By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

State Sen. Slade Blackwell, R-Birmingham, and state Rep. Mike Hill, R-Columbiana, will meet with residents in Saginaw’s Saddle Lake Farms neighborhood about the possibility of annexing the neighborhood into Alabaster.

Alabaster Ward 6 Councilman Scott Brakefield told fellow council members about the meeting during an Aug. 30 work session at the Alabaster Senior Center. The meeting will be held Sept. 26 at the Shelby County Delegation office at 1134 County Services Drive in Pelham.

“One of us needs to be there to let Representative Hill and Senator Blackwell know that we want them in (the city),” Brakefield said of Saddle Lake Farms.

In March, the council passed a resolution supporting the annexation of the more-than-180-house subdivision off Shelby County 26. Before the city passed the resolution, Saddle Lakes residents presented a petition signed by a majority of the neighborhood’s residents asking to be annexed into the city.

Alabama law allows a city to annex land contiguous to its city limits, but requires an act of the Alabama Legislature to annex non-contiguous land.

“We need to take a copy of our resolution and give it to them,” Brakefield said.

Brakefield also said members of the Alabaster Board of Education likely will attend the meeting to discuss the upcoming city school system’s boundaries. If the subdivision is annexed into Alabaster, students living in the neighborhood will be zoned for Alabaster schools after the system splits from the Shelby County School System.

“The school board wants to know if they (Saddle Lakes) will be in or not,” Brakefield said, noting an estimated attendance count will help the Alabaster School Board as it plans for the future.