FARMERS BRANCH (WBAP/KLIF News) – Addison residents have been cut off from services once provided by Farmers Branch including the city’s library, animal adoption center and senior center.
The tension between the two cities started with an ongoing dispute about the impact the Vitruvian development had on water in Farmers Branch Creek.
Farmers Branch officials said Addison although Addison residents account for almost 13% of the collection activity at the Manske Public Library, they contribute less than 4 percent towards the library’s $1.9 million budget.
Farmer’s Branch Deputy City Manager John Land said Addison’s dependence on the city’s resources left them no choice.
“There’s not a real advantage to us in having you using our facilities for either free or at a subsidized costs that is cheaper than it is obviously for us to run it. It got to the point where we had to say ‘You’ve got to pay your share,” he said.
Addison City Manager West Pierson said he was disappointed in The City of Farmers Branch’s decision.
“We were trying to negotiate with Farmers Branch and this was kind of an all of a sudden action and when your trying to negotiate these type of actions don’t contribute to a solution … they push us further apart,” he said.
In a letter sent to Addison residents, city leaders said Farmers Branch also pulled out of other important arrangements.
“Farmers Branch indicted that they will not participate in the rebuilding of Midway Road, have terminated an agreement to share refrigerated storage for dead animals and have given them an unreasonable deadline to fix an unmetered Addison sewer line that flows into Farmers Branch’s sewer system and has since the early 1990s,” it said.
Pierson said he felt the decisions were meant to force Addison’s hand.
“What’s really happening here from our perspective is that the City of Farmers Branch is trying to exert political pressure on Addison that’s not in anybody’s best interest,” he said.
Land said Farmers Branch has tried it’s best to work with Addison but at some point the city had to put its foot down.
“There has to be some level of cost recovery on city facilities like senior centers and you just can’t continue to have increasing facility costs, staffing costs and programming costs without some type of revenue offset. Part of it is business and the other part is your not dealing with a friend,” he said.
The City of Addison told residents its making alternative arrangements for services with neighboring communities and will continue to issue vouchers for the Dallas Public Library.
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