State Rep. Jim Cobb, R-Spring City, and state Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, have both filed bills in the general assembly that would curb the amount of power cities currently have to annex.

Rep. Cobb said Wednesday the bill has three essential elements. It would require a referendum for anyone wishing to be annexed, it would create an option of going to a jury trial, if a lawsuit is filed, and it would place the burden of proof for why the annexation is necessary on municipalities.

Read more via Chattanooga Times Free Press | Legislature could enter fray over annexation.

HOUSE BILL 2429 Senate Bill 2402

It was stated by several members of the Board of Mayor and Alderman at last nights BMA meeting, that if you live within the Urban Growth Boundary, then you will be annexed.  I have never seen the BMA be so vocal about future annexations within the Urban Growth Boundary.

It appears that the city is trying to increase it asset value by annexing and thus increasing the amount of money it can borrow for future projects.

Below are the annexations planned for the Rock Springs Rd, Hidden Acres, Peppertree areas.

Yellow = City

Green = Property owners asked to be annexed

RS3 and RS4 areas voted on first reading.

The Kingsport Regional Planning Commission has recommended the annexation of RS5 and RS6 and will consider RS7 and RS8 during its August meeting.

Rock Springs Road from West Valley Drive to Snapps Ferry Rd will be closed to through traffic beginning on Wednesday, June 17 and lasting approximately six weeks for sewer line installation.  While local traffic will be allowed through, all other motorists are asked to use alternate routes as marked to avoid the construction.  Detours include Cox Hollow Road or West Valley Road to Bishop Road to East Campground Road and back onto Rock Springs.  

To view a map of the area and alternate routes click here.

The Kingsport, TN City School Policy Manual states:

“Students whose place of residence is one and one-half (1 ½) miles or more from their assigned school shall be eligible for transportation services”

The less than 1 ½ miles will have a major impact on parents whose children will be attending the new John Adams School in the Rock Springs Road area.

Currently, Sullivan County provides school bus transportation for students, but after being annexed into the city means that children will either have to walk to the John Adams school or parents will need to drive them there if they are less than 1 ½ miles from the school.

I see a problem with the children walking to school.  First, there are no sidewalks and no parent in their right mind would ever let their child walk to school via Rock Springs Rd.

Also, the Rock Springs Road in it’s present state will not be able to handle the influx of parents driving their children to the school.

The city is asking for homeowners to voluntarily request to be annexed into the City of Kingsport, TN.

Without a change in bus policy it is clear that the Sullivan County homeowners will have to give up something that the city does not offer.

The City of Kingsport needs to understand that this new school is not your typical city school.  This new school is located in a rural area where there are cow pastures and hay fields.  In fact, the school that is being built will be on a former cow pasture.

Below are the improvements that the city states that will be done.  The road work stops at Rock Spring Drive.  What are the plans to improve the entire Rock Springs Road to the school and beyond?

“Rock Springs Road Improvements – This project involves upgrading Rock Springs Road from the southwesterly City Limits to Rock Springs Drive (SR 347) to an improved two-lane section. It will provide wider travel lanes, shoulder and some realignments at key locations to improve safety.”

To this writer, it appears that the City of Kingsport is more concerned about MeadowView Convention Center Expansion, Aquatic Center, V.O.Dobbins Center, etc than the safely of school children.  See post Rock Springs Rd – Still dangerous to travel

The City of Kingsport has been talking for years about doing improvements.  Mayor Phillips who is running for re-election must address this safety now because the new school will be open in the fall of 2009.

The letter is an attempt to get homeowners to voluntarily request to be annexed into the City of Kingsport, TN.

The letter also attempts to paint a rosy picture on how much better homeowners would be if they were within the city.

The mailing from Kingsport does it show the real cost of water or sewer tap fees or other costs, but the letter is borderline misleading.  The statement, “Residents with school age children who desire to attend city schools will realize even greater savings” is simply not true.  To my knowledge, the county does not charge tuition and neither does the city to attend the schools. 

