(SEMMES, Ala.) August 19 - Local leaders say they were caught off guard. Neighbors in Semmes are outraged. Now, they are speaking out against annexation into the city of Mobile. Last friday, Mobile Mayor Sam Jones announced a plan to annex four areas of Mobile County. Those areas include part of Theodore between Rangeline and Bellingrath. The Moffet Road area north of Bear Fork Road and west of Jarrett Road. The Dominion Wellington area around Snow Road. The Windmill Place subdivision near Cody Road and Grelot.
For the past year, the Semmes community has been working to incorporate, but those plans are being threatened with a new possibility: annexation into the city of Mobile. "We want to stay like we are, there's a lot of growth here. We would just like to make decisions about what will happen here in the future." Folks say annexation would only divide the community. Taxes would go up from 7.5 percent to 9 percent, and less money would go to the school system. Virginia Alford says she realizes incorporating Semmes would also probably mean higher taxes...but she wants those extra dollars to stay where she lives. "I realize that is inevitable, we would have to. But we would have a say so over our taxes and not the city of Mobile. I want to be apart of something that I have a say so in, not some entity that says what I can do, what we can't do, what we can have, can't have."
Mayor Sam Jones wants residents to vote on the proposal sometime in October, but it's not just people in Semmes who are voting...other areas are included in the annexation- and many of those neighbors are for it. About 4 thousand people would have the chance to voice their opinions, but local businesses would not. "The taxes are going to go up to pay the city of Mobile. They don't have a say and their customers don't have a say so we've got to do something."
Mayor Jones say if his plan is approved, the annexation would increase the city's tax base by about 10 million dollars.
