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Billy World versus Willie World Are Rural Residents Being Scared into the Beckoning Arms of Oakland? The fear of Memphis breaching the county line and gobbling up Fayette County residents has been a motivating factor for many years. It was what spurred the efforts to incorporate the Town of Hickory Withe. With the passage of Tennessee’s Growth and Annexation law in 1998 followed by the adoption of a county growth plan in 2003, this fear should have been laid to rest. It has not. It continues to rear its head among residents on the western border. To quell the fear once again, the Hickory Withe Community Association brought in Bill Terry, the planning expert who developed the county’s growth plan, to address this issue at their monthly meeting a couple of years ago. Now there’s resurgence of concern which has flared up coincidentally with Oakland’s request to re-open the growth plan to extend their Urban Growth Area. At a hearing on September 21st in Oakland city hall for residents of Hickory Withe to air their concerns about some proposed annexations in their area, the subject was brought up by Terry Leggett, former president of the Hickory Withe Community Association. Mr. Leggett said, “I think what has happened is, at least the people that I’ve talked to in Hickory Withe, there’s been a move, I don’t know who’s done it, but they’re trying to scare people that Memphis is coming. And you need to get in a city otherwise Memphis is going to get you. That’s a, I think, a scare tactic.” Oakland Mayor Bill Mullins immediately responded, “I’m not trying to scare…”, but Leggett cut him off by saying, “I’m not accusing anyone here. I’m just saying that, I think, is misinformation that’s out there. That if you’re in an annexation reserve area [a city’s urban growth area], you’ve already been spoken for by a municipality. You’ve got the same protection from Memphis as you’d have if you lived next door to city hall, here.” Worries about Memphis are not confined to Hickory Withe. Incidences of people being canvassed in the area north of Hwy 193 and west of Hwy 194 have been reported. Citizens there were “informed” about the threat from Memphis and asked if they wanted to be “protected” by Oakland. Apparently, this door to door effort met with some success. When the map of Oakland’s proposed, but not yet officially requested, new Urban Growth Area was presented to their Planning Commission at their December 5th meeting, Mayor Mullins explained the extension down to Hwy 193 and across to the county line by saying, “Mr. Chairman, I’d like to comment that the reason that is drawn as it is, is I’ve got a good number stacked up of petitions to be brought into the urban growth boundaries for several different reasons. “… these are requests from people from the south and the southwest end of Fayette County. You’ve got those boundaries stretched out that far. Some of the people who petitioned for annexation are far out.” [Emphasis added.] Terry Leggett’s mention of “a scare tactic” got a quick reaction from Mayor Mullins. It’s something worth thinking long and hard about before welcoming the embrace of Oakland.
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