Annexation discussion continues in Wilmington

The on-going discussion about annexing Monkey Junction into Wilmington continued last night at a Town Hall meeting at Ashley High School.

Dallas Woodhouse is from Americans for Prosperity, one of the sponsors of the meeting.

His group tends to be against forced annexation.

Woodhouse said annexation is a problem because people in the affected area don’t have a vote, that the decision is made by the city council.

Then there’s the matter of more taxes.

Woodhouse said,”Annexation is a problem in North Carolina because the citizens that are affected have no vote in the process. The city council members make the decision, but it’s the people that are in the county who don’t elect those people, they have no recourse.”

However City Council Member Laura Padgett said they end up serving an area that is beyond the city limits,”because as the center of trade and commerce for southeastern north carolina, everybody uses our roads.”

Padgett did say that some benefits of annexation are saving on fire insurance rates, city deductible taxes and having a say in who gets elected to city council.