RACINE - In the coming weeks and months, officials in Racine and Mount Pleasant plan to meet to negotiate some kind of border agreement in an effort to straighten out the boundaries the two communities share, officials said this week.

A map of the two communities provides a good basic geography lesson filled with islands, points and peninsulas and hardly any water in sight, and no one is quite sure how this came to be.

"If you look at a map it's insane. There's an island of Mount Pleasant in the city. It's not supposed to be that way," said Mayor Gary Becker. "If you were going to sit down and draw the lines, this isn't what you'd come up with."

Becker and members of his staff met with Mount Pleasant officials recently to start negotiations about the boundaries which present a peculiar set of problems for village and city officials alike, most notably with public safety issues.

In addition to islands of village land within the city, there are streets where one side lies within the city, the other in the village. There are also pieces of property connected to their respective community by only a narrow strip of land. The border between the two communities also splits the shopping center at the southeast corner of highways 31 and 20 - which includes Hobby Lobby, Office Depot and Piggly Wiggly - in half, with some stores in the village and some in the city.

Becker made an initial proposal to village officials, based on the work of his city staff, as a way to start the discussion. The village passed a resolution this year to begin discussing the issue with city officials, Becker said.

The boundary issue dates back to when the Town of Mount Pleasant incorporated as a village in 2003.

When petitioning to incorporate as a village, town officials promised to discuss redrawing the boundaries between the two communities to get the city's approval, which they needed, Village President Carolyn Milkie said.

The issue was put on hold temporarily, but officials from both communities see a need to start talking about it.

There are several streets where it isn't clear if houses lie in the village or in the city, Milkie said. It makes it difficult to know which community should respond in case of an emergency, she added. Officials from both communities want to straighten out these

issues.

Looking at the map, Milkie said she and other officials wondered how the map came to look the way it does.

It's still early to know how the boundaries between the two communities might look in the future, both Becker and Milkie said.

"We don't know what is going to come of it, but we are going to talk about it," Milkie said. "Hopefully, we can work out some mutually beneficial resolution to this."