12/18/2017
Press Release -
(Lamar County, Miss.)— Last Friday the Bellevue Incorporators filed a Motion in Lamar County Chancery Court to withdraw their Incorporation Petitions and to voluntarily dismiss the case temporarily. This action is taken to allow an opportunity to obtain a minimal amount of additional signatures and refile the Petition to Incorporate in the near future.
Earlier this year, the Bellevue Incorporators filed verified Petitions signed by thousands of residents of the Bellevue community who desire to have their community incorporated as the new City of Bellevue, Mississippi. The Petition to Incorporate was formally filed on May 19, 2017. Since that date, there has been significant purging of the Lamar County registered voter roll list. The majority of residents living in Bellevue have signed the Petition. As we all know by now, 2/3 of the total qualified electors must sign the Petition before the municipality is formed. The process of determining how many qualified electors live within a jurisdictional area that is not yet distinguished by any government record is extremely difficult. The Bellevue Incorporators have worked many diligent hours and spent substantial amounts of private dollars to complete these calculations. Currently, the total tally of signatures collected is within a reasonable margin of error of the mandatory minimum. The Bellevue Incorporators are privately funded and while there is a possibility that the minimum requisite has already been met, the Petitioners have decided that, out of an abundance of caution, the best course of action is to voluntarily withdraw their Petitions, obtain additional signatures, and re-file their Petition to Incorporate. Simply put, the incorporation of the new City of Bellevue is far too important an endeavor to continue without undeniable certainty. This process requires a large amount of private funds, and as stewards of those funds, it has been determined that the best path forward is to withdraw and refile once the threshold has been undeniably ascertained.
Thousands of residents in the Bellevue community have made their intentions clear: They want to incorporate this community as the newest municipality in Mississippi. The interim Mayor and Aldermen of the proposed City of Bellevue take this charge seriously, and have concluded that this is the prudent course of action. With your help, we are going to obtain additional signatures, re-file the Petition to Incorporate the City of Bellevue, and make this effort a reality. Thank you for your help on this project, which is crucial for our community’s future. Remember, “nothing worthwhile was ever accomplished without the will to start, the enthusiasm to continue and, regardless of temporary obstacles, the persistence to complete” – Waite Phillips.
