NC Senate Bill 629 Manufacturing Redevelopment Districts

North Carolina League of Munincipalities Bulletin http://www.nclm.org/Legal/Bulletin/2005/06-10-05.htm

NC General Assembly
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2005/Bills/Senate/HTML/S629v2.html

These two links should get you started on research on this bill, which appears to be an attempt to prevent the destruction of industrial buildings and turning the land into a state forest. This would also provide a possibility of gaining some of the jobs lost when the facility was shut down. A European Firm is interested in the property, but I don't know the name yet. If anyone does, lemme know via the comments section.

Following is Don Yelton's report of the Weaverville meeting as e-mailed to me.

The meeting went well. About 25 people came in support of the resolution. The attorney for the town had talked with the Institute of Government and felt that NC did not permit such condemnation. We informed the town council that this had happened in NC such as with the Greensboro incident with Federal Express. The town worked with the airport to get the land needed for Federal Express to build a building.

They were not informed and were concerned about the fact that the resolution could only be overturned by a vote of the affected people. The town attorney said "he did not think there was a mechanism to allow citizens to vote on something like this". This is a red flag to all who believe that we have a democratic republican form of government.
THEY don't have a mechanism for us to vote. COME ON---this better be taken to heart by all Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, and Conservatives.

But, Weaverville did instruct their attorney to have information by the next meeting and they would discuss it then.

Remember: Contact those folks in Weaverville with your concerns. The mayor said she did not like the ruling.


Well folks, we've heard what happened from Don. Now get out and beat the weeds for people to come to the next meeting, and tell them to look on this site for the resolution, and communicate with each other.

Bobby

P.S. Use this link in e-mail to get the resolution: http://wnccb.blogspot.com/2005/07/copy-of-proposed-weaverville.html

Show up and give your your support to the resolution next Monday, the 17th of July at the town administration building!

Hat tip to Don Yelton for providing me with a copy of the proposed resolution.

I have in my grubby little paws a copy of the Weaverville resolution that will be presented to their council. The resolution follows:

Whereas,private property rights provide the foundation for the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pusuit of happiness, and,

Whereas, the recent Supreme Court decision ( Kelo v New London ) has made it essientially that the rights be protected primarily at the local and state level, and

Whereas, it is now possible for some local or state government to seize the property of some of its citizens in order to transfer title to other private citizens under the concept of general or public good, broadly defined,

Therefore, be it resolved that the town of Weaverville does hereby declare that the right and proper application of the power of eminent domain is, and the right ought to be, in accordance with "public use" clause of the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution, narrowly construed to mean public easement or ownership for valid government purposes, or to solve identified public healt problems, and

Further, be it resolved that the Town of Weaverville will not transfer property from one lawful citizen to another merely to meet the desires of the recipient, or of the government, for economic gain, and

Further, be it resolved that this resolution can be rescinded only by referendum of the voters affected by this resolution

Further, be it resolved that we, the Town Council of Weaverville, urge our County Commissioners and representatives work to ensure that the private property rights of the North Carolina citizens are secure from such arbitrary and capricios seizure, and amend the Constitution of the State of North Carolina if necessary.

Whew, lots of typing for a hunt and peck guy like me! Any errors in the above resolution are my transcription errors.

See what you think of this link===> http://www.judicialnetworks.com I found it while researching something else.
Also, any one who attended the weaverville meeting on Saturday feel free to comment on it in the comments section.

I've found a website that has been up since August of 2004 called Eminent Domain Watch and is worth trolling for information and possible contacts for those of you fighting to limit the Kelo v New London ruling. I'll keep it on the top right hand side for a few days before finding a suitabke category for it.

There was a meeting scheduled for the Weaverville group today on their resolution, and I hope to have some info on how that turned out, maybe even get one of them to guest blog to document their efforts.

Notice that there are more Tropical Storm (Hurricane) Forecast and Tracking Links on the sidebar besides the National Weather Service site. Looks like we're gonna get more rain this week.

Hat Tip to Cindi

On Thursday, the House of Representatives voted on amending HR 3058 to include with holding federal monies from those who abuse eminent domain. It passed. Link===> http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll350.xml
I've also put it on the sidebar where it will stay for the next few days.

Here are a list of the NC Reps who voted against: Robin Hayes, GK Butterfield, Bob Etheridge, Brad Miller, David Price, and you guessed it, Melvin Watt. Send them an e-mail letting them know your displeasure and, better yet, if you know people in their districts, send them an e-mail or call them and let then know what their representative has been up to lately.

Also, according to a conversation one of our readers, Cindi, had with Chris Mears <>, efforts could be made in persuading NC Senators to amend our State Constitution to strengthen private property rights. Contact leaders on BOTH sides of the aisle.

Bobby

I ran a test to see what would happen if I invited people to join the WNC Citizens Blog. I invited my alter ego, who runs Thunder Pig, and it worked!

So, for those involved in the eminent domain fight, this is an open invite to join and post your own updates. I'm going to take the liberty of inviting Don, since I already know he's involved in the Weaverville resolution.

Just send me an e-mail to wnccb@yahoo.com with your e-mail address so I can invite you to join.

1. When you accept, just click on the link and follow the instructions.

2. If you don't have blogger account, you will be asked to create one.

3. Be ready to provide a user name with no spaces to log on with, and a password.

4. If you have any problems, lemme know at the above address, or in the comments section of the newsest post.

When you post you will choose a title for your post, and a font, and a size of your letters,
the default is this size, called normal,
and large is this size,
and tiny looks like this....ugggh! Maybe you could use this for quotes or when you simulate whispering!
I like to use small, which looks like this,
Huge looks like this, which represents shouting at the top of your lungs and takes up a lot of space, so should be used to indicate extreme excitement
Okay, you get the point.

Don't be shy about letting me know what is going on in your community across West Carolina. Seeting up your own blog is also easy, and let me know what its URL is, and I'll link to it and post on it here, and invite you to post here when you have updates.

And always try to sign the bottom of your post. ( I know, I forget sometimes, too!)

Bobby Coggins

The link to the Eakman site now works. I goofed it up.

If anyone has a report on efforts to counter the Supeme Court (SCOTUS) ruling on Kelo v New London, please let me know in the comments, and if any of you are interested in starting a local blog to record and share your efforts, lemme know as well. Blogger handles the site for free and I can help with template changes to make the site function for you. If I can do it, you can also do it.

I took the liberty yesterday and added my personal blob to the Blog link on the sidebar, and would love to add more WNC Blogs, so if you have one you'd like to add, please lemme know, and I'd like to create a category for local Citizens Blogs or Websites as well.

Bobby