| On January 27th 2003 the City Council
of Lincoln City passed a resolution "to extend water service to Roads End until June
30th 2004 with the objective of developing a plan for annexation with a date acceptable to
both Lincoln City and Roads End residents". The proposed plan is to be completed no
later than January 31st 2004 unless the date is extended by mutual agreement. This
resolution was a unilateral action by the City Council and should not be interpreted as an
agreement by the Water District that annexation is inevitable as the Water District has no
authority to make such an agreement. An attorney has been engaged to represent both the
Water and Sanitary Districts as this matter develops over the next few months. The most
likely result of this situation will be an election at some future date to allow residents
of Roads End to vote on the question of Annexation. Click
here to see the resolution. |
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| The above Resolution was amended to
extend the cut-off date to June 1, 2005 which has now passed. The R. E. Water District had
prepared a plan for discussion and an invitation was sent to each Council Member in 2004
to meet together and discuss the plan as required by the Resolution. To date, the District
has received no response from the City. |
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| The City also passed a new Ordinance
(ORD 2004-6) in 2004 requiring a consent to annexation in order to receive water service.
The Ordinance is too long to put on the web site, but a copy can be obtained from the
City. The consent forms require an owner to give up all rights for you or any future
owner(s) to vote for annexation in the future and is recorded. A consent form is required
for any new owner or any new service connection and will also be required for any water
billing change. |
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| Several owners have already been
forced to sign a consent to annex for continued water service and have been threatened
with a turn-off of service if they don't sign. Unfortunately the need for water service
has forced owners into signing a document they don't wish to sign even knowing that the
City can't turn off their water if it is already on. The City can not turn anyone's water
off without defaulting their agreement with the Federal Government FHA Grant's paragraph
4. If anyone's water is turned off, the City is then in default of the Federal Grant and
will be immediately liable for the full Grant amount of $590,000 plus interest from
the date of default. The City knows this and has taken an end run approach by threatening
any owner, that still doesn't sign, with taking them to Court for a "Declaratory
Judgement". To date, several owners have refused to sign and a few others have signed
and declared they signed "under protest". |
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| As of October 28th, 2005 the City has
filed a "Declaratory Judgement" suit against the Roads End Sanitary District ,
seven individual Roads End home owners and four individuals that own homes in another
Urban Growth Boundary area on East Devils Lake Road. To read the newspaper articles click
on Headline News. The Roads End Water District is not included in the suit. |
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