From: mariesthename
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 9:51 PM
To: danielc@ncleg.net
Cc: ltgovernor@ncmail.net
Subject: HB2367

This is a copy of an email I sent to Senator Rand:

Micah 6: 8: What doth the Lord require of you, but to do justice….
 
You have denied justice to the citizens of North Carolina by refusing to hear HB2367; and you have betrayed the following North Carolina citizens’ groups who have been begging for relief from forced annexation for many years:
 
Americans for Prosperity                        Biltmore Lake
Brunswick County                                  Buncombe County
Cabarrus County                                    Dave’s Mtn., Randolph County
Davidson County CAFA                            Calabash
Carrboro                                               Cedar Grove Institute
Chatham County United                         Columbus County
Cumberland County Citizens United         Fair Annexation Coalition
Fletcher                                                 Forsyth County
Freedom Works                                             Goldsboro
Good Neighbors of Rowan County                 Granville County
Greensboro                                                Guilford County CAAN
Hoke County                                             John Locke Foundation
Johnston County Citizens for Justice            Knightdale
Lexington Truth                                         Lenoir
Libertarian Party                                      Marvin and neighbors
Mecklenburg County                               Monkey Junction
Mt. Airy                                                 Nash / Edgecombe
New Hanover                                          NC Constitution
NC Property Rights Coalition                     NC State Grange
NW Cabarrus Block                               Orange County
Pender                                                 Pinewild
Polk CAFA                                             Rockingham County
Rocky Mount                                         Shallotte Point
Stop Moore County                                 Stop Asheville
Stop Cary                                             Stop Fuquay
Stop NC Annexation                                 StTOP
Union County                                         Voice for Justice
Wake County                                         Wayne County GNU
Wendell                                                    Wilson

