ELKINS — The City of Elkins will submit applications for the annexation of three “donut hole” properties to the Randolph County Commission in the near future, officials said.

Elkins City Council approved the three annexation ordinances at the Dec. 19 meeting.

Ordinance 268 is concerned with annexing the old Texaco station on Harrison Avenue, as well as a small strip of the road itself that’s considered out of city limits. Ordinance 269 focuses on annexation of the former Reibord Plant that currently houses IBEX on Wilson Lane, and Ordinance 270 addresses the Tygart Valley Apartments, also on Wilson Lane.

City officials had been discussing “donut holes” properties for months, and on Dec. 5, council’s Economic Growth and Development Committee moved to recommend the three ordinances to Elkins City Council.

Elkins is attempting annexation by minor boundary adjustment in order to encompass odd areas within city limits that are not considered part of the city itself, as per WV state code 8-6-5.

At the latest Economic Growth and Development Committee meeting on Jan. 16, members of the committee reviewed the annexation applications for the properties before approving their submission to the county commission.

“The way the process works is the city adopts an ordinance (…) and then we have to present an application to the county commission,” said City Clerk Jessica Sutton. “State code dictates exactly what is required in the application.”

Required information for these applications includes the number of freeholders, or property owners; the number of registered voters on the property; how services such as water, sewage and sanitation will be provided; police and fire coverage; and the revenues that will be generated for the city, as well as plans to use them.

The three properties are currently being serviced by Tygarts Valley Sanitation. Sutton said, “You don’t have to immediately and necessarily take over sanitation services (…) as long as it’s being provided in some manner.”

“Once those (applications) are finalized, they will be sent to the county commission,” Sutton said. “As long as the county commission finds that the application meets basically the technical requirements of the code (…) then they will put it on their agenda and they are required to hold a public hearing.”

“Typically, I think what happens is that they’ll schedule the hearing prior to them reading the ordinance during a commission meeting and then hopefully they will allow us the opportunity (…) to stand up and to kind of present our case to them outside of what’s already included in the application,” she continued.

Commissioners will decide whether the application follows code and if the annexation is in the best interest of the county before voting on the ordinance. A majority of the three commissioners must vote in favor of the ordinance in order for it to pass.

Several concerned citizens have voiced their opinions of annexation during public comment at both city council and county commission meetings.

“At the last county commission meeting (on Jan. 16), there were statements made by gentlemen, Wil Spencer and Robert Mullennex,” Sutton told The Inter-Mountain Tuesday.

“Robert Mullennex is the one who’s come to several of our meetings and he does not reside inside the city, his business is not inside the city, and he’s not currently one who we’re looking to annex.”

“Mr. Spencer, I believe the property that he was speaking about is the old Frontier Building, it’s on Wilson Lane,” said Sutton. “It is not one of the properties that is in this current annexation.”

“The gentleman said at his public comment that the city hadn’t contacted him and we were going forward with annexation,” she continued. “Well, that’s not true, (it) is not a property that we are currently in the process of annexing.”

Sutton said Tuesday that “(property owners) were all contacted. They were all sent letters prior to (annexation) even being recommended out of the EGAD committee” and before the December votes by city council.

Spencer, who is the executive trustee for a trust that owns a business on Wilson Lane, said at the Jan. 16 county commission meeting that he knew nothing about annexation efforts until Commissioner Mark Scott visited the property this month and told him about it. Spencer said he did not receive any documentation from the city in regard to annexation.

Mullenex, owner of Gun Mart on Harrison Avenue, also spoke against potential annexation during the Jan. 16 county commission meeting, and at previous Elkins City Council meetings.