More than 80 acres annexed into the city of Chelsea

The Chelsea City Council had an agenda full of annexations at its first meeting of June. In total, the annexations brought 85.89 acres into the city.

“Ladies and gentleman, Chelsea’s going to grow tonight. We have eight different ordinances of annexation on the agenda tonight,” Mayor Tony Picklesimer said during the council meeting.

Picklesimer also thanked Council member Scott Weygand for his effort in growing the city through the annexations.

The annexations included:

• A request, submitted by Michael and Susie Lawley, to annex 6.01 acres on Dorough Road.
• Four requests, submitted by Jessup Standifer for a total of 57.71 acres. The requests included a 21-acre parcel on Red Maple Drive, a 26.61-acre property, a 5.2-acre property and a 4.9-acre property.
• A request from Bert Seitz, regarding a 3.46-acre property on Woodbrook Drive.
• A request from Jason and Tanya Poe for a 4.8-acre property on Highway 440.
• A request from Ricky Ferguson for K Springs Church of God, for a 14-acre property on County Road 39.
• Weygand made a motion to collectively approve all of the annexations following a suspension of the rules, and the council voted unanimously in favor of the motion.

“I’m really interested to see how much our population grew,” Picklesimer said with a laugh following the meeting.

Also at the meeting, Picklesimer made a proclamation to declare May 12 as Tricia Hyde Day in the city of Chelsea. Hyde died on May 12, 2018, following surgery complications. The proclamation, the mayor said, was “to honor one of Chelsea’s best,” and it highlighted her involvement in the community, passion for teaching others and her kind spirit.

“I can’t even express it [what this means],” said Larry Hyde, Tricia Hyde’s husband of 17 years. “She was truly a wonderful person, and we were all blessed for her. I can’t even begin to express what this means to me and to our entire family. It’s beyond words.”

A crowd of coworkers, family and others who knew Tricia Hyde gathered at the council meeting to hear the proclamation. Having that group there, and feeling the community support since her death, was breathtaking, Larry Hyde said.

“You know she was a wonderful person, but then to see how many people she effected, from different walks of life, it’s beyond imagination,” Hyde said.

Hyde said he wants people to know that his wife was a brave person who stood up for what she believed in and who loved her community.

“She was always my moral compass, and I’m sure for many of us that was true,” Hyde said.

During public comment, the council also heard from resident Ken McDonald who said he had concerns about the tax forms of the Chelsea Baseball Club and Chelsea Youth Club.

“I’d like to discuss the CBC 990 forms from 2016, also the CYC 990 tax form. I’d like to go into great detail with you guys. I found some errors that I think need to be addressed,” McDonald said, adding that he would like to be on the agenda for the next council meeting as the discussion would take longer than his allotted 5 minutes of public comment.

Picklesimer said they would see when they could get McDonald on the agenda, and city attorney Mark Boardman stood up to address parliamentary procedure.

Boardman noted that the city does not have regulation over CBC or CYC, nor does it give money to those organizations, and it would therefore not be appropriate to address those matters in a public council meeting.

“It wouldn’t be any more appropriate for you to examine the books of K Springs Church or Liberty Baptist or anything else,” Boardman said.

Picklesimer asked if it would be appropriate to set a private meeting with McDonald and interested council members, and Boardman said that would be fine.

“But a council meeting itself is designed to be the business of the city,” Boardman said.

McDonald said he believed “it’s important for us to discuss the things our children are involved in” and that the city pays for the fields which are leased by CBC and CYC. He added that because the city maintains the fields and that members of the council are involved with CYC, he believed it was appropriate to discuss.

“To me, it’s concerning that you don’t want to discuss this as a city,” McDonald said. “I understand they’re clubs, but to me, that’s why this needs to be a city league, so that we as parents can control this.”

McDonald asked to set a time to speak with the mayor, who said he would and that he had done “a lot of research.” Picklesimer then said he apologized for technical issues that knocked out power at some of the city’s fields and took several days to get the lights back up and running. McDonald left the meeting at this time, and Picklesimer said in his absence, he would not discuss the matter further.

Following the meeting, Picklesimer said McDonald had sent an email with his concerns and he was aware that McDonald would come to tonight’s meeting. In the future, Picklesimer said he would be open to meet with McDonald.

Also at the meeting, the council approved a resolution declaring three vehicles as surplus and authorizing their sale.

The next council meeting will be June 19 with pre-council starting at 5:30 p.m. The first meeting of July will be held July 10 due to the Fourth of July holiday.