The folks behind StopWoodfin.org gave the mayor and aldermen of Woodfin more pressure than they ever dreamed they would face and it resulted in a tremendous victory!

Now that the Woodfin Board of Aldermen have unanimously passed a resolution to suspend their forced annexation moves on our area of Buncombe County, what’s next?

A time to catch our breath, for sure, and yes, do a bit of congratulating ourselves on the awesome show of force that StopWoodfin.org became, but more importantly, we must decide how to harness our energy to continue the fight. The war is far from over.

We have to take it to the next level. Hopefully we caught your attention and the attention of the larger community, because forced annexation is a blight on all North Carolina citizens that has to be eradicated.

Here’s a hard truth that taxpayers in Woodfin need to know: The Town of Woodfin wasted about $40,000 (that we know of) of your hard-earned dollars to aggress upon us, your neighbors — sometimes we live just across the road — on the intent to forcibly annex us.

Is this how you, Woodfin taxpayers, want your money to be spent? Now think about all the previous annexations the government officials of Woodfin have done. How much has this cost you? Is there any benefit to you, the taxpayer who lives in Woodfin? How could have that money been better spent? I’m sure you can think of a number of things.

The same can be said for Weaverville — do those taxpayers know how much their town leadership is spending on an intent to forcibly annex property in Woodland Hills? That one of their aldermen said that the town will actually lose money by annexing? Isn’t there something better to do with the money?

And what about all the forced annexation Asheville has been doing? It costs a lot of taxpayer money, year after year, to go after these unincorporated areas.

Add to these insults the fact that the towns of Woodfin and Weaverville and the City of Asheville send even more of their taxpayers’ money to a high-powered lobbying firm in Raleigh, the N.C. League of Municipalities. These lobbyists’ purpose is to keep power in the hands of government and out of the hands of the people, by way of incredible pressure and bribes on the elected legislators we have in Raleigh.

They pit, unwittingly, the residents of towns and cities against their neighbors in the counties in a fight for control of private property. They have stolen our voice, our say, our right to decide for ourselves.

Folks, this is abuse, and it is going on all over the state of North Carolina.  It has to stop.

It’s time for new law, to change the atrocious nature of North Carolina’s annexation laws. No other state in the United States has law like this. It is backward and injurious in every way, and affects every citizen in our state.

Please take the time to call and write your town or city government and tell them that you want them to stop abusing your tax money in this way. Do this as often as it takes to get their attention. Everyone, call and write your state representative and senator and demand that they tell you their stand on the issue of forced annexation. If they won’t tell you, then tell them that you are ashamed to have them representing you and that you will support someone else who will work to change this grievous law. Do this also as often as it takes to get their attention.

Your persistence will pay off.  Otherwise there will be no change. Tax money will continue to be wasted, year after year. Citizen will be forced to fight his fellow citizen, year after year.

Every citizen in North Carolina deserves the right to self-determination. It is our constitutional right, and every citizen needs to muster up the courage to fight for the privilege.  Please join us at StopWoodfin.org, and others in similar coalitions across our state to take back the rights of the people.