-----Original Message-----
From: "Keith and Sherry Bost"
Sent 7/12/2008 3:52:19 PM
To: <Cathy@stopncannexation.com>
Subject: What our future holds
He sat on his back deck looking over the green slime that was once a pond. Beyond, the litter along the edge of the parking lot behind McDonalds lay scattered along the fence he had put up last year to keep the derelicts and roving gangs of punks from using his back yard as a pathway. Why do they have to toss their garbage over the fence into my yard? he asked himself for the thousandth time, knowing the answer. Because they are not the kind of people who used to live here, the kind who care. These are city people.
He remembered how it used to look - the golf course, the pond that had geese and ducks and fish. The quiet and friendly trust among neighbors. The cleanliness. How could it have changed so much so fast?
It had all began with the forced annexation. First the taxes doubled, and then people began moving away, selling at a loss. Eventually, no one could afford the dues for the golf course, and the city had taken it over and sold it to a developer who had given tons of money to the Mayor’s campaign. Now the golf course was a series of strip malls. He shook his head, remembering. I suppose I’m lucky, he thought. The City is building low-income apartments where the clubhouse used to be. Those neighbors have it worse than I do.
 As always, he felt the pain of regret and guilt when he remembered. It was only eight years ago. Should he have done more? He had only gotten into the fight late, when the city declared imminent domain and offered him a barely minimum price to buy his tire store, which was already in the city limits. He had not wanted to sell, instead intending to leave the business to his son as his father had left the business to him. The meetings, the letters, the visits to Raleigh, the shock of discovering how the law works in North Carolina….and then the taking of his property by the city. They had declared his business unsafe and condemned it, then sold it to the developer who tore it down and built new condominiums on the entire block. How had it happened? Had he not stayed out of the Forced Annexation fight the year before that so many of his neighbors had joined? Did that not entitle him to some protection, some consideration from the city council? He never wrote letters to the editor, he never protested, why had they done this to him? He had even voted Democrat despite everything.
 He sighed deeply. What could I have done, he wondered for the thousandth time. Half of the City Council is developers or real estate agents themselves. There was nothing I could do, was there? Were we all not supposed to obey the law? We never even got to vote for the City Council, or if we wanted to join the city. Now the City had not delivered on a single promise.
His thoughts were interrupted by his wife, who came out of the house with a paper in her hand. Her face was drawn and angry. Here we go again, he thought, wondering what it was this time. He knew that she had just returned form the mailbox.
“Look!” she said, “the city has sent us a note that says we have to replace our fence!”
His raised his eyebrows in a question. “Because they say it does not meet their standards!” she shouted, “do they not know we just put the thing up and that it is to keep the gangs out of the yard, and that we only did it because the cops can’t keep them out?”
He sighed. “I’ve already told the city council” he replied quietly, “they know it meets their codes, and I had permission for the Community Director. I filled out a request and had it inspected. Must be a mistake”
She shoved the letter to him angrily. “No” she fumed, “they changed the code. Now our fence is too high”
He studied the letter, unbelieving. “This” he said, “says that a fence in this neighborhood can only be four feet high. How can a weak fence keep anyone out?”
“You need to tell the City Council!” she demanded.
“But it won’t do any good, you know that.”
“It’s a big fine if we don’t replace it!”
“Can’t” he said, “that fence cost eight thousand dollars!”
“We will have to take it down,” she replied, “we can’t afford another fine. Remember when you burned that pile of leaves?”
Here it is again, he thought. She will never let me forget that. “Only because the city wouldn’t pick it up. What was I supposed to do, let the leaves stay piled up at the road and keep blowing back into the yard?  I was getting tired of raking them over and over!”
She put her hands on her hips. He saw her eyes, always tense and fearful now when they were once so full of calm and light, wander over the buildings and litter beyond their backyard.
“I have had enough!” she fumed, “let’s sell this house and move!”
“We can’t, and you know it.”
“Even if we have to sell at a loss.” she offered.
“No one will buy a house in the city. Everyone knows that.” he replied, thinking of the Mayor recently selling several of his rental houses to the Town of Lexington which bought them using tax dollars, “maybe we can move and rent this place, but where to? Every town around is annexing like crazy. It would only be a matter of years before we had the same thing.”
“Well,” she flared, “we have to do something! Last night I heard shots down the street, and the city is cutting back on police and ambulance services, so what are we supposed to do? Have you called the Mayor?”
“Yes, dear, and the Mayor does nothing. You know that.”
“What about that sewer line leak?” she asked, “It stinks up the entire neighborhood, and it’s been like that for a month. When are they going to fix it?”
“The Mayor says that they will get to it as soon as the City has funds,” he replied, “he told me that the next annexation – when they get the rest of Tyro and Churchland – will provide enough funds to fix the sewer lines.” He felt sick inside even as he said it, remembering that the city council had told people the same thing when the city had annexed his neighborhood. Those people were still waiting for services and repairs.
His wife tapped he foot on the deck. This deck needs replacing, he thought, but we simply can’t afford it. Not with double taxes.
“Remember Mrs. Jones down the street?” She asked, “last week they took her house. She was put in a State Home. She had saved and worked her whole life. She always paid her taxes! Want to know what her daughter found inside her house when she went in? Dog food. Mrs. Jones never had a dog. She was eating it. Eating dog food so that she could afford to buy her medicine!”
“I remember her” he mused, “she testified at the city hearings back when some of them were fighting the forced annexation. It was in the paper. She told them then that she couldn’t afford the double taxes, but the annexed her anyway.”
He didn’t tell her the worst part, hoping she would never find out because it would be another thing they agreed on but argued about because there was no one else who would listen. The Mayor was renting Mrs. Jones’ house now.
“I hate the city council” is wife repeated like some litany, “they live on that city – funded golf course over there and the city keeps their neighborhood clean and maintained, even though that golf course looses over 200,000 a year! Why don’t they help our neighborhood?” He didn’t answer. It was a rhetorical question, asked a thousand times and the answers always depressed them more. The last annexation – the one that had captured his neighborhood – had put the City so far in debt that they could not afford the things that they had promised. “The city doesn’t care” he said simply.
“We have to sell!” she said after a long pause, “Even if we sell to the Government for low- income housing. I hate to do that to the neighbors who are still here, but we don’t have a choice.”
He heard the near tears in her voice, then the closing door as she went back into the house. His house, he thought. The house he thought was his before the annexation. He thought of all the hard work, all the years he had struggled, the two jobs he had worked to have something only to have the Government take it away. The worst part was knowing his daughter would no longer be able to go to college because the tax increase was more than he had been able to save each year for her college fund, and last week the City had announced another tax hike to pay for the last annexation. He felt worthless, the way a man learns to feel when he realizes he has no right to his own achievements.
   He sighed and felt the familiar shiver of fear he always felt when he considered the future now. The Mayor had recently cancelled the contract with the nearby County Fire Department, and the nearest City Fire Department was almost 6 miles away. I thought they said that they would take care of us, he thought bitterly. Maybe I should have fought them; maybe I should have protested. I could have at least voted Republican on a State level, he scolded himself once more.
He stood and went across the deck that needed replacing into the house that he couldn’t sell to write another check for double taxes, wondering if he should have fought. At least, he told himself, I might feel better now if I had.
  
