Ione Drew Its New Town Limits—and Left the Bridge Bill Outside
Incorporation planners included the boarding houses and shoreline but excluded objecting landowners, partly to avoid making the new town pay for a Big Muddy crossing.
The committee having in hand the incorporation of the town of Ione have prepared a plat and the necessary data and forwarded the same to the attorneys. The limits include the land within the townsite plat and the outside land of the Panhandle Investment Co. to a point taking in the boarding houses and the shore line. Messrs. Stecker and Ferguson objecting, their holdings were left out of the corporate limits. Ray Allen had land which he wanted included within the limits, but it is situated on the south side of the Big Muddy. The commissioners have been petitioned for a bridge across the Big Muddy at this point costing several thousand dollars. It was feared that if the land was included within the limits, the bridge would have to be paid for by the town.
“It was feared that if the land was included within the limits, the bridge would have to be paid for by the town.”
Drawing a town boundary is never just a line on a map: it decides who pays for roads, bridges and services, and whose land is inside the tax base. The same calculus shapes annexation and infrastructure fights in Washington today.
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