The letter states that the costs are minimal.  The city needs to get real, because most homeowners know that their property taxes will almost double.  The letter states that trash collection is free.  How does the city get by saying it is free when you pay them the property tax that pays for the trash collection?  If the insurance company insured the house for free, it will still cost the homeowner more to be in the city.

The bottom line is that the city wants to continue the “forced annexations” and it does not matter what the homeowners think about it.  They are going to annex you because they in simple terms want the revenue from you because the population in Kingsport is declining and Kingsport is losing its tax base.  The additional revenue from annexations is needed for the spending binge that the city has been on.

A homeowner told me, “Why should I agree to be annexed now and start paying taxes and it could take up to five years to get the sewer installed?”  The homeowner also stated that they were more concerned about staying employed in this economic crisis than getting annexed.

The recent “forced annexations” over the last few years have resulted in hard feelings on the part of the homeowners.  This election, they get to vote and I am sure that they will return the favor by voting for someone other than Mayor Dennis Phillips.  I know Mayor Phillips is running unopposed, but they could also vote for a write-in candidate.

I want to thank the homeowner for me sending the letter below and other materials from the City of Kingsport.

29 January 2009

Dear Property Owner:

The annexation of your area will be considered by the Kingsport Regional Planning Commission in 2009. Future mailings from the Kingsport Planning Department will outline specific dates and meeting times for all annexation pertaining to your property. As some of you may be aware, previous Rock Springs annexations have been delayed by lawsuits filed by a handful of property owners.

An unfortunate side effect of annexation litigation is that court action prevents the city from annexing others who desire to become city residents, even if they are not party to a lawsuit

To avoid such a dilemma, the City of Kingsport is providing you with an opportunity to petition for annexation now, thus avoiding potential delays with the annexation of your property in the future.

There are many services available to city residents which are not provided by county government. A full description of these benefits is enclosed with this letter, along with an annexation cost-benefit worksheet.

For many potential city residents, the costs are minimal after taking into account lower home owners insurance due to better police and fire protection, dramatically lower water/sewer rates and free residential garbage disposal.

Residents with school age children who desire to attend city schools will realize even greater savings. However, county schools remain available to your children even if you reside inside Kingsport city limits.

In order to bring your property into the city, the Planning Department will need to receive the signed petition (attached) from you no later than 3 March 2009.

For assistance with the worksheet or other questions, please call the Kingsport Planning Department at (423) 229-9485.

Sincerely,

Ken Weems
Planner

City Hall       225 West Center Street       Kingsport, TN       37660-4237       (423) 229-9400
The Model City – Built by design and planning for the future.

18 years ago I built my house, outside of the city.  If I had wanted to live in the city, I would have built in the city.  Kingsport Government is out of control.  They annex purely to increase their tax base, not based on the need of the county citizens.  Do you wonder why they built a city school that is several miles out in the county, several miles past Rock Springs Elementary and South High School?  Why not annex Bloomingdale or other similar areas that are physically closer to the main part of the city?  Tax base!  Kingsport City Government is just like the Federal Government in that they are out of touch with what the citizens want and just want more money to spend, spend, spend!   I have talked to a lot of people in the Rock Springs annexation area.  I have not met even ONE that wants to be annexed!   Ten out of 218 want annexed. What happed to majority rules? What happed to democracy?  It’s not what the people want, it is what “the big wheels” in Kingsport want to maintain their funding and to provide the developers they are in bed with.

What will I get for my extra taxes?  They have already lied about what they would provide.  In a meeting held by the city at an area church (I think it was late summer, 2007) they said they would immediately address the condition of Rock Springs Road.  They said the shoulders did not meet standards for the city and were unsafe.  About two weeks after the meeting, a crew dropped off a large piece of drain culvert near the old Superette area.  I thought, well maybe there will be some good come from annexation.  The culvert sat there for months, no action.  Then they started running sewer lines and the heavy equipment chewed up and crumbled the edge of the road in a few places where there was no shoulder to start with.  The road was even more dangerous for many months.  They finally came and patched the areas they damaged and where they cut across the road.  Still, no shoulder work, or other repairs.  The road is in worse condition than it was two years ago.   They are going to have to bus kids out to fill up the new school.  Parents, you might want to drive the narrow road that will soon have lots of morning and afternoon traffic.  I hope one of these busses never ends up in the creek.  I have seen more than one car over the bank and in the creek.  Kingsport leaders, if you are going to build a school way out in the county, get your heads out of your asses and fix the road. Read this too. It’s not just me!

