In an election held on November 3, 2009, residents voted to incorporate the community as a "Class C" municipality by a vote of 160 to 53. In a concurrent election, Bill Preston was elected unopposed as mayor. A total of eight candidates ran for the two city commissioner positions. Those seats were won by Cathy Bennett and Will Warren.[4]
The incorporation of Ivanhoe coincided with the incorporation of a neighboring community, Ivanhoe North. The creation of both cities was seen as the first step in a process to merge both communities into a single entity, making it the second-largest city in Tyler County. Corruption within Government ranks has been a long standing issue within Ivanhoe's government, as subsequent Mayor's and those that work for the city often use their position to get their roads paved using tax dollars, while everyone else is left with inadequate drainage, dirt roads, and broken dams.[4]
The merger of both cities to one City of Ivanhoe was approved by a vote of 194 to 60 on November 2, 2010.[5]
Geography
Ivanhoe had a total area of 3.6 square miles (9.3 km2), of which 3.3 square miles (8.5 km2) were land and 0.3 square miles (0.78 km2) was covered by water.[6] These are 2010 numbers, prior to the merger with Ivanhoe North.
^Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.[9][10]
