COMMUNITY MEETING SCHEDULED!
A community meeting for the affected annexation areas as well as neighbors of these areas has been arranged.
Please plan to attend on
Saturday, October 2nd at 9am
at the Skyland Fire Department
(upstairs in the Community Room).
And please pass the word along to your neighbors!
I want to share with you a comment I made below an article in the Mountain Xpress ("NO" to proposed Royal Pines Annexation by Belle Reina in Vol. 17 / Iss. 09 on 09/21/2010), regarding the forced annexation of the Royal Pines neighborhood:
ReplyDelete"I own property in Royal Pines neighborhood and am opposed to the annexation. I purposely purchased property out side the city limits because I wanted to live out side the city's grasp.
According to Cecil Bothwell's comment below a MountainXpress article ("NO" to proposed Royal Pines Annexation by Belle Reina in Vol. 17 / Iss. 09 on 09/21/2010), "People who live near a city gain great benefit from city amenities without paying for them". He couldn't be more wrong. The last time I went into the city, I filled the gas tank, I bought 3 movie tickets at the Fine Arts Theater, dropped a handful of coins into the parking meter, paid for three meals at Salsa's Restaurant, and made purchases in Mast General Store. Dinner and a movie are luxury items at my house, and if Royal Pines gets annexed, there goes the entertainment budget! What do the business owners in the city think of that?
Regarding Cecils comment "I suppose we could simply install toll bridges to get out-of-towners to help subsidize the wonderful things a city brings to users". If you do that, the people who spend money in the city's business's will not be spending money in the city's business's any longer. Cecil: your forced annexation of Royal Pines will serve as your toll bridge, and I will not cross it."
The folks at Mast General Store, The Fine Arts Theater, and Salsa's Restaurant, as well as all businesses that fall within the city limits should know that every time I cross the boundary (or cross Bothwell's "toll bridge") between "county" and "city" I spend money. Don't be fooled into thinking that those who go to the city are NOT gaining "benefit from city amenities without paying for them". Please do not support forced annexation.
Beth Rytz
Here are photos from Oct. 2 community meeting at Skyland Fire Dept. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristalyn/sets/72157624956286225/
ReplyDeleteGreat pics! Thanks for posting, Kristalyn!
ReplyDeleteIt was encouraging to see all the people at Saturday's meeting but it would have been better to have had more show up. Regardless, I hope a large group will attend the Public Hearing at City Council on Oct. 12th. You don't have to speak, just be there to show strength in numbers, Please!!! We are not alone in this fight. Others who have gone through this are with us, the Asheville Tea Party is with us and will have their presence at the Public Hearing outside City Hall. Press coverage will be good.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to a property owner either. Renters will likely be impacted too with higher
rental rates if the owner has to pay more taxes.
This is everybody's fight. If you are not in this annexation grab, you very likely are next.