Nixon OKs Lake MyKee-Holts Summit merger

In this May 13, 2016, file photo, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Jefferson City.
In this May 13, 2016, file photo, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Jefferson City.

Anytime after Aug. 28, Lake MyKee and Holts Summit can ask voters if they want to become one town.

Gov. Jay Nixon on Friday signed Rep. Travis Fitzwater's bill to allow the two communities to merge.

The bill also allows Ironton, Arcadia and Pilot Knob in Iron County to become one community.

In both cases, public works projects created a need for the proposed merger.

"The need for this consolidation began with the need for Lake MyKee to update their sewage treatment system," Sen. Jeanie Riddle, R-Mokane, reminded colleagues May 6, just before the Senate voted to approve the House-passed bill and send it to Nixon.

"This was estimated to cost $1.5 million, divided by approximately 130 (Lake MyKee) households - which was not in the village's financial best interest."

That calculates to more than $11,530 per household.

Riddle also said, "By joining the city of Holts Summit, they can spread out the costs of this update and do so at a lower cost by connecting into that city's sewer system."

Holts Summit already has an agreement with Jefferson City for sewage treatment, and Jefferson City officials have said a merger with Lake MyKee won't affect that agreement, since Holts Summit now pays "a flat fee for the total amount of sewer used by its residents."

Jefferson City Attorney Drew Hilpert told the News Tribune in April that Holts Summit is "allowed a certain amount of flow before the charge increases," and Jefferson City officials expect adding Lake MyKee's 350 residents' sewer use to Holts Summit's sewage will have little to no impact on the Jefferson City treatment plant.

In addition to a merged sewer system, Fitzwater, R-Holts Summit, and Riddle said Lake MyKee residents would benefit from the Holts Summit police department's quicker response time, opposed to what is currently available from the Fulton-based Callaway County sheriff's office.

Fitzwater also said the law allows the two communities to conclude the merger talks they've been having over the last year, including details about tax rates, the kind of government that will control the communities - if voters approve the merger - and where the new boundaries will be.

Riddle noted several times this year that Lake MyKee residents "strongly supported" the idea, since "over 90 percent of the citizens have signed documents agreeing to it."

The new law was needed because Lake MyKee and Holts Summit are eight-tenths of a mile apart, at their closest point, and current law allows mergers for communities that are no more than a half-mile apart.

The new law extends the allowed separation to a mile and targets communities in first- and second-class counties "that have entered into one or more intergovernmental agreements related to municipal services and are connected by at least two publicly maintained rights of way."

The Iron County towns are covered by different language affecting third-class counties, allowing those communities to consolidate if they are separated by a distance of no more than 1 miles.

"These three communities, over the years, have grown to where they're (almost) touching each other," Sen. Gary Romine, R-Farmington, said last month, "and this will allow them to take to a vote of the people to do a consolidation."