Editorials

Thus far, the plight of the people who live in Anniston's police jurisdiction has been overshadowed by the lengthy — and sometimes argumentative — discussions about the area's sales-tax revenue and who should receive it.

Truth is, there is no plight. Those Calhoun County residents have options.

Often, residents choose to live outside the city because they want fewer of what they perceive as governmental intrusions into their lives. For some, it's the lure of county living. They want to avoid city property taxes. They'd enjoy lower sales taxes. If a nearby town's crime rate is high, living outside the boundary has obvious advantages. And in many communities — including some in Calhoun County — county public schools are held in high esteem.

But residents of unincorporated areas also accept other, less desirable facets of county living.

Fire protection is often provided by small, under-funded volunteer departments — unless a nearby city's firemen pitch in. Police protection is provided by sheriff's deputies, many of whom have too large of an area to patrol. Zoning laws are non-existent, and county government has little teeth without legislative help.

Residents in Anniston's police jurisdiction have enjoyed the advantages of county living. They've avoided paying city property taxes, they've sent they children to county public schools. But they've also benefited from having police and fire protection from the city of Anniston. County residents who've received the best of city services should have few complaints.

In this way, they've had the best of both worlds: little government regulation, fewer municipal hassles, and help from Anniston's police and fire departments.

Now that Anniston has pulled its cops from its police jurisdiction, residents there have at least two options, and neither should be seen as radical. They can (a) form their own city with its own government, which could provide adequate police coverage, or (b) petition a nearby city for annexation.

In Calhoun County, the latter option — annexation — is the proverbial head-scratcher idea; few, if any, would likely go for it. Wellborn could ask to be annexed fully into Oxford, Saks could ask to join either Anniston or Weaver, and Anniston could take the unincorporated Golden Springs area around Choccolocco Road. Of course, the loss of an area's individualism — and the autonomy of its county schools — might nix that plan before it began.

But incorporation isn't out of the question. Imagine Saks, with several thousand residents and a strong feeling of community pride, becoming the City of Saks. It would elect its own mayor and City Council, and use property and sales taxes from U.S. 431 businesses to fund its police and fire departments.

That way, Saks residents who no longer receive police protection from Anniston would have their own police department.

Don't fret; it's not likely yet.

But it is an example of the best-of-both-worlds reality that residents of Anniston's police jurisdiction have enjoyed. And the reality that some Calhoun County residents have options that may be better than what they're facing today.