This story is a combination of facts of things that have all happened in this State and will happen – eventually – to our neighborhood. I can show anyone who cares to go several (formally “nice”) neighborhoods in Kannapolis and Concord that are now trash as little as eight years after being annexed. Winston has had to cut back on “essential services” to the outlying areas – areas that were annexed. Lexington has cancelled the fire contract with the County FD in Linwood, leaving the houses at the mercy of the Cotton Grove Rd. FD which is miles further away.
After an annexation, the City can and often does re-zone to suit the wants of developers and businesses. City Councilmen end up buying or renting out houses lost to tax debt.  Ask the folks in Linwood. Winston Salem took over at least two golf courses after annexing them in their last annexation. Double taxes harm many aspects of the areas, not just the individuals, and the economic ramifications affect the entire state. Consider the future, and join the fight now. It is now that we need everyone. Keith

-----Original Message-----
From: Edd M
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2007 11:27 AM
To: Joe Hackney, Speaker of NC House
Cc: Cathy Heath; Paul Stam , NC Representative
Subject: Forced Annexation

Dear Mr. Speaker,

There will be a growing and ever more vocal contingent of VOTERS across this state as well as Wake County who loudly protest the roughshod treatment of the state legislature's failure to address the issue of forced annexation. I pray that the state financed lobby for the states and municipalities will become recognized as one of the dying dinosaurs of the now thankfully departed Black and Decker machine which so brazenly "ran" our state for so long.
I was in the public meeting where the people were vocal in opposition to the present laws and the special interest group was so transparently fighting to preserve their annexation gold mine which finances over-stretched cities determined to finance growth plans by continually grabbing more tax base.
We will win this battle and the ripples that run through the state legislature will be, in the end, devastating to the entrenched good-ol'-boy network now standing on shaky ground. Many will applaud you if you do the right thing as 90% of the states have already done.
You have the power to drive this legislation either direction, I pray you will do the right thing.

Best Regards.
Edd and Jewel M
Raleigh (hoping not-to-be Cary)

Re: Concerned VOTERS AGAINST Forced Annexation in North Carolina

You, Representative Blue, have an opportunity to make this unconstitutional forced annexation policy history.    The Forced Annexation Study Group the Legislature commissioned last fall is one of the best things to come out of Raleigh in recent memory.   Now we need the Legislature to HEED their recommendations.

Citizens all across the state have had an opportunity to express their frustration and dissatisfaction with the abuses that the present system has enabled.   You and the rest of the Legislature must know that there some very angry voters all across the state.  We have brought forth examples and issues that have clearly shown forced annexation is a complicated and much abused practice by cities across the state.

Some of the very useful recommendations coming from the Study Group include:

No annexation without installing and providing new services.  If the services a community requires are in place, annexation only by referendum of the residents of the proposed annexation area.

Increase the population density requirement per square mile to more accurately reflect the increased urbanization in North Carolina

A moratorium on all annexation including those in process until both branches of the Legislature can adequately review the substance of the Study group’s findings.

