Yes. I think that in the recesses, at least, of some of their minds, some
of them speaking frankly, some perhaps honestly disagreeing, but in the
back of their heads was the feeling of many, I think, that we can get
more support, financial support for these things that Charlotte wants to
do that these people out in the county are benefitting from. They are
benefitting. They can come down to the coliseum or the auditorium. They
can
Page 8 use our airport. They come and use the Charlotte
city streets and all the improvements. They should help pay for these
things. I don't know. Of course, the people outside the city
said, "This is a city matter. We don't want to help
pay for these things. The people in Gastonia use these things. The
airport is closer to them and closer to the people from York County
South Carolina than it is to many of us. The coliseum and auditorium is
much closer to the people in Union County. People from other counties
can use these facilities. You voted the bonds. Yes, we use them, but we
don't use them any more than the people in these other areas
which are just as close to Charlotte as we are." The people
where I live were particularly of that opinion because where we lived,
we lived in the part of the county with no adequate highway facilities
at that time. The other areas had I 85, they had 74, they had even built
I 77 down and dead-ended it in a corn field at the South Carolina line.
We had to drive the tortuous distance over highway 21 with all the
accidents to make use of these facilities. So, we didn't feel
the same way. We, of course, shop in Charlotte as do people from other
areas, but we also shop in Concord and Mooresville and Statesville which
are much closer. That is, in the extreme northern part of the county. We
even use hospital facilities at Lowrance Hospital in Iredell County
because it's seven miles from us and not 25 or 30. They are
maybe some of the reasons and arguments. Now, we were particularly
opposed to…I, for one, was particularly opposed to this
consolidation, and I don't know whether you are going to get
into this or not. The five small municipalities actually received, in
this proposed charter, a lot of things in their favor. Representing one
of them, I tried to see that they were included. We had the right to
continue our existence if we saw fit to. Have our own municipal
government. Even annex territery under certain conditions. These things
were beneficial to us if consolidation had occured. So, it
wasn't all bad. If it had occured, there would have been many
things that we could have lived with. We were fortunate, perhaps, to
Page 9 have a charter proposed that did include these
things, so that we could continue our small town existence.
I'm just trying to be fair about it. I did not think that the
commission should have done what it did. I thought they should have let
each unit continue with its own debt, pay off its own debt. If Charlotte
had incurred a debt for coliseum-auditorium, for civic center, and those
other debts that it had voted, that it should continue to be a taxing
district for the purpose of paying off the old debts. That the county
should continue to pay off its debts. Of course, each town, if it
continued its existence, would have had to continue as a taxing unit to
pay off its debts.