grew up in that area and pinehurst always thought they were above everyone else... shame golf course is there and not aberdeen or southern pines..

Cities shouldn't be allowed to annex areas that don't want to be annexed. Why it is allowed, I'll never understand.

We, too, were annexed, by the lovely city of Durham -- our taxes doubled, the only new service we got was trash pickup, and now they even want to take our fire station away, and replace our fire service with a station miles away, while our local firestation provides service to other areas even further away. Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Once the city annexed our area, it started to go downhill fast, so now we have no choice but to move. That's Durham for ya...

I feel sorry for any area that is annexed against their will. It seems so downright un-American. Oh, that's right, today being American means being a bully.

We are about to be annexed by the city of Raleigh in July. We got the same song and dance about improved police and fire protection, along with other services. I already have the Sheriff's Department patrolling my neighborhood. We have water and sewer, though we have to pay $300 to hook our sewer system to Raleigh's. I get trash pickup, so I no longer have to drive the 1 mile to the recycling center. I have a fire department a half mile from the house, so I don't need help there. All for a small fee of doubling my property taxes. I'm glad Raleigh is looking out for me! Unfortunately, I just have to accept it. Later down the road, if Raleigh feels my house is in the way of a larger development, they'll take it too.

The other possibility would be to get a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to help with the infrastructure expense and rehab the area if it is in decline. The county government could help make that happen and then with the improvements, the cost could be partially borne by the grant, then the annexation would take care of maintenance issues...just a thought. The CDBG grants are administered through the Council of Governments that county belongs to.

JH is def. more dense than pinewild, where people live on multiple acres.