respectfully declined," Barron said.
The council authorized City Attorney Danny Wright, Barron and Kieklak to attempt to meet with Fayetteville officials in an attempt to resolve the issue.
"We need to appeal with them to try to work with us as a partner rather than destroy us as a city," Fant said.
In other action, the council nixed a cost-sharing agreement with a developer to help flooding on Main Drive and in the basement of James at the Mill restaurant.
Barron said the development, located along the newly cut 48th Street in Johnson, is the cause of increased flooding in the city.
"We've spent over $30,000 in that area and I think that's all we can spend," Barron said. "This has been going on for two years now."
Owners and engineers working on the development have changed several times since the project began, Barron said.
