Man City Attorney Bernard Spaulding said the town might have to pay back the $600,000 in B&O taxes Route 10 road construction has brought in to the town over the past few years if the town de-annexes areas as several citizens have requested.
Protester Herbie Staten asked Spaulding if an estimation for an election had been figured out yet and Spaulding said it had not.
"It would be shooting in the dark," Spaulding said, explaining that the de-annexation protest Staten and others had delivered last month was 'not up to code.'"
"My recommendation was to not act on it," Spaulding said, adding that some requirements listed in the statute were left out.
Councilman Jimmy Justice had some questions of his own for annexation protesters Staten, Gerald Sloane and Jimmy Porter.
"Do any of you even live in Man," Justice asked.
Sloane said none of the trio live in Man, but argued that he shopped in town and his tax money was used by the town.
Justice said the town could face a financial crisis if it de-annexed the road to the Rita Mall and had to pay back the $600,000 in B&O taxes it brought in over the years from road work.
"By annexing that four lane, it did not cost us anything," Justice said. He noted that the section of the new road by the bridge has also brought in B&O taxes "and it hasn't even opened up yet."
"What is the benefit for us to de-annex?" Justice asked. "Why are you so adamant?"
Sloane reiterated his belief that the annexed road would become a speed trap.
Justice said that if the town wanted to operate a speed trap it could do it now on existing roads but had not, and that the town could write 100 speeding tickets a month instead of three to four.
"When I come out of Huff Creek and I see a cruiser, I wonder why he is looking at me," Sloane said, claiming municipal police were not as well trained as deputies.
Man Police Chief W.S. "Steve" Simpkins said municipal police attend the same police academy and most deputies also have to wait before they get academy training.
"When the B&O taxes are gone, what would stop this from becoming another Summersville," Sloane asked.
Councilman John Fekete said there are several businesses which wanted to be annexed or to come into town limits and that with those permanent B&O taxes there was no need for speed traps. Sloane claimed he spoke with people who said McDonald's did not require police departments or sewer plants and deputies would cut back on patrolling the area if the Man P.D. patrolled that road.
"We are not trying to hurt the town of Man," Sloane said.
"It would hurt the town," Roger Muncy countered.
"I know that," Sloane said, adding he wants an election on the matter. Sloane said he didn't want to have to fear driving through a speed trap every day.
"People who come through there drunk and on drugs need to be stopped," Muncy explained, saying he wanted progress for the town. Muncy said he understood that the protesters wanted what they thought was right, but that the town council wanted what was right for everybody.
Justice said the town backed off from annexing the road to Huff Creek and asked why Staten was still so irate.
"You started it ... and now somebody has to finish it," Staten said.
"That's your whole reason," Fekete asked. "Because we started it?"
Staten said he had protested other annexation proposals over the years.
"You have drunks and drug addicts laying up there on that road and good people who can't even go to church," Mayor Jim Blevins said.
Porter said he disagreed with the statement that the town would have to pay back the $600,000. But, Porter did say "If this goes to circuit court, you may have to pay it back."
Porter said the town has another option of decreasing corporate limits by minor boundary adjustment instead of de-annexing. Porter said the town's 2002 application submission was incomplete as was the 2006 application. Porter also said there would have been no protest if the original annexation had been done properly.
Porter asked why the town had never approached Walker Machinery or other mining supply firms near Rita Mall about coming into town limits. Porter claimed the town could have an election on the matter for $1,500 to $2,200 and reiterated his claim that if he and other protesters did not get what they wanted they would file a lawsuit in circuit court. Porter also claimed he had donors to pay attorney fees.
"I look at it like it is a bad deed," Porter said. "The judge might decide the county commission decided wrong."
Spaulding said Porter and the protesters might side with them.
"Can we table this discussion until after the road is completed," Justice quipped.
Following the meeting, Mayor Blevins said that even if a lawsuit is filed it does not mean the protesters would automatically get what they wanted. Police Chief Simpkins said the first thing the judge might want to know is why the protesters waited several years to complain.
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