Fighting The Annexation Of Dave's Mountain - Dr. Mary Johnson Style

Over the last few weeks, I've gotten several e-mails from folks mobilizing to fight the annexation of Dave's Mountain outside of Asheboro.

I was gonna lay low and focus on other things. That is, until the Courier was foolish enought to re-publish a quote from Asheboro Mayor, David Jarrell, making it clear that we "rich" saps here on the Mountatin are still in the city's sights.

Coming off a bit of a dry spell, it helped my find my muse. So I did a "Reply-To-All".

I've read your e-mails. And I've mulled them over.

In the spirit of a New Year, here are my thoughts (at least the ones I don't post regularly on the blog: http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2009/01/poor-prognosis.html). I give you fair warning, it's all opinion based on experience. And I am going to digress into my own circumstances just a little bit - but I think it all ties together. Please forgive me if I repeat things I've already said at "public hearings".

As an aside, I would encourage you (and the rest of Dave's Mountain's "wrong people") to keep up with my blog (www.drjshousecalls.blogspot.com) - as I have reached a time and age where I see no point in holding back - or saying exactly what I think. Put it on your Favorites. Because it looks like 2009 is going to be a banner year for material.

First and foremost, do not rely on the newspaper for help. The Courier Tribune is going to screw you every time. I've never seen a more in-your-face conflicted-interest than our local newspaper publisher being married to the head guru at the Economic Development Development Corporation . . . and unashamedly spewing the "everything's coming up roses" party line every time she cracks the whip. Asheboro being Asheboro, no one has ever questioned it. The only silver lining I see is that newspapers are dying very ugly deaths everywhere . . . and if there is a God in heaven this paper will die quickly because it is so biased and fundamentally worthless as a practitioner of the fourth estate. Running a close second in supreme uselessness is our other "local" daily, the Greensboro N&R (I could expand at length, but it's not a place I'm going to go in this e-mail).

My advice - get online - and get online in a big/grassroots way. Get on the phone. Do the face-to-face (this should be done by those who do it well). It's going to take a lot more than e-mails to state legislators moving (FYI . . . those e-mails routinely get deleted without being read or responded to). North Carolina was bucking for second place (behind Louisiana) in the corruption department until Barack Obama got elected President and Illinois bumped us down the list. That's entertainment.

Here's the thing, as cynical and world-weary as I am, Asheboro is my home. And despite the despicable way I was treated when I came back, I still love my home. But my home has been invaded and taken over by people whose values I do not recognize or respect . . . "carpet-baggers" in a very real sense. Forgive the self-serving digression, but I simply do not/cannot understand people who would have had me just let a baby die (http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2006/06/early-christmas-card.html) . . . or who would fire me when I didn't let it happen (because we simply can't have anything reflect badly on the local hospital). And I REALLY don't understand how/why all the fine, upstanding people (especially doctors and hospital Board members) could look the other way while it was all going down . . . or allow insult to be added to injury by the "libel"-that-wasn't lawsuit . . . not-to-mention a puny/coerced settlement based on a pack of lies. No one seems to have the sense to say (especially now that the town has been pronounced to be unworthy of life-support), "We really screwed up here and we need to see what we can do to fix it . . . the word is out and it's hurting us bigtime."

I've got to be honest with you. Until very recently, it was very hard not to feel that no one was doing anything about the rot that has infiltrated Asheboro - or fighting back - except me. I actually enjoyed the company this past year. For I was alone - pretty much from the beginning. Schmidly was never really my advocate. He sold me out for an easy buck.

I hope he rots in the Jack-Daniels aisle of the new liquor store (no offense intended to anyone who voted for alcohol - I've come to terms - it's all booze under a burned out bridge - I'll just keep purchasing in Randleman).

I never gave up my house in Asheboro because as the lawsuits raged, and my career (such as it was) progressed, I decided I didn't want to. I came to terms with making my living on the road . . . even as Asheboro was in dire need of Pediatricians. As an aside, with regards to the recent CT Lifestyles piece featuring Physician Assistants delivering medical care at the Merce Clinic, RMA, staffed with Board-certified Pediatricians, was supposed to be the practice delivering care to the indigent and under-served. But I guess cancer is where the money's at . . . nevermind that, with the on-coming economic downturn, it's the kids who live on the Hill that will suffer most. And where do you think all of the moral outrage will be directed?

Not at Bob Morrison. Not at the city leaders who more-than-deserve it. But at us - we who collectively live on "the Mountain". It's all about perception. We're all "rich" and should "pay". Nevermind that, apart from the super-rich and well-named, many who live here are barely hanging on by their fingernails.

(Speaking of incorrect perceptions and misunderestimations) Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin (who theorized that "Good Pediatricians are a "dime a dozen") did not seem to realize that the unhappier I was - and the less options I had in terms of staying "local" (because of what they had done/the way they had done it) - in other words, actually being able to really live in my home - the more likely it was that I would continue to fight.

And so I shall. Those greedy, short-sighted, way-over-paid bastards (I've more-than-earned the right to have that opinion) do not get to walk into a courtroom and bold-faced lie and get away with it . . . plan my hometown's future . . . or retire with a fat parachute. It is my sincere hope that this New Year eventually sees them in jail or fired or both. The crooks of Wall Street have nothing on these two.