Voters across the state are dismayed at the amount of attention and credibility the Legislature is giving to the comments of the League of Municipalities.  The arrogance they have shown during the study groups hearings should appall their most ardent supporters.  The League should be banned from halls of the Statehouse and put a 5 year moratorium on all their lobbying activities. An investigation of their finances and how they spend our tax dollars is also long overdue.

As the Study Group is recommending, this issue requires further study by a joint House and Senate Team.   I am asking you and your committee to listen to the concerns of the voters and the Study Group’s recommendations and PUT A STOP to Forced Annexation.

Sincerely,

Dieter B

Biltmore Lake, NC  28715

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert M
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 8:56 AM
To: Janetc@ncleg.net
Subject: Senate Joint Resolution 1869

Good morning Senator Cowell,

I hope you are doing well. The purpose in writing this
email is to ask you to support Resolution 1869.

The neighborhood that I recently purchased a home in
is slated to be absorbed into Cary in the 2012 to 2017
time frame. The annexation would not benefit the
neighborhood in any way.

We have our own independent community water system and
private sewer systems. The only changes Cary would
bring are a Cary road replacement program and
increased taxes.

I moved here because of the high taxes that I was
paying on Long Island. Cary/Wake/NC will be like Long
Island if left unchecked. Long Island is going to
loose 50% of it's 25 to 50 year old population in the
next few years. I do not want to see that happen to
North Carolina, my new home state. The result would be
an increased tax base of empty homes as people have
moved to other less expensive areas.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Robert Meehan
Raleigh, NC 27607
 

A Letter to the Editor of the Rocky Mount Telegram

Thank you for your article New Bill May Freeze City’s Plan by Mike Hixenbaugh.  I am a concerned citizen and business owner in Edgecombe County that has been affected by the upcoming annexation by Rocky Mount. 

On May 14, 2007 I voiced my concerns to the City Council at the public hearing regarding the proposed annexation.  I identified the negative affects the cost of the annexation would have on my business.  Apparently the information fell upon deaf ears.  This is the very reason the moratorium is needed at this time.  We as citizens and taxpayers should have a voice in decisions regarding our affairs.  I am sure if the matter were put to a vote, the affected citizens would vote no to be annexed by the City of Rocky Mount.

All concerned citizens should become involved because time is of the essence.  The City of Rocky Mount is making its concerns known, “Rocky Mount leaders sent letters this week to each member of the local legislative delegation, asking them to oppose the bill”. We must write our state Representatives and Senators to encourage them to vote in favor of a one year moratorium on forced annexation.  We need this moratorium to become effective before June 30, 2008.  StopNCAnnexation is a grassroots effort to stop forced annexation abuse in North Carolina.  Their website, www.stopncannexation.com, contains information to become involved in our issue of annexation. 

I encourage everyone to attend the “Rally in Raleigh” on June 4^th.  May our concerns be seen and heard at this rally.  Our elected representatives need to hear and know how we stand on the issue of forced annexation.  We must become involved by participating in writing our elected officials and attending public forums to voice our concerns. Get involved.

Sincerely,

Denise Watkins

Rocky Mount, NC

From: Keith and Sherry Bost 
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 3:21 PM
To: 'Marcb@ncleg.net'
Cc: 'ALL Senators'; 'nchousemembers@ncleg.net'
Subject: I cannot take time to come to Raleigh, so PLEASE read this....

 Senator Basnight, I am sure that you are aware that the House Study commission has recently recognized that there is a need to reform if not end the archaic practice of Forced Annexations, and on behalf of all the people in North Carolina I ask for your support of this measure. I live in what was once a quiet, rural County called Davidson, and what was once a friendly and peaceful place has become a battleground of hatred, lies, betrayal and mistrust – all because of forced annexation. We in the county are lied to and about publicly on a regular basis and the lies from our antagonist – the City of Lexington – are the same lies every other town and city across N.C uses to defend THEIR annexations. These towns learn the same excuses from the League of Municipalities, but one size does not fit all when it comes to annexation. Lexington offers us nothing, we want nothing from the town, and we gain nothing except bad things from our unfortunate proximity to the town. We have our own streetlights and garbage service, state-of- the art septic systems, and very capable County Services that can and will provide anything that we might need in the future.

