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Officials this week reassured Riivendell residents that their unincorporated subdivision can’t be forced to join a village.

Riivendell, a neighborhood of more than 100 single-family homes on 1- and 2-acre lots, is on the east side of Schoolhouse Road, the proposed east-west boundary between New Lenox and Mokena.

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The two villages are negotiating a formal boundary agreement, a process that has Riivendell residents worried that they will be forcibly brought into the village of Mokena.

Annexation cannot be forced on Riivendell residents, but if they choose annexation, they should be free to pick which village they want to join, New Lenox Mayor John Nowakowski said.