Now that officials and residents from the City of Hattiesburg and Lamar County have been allowed time to present their sides in court for the saga of the city’s proposed annexation into three areas of Forrest and Lamar counties, attorneys for both entities expect a final decision will be made in early to mid-next year.
Testimony more or less wrapped up last week at Forrest County Chancery Court, with special judge Jess Dickinson hearing from a few witnesses opposed to annexation – including Tommy Duff, who serves of the board of trustees for the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning and is the co-owner of Southern Tire Mart in Hattiesburg. As the next step in the process, officials will submit what is known as “findings of fact and conclusions of law,” which allow litigants to know the reasons for the trial court’s ruling, among other measures.
“The judge has still not closed the record yet, so there’s still a few more things that he wants both sides to respond to,” said Perry Phillips, attorney for the Lamar County Board of Supervisors. “But I feel like it’ll probably be this coming Friday (October 10) when he’ll end up closing the record, and then we’ll have to wait until the transcripts from the court reporter come in before it goes in the judge’s hands.
“I think everybody would be in agreement that it will be in 2024 before the judge will make a ruling.”
The findings of fact and conclusions of law process is expected to take at least two months, at which point Dickinson – who formerly served as the presiding justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi – will write his opinion.
“The lawyers are not even going to put all their written arguments and briefs before (Dickinson) probably until after the first of the year,” said Randy pope, attorney for the City of Hattiesburg. “And then he takes whatever time he wants to take to write his opinion, and it’ll be a long opinion, so all of that will take time.
“But I think the end is in sight; I will say that. I think we’re virtually through with the testimony – hopefully we are – so now we’re at the point of briefs and the judge writing his opinion. So we’ll what happens. The record is not closed … so it’s possible that there could be some additional testimony, but it would be very short if it happens at all.”
This latest round of testimony follows recent several other rounds in recent months.
Hattiesburg officials began to lay out their case in April, but the five days in court that were given proved to be insufficient time. The trial picked back up in May, when that process continued, but was cut short, as the judge had other matters to attend to.
However, officials such as Hattiesburg Mayor Toby Barker, Shae McNease from Shows, Dearman & Waits, and urban planner Chris Watson were able to take the stand during that time. More testimony occurred in June, and trial continued in September, when objectors from Lamar County were given the opportunity to present their side.
If successful, annexation – which was originally proposed during an April 2016 meeting of Hattiesburg City Council – would see Hattiesburg expand its borders by taking in much of the commercial corridor on U.S. 98, the Windlass Drive area and a portion of U.S. 49 north of the current city limits.
That same month, Hattiesburg’s annexation was opposed by the Lamar County Board of Supervisors, whose attorneys filed a notice of appeal in Lamar County Circuit Court. Ridgeland attorney John Scanlon, who is representing Hattiesburg in that matter, then filed a motion to dismiss the appeal in that court.
Robin Roberts, an attorney in Hattiesburg, then filed a motion against the move in both counties.
In addition, a group representing the Bellevue community also opposed Hattiesburg by filing a legal response to annexation. If successful, expansion would interfere with Bellevue officials' plans to incorporate that community, because annexation would include many properties that would be in the proposed city of Bellevue, including Corner Market, Hattiesburg Clinic – Bellevue and Mack's West.
However, Bellevue officials’ case was dismissed after they were unable to gather the required number of signatures to incorporate.
“But it was dismissed without prejudice, which means they could come back,” Pope said in an earlier story. “But right now, there is no effort to incorporate Bellevue.”
In May 2016, Lamar County officials said Hattiesburg’s attempted entrance into Lamar County might be stifled by Senate Bill 2198, which as of July 1 of that year required cities to include at least 50 percent of a census block's residents in any annexation efforts. If that number isn't reached, city officials would be made to cede control over zoning and subdivision regulations to the board of supervisors of the county in which the territory to be annexed is located.
Lamar County contended that Hattiesburg City Council had not included the required 50 percent of the population in its annexation request, as the city was leaving out areas such as Woodstone, north and south Lake Serene, Canebrake and Bridgefield.
However, Scanlon said Hattiesburg would indeed hit that 50 percent mark, as the annexation ordinance was drafted to do so.
In September 2016, retired chancellor Robert L. Lancaster of Columbus consolidated the cases in both counties and allowed 120 days for discovery for both sides, with pre-trial motions to be filed by the 100th day of discovery. The judge then set a hearing for January 27, 2017, at which point the trial dates were set.
Pope said annexation would be beneficial to not only current residents of Hattiesburg, but also to residents in the portions of Forrest and Lamar counties that would be included.
“Now, there’s not a lot of people out in Lamar County in this annexation, but the businesses – primarily in Lamar County – I think would benefit from increased fire and police protection, and lower insurance costs because of the fire rating that Hattiesburg has,” he said. “Then of course, as far as the City of Hattiesburg, that is clearly the path of growth out on Highway 98.
“I don’t think anybody can really argue with that; that’s the direction that Hattiesburg has been growing in for a long time. You have to continue to grow and grow your boundaries, or you stagnate or become potentially surrounded by other cities. We can’t go east, because Petal is there … and a city cannot just stay where it is and continue to grow.”
