The Boundary Review Board will greenlight the City of Elma’s annexation so long as that annexation includes maintenance of all roads associated with the area to be annexed.

The board seettled on the preliminary final decision at a special meeting held March 29.

A motion was made by board member Pat Oleachea to annex the Monte Elma Road from the current city limits west to the intersection at Schouweiler Road, and south to Highway 12.

The decision to give ownership of the roads to Elma came after some deliberation as to which entity, the city or the county, would most benefit from annexation and the use of the roads.

Board member Randy Karnath said it made sense for the entity most benefitting from the annexation to take ownership of the roads, as it will have increased tax revenue for maintenance of the roads.

“It’s going to be a while before maintenance is needed. I believe that the city should be responsible for the roads,” Karnath concluded.

Oleachea agreed that Elma should have ownership of the roads, “since they will be benefiting.”

Despite some recent discussion, the Firlawn Road neighborhood north of Monte Elma Road will be left out of the annexation.

“I like the idea, but I think we should exclude Firlawn,” Karnath said during the March 29 meeting.

Karnath’s alteration was supported by board members Bill Messenger and Roberta Myers.

Messenger noted that the Firlawn neighborhood was added to the proposed annexation area because it served to create a more-regular boundary, but was not in the original proposed annexation area.

“We don’t have to include it, or we can include it,” Myers said.

The board came to its final decision to exclude Firlawn by addressing the desires of the citizens who reside there.

“We shouldn’t force people,” Karnath said, referring to strong opposition to annexation by Firlawn residents.

The boundary review board decided not to include the school-district owned property at the 1200 block of Monte Elma Road (Elma Elementary School and Elma District Office) as requested by Superintendent Kevin Acuff. The request was not submitted until a recent March 20 hearing.

Boundary review board member Rick Lovely explained there was not enough time to discuss the inclusion of the district property in detail.

“We respect and understand why they want to do it, but we think it can wait for another day,” Oleachea said.

A special hearing to examine the board’s decision will be held at 4 p.m. April 26. That hearing is open to the public.