The Elma City Council voted at their regular scheduled meeting on Monday, Dec. 4, to move forward with working on the process of annexing the Elma School District’s elementary school, the school district office, the transportation building and baseball fields.

The annexation request was presented to the city by the school district as a means of being better able to raise grant funding, namely for development of the baseball field facility. School board member Rick Gravatt explained that grant funding is much easier to come by when property exists within city limits.

Elma Councilman Tom Boling made the motion to move forward.

“We’ve got a large majority of our kids from the city who are attending our schools. I think we should have our schools within our city limits,” Boling said. “It’s not that we’re approving it at this time … but it would be one step closer to starting it,” he continued.

Councilman Charlie Butterfield was the sole dissenting vote.

Two of the district’s schools already are located within Elma’s city limits. The school district will be responsible for any fees or costs associated with the potential annexation.

CORRECTION: This story has been corrected — An earlier version of the story incorrectly identified the councilman who voted against the motion.