MEIGS — Battling gnats and heat outside the Meigs Community Center midmorning Saturday, people who arrived for a scheduled meeting instead read a notice on the door that said the 10 a.m. event had been rescheduled for Saturday, July 31.

Phoebe Fulford said she thinks everyone who was contacted by mail about the meeting should have been called about the rescheduling.

Mayor Andy Wurst or another city employee should have been at the site to explain why the meeting was not being held, said Brent Layton.

The crowd began to gather before 10 a.m. and continued to grow as meeting time approached and passed.

Although the community center was locked, all lights in the building were on.

Wurst called the “fact-finding meeting” to gather public input about a proposed Meigs City Council plan to annex about 85 properties.

“We don’t like it,” Ronnie Anderson, a U.S. 19 resident, who lives in the area in question, said at the meeting site Saturday morning.

Anderson said he tried 25 years ago to get city water to his house, but was told he would have to pay for the laying of water pies to his residence. He installed a deep well.

“I don’t need their sewer. I don’t need their water,” he said.

Anderson’s wife, Jahaza Anderson, has a theory about the plan. “It’s for more taxes. That’s basically what it is,” she said.

As people continued to arrive for the meeting, they were told it was not going to happen. One man drove from Valdosta to attend. People wanted know why the meeting was not held.

The mayor told the Times-Enterprise later Saturday morning that city officials had known since Thursday afternoon the meeting could not be held at the community center.

“Somehow someone rented the building to someone else, and it didn’t get put into the book,” Wurst explained.

The community center was rented from 8 a.m. to midnight Saturday, and the renter would not relinquish the 10 a.m. time slot for the meeting to be held.

The meeting could not be moved to city hall, because it is undergoing renovation.

Wurst said the notice was posted Thursday on the community center door, but no one could recall seeing it until Saturday morning.

The Times-Enterprise newsroom was not notified about the rescheduling, although a story appeared in the Friday edition about the event. Wurst was interviewed Wednesday for the story.

Ralph and Wanda Swell, who live on Marshall Street east of U.S. 19, do not know if their property is in the proposed annexation area.

“I don’t want it. I’ve got my own well. I’ve got my own septic tank. There’s nothing he can do for me but raise my taxes,” Mr. Sowell said.