What Can I Do?

LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD! CLICK HERE!

Attend Council Meetings:  All interested Buncombe County residents should attend as many City Council Meetings as possible wearing a red shirt which will indicate you wish to Stop Forced Annexation. Check our Calendar of Events page for information on dates and events.  In addition:

Contact Mayor Bellamy, Vice Mayor Jones, and each City Council member by using one of the Sample Letters provided to the left, or by writing your own letter to let them know that you are opposed to forced annexation, and that if they “vote us in, we will vote them out.” Encourage the Council Members to “do the right thing” and honor people’s wishes to remain separate from the City of Asheville.  For contact information, see Asheville City Council. 

A note on Sample Letters, and writing your own letters, which we encourage you to do:  We suggest you keep the tone of your letters strong, yet constructive, to be taken seriously.  All correspondence, including Sample Letters, must be signed, including contact information (address/phone number) to be taken seriously.  We have been advised that without contact information, all correspondence is disregarded or discarded.  They need to know who we are, and that we are serious.

Help identify and support elect-able candidates for City Council who are opposed to forced annexation. In addition, if you are not already registered to vote, please do so.  We ask that you support our current Councilman Dr. Carl Mumpower, who already consistently votes against forced annexation.  Use our Comments page to submit information.

Support our County Commissioners who have proposed the moratorium on annexation within Buncombe County. Contact all county commissioners and let them know that you are opposed to forced annexation, and encourage them to be active in supporting this position.  To contact all commissioners, call (828) 250-4001 or email to commissioners@buncombecounty.org. We suggest, in addition to contacting commissioners via the “catch-all” email address, contacting each commissioner individually.  See Buncombe County Commissioners for contact information.

Contact our local State Representatives in support of House Bill 86 and House Bill 87.  Representatives Charles Thomas and D. Bruce Goforth have sponsored these bills on our behalf, so please contact them and offer your support by using the Sample Letters provided to the left, or by writing your own letters.

Contact local State Representative Susan Fisher by using the Sample Letter to the left to let her know that she needs to support our other local Representatives in their efforts to get annexation reform legislation passed into law.  She has many constituents within the City of Asheville, and so far, has refused to support annexation reform.  She needs to be reminded that “if we are voted in, we will vote her out.”

Contact local State Senators by using the Sample Letter to the left, or writing your own letter, to let them know that you are opposed to forced annexation and that they should follow the lead of Representatives Thomas and Goforth, and introduce similar legislation to the Senate, on our behalf.  In addition, let them know that they should support all Senate bills in opposition to forced annexation.

Contact all “issue-friendly” State Representatives and State Senators by using the Sample Letter to the left, or by writing your own letter, to let them know that you are opposed to forced annexation, and that they should support all annexation reform legislation introduced this session.  Let them know that 2007 is the year for annexation reform, and that you’re counting on them to help get these Bills through Committee and passed into law!

Finally, you can contribute locally to support our legal efforts to Stop Asheville in their efforts to forcibly annex Biltmore Lake by using the Donate button to the right.

Thank you for your support!