   The City of Lexington will undoubtedly be lobbying you aggressively along with the League of Municipalities, and if history proves repetitive, the Lexington officials will repeat the same mistruths they tired to tell the Davidson County citizens and which the Lexington officials actually had the audacity to repeat to the study commission at the meetings. This oft-repeated lie is that the City of Lexington “gave” West Davidson High School sewer service “out of civic duty”. The truth is that the County installed the sewer lines themselves and paid millions to connect to the city sewer, and like every county citizen or entity pays DOUBLE sewer rates as does city residents. This was a mutually-beneficial, mutually desired arrangement, unlike the City of Lexington using the County landfill, Social Services, Courthouse, Library, and many other County services for which the County receives no special payment. I will include the actual cost from the County as well as Demographic statistics from the City of Lexington’s own website to prove that (1) We receive no benefit from the City of Lexington, and (2) we have NO incentive to want to join the city. We are not greedy, we simply do not want to be under the rule of people who, for over a year now, have derided, maligned, disrespected and lied to and about. Here are the Statistics from Lexington:

       Not all of the people being annexed here are wealthy. Several neighborhoods that the city is annexing as a “bridge” to wealthy neighborhoods will be devastated by the double taxes and fees, especially the thousands to “hook up” to the sewer. I will forward you several of the letters that have been in the local paper (the Dispatch) in which good people publicly admit that they will lose everything if and when they are annexed. Is this right? Does N.C want to be on National news as putting people out of their homes in order to feed the incessant greed of small towns like Lexington, or are we willing to admit that changes need to be made to protect both growth and people’s basic rights to their property? Lexington City has a public golf course which looses over $200,000 a year. It has refused offers to sell this golf course, despite the fact that to do so would add tax revenue and eliminate the tax loss. Also, the Mayor of Lexington recently sold at least one of his rental houses to the city – which bought the house (es) from him using tax money. (We have requested this and the annexation information pursuant to the N.C Open Records law and yet the City refuses to give us the information). Is it any wonder that we do not want to join the city, regardless of the taxes?

 I truly believe that we have the intellectual capabilities to do both. Virginia uses the Dillon rule, charges either city or County tax rates (not both), and have some of the most careful, genuine growth and nice cities in the USA without having to resort to forcing citizens to pay double taxes to people they were never allowed to vote for or against and without receiving anything in return for those taxes. From a letter I sent to correct one of the many lies the City of Lexington is telling Davidson County and our Representatives in Raleigh:

 The Mayor and other city employees have claimed publicly that the city “gave” the county sewer to West Davidson High School. Mr. Beck and the ass. City manager had the audacity to make the same misleading claims to House Representatives.

THIS IS THE TRUTH-

. The County installed the sewer line, and paid $1,708,993.15 for it. Easements cost $118,534, and capacity charge (Lexington) is $28,991.78. That is hardly “free” and done for “civic service” as the Lexington politicians claim!

. Every County citizen who may request sewer service pays double sewer fees.

. We hope that in the future the County Commissioners will invest in new septic tanks rather than any mutually beneficial agreements that will give the city reasons to annex in the future. They should also tell the city to find somewhere else to put its garbage (since the landfill is County).

. The Health department, Social Services, County Courthouse, landfill, library, and sheriffs department is ALL County entities.

.Lexington Councilman Victor Kiger claimed (at the public meeting) that Hawaii and Texas were forcefully annexed against their will into the United States. These states VOTED overwhelmingly to become states! And The Louisiana Purchase was a purchase, not an annexation!

 As you can see, the City Council of Lexington has no appreciation for the truth of history or of today, but if history is to teach us anything, it is that we, as a State, need to join the 21^st Century.

