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Zionsville winning turf war

ZIONSVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — Zionsville and Whitestown are battling over rural portions of Boone County as the two growing communities seek to expand.

It’s a turf war that Zionsville is winning because it is taking advantage of a relatively new state law that allows those rural areas to maintain lower taxes.

As a result of that strategy, Zionsville also has its first mayor.

Zionsville is known for its small town feel and brick lined main street.

But parts of Zionsville are very different now.

Rural Perry Township voted to become a part of Zionsville last year.

“Because I don’t like Whitestown,” said Jack Belcher, who is a former Perry Township trustee who holds an opinion that is easy to find there.

“We think Whitestown is just gong to continue to just grab, grab, grab,” he said.

“Perry Township approached us and wanted to be our partners and that’s what we did,” said Jeff Papa, who is the first mayor of Zionsville as a result of that partnership.

He was sworn in last week when the state appeals court rejected a challenge from the town of Whitestown.

“We really think we need a mayor,” said Papa. “We’re 26,000 people now and before we were 56 square miles, now 71 square miles, over 100 full-time employees.”

In Whitestown, community leaders aren’t giving up.

The town council will meet Tuesday night to consider an appeal the state Supreme Court.

In the meantime in Perry Township, Jack Belcher likes the fact that the new arrangement means the sheriff will continue to patrol the roads and the county highway department will continue to maintain them.

“And we’ll still have Perry Township Fire Department,” he said. “We’ll be classified as a rural area and our taxes will not be like Zionsville’s.”

And that’s why its called a reorganization, not an annexation. It’s just the fourth reorganization in state history.

Eric Miller, the President of the Whitestown Town Council, has already issued a statement calling on Zionsville to wait for the Supreme Court to rule before it takes any further action on reorganization.

He accused Zionsville of attempting to surround Whitestown.