What else will I get for my taxes?  Trash pickup which will save me about $245 per year.  Reduced water rate?  Not exactly, yes the water rate goes down, but now there is a sewer charge to pay.  I compared my water rates with my parent’s rates who are in the city.  No savings I can see, just a different way to bill you.  Not to mention the $2000 tap on fee that we have to pay and then hire someone to run the pipe to the tap point.  They claim better fire and police protection, maybe eventually but they haven’t started building that new fire station they talked about two years ago.  They have purchased land for it though.  So far, I am about a $1,000 per year in the hole on this deal the way I see it.

Call them and complain!  (423) 229-9414    I don’t think we can stop it because the laws allow them to annex by referendum and does not require a vote from the people this effects.  Isn’t this taxation without representation?  Wasn’t there a big tea party in Boston one time over this same type of thing?  When we get annexed, vote for me to be on the city board of mayor and aldermen.  Elect me and I will vote against every annexation that comes up from now on.  Or, does anyone want to buy a house so I can move out of the city again?

The residents of Edinburgh development, which consist of high-end homes will get to enjoy the donated park while the taxpayers pay for the upkeep and maintenance of the park.  It is common for homeowners associations to charge homeowners for taking care of common grounds.

With this donation, Kingsport citizens can go to the new park, park in front of the high-end homes and enjoy themselves in the new park. If there is not enough street parking, I am sure the City won’t mind folks using the school parking lot.

On the recently annexed Rock Springs Road is a new housing development called Edinburgh.  This housing development states that up to 330 new homes will be built and will be the location of a new John Adams city school that is now under construction.  The developer of the Edinburgh development gave the city the land to build the school on and the city will need to bus in 125 students from other areas to help fill up the school.

The Edinburgh developer went to a BMA meeting and there were discussions about doing road work at the Edinburgh location.  They even had a local resident come to the meeting and state how bad the road was.  They even mentioned that in the 1950’s a lady got killed on the road and some teenagers flipped their car also. 

The developer got the roadwork approved and the developer paid for the grading, but guess what, the city paid for the paving, curbs and sidewalk on a country road.  This is a sidewalk that leads to nowhere and is about 400 feet long.

One has to drive almost two miles from I-26 on Rock Springs Road going past cow pastures and hay fields to get to this sidewalk.

Safety was mentioned as a reason to do the roadwork, but local folks know that the real reason was to make the Edinburgh development more attractive.  To cite someone getting killed on that road near the Edinburgh in the 1950’s when it was likely a dirt road is really stretching it a bit and the section that had the road work done was no more dangerous than other areas of Rock Springs Road.

My whole point in the above is Kingsport city government is willing to help new developments with sidewalks and curbs, but has failed to provide the same in older established neighborhoods.

If you feel that this is unfair, then ask Mayor Phillips to install a sidewalk in front of your property.  Better yet, get the entire neighborhood organized where you live and request your sidewalks.  I am sure that Mayor Phillips will be more than willing to help you with your sidewalks in an election year.

About one year ago, I did the post below.  If one drives out to Rock Springs Road, you can see that nothing has bee done about the dangerous road.  I guess Mayor Phillips thinks more about spending money on other things than public safety.

The Rock Springs Road has many curves, is narrow, and is a scary road to drive on when you meet oncoming traffic. It is especially bad during rainy weather, fog, or at night.

The current Rock Springs Road cannot handle the greatly increased traffic due to the new school and new housing development currently in construction or planned for the future. Parents should be very concerned about this road when there little ones have to travel this road either by car or by bus. I hope there won’t be, but there will be accidents. As school buses travel this road, they do not bend very well as they negotiate around the curves. Also, there will large truck traffic because of the housing construction in the area.

