There’s an old African proverb that asks the question, “How do you eat an elephant?” the answer being, “One bite at a time.”

Limestone County is an elephant with a whole lot of nibbling on its east side.

Monday, the Madison City Council annexed 180 acres of Limestone land owned by John Hardiman, David Hardiman and Joyce Hardiman Kendrick. That city also has before it a request to annex 21.38 acres belonging to Jerry Wright, according to Madison City Clerk Melanie Williard.

The latest tracts are off Powell Road, south of the portion of road that runs east and west. Wright’s property is in the vicinity of Burgreen and Segers roads. The Madison Council gave a first reading of that request Monday.

Monday’s annexation was the first since late April when Huntsville annexed 172.4 acres south of Huntsville-Browns Ferry Road, east of Interstate 65 and west of Dogwood Flats Road belonging to the Strain family, owners of S&S Nursery.

Huntsville officials said at that time that they had no other annexation requests from Limestone landowners. The Strain property annexation brought to 36 square miles the area annexed by Huntsville.

The previous week, Huntsville annexed 2,787 acres off Huntsville-Browns Ferry Road in Tanner at the Interstate 65 interchange and near the Tennessee Valley Authority industrial megasite. In March, Huntsville annexed 5,000 acres.

Madison also has annexed a couple thousand acres of Limestone County.

Although annexed property remains a part of Limestone County, officials oppose such annexations because they create confusion among voters, create questions about who supplies such services as law-enforcement, force the county school district to share its property taxes with the annexing city’s school district, and prevent the county from controlling how a city develops an area.

Limestone will collect property taxes on any new homes or developments, even if they are located in Huntsville, Madison or Decatur. The county also will collect sales tax from new businesses and industries that develop there.