Town of Hartly faces unincorporation
The town of Hartly has a population of 74, no form of government, hasn’t paid taxes in at least two years, and now faces debt and the possibility of unincorporation.
Connie Richard, the owner of Hartly Family Learning Center says, “That does concern me, I think there’s a lot of potential for this town and I would like to see an active town council.”
Representative Jeff Spiegelman says financial embezzlement caused the town’s downward spiral, it was allegedly done by a former government representative in Hartly. However, officials are tight lipped about any further details regarding that case.
Now, the town only has three local businesses. David Brown is the owner of one, a hardware store.
His shop suffered a fire two years back, and he says if it wasn’t for Hartly neighbors, it never would have been rebuilt .
Brown says, “That’s the kind of community you’re looking at, they’ve got one another’s back. If somebody’s in trouble they help one another.”
That attitude is what residents are trying to preserve. They say it won’t exist if the town is taken over by Kent County.
However, to prevent that from happening, they have to have a town council serving as the governing force. Several residents volunteered for the council at a packed town meeting back in December.
Christine Oldham who’s lived in Hartly all her life says, “I was more than willing just because I have some deep roots here.”
However it’s not that simple. To have an election to select council members, the town charter says there must be a town commissioner. Since there’s no government, there’s no commissioner .
District 11 state representative Jeff Spiegelman says, “The last serving town commissioner just allowed his term to expire. Does that mean that he is no longer serving, or by affirmation is he automatically still there? So can he call a special election? These are all conflicting legal opinions.”
Opinions that have all been presented to the department of elections, who will then decide what can be done to help Hartly.
