A severe thunderstorm warning is in effect for northeastern Adair County in Iowa until 7 p.m. Sunday.
Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle unveiled a new "Annexation Package" last April involving eight SID's. All of them are in the Northwest and southwest portions of Omaha.
Tuesday the 6,353 people who live in the neighborhoods were invited to a public hearing at the city council meeting, but no one showed up.
Kristin Hermann lives in the Pepperwood neighborhood, and her SID is one of the eight up for annexation by the city of Omaha this year. "You just never know, change, you always want to know both sides of the good and the bad, and how does that affect us, and the neighborhood, and the area businesses."
One change would be services, like garbage and snow removal, transferred to city providers. She no longer has to pay for a private contractor. "We've been happy and it's been great, but we'll see what happens."
Another change, Omaha Police would take over patrols instead of the Douglas County Sheriff's Department. OPD says it took the more than 6,300 people into consideration for its police academy class in August.
"The county is out here as much as they can be, but I think it would be beneficial if we had a little more city involvement," said Hermann.
Janice Strang knows what Hermann is facing, her neighborhood, Pacific Meadows near 160th and Dodge was annexed last August. "I think the greatest thing is to see we don't the police presence that we had previously, the garbage collection is ok, probably as not as good as when you hire privately, frankly."
Before annexation, Strang served on her SID's board. Although she would have preferred not to join the city, she has advice for other neighborhoods facing the same situation. "There are things you can do long term as far as contracts and so forth, perhaps you may look into those before you're annexed, so you can keep some of those services you've had previously."
Hermann simply says she knew it was coming. "It's inevitable, so I'm not sure it's anything quote unquote worth fighting, it's gonna happen whether it's this year, or next year, it's inevitable."
The city council will vote on the annexations at its July 17 meeting. If passed, the annexations are scheduled to take affect August 27.