I've owned my home (on Woodside) for 13 years - and have only recently begun moving into it. I maintain the home (with a close friend living upstairs as a house-sitter when I'm gone) because my Mother is here - because the Mothers of my YaYas are here - and because my immediate family is near-by. I think this annexation thing more than proves the old adage that if you turn your head away from what is going on around you (and being done to your neighbors) long enough, sooner or later the badness will come for you - and there will be no one left to stand with/defend/protect you.

I am nothing if not a practical girl. Viewmont, beyond the point where state maintenance ends, is in horrible shape. I have to warn guests who've never visited my home about the massive potholes coming in (for fear they would hit one and crash into a tree/break their necks). It is criminal that the developers & builders of these roads and this "neighborhood" were allowed to build them to "minimum standards", and then ignore/abandon them even as the heavy equipment & trucks they needed to build more big houses destroyed them. The developers did not think/bother to petition the state for maintenance before development destroyed the roads - or maintain the roads so they could be taken over. Now, the state won't take the roads over until they're up to standard. The developers say they don't have to do that - that the law gives them an out. So it's now on the poor saps (including me) who bought the houses to fix the road . . . the saps that people like Mayor Jarrell now want to annex and pick-pocket.

If I'm wrong about any of this, please someone correct me.

As I understand the legal mess that makes, the only way to get these abandoned roads fixed is via annexation. Of course, the City of Asheboro (being run by the kind of upstanding, God-fearing people who can easily overlook perjury/contempt & fraud - as long as they're not on the wrong end of it), has for years demonstrated nothing but 20/400 vision and could not manage its way out of a wet paper bag made in Mexico (actually those paper bags are probably sturdier than the ones made in the US). So when we are annexed, what we will get are damaged homes & foundations (from dynamiting solid rock) and a crappy sub-standard sewer system. And the legal system we have in place now will not be able to help residents fairly deal with the collateral damage.

Again, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

When/if we are annexed and builders don't have to worry about lots "perking", some fool with more money than brains is going to try and build a house at the top of the Mountain. Another good friend (born and raised here - albeit in the "country") was in this weekend, noted all the homes for sale, and also commented that she was very worried about the topography of the Mountain. The ground is currently saturated (from heavy rains - after coming off a drought), forested areas have not been properly thinned, homes are hanging precariously at the edge of crevices. More development (especially in the form of dynamite) is asking for disaster . . . landslides, fires, etc. No one in a position of leadership appears to have a clue.

All of that being said, me being a simple girl, the devil I know is the bad road. Of course, I know the other devils (having been introduced to them as a young public servant), but as I see it, they could do me a whole lot more damage than just a minor inconvenience or a flat tire.

As I see it right now, barring some kind of sensible compromise (that expands some city services for a fee, but limits others) or new legislation, sooner or later Dave's Mtn is going to get annexed. My sense is that it will not be this year - more likely in three to five years. Still, I will fight it tooth and nail - if only to keep the thousands of dollars I will pay in property taxes (that will be given to two-faced snakes like Keith Criscoe - to pillage and plunder) in my pocket.

In that time, I would hope people in and out of Asheboro would work on getting us some better leadership - so that we are not totally screwed when what I believe is inevitable happens.

So count me in. Tell me what to do and I will do it.

Via de la resistance! And Happy New Year. But alas, as I said on my blog, Baby 2009 was born of crack-heads (God knows the-powers-that-be were smoking something), and already appears septic.

MJ

P.S. I will entertain feedback from anyone. But don't e-mail me to defend Randolph Hospital or any of the crooks that run it. I will eat you for lunch and spit you out.

P.S.S. Feel free to forward this e-mail to anyone you like (including "the enemy"). I'm done being paralyzed with fear - or not saying what I think. My thoughts will probably will be posted on the blog before the end of the day (albeit without anyone's name or e-mail address attached).

Nothing revives the general populace (or a dying town) like a good fight.

Get it? The Good fight.

Late Afternoon Update: Immediate comment from a reader via e-mail: A house sliding off the mountain......I would pay to see that.

And THAT'S from a friend;) Of course, I would too . . . if my house were not in "the valley", on the wrong end of a slide.

Evening Update: This comment was left on another post:

Who are you magnificent creature?

I live on Dave's Mountain, and have been reading your blog. Kudos for writing it, I value your insights. I moved here from CA, where incidentally...I (and a handful of other people) had just finished fighting and suing the state and federal (Bureau of Land Management) govt's over some mining issues. (We won)

When that 5 year fiasco ended, we had an annexation battle to deal with. When I moved here, I thought all that was behind me. Who knew? I too have issues with Randolph Hospital....BIG ISSUES. We'll talk. All your advice re: the annexation battle was right on.

(Signed) Ex-warrior (I need a rest),

Lise McGregor

I need a rest too, Lise. I've been chasing this windmill for nearly eleven years . . . something driven home this evening as I unloaded a friend's Ford Expedition packed from front seat to back door to ceiling with pictures and mementos from my old RMA office (until this week stored in my Mother's attic because I could not bear to go through it).

But I cannot . . . I will not . . . rest until these fine, upstanding liars are made to answer for their actions . . . their crimes.

Lately, it feels like the direction of the wind has finally turned my way.

I look forward to that talk.