When East Laurinburg voted to levy its first ever property tax Monday with the tax bill possibly due a few weeks later, some residents were surprised by an action they describe as too costly and too quick.

One of the East Laurinburg residents caught off-guard was Agnes Sturdivant.

"They are trying to force these things down our throats," Sturdivant said. "They aren't letting us have a choice."

Sturdivant said she had not been notified of the location of Monday's meeting where the tax was voted on. She said she and many of her fellow residents would have been there to protest the plan just as they did earlier this year in a petition drive when the tax idea was first trotted out.

East Laurinburg Mayor Randy Miller said officials made every effort to inform residents about the meeting where the board voted unanimously to set a property tax rate of 30 cents per $100 of valuation.

He said the meeting was publicized in the community calendar of The Laurinburg Exchange and that doing so met legal requirements to approve a property tax.

Miller also said that people were given fliers about the meeting.

"We even stapled it on the front door of the Community-Municipal Building," the mayor added.

Town Commissioner Marshall Stevens agreed that residents had enough notice about the meeting.

"I hand delivered 75 printed out papers," Stevens said. "Randy put it in the paper and we put a note on the door."

Miller said he told everyone he knew about the meeting, even putting up a sign at the barber shop.

Town officials say they proposed the tax after talking with state officials about the best way to help pay the bills after Waverly Mills decided to close its plant there. The plant paid the town about $10,000 a year. East Laurinburg expects to make about $12,000 a year in tax revenue.

Annexation

Mayor Miller said that without the revenue, East Laurinburg will not be able to function as a town.

Sturdivant said that might not be a bad idea. She went to the Laurinburg City Council meeting Tuesday to suggest that the city annex East Laurinburg.

But combining the municipalities is complicated, according to City Manager Craig Honeycutt.

"We can't [annex the town]," Honeycutt said. "You cannot annex another municipality. Annexation and the merging of two cities are two separate things."

There are two ways to merge municipalities, according to Honeycutt.

"If there is a large majority of citizens that are not contentious, then either city can pass a joint resolution asking the general assembly to dissolve the East Laurinburg charter and to expand the cities' borders to include East Laurinburg."

"If there is some contention, you can do it by referendum," Honeycutt said. "The referendum would go to their town and then to our city."

Both municipalities would have to pass a referendum for the two entities to merge, according to Honeycutt. He also said that a lot would depend on local delegations.

"Before any of this happens, there would have to be a preliminary understanding that we were asked to do this.

"It is going to take some work to look at assets and liabilities."

This would include the condition of streets, for example, to see if the street lights meet the city's regulations and if there is a need for more infrastructure, as well as other concerns.

"The closing of Waverly Mills was a huge blow to the finances of East Laurinburg," Honeycutt said, "The mayor and council have all said we would like to help East Laurinburg if we are wanted."

To Honeycutt, the ultimate question about a possible merger is how much of a bill the residents of Laurinburg would have to pick up to get East Laurinburg up to code.

He indicated that it could be a year before there was enough information for the council to even make a decision; it could also take a while in the General Assembly.

Miller said he would prefer that East Laurinburg should remain a separate municipality.

"I've looked at it two or three different ways," he said. "Paying 30 cents on the $100 would be cheaper on the community."