It appears that Kingsport put the cart before the horse concerning this issue. The Rock Springs Road issue should have been addressed first before the school construction and housing developments. In Kingsport’s Transportation Improvement Program for fiscal years 2008-2011 that was prepared by Kingsport Metropolitan Planning Organization, there is no mention of any improvements planned for the Rock Springs Road. But, there are projects slated that are enhancements, bike paths, etc. that are nice to have, but do not address safely issues such as the Rock Springs Road.

In the January 15, 2007 BMA meeting, City Manager John Campbell stated that the Kingsport Police Department are slated to patrol the area. That is good, since for the most part the speed limit is not observed, but if the police have to stop someone on Rock Springs Road, there are very few places that it can be done safety because there is a lack of space to get cars off the road.

Take for example, the January 16, 2009 editorial titled, “Lawyers the only winners in annexation lawsuits” which appears to attack the folks that had lawsuits with the city.

Citizens for Home Rule has won annexation lawsuits in the past and in my view, the citizens have a right to sue the city.  I have to admire the Citizens for Home Rule attorney for being upfront with the folks who filed the lawsuits what they were up against and the costs.

The editorial seems to know what the outcome of the trial would have been and does not even consider that there could be a chance that the people may have prevailed.

My point here is, there is a pattern with the Kingsport Times-News defending the City of Kingsport.  Writing an article with the city’s viewpoint is fine, but why not do an article from the people viewpoint who are affected by annexation.  The newspaper just might find that they might retain more customers.

Attacking or ridiculing the readers is a sure way to lose business!  Is this editorial part of the City of Kingsport celebration because the lawsuits have been dropped?  See link: “Annexation lawsuits dropped in East Tennessee city”

I recall quite some time ago, a WJHL TV interview with Kingsport’s City Manager, John Campbell that indicated that they had a problem because they recently discovered a cemetery at the site of the future John Adams School.

It is interesting that this “recent discovery”, that was discussed in the interview had a new road cut around the family graveyard many months before leaving the graveyard about eight feet above the road.

This graveyard was know to local residents and was listed on the U.S. Geological Survey topographic map as the Hargis Cemetery. It was also listed on many web sites giving the longitude and latitude coordinates for the exact location of the cemetery.

I was aware of the cemetery because of my interest and research in genealogy. I do recall that the ancestors in this cemetery were from the 1800’s or earlier.

It is sad to see that the City of Kingsport chose to remove this cemetery when it is quite possible that the folks buried there fought for the freedom that we have now in this country. The school buildings were not being built on the graveyard site, but I guess the city felt it was an eyesore.

I would like to tell the City of Kingsport that before you jump onto your bulldozers in recently annexed areas in the county, you might want to check out the old cemeteries. There are lot’s more in the Rock Springs Rd. area.

Can the city move the cemetery, yes they can. Can you vote for leaders that reflect your views and positions, yes you can.

The Mayor of Kingsport needs to understand that while the six lawsuits have been dropped, there are still more lawsuits out there that have yet to be decided on.  There has been much ill feeling caused by the City of Kingsport over it’s annexation policies.

The City of Kingsport tactics on this annexation issue will not be forgotten by those folks that were in the annexation area.  The city’s use of using a carrot and stick with annexations, and comments made by city officials will not be forgotten by the newly captured voters when it come time to vote.

The much bigger issue here is why did they want to annex outlying county properties.  The city wants to grow and because of it’s declining population, it needs to annex to get the revenue to afford the lavish spending spree it is on.

If you are a city resident, you may not think that all of this annexation stuff affects you.  But, it does by higher sewer and water rates.  The water and sewer funds are called “enterprise funds” which means that the water and sewer departments has to be self-supporting.  If the city wants to expand their water and sewer lines and there is not sufficient funds to cover the expense, they raise the water and sewer rates.  You might even call raising the water and sewer rates a “hidden tax.”

But you may ask, can they do it?  Yes they can, because Tennessee is one of only a handful of states that permit “forced annexation”.  If you have a problem with Tennessee’s annexation policy, then make your views know to your state representatives.

Mayor Dennis Phillips is running for reelection, but instead of celebrating victory, he might want to say “Whoops…..what have I stirred up?”