HARWOOD, ND – The mayor and a city council member in Harwood are voicing concerns after hearing from a resident that the City of Fargo has begun the process of annexation for a portion of land.
The land is in Harwood’s extraterritorial zone, according to Mayor Blake Hankey.
“That’s Harwood land,” he said.
The issue came to a head after the August 4 Fargo City Commission meeting, where the City Commission unanimously voted to begin annexing the land – without mentioning at all Applied Digital, which is proposing to place a $3 billion data center in the rural Cass County community.
Harwood City Council member Jamie Nettum said he learned about the annexation attempt from a concerned citizen – and then notified Hankey.
Hankey says the City of Fargo needs certain things to happen if an annexation is to go through – specifically either a judicial order or the city’s consent.
“They have no judicial order, they don’t have our consent,” he said. “In my interpretation, things didn’t go Fargo’s way, so let’s stomp on the little guy. Let’s try to steal their land and tie them up in litigation.”
Hankey says the City of Harwood intends to challenge the land annexation.
Flag Family Media has reached out to the City of Fargo for comment on this story. As of time of publication, no response has been received.
