Highland Haven citizens set to make decisions on city leadership, taxes

By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula

Highland Haven residents are gearing up to make several big decisions at the ballot box May 9. Three positions on the Board of Aldermen are open, those currently held by: Lonnie Ball, Lonnie Brown and Charles Webb. Ball and Brown turned in applications for the election. Webb does not plan to file for candidacy. Another candidate filed his application Thursday, Feb. 26. James Warren built a house in the city last summer, said Highland Haven Mayor Irene Dauphin.

“No other citizens have turned in an application [as of Thursday], so I hope everyone is just waiting until Friday,” she said.

Ball, Brown and Warren will win the seats if no one else files, Dauphin explained.

The deadline to file is today, Friday, Feb 27.

“The main qualification for being an alderman is to have a vested interest in the community,” she said. “We all have varied backgrounds, but we all try to make decisions that are best for the community. One of our aldermen has a big-city background and others have small-town perspectives.”

Additionally, on the upcoming May election ballot, voters will decide on a resolution that would freeze property taxes for people 65 and older.

The board of aldermen passed Resolution 296 in January, which allows voters in the city to make the controversial decision.

Dauphin said a homeowner approached the board to freeze property taxes for those  65 years of age and older, but that the board did not feel it “should make that decision for the city.”

“So the resolution puts it to the voters,” she said.

The city has held one public meeting and will hold another one Tuesday, April 7, at 6 p.m. at the Community Center. “It will let people know how [the tax freeze] would affect them,” she said. “People under 65 will end up having to make up the difference.”

For more, see Friday's Highlander.