WOODFIN – During a meeting last week, Woodfin government officials — including a new mayor and two new Town Councilmembers — listened to residents’ frustrations with the town and urged residents to reconsider their request to leave.
In the Feb. 1 evening meeting in the Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College training facility, these elected officials convened with a group of residents who signed a petition declaring their desire to leave Woodfin. Around 40 people attended the meeting.
Throughout the meeting, Mayor Jim McAllister, elected last November, encouraged his constituents to share their grievances with the town, often thanking speakers for sharing their stories.
McAllister’s message to residents who want to leave: “Give us a chance.”
But after 17 years of mistrust built with the previous regime, many of Woodfin’s residents on the west side of the French Broad River don’t want to give the town another opportunity. They want to leave.
These residents live in an area of Woodfin that the town annexed in 2006. It was contested at the time, according to Citizen Times reporting. Residents were concerned that the services the town provided was not worth the additional taxes.