The Sentinel
Homeowners with houses built on ground leased from the City of Council Grove around the city-owned lake, are being threatened with having their leases canceled unless they pay $25,000 and agree to the land being annexed. While the city owns the lake — which is a few miles outside the city limits — it remains part of Morris County and has not been annexed.
According to resident Ryan McDonald, when the leases were redrawn around 2012, the sorts of homes built around the lake shifted from fishing cabins to more expensive houses.
McDonald said annexation has been an off-and-on conversation for decades, but it kicked into high gear in the last two years after Debi Schwedtfeger — who was a council member in 2012 — was elected to her third two-year term as mayor.
