[Editor’s note: This story, which appears in the NJN print edition oday, is a recap that includes material from stories about these two meetings that appeared online over the previous week, plus some new information.]

Two separate meetings over a five-day span didn’t accomplish much in terms of agreement or action, but they did reveal one thing: the Mt. Olive community is very deeply divided over the issue of annexation into Gardendale.

In meetings held on Jan. 7 at the Mt. Olive Community Center by opponents, and a similar meeting Sunday at the Gardendale Civic Center by supporters, residents grilled state legislators and Gardendale city officials over what would happen to the unincorporated community if a large portion were to be annexed into Gardendale, so that most students now attending Mt. Olive Elementary School could continue to attend Bragg Middle and Gardendale High schools when they become part of the city’s new school system.

The meetings were an eye-opening experience for lawmakers such as State Rep. Allen Farley, whose district includes nearly all of Mt. Olive, and his colleague Rep. Allen Treadaway, whose district is being changed to include the community in this year’s election.

“I didn’t know until tonight how much opposition there was,” Treadaway said after the meeting called by annexation opponents last week. “I thought pretty much everyone was on board with this.”

Treadaway and others quickly learned otherwise once that meeting got under way. While the opponents don’t have a formal group structure or even a slogan, they were united in their belief that the plan proposed by the group MO Matters would tear the community apart.

The controversy centers around MO Matters’ proposal to annex just the portion of Mt. Olive where students are zoned to attend Bragg and GHS. It’s become known by both sides as the “red box,” as the original maps outlined the area to be annexed with a bold red line. (Later revisions by MO Matters changed that to maroon, to match the school colors of Gardendale High.)

The opponents’ event was loosely organized, but those attending were required to show identification and to sign an anti-annexation petition, if they had not already. Several annexation supporters were turned away. A basket at the sign-in table held a collection to help pay for the hall rental.

The capacity crowd was not shy in letting officials know their feelings, and their questions covered a wide range of issues such as the fate of the fire district if annexation happened, or where students outside the “red box” would be sent to school.

But most wanted to know the answer to one of two related questions: how to ensure that any vote to annex included the entire community — largely defined as the boundaries of the Mt. Olive Fire District — or how to stop the annexation effort altogether.

Sunday’s meeting was sponsored by MO Matters, and called largely in response to the opponents’ meeting. Most of the same politicians were in attendance, and again faced a capacity crowd filled with those holding very strong feelings on the annexation issue. Their questions focused primarily on how to make annexation a reality, and the legal process involved in moving forward.

State Sen. Scott Beason, who faced most of the questions from both crowds, took the floor near the end of the MO Matters meeting to summarize the process. A vote by the residents of the “red box” would need a bill to go through the state legislature, which begins its regular session this week.

First, Beason said he would need to be assured that Gardendale could provide city services properly to the annexed area without causing a strain on city finances.

“A bill would first have to go through the Jefferson County Delegation, which is not a given,” Beason said. “We are split evenly [between Republicans and Democrats], and if someone on the other side can convince a legislator to vote against it, that might end it.

“Then it has to be advertised in the legislature for four weeks, and if something isn’t right in the bill and even one letter has to be changed, you have to wait four weeks more,” Beason added.

That might keep the bill from coming to the floor for a vote before the session ends in April, which means annexation supporters would have to wait another year — or go through annexation the traditional way on a property-by-property basis, starting with those which lie adjacent to the current city limits.

MO Matters organizer Tracy Calvert said that might be the avenue they have to take, if a vote couldn’t take place.

“We have several hundred people who have signed our petition, and most of them are willing to do it that way of we have to,” Calvert said.

That method would force those being annexed to pay six years worth of dues to the fire district. For an owner-occupied property valued at $150,000, that would cost $900.

Beason also said that he, Treadaway and Farley would have no part in any legislation that would annex any part of Mt. Olive by force, without a vote of residents. “There’s no political will for that,” he said.

He also warned that the process could face roadblocks if someone files a lawsuit along the way. “Every little option has someone out there who says, ‘I’ll hire a lawyer,’” Beason said. “Every time you move a piece, the chess game adjusts.”

Beason said he and fellow lawmakers plan to meet with Mayor Othell Phillips and council members to discuss the feasibility of annexation before they move forward with a bill. That meeting could take place this week.