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Woodfin Mayor M. Jerry VeHaun, flanked by the Woodfin Board of Aldermen, calls for order, threatening to toss out “You people” who fail to behave civilly during the annexation hearing. At least two protesters were escorted out by Woodfin police from the sometimes-contentious July 21 hearing.

From Daily Planet Staff Reports

WOODFIN —  A July 21 public hearing on a proposal by the Woodfin Board of Aldermen to annex areas of Erwin Hills and Leicester included vows from affected citizens that they would challenge the forced annexation in court, if necessary.

More than 400 people, many clad in red T-shirts and wearing anti-annexation buttons, jammed into a steamy hot Woodfin Elementary School gym for a lengthy, emotional and sometimes contentious hearing of their views on the controversial issue. The hearing had to be shifted from Woodfin Town Hall to accommodate the turnout.

One of the speakers, Betty Jackson, an organizer of StopWoodfin.org., said the community organization already has hired Asheville law firm Adams, Hendon, Carson, Crow & Saenger to fight the involuntary annexation, if the Woodfin aldermen approves annexing the area.

Woodfin has proposed annexing about 3.5 square miles to its west, which would increase the town’s size by 38 percent and add about 3,360 people, roughly half the town’s current population.

The July 21 hearing followed a turnout of about 200 citizens at an information meeting on July 7.
Nearly every speaker stepped to the lectern to ask the aldermen to reconsider the move, especially in a bad ecoomy.

Eli Helbert, 32, sporting a red anti-Woodfin annexation shirt that was worn at the meeting by many residents of Erwin Hills and Leicester, asks the Woodfin aldermen not to pursue involuntary annexation of the two communities.