Jamestown village council will vote on Monday whether to accept or reject the proposed annexation.
Jamestown’s current water system doesn’t have the capability to supply water in that section of town, Jamestown councilman Joel Armlovich told the Greene County Commissioners at a hearing last week. The village and Silvercreek Twp. formally opposed the annexation for that reason.
Under Ohio law, in a Type 2 annexation, objections can only be filed if the applicant does not meet a list of statutory requirements. If the applicant meets all of them (which the Jamestown developer has), the commission is required by law to grant the annexation.
The most recent large annexation to the village was in the 1990s, near Greeneview High School, village officials said.
Melissa Smith, fiscal officer for Silvercreek Twp., told county commission that among the concerns she had heard from residents of Jamestown and surrounding townships included loss of prime agriculture farmland, potential rate hikes for water and sewer services, as well as police, fire and EMS services from the city of Jamestown.
“I have not talked to anyone who thinks this is a good thing. I know your hands are tied, but I am not reelected every term to just sit out in the audience,” she said. “We want to remain a small village of Jamestown.”
However, Jamestown officials say the sentiment is not unanimous.
“I think a lot of people see that as a positive because the entire eastern side of Green County and the western side of Fayette, parts of Clinton County are all going to benefit from this drastically. And so a lot of people are looking at that, especially people from the business side,” Jamestown mayor Josh Bradley said Tuesday.
Jack Bishop of JLB1 Properties said as of right now, they do not need services, as they have “no intentions to develop in the near future.” Bishop added they plan to continue to farm the land for the time being.
Honda and LG are in the middle of building a massive $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Fayette County west of Ohio 729 and south of Interstate 71 in Jefferson Twp., expected to employ about 2,200 workers. JLB1 Properties is developing 66 lots in Washington Courthouse to “take the pressure off” the Honda plant, Bishop said.
Executives of the joint venture previously told the Dayton Daily News that they may draw those workers from Dayton, Springfield, and other surrounding communities.
Jamestown, a village with a population of just over 2,000 people as of the 2020 census, sits smack in between the Honda plant and the large population centers of western Greene County.
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