Kingsland Closer To Annexing Store

KINGSLAND - Mayor Karen Wiscaver told the Kingsland City Council during its regular monthly meeting last Thursday that the city could soon be annexing the Dollar General store into the city limits, bringing a new stream of sales tax revenue into the city.Wiscaver told the council that Kelly Neal, who helped recruit Dollar General to Kingsland, has been working with Dollar General officials about bringing the store into the city limits.A portion of the parking lot to the Dollar General store located at the corner of Hwy. 79 and First Street (Hwy. 189) is within the Kingsland city limits but the store itself is not. The boundary line for the city limits runs due south of the southwest corner of the intersection, thereby taking in the entrance to the store but not the store building itself.Wiscaver said she expects the annexation could take place within about a month. She said the only stipulation that Dollar General requested is that the transition take place at the beginning of a month since it would not require the store to change its sales tax rate midstream for that month. Retail businesses pay their sales taxes on a monthly schedule.By annexing the Dollar General into the city limits, the City of Kingsland could then begin collecting its 1 percent sales tax on all taxable products sold through the store. The only retail business currently within the city limits in the Kingsland Kwik Stop convenience store.Kingsland City Attorney Thomas Burns told the city council in April he believed there is “about an 80 percent chance” the city could annex the new Dollar General store into the city limits without having to go through a petition process.During that meeting, Burns said he and former Mayor Sharon Crosby were attending a meeting together when he reviewed the annexation procedures that were published by the Arkansas Municipal League, which is an organization that assists cities with legal matters.While many ann...