Gluckstadt delayed until 2019

The Gluckstadt incorporation trial has been rescheduled until next year.

The five-week trial scheduled for next month for the proposed Gluckstadt incorporation effort has been rescheduled until February 2019 after opponents filed appeals with the Mississippi Supreme Court asking for a stay in proceedings.

"The people who are objecting to it and who lost in the Chancery Court have filed a petition for interlocutory appeal to the Supreme Court," Gluckstadt's would-be mayor, Walter Morrison, said Wednesday. "That petition has to either be accepted or denied by the Supreme Court. That decision has not come down yet.

"In the meantime, it is my understanding that the Chancery Court in Madison and Canton has stayed the proceedings until sometime next year," he continued. "We were supposed to proceed to a trial sometime in the fall on the merits of the whole thing, but now that's going to be delayed until such a time that the Supreme Court rules on the interlocutory appeal."

In May, the city of Canton and two Mac Haik auto dealerships filed a petition with the high court to stop the incorporation attempt. The petitions seek to reverse a judgment by Chancery Judge James Walker on March 29 that ruled Gluckstadt incorporators had met their burden of proof to proceed with a full trial.

The city of Canton and Haik argue that incorporators did not receive the signatures of the necessary two-thirds of qualified electors in the proposed area because they used a partial voter roll.

Haik's petition reads in part, "Respectfully, it is undisputedly clear that the Trial Court's rulings in this action are based on conjecture and speculation, rather than a preponderance of the credible evidence presented at trial."

The city of Canton also called into question the signatures on the Gluckstadt incorporation petition. The City has called Walker's decision: "based on pure speculation and an unproven methodology."

The city of Canton's main concern in their petition appeared to have been 130 voters deemed "moved-aways," along with an undisputed group of "missing" inactive voters.

Canton's objection to incorporation stems from the city's attempt at annexing land that would be included in the proposed city of Gluckstadt. Shortly after Gluckstadt incorporators filed their plans in court, the city filed plans to annex five different areas, including property down Calhoun Station Parkway that includes the Mac Haik dealerships.

This latest incorporation process dates back to March 2016 when efforts to make Gluckstadt a city took off. A volunteer effort of citizens collected signatures for the petition.

The proposed incorporation area is 11 square miles with estimated population of approximately 2,400 people and an assessed value of nearly $55 million.

The proposed area includes the following neighborhoods: Bear Creek Crossing, Bradshaw Ridge, Panther Creek, Germantown, Dixon Pass, Stone Creek, First Colony, Ridgefield, Arrington and Red Oak. Subdivisions not included are: Kemper Creek, Belle Terre and Harvey Crossing among others.