Town manager urges residents to attend Ellisville reorganization hearing; council frames vote as voters’ decision

The town manager urged Ellisville residents to attend a reorganization hearing scheduled for Wednesday and to use the public meeting to ask questions and raise concerns about the town’s future.

“Probably second to the formation of Ellisville in the beginning, this could be the most important time of our lives,” the town manager said, urging residents not to rely on social-media speculation and to participate in the formal process that will ultimately let voters decide any reorganization. He described the hearing as an opportunity for the public to learn about options and to be heard before any final vote.

A council member later clarified the upcoming joint town-council and township-board meeting is not itself an approval of reorganization but is intended to collect public input and proceed to voter consideration. “We think the best decision makers are the ones that put us up here: the voters,” the council member said.

During routine business earlier in the meeting a council member questioned an $8,000 legal-fees line on the accounts-payable list; staff responded that the charge covered outside legal counsel consulted for the clerk on several pending matters and that the town was not using its regular town lawyer for those items. The transcript did not identify the mover or seconder on the accounts-payable motion by name.

What’s next: The reorganization hearing is scheduled for Wednesday (date in meeting: Wednesday night). Meeting materials and any formal proposals were not included in the meeting record.