Residents of the Aberdeen area who oppose plans to annex about 1,000 acres of land into the city spent a portion of their Independence Day holiday exercising the rights granted to them more than 200 years ago by our nation?s Founding Fathers ? to petition grievances with the government.
In the case of Fourth of July festivities Sunday in Havre de Grace, many affected by Aberdeen?s annexation plans were taking this right literally.
“We think that it should be up to the voters of Aberdeen to decide if they want to be annexed, not the developers who are looking to make money and the mayor and City Council who seem to refuse to listen,” said Jerry Queen, of Locksley Manor Drive in Aberdeen. Queen has three acres of property near the Wetlands Golf Course, all of which were included in more than 500 acres of land annexed into Aberdeen on June 19.
Aberdeen Mayor S. Fred Simmons has said he is also looking to annex additional property in the Paradise Road and Robin Hood Road areas, which he said would bring approximately 1,000 total acres into Aberdeen ? including the Wetlands property along the northern border of the city.
“We?re walking the streets, and getting people to sign the petition,” said Aberdeen resident Charles Wallace, wholives on Robin Hood Road. While walking the streets of Havre de Grace on Sunday afternoon, Wallace said it seemed “a lot of people from Aberdeen are not happy with the mayor and his building policies.” Wallace was one of several Aberdeen residents volunteering their time Sunday canvassing Havre de Grace, looking for Aberdeen voters willing to sign the petition.
Wallace said that approximately 150 Aberdeen voters have signed the petition so far, about 130 of them in Havre de Grace on Sunday.
Aberdeen voters have 45 days from June 19 to get 20 percent of registered Aberdeen voters to sign the petition, according to Aberdeen City Council President Ron Kupferman. Kupferman said that if such a petition is validated by the Harford County Board of Elections, annexation will go to a referendum.
Queen said there are approximately 7,000 registered voters in Aberdeen, and in order to get the annexation issue to go to referendum, approximately 1,400 registered Aberdeen voters need to sign off. Given the number of people who have signed the petition since Friday, Queen and Wallace both said it would not be difficult for them to get the number of signatures required.
“It?s part of the process,” Simmons said last week. “If it works out, it is the will of the people.”
Simmons conceded that there are a lot of people who are against annexation, and he considered it a good possibility that residents would get the number of signatures required to send the issue to referendum.
