Bennington (Omaha, Ralston, Elkhorn: home, construction, schools)

[yman97]

My fiance and I are building a home in Ridgemoor in Bennington. Are there any Bennington residents on this forum? If so, I'd like to know how you like the area and any other info/advice you can provide. How are the restaraunts (Schettlers and the sports bar)? I can't wait to move!

[ehenningsen]

Originally Posted by yman97

My fiance and I are building a home in Ridgemoor in Bennington. Are there any Bennington residents on this forum? If so, I'd like to know how you like the area and any other info/advice you can provide. How are the restaraunts (Schettlers and the sports bar)? I can't wait to move!

Bennington is a booming bedroom community that is really connected to Omaha with a few developments..

It is just a matter of time now that Bennington will be continuous with Omaha, and I'd start advocating to the mayor that if Bennington is to remain an independant community to start talking with the Omaha's mayor office about this issue and that the city will comply. (See the survival of Ralston and the absorbtion of Millard and Elkhorn)...

Good luck! And I hope Bennington remains an independant community.

[Omaha Rocks]

Originally Posted by ehenningsen

Bennington is a booming bedroom community that is really connected to Omaha with a few developments..

It is just a matter of time now that Bennington will be continuous with Omaha, and I'd start advocating to the mayor that if Bennington is to remain an independant community to start talking with the Omaha's mayor office about this issue and that the city will comply. (See the survival of Ralston and the absorbtion of Millard and Elkhorn)...

Good luck! And I hope Bennington remains an independant community.

In reality, Elkhorn "cooked their own goose." There was a gentleman's agreement between the city of Elkorn and Omaha, that if Elkhorn wouldn't try to annex land - and hit that magic number of 10,000 residents - Omaha would leave them alone, and grow around them like it did with a lot of other little communities.

But Elkhorn went out and tried to annex a whole bunch of land, so Omaha simply annexed Elkhorn.

From what I've heard, the residents of Elkhorn are okay with the services provided by Omaha. Their main beef is mostly a pride and independence issue.

[ehenningsen]

Originally Posted by Omaha Rocks

In reality, Elkhorn "cooked their own goose." There was a gentleman's agreement between the city of Elkorn and Omaha, that if Elkhorn wouldn't try to annex land - and hit that magic number of 10,000 residents - Omaha would leave them alone, and grow around them like it did with a lot of other little communities.

But Elkhorn went out and tried to annex a whole bunch of land, so Omaha simply annexed Elkhorn.

From what I've heard, the residents of Elkhorn are okay with the services provided by Omaha. Their main beef is mostly a pride and independence issue.

That is it exactly OmahaRocks.. The two cities had an agreement, but then the city of Elkhorn developed this idea that 'Omaha should not dictate their future'.

The problem with that is the growth that Elkhorn was experiencing was due to the fact that Omaha was growing that direction, and it was understood that the absorbtion of growth belong's to Omaha as it is Omaha that influences growth, not elkhorn..

So one March the city of Elkhorn decided on an annexation package that would push its population over 10,000 people which would make it not annexable by any city, and at the same time it violated the long-standing agreement by Omaha and Elkhorn..

The mayor of Elkhorn then refused to talk to the mayor of Omaha and talked about how having two large communities in Douglas county is ideal and that Omaha would have southwest Douglas County and Elkhorn would have west-central and northwest Douglas Country.

The city of Omaha had a week to come up with an annexation plan to stop this from happening, and because of anti-trust they had already done their investigation if this were to occur. And so four days after the Elkhorn annexation request, Omaha had made theirs, with memo's stating that if Elkhorn backs out that Omaha would back out too.

Elkhorn did not back out, and the mayor of Elkhorn started to conversate with special interest groups, and here is where we start with 'Omaha is trying to bully Elkhorn' and how Omaha is at fault for this and that..

For two years there were these legal battles between the two cities through the state, and for over a year the Omaha's mayor office was trying to convince Elkhorn to stop, and that Omaha would always let Elkhorn be an independent city if Elkhorn stopped annexing Omaha's growth.

It was close to decision time by the state's court system, and the Elkhorn mayors saw the writing on the wall and he then came to the Omaha mayors office and begged not to go with the annexation, and the Omaha mayor said.. After all the court costs, all the time spent negotiating, all the money and resources going into this, they could not back out now that they are just days before the ruling. The Elkhorn's mayor made this completely unfeasible even after a year of this.

The city of Elkhorn was under the watch of the mayor of Elkhorn and it was the mayor of Elkhorn that sealed the fate of the city. Even if Omaha did agree to not annex Elkhorn, the Omaha's city office had learned that they could not trust Elkhorn's current mayor..

Elkhorn's then debunct mayor started going to different communities in douglas county warning them of Omaha's bullying and even was behind a state petition to stop large cities from annexing small one's without a vote and in this petition was the ability for many of the small communities that have already been annexed to be able to become independent again, but that went flat..

And this really is kind of sad, because nobody wanted to annex Elkhorn, but it was the mayor that made it nearly impossible 'not to'. His ego was above the interests of the city..

[CA central coast]

I have a friend who moved from Omaha to Bennington. It looks like this little town that exploded with new housing around it. How in the world did schools deal with absorbing that growth? I can't imagine Bennington schools were very large. School construction must have been placed on the fast track!

[Bosco55David]

Originally Posted by ehenningsen

Good luck! And I hope Bennington remains an independant community.

I wouldn't count on that happening. I suspect we'll gobble them up in the next 5 years.