North Carolina has a habit of being on the wrong side of history, and seems to be determined to stay there. When Slavery was the issue, the leaders of this state defended it as an economic necessity, claiming that we could not compete economically without it, and that it was necessary to support the entire state infrastructure. These arguments, to our shame, are the same ones now being used to defend the modern form of slavery called forced annexation.
Forced annexation is an undemocratic form of oppressive tyranny that does not resemble either the spirit nor the letter of our Constitutional form of Government. Without vote, without consideration of the people annexed and without any Democratic debate or Representation townships across this state are misusing an originally flawed and archaic law to force the nearby County residents into neo-slavery by simply taking their hard-earned money through unjustified and unreasonable taxation.
Because County residents are forbidden by law to vote in town elections, this results in the undeniable condition of taxation without representation, and the obligatory “public hearings” are an exercise in futility that only result in further anger and frustration and hatred when the county citizens are invariably ignored and mistreated by the town officials.
The history of Forced Annexation is shamefully redundant. The “public meetings” are held. The county residents plead, protest, and usually spend thousands fighting the annexation. These County citizens fight because of an instinctive sense of moral outrage, not because some legal grey area has been infringed upon or even because they believe that they can win. They always fight because the simple, basic and most fundamental right of an American citizen – the right to VOTE – is being denied to them. They fight because of the insult to their humanity; they fight for a greater principle than most of them are even able to articulate or fully realize. They fight for the same reasons our founding fathers fought the War for Independence. They fight because they know, instinctively, that every American citizen should have the right to choose where to live and whom to pay taxes to.
The League of Municipalities would have everyone believe that those who oppose Forced Annexations are selfish, and that it is only about money. I wonder what the patriots who died for the principles of self-determination and liberty would think of those arguments, or the people across the world today who fight for the right to vote and resent being taxed by tyrants. History is full of tried and failed policies that should show us where policies such as Forced annexation will lead us, and, as William Pitt said, “Necessity is the cry for every infringement upon human liberty; it is the excuse of Tyrants, the creed of slaves”.

-----Original Message-----
From: "Keith & Sherry Bost"
Sent 4/23/2008 8:49:39 PM
To: "'Rep. Bruce Goforth'" <bruceg@ncleg.net>
Cc: <Larrybr@ncleg.net>,  <Nelsond@ncleg.net>,  <Edgars@ncleg.net>,  <Trudiw@ncleg.net>,  <Earlj@ncleg.net> <Jerry@ncleg.net>,  <Billo@ncleg.net>,  <Joeb@ncleg.net>,  <Hughh@ncleg.net>,  <Pauls@ncleg.net>, <RayneBrown@triad.rr.com>
Subject:
 

Thank you so much, Cathy.

Am sending the following letter, via snail mail, to every Senator in NC's Senate:

************************

Good Day,

I am writing to you because I can get no answers from the committee that is supposedly addressing a problem that is wreaking havoc statewide.

As you know, North Carolina, Tennessee, Idaho, and Kansas are the only states that allow forced annexation at will by cities. Louisiana, Illinois, and Oregon allow it only in limited cases. It should not be allowed at all, for it deprives citizens of their right to vote on something that drastically affects their future.

You also know that there is much outrage at the North Carolina Senate for failing and refusing to address the unjust law that has remained in effect since 1959. There are no checks and balances to take away the absolute power that this law furnishes to City Councils who look only to their own will for guidance, thus inviting corruption and abuse.

Are you aware, or do you even care, that the League of Municipalities is taking full credit for having stalled 24 bills, which have been in the hands of your Ways and Means Committee since February 2007, for the reform of this law? Aren’t you tired of the League’s spoon fed pabulum of “because areas become urbanized, they need to share in the cost of the city infrastructure so that the city can grow and become a vibrant city”?

If forced annexation is the only means whereby a city can grow, then the leaders of that city are lacking in brain power!

And look at the problems forced annexation causes: sprawl, lack of adequate police protection, forcing people to live beyond their means with resulting foreclosures on homes that in turn affect the real estate market, a very uncooperative and vengeance minded citizenry, and a tremendous waste of time, talents and money that could be used for better purposes than filling our overcrowded courts with lawsuits fighting a law that should not be allowed to stand.

