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Residents of the Town of West port, pondering annexation to the city of Madison, were given added information Saturday to help them make up their minds. Mimeographed reports of a fact finding committee were distributed from house to house in the area Saturday afternoon by a crew of volunteer workers. Meeting Set The report, in full detail will be given at a meeting at 7:30 p. m. Tuesday at the Mendota school. Major conclusions of the report were: ONE. Sample assessments on 17 properties in the area show av erage property taxes this year would have been practically the same in Madison as they were in the town. TWO. Better fire protection, and lower fire insurance rates, would be possible under annexa tion THREE. Elementary school service will be improved, in the long run, if the area to be annexed ogra the Mendota school dis trict. FOUR. According to an opinion of the Madison city attorney the share of the bonded indebtedness of both elementary and high school charged against real estate in the areas, if annexed, will be assumed by Madison. The agitation for annexation to the city was started by persons who work in Madison. The movement for annexation is complicated by the fact that it has been considered separately by var ious communities, which—it is hoped—will be united in a joint effort through the Tuesday night meeting. Start Action Residents of the East Side of Lakeview Heights, near the Lake view sanatorium, precipitated ac tion by calling a meeting at the school house Feb. 15. Residents of the west side of the commu nity were asked, along with all residents of the school district. By a vote of 30 to 20, it was decided to appoint a fact-finding committee. But the residents of the East Side of Lakeview Heights decided to circulate petitions of their own, which have since been presented to the city council, asking for an nexation. Group Named To the fact-finding committee were named Douglas Evans, Zeno Haas, Byron Becker, John Fox, and Bob Nuckles, representing Lake View Heights; Troy Gordon, Ed Kuhlmey, Or rie Greenstein, Ensign Barnett, Rudy Boosted, and Clarence Dix, representing the urban areas along Mendotard, and along 113 north of the sanatorium, and Col. George Sherman and Mark Schmitz, rep resenting Woodwards Grove. It is the report of this group which will be given Tuesday night. On the basis of petitions al ready signed, it is evident that all of Lakeview Heights can be car rried into the city, if the city coun cil is willing to accept the areas Sign Petition Sixty-three of 84 electors in the eastern section, representing $156, 165 of the total of $224,080 as sessed valuation, have already signed the petition presented to the city. (Under state law, more than half of the electors representing more than half of the total assessed valuation of an area must sign the petition asking annexation.) And a petition in th western sec ttion of Lakeview Heights has been signed by 46 of 56 electors, repre senting $142,100 of the total $228, 560 assessed valuation of that area. The petition, however, was cir culated with the assurance that it would not be submitted to the city council until two weeks after the report of the fact-finding commit tee to permit the addition or with drawal of signatures. School District One of the knottiest problems has been created by the Mendota school. Unless it is included in the area to be annexed, children of the area going into the city would go to Sherman school, more difficult to get to. The city favors, it has been re ported, annexation of the entire school district to the city. Tax Rates A comparison of nine properties in Lakeview Heights, Mendoza rd., and the Highway 113 areas in dicated that the total taxes paid to the Town of Westport this year were 2.3 per cent higher than would have been paid to the city. In Woodwards Grove, however, a survey in February indicated that the area paid 1.7 per cent less to the town than it would have to the city. Though the city attorney has interpreted a 1951 statute of the legislature to mean that the city will take over elementary and high school indebtedness to the state trust fund of the annexed area, the report noted that final interpretation of the statute de pends upon a test case in the courts. Official representatives of other Madison suburban areas consider ing annexation to the city were invited to attend the Tuesday meeting.
Newspaper Details
Madison Wisconsin State Journal
Madison, Wisconsin, US
Sun, Mar 09, 1952
Page 43
Full Page
Clipped by
Gayle M.
WI, USA 19 Jul 2026
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