Suamico takes next step to reunite Town of Suamico has more than double the signatures required on its petition asking village of Suamico to annex it By Tim Harty News-Chronicle Support for uniting the village of Suamico and town of Suamico is in evidence. Now, it's time to find out if there is opposition. If so, does it have anything to say? Since June 10, when voters passed an incorporation referendum making the 17-square-mile southern portion of Suamico a village, wheels have been in motion to reunite with the remnant town. The next step in the unification process occurs tonight at the joint Village and Town Board meetings. The town will present to the Village Board a petition requesting the village, population 6,599, annex in its entirety the 19.7-square-mile remnant town, population 2,820. The board can accept the petition and propose a resolution for an annexation ordinance, which it could vote on during its Sept. 2 meeting. According to the memorandum village of Suamico administrator Richard Johnston has sent to the Village Board, as of Friday the petition had 983 certified signatures, more than double the 460 required by state statute. "I'm excited about the number of petitions we got," said interim Village Board chairman Tom Lund. "That was important. It shows people are overwhelmingly in favor of this. The people want to be a part of our village." The petition also met the state's requirement that signatories of the petition own at least one-half of the real property in assessed value within the area to be annexed. Johnston said the estimated assessed value of the remnant town is about $180.9 million. The value of the property belonging to the signatories is just shy of $110.1 million, about 61 percent of the town. If the petition is accepted tonight and a resolution passes in September, as Lund believes will happen, a 60-day period will be enacted for opponents to challenge the annexation, using a counterpetition to force a referendum vote. Johnston said he is unsure about the starting date for the 60-day challenge period; it will begin after tonight's meeting or the Sept. 2 meeting. Either way, if no challenge is made, Suamico soon could be a village only. Lund said he is sure there are some people opposed to the annexation, but he sees no good reason why anyone would be against it. The benefits, he said, include: one governing body instead of two; receiving a village's share of shared revenue from the state instead of the smaller share towns get; the opportunity to vote for the next Village Board (currently it's an interim board); and Suamico keeps its 145 years of history intact. The current Village Board must do one other thing during the annexation process, Johnston said. It must consider the opinion it receives from Wisconsin's Department of Administration about the proposed annexation. The board does not have to follow the opinion. Johnston said the village had not received the opinion as of Friday. The route being taken to reunite Suamico has been questioned. One published report said the Department of Administration would prefer to see the village and town merge through consolidation, not annexation, because consolidation allows the town to vote on a referendum. Lund said the annexation approach is legal, "a very democratic process" and "the most efficient way" to reunite Suamico. "We got attorney advice on this," he said. "We have about 1,000 people (who signed the petition) who want to become part of the village of Suamico. We're not trying to circumvent the state. If this wasn't a legal way of doing it, we wouldn't be doing it."