Meet Carol and David Booe, retired electrical contractors with a house in Forsyth County. The City of Winston-Salem annexed their property. They were given a five-day window to apply for water and sewer, and even had they met that window, hook-up still would have cost $25,000.
No surprise, City Manager Lee Garrity doesn’t see the need to change annexation laws:
Garrity, the city manager, said that cities need the power to annex in order to grow properly and to pay for the services used by residents — those who live inside the city limits and those who live just outside.
“If you look at efficient growth and compare North Carolina to other states where the city is trapped — like Atlanta or St. Louis — you have urban decay and a lot of residents live outside the core city, still using the resources, coming in and working in the city,” he said. “People are shopping and working and playing in the city and using city services but living adjacent to the city.”
…..“I have talked to a lot of property owners, and it is very difficult on a one-on-one basis to look at how much you’re going to pay,” he said. “It’s hard when you’re just balancing your checkbook on a one-on-one basis to say ‘Hey, I want to do that.’ Annexation, you have to be 20,000 feet up and look at the good of the whole community to see why we need to do it.”
In other words, only government has the big picture in mind while we’re all huddled over our checkbooks. That’s the mindset these days.