 I would specifically like to know if Senator Andrew Brock’s Bill DRS75044-LBx-104 is still being considered? Or was it ever considered? It was turned over to the Ways and Means Committee over a year ago.

Will you please give me some answers.

A very concerned citizen, who always votes when a vote is allowed, 

Marie Howell

-----Original Message-----
From: "Keith and Sherry Bost"
Sent 4/18/2008 10:07:10 PM
To: Bruceg@ncleg.net, Paull@ncleg.net, "'Representative Larry R. Brown'" <Larrybr@ncleg.net>, "'Representative Nelson Dollar'" <Nelsond@ncleg.net>, "'Representative Earl Jones'" <Earlj@ncleg.net>, Louisp@ncleg.net, "'Representative Edgar V. Starnes'" <Edgars@ncleg.net>, Fredst@ncleg.net, "'Representative Russell E. Tucker'" <Russellt@ncleg.net>, "'Representative Trudi Walend'" <Trudiw@ncleg.net>
Cc:
Subject: You were lied to...
 

-----Original Message-----
From: "Joni"
Sent 8/1/2007 6:00:45 PM
To: Cathy@stopncannexation.com
Subject: Re: Annexation Reform Study

-----Original Message-----
From: "gloria mc"
Sent 3/15/2008 6:42:35 PM
To:  Cathy@stopncannexation.com
Subject: Re: SNCA Update & Action Alert

Hi Cathy!

 

Thanks for all the updates and important information.

 

Below is an email I sent to all the committee members last week:

 

****************

 

To- Member of the Annexation Study Committee:

 

As a resident living in an area that the City of Asheboro is targeting for annexation, I would like you to consider the implications and repercussions of the present NC Annexation Laws:

 

In order for the City of Asheboro to annex our area, known as Dave's Mountain, the City of Asheboro will spent finite tax revenues to do so. 

Our area is heavily wooded, and VERY rocky, meaning that this will be a VERY expensive project which will take many, many years to pay for -in which  there will be considerable blasting, calling for expensive insurance to cover homeowner's losses, especially to cracked foundations and bringing in expensive equipment to deal with the rock.  The citizens of Asheboro will be financing this foolish venture, with no benefit for the city of Asheboro residents for 20 - 30 years!  This is a debt that will be passed on to our children and grandchildren - and yet the taxpayers of the City are completely in the dark concerning this foolhardy plan.

 

  This is how the City of Asheboro plans to finance this non-voted debt: 

 

• Using $3-1/2 million dollars of Asheboro taxpayer money, now in reserves, to help pay for Dave’s Mtn. Sewer installation
• Requiring the Asheboro taxpayer, to assume this sewer debt and spend tax revenues to pay a 20+ year debt*
• Raising  water and sewer rates to help finance this debt

*This is based on the cost estimate of the project.  When the construction bids are submitted, the cost will most likely be higher according to local sewer installers in our area!

 

The City has manipulated costs and put out a rosy scenario (20 yrs?) so that  this  project will look less ridiculous.  FYI:  To understand how the City has manipulated this whole process, the branch manager of an engineering firm located in Asheboro  was the same gentleman that headed up the City's Task Force on Annexation - who  promoted  this City Annexation and then his company was awarded  engineering contracts for over 1/2 million dollars with no other bids taken!  [A Formal Complaint has been filed with the Board of Professional Engineers and they are now investigating this blatant Conflict of Interest, between the City and the engineering firm]

 

 If I were a taxpayer in the City of Asheboro - I would be knocking down the doors of City Hall saying, "Don't spend my taxes like this!  This is stupid and foolish - especially in this time of economic downturn!!" 

 

But.......as I am sure all of you are aware ......I, my children, and grandchildren are being forced to assume this ridiculous debt, with no voice or vote in the matter!!

 

This, Committee Members, is what is wrong with the current NC Annexation Statutes. 

 

 

 

Gloria McClanahan

Randolph County

 

PS - There are two areas closer to the city than we are who have asked to be annexed and the City has told them that it would be a 10 year pay back which does not make it a prudent financial undertaking for the city!!