At the December 5th commission meeting, commissioners voted to take any and all action up to and including legal action, if necessary, on the illegal annexation by Lenoir City. On December 8th, Mayor Bradshaw sent a very friendly letter to Lenoir City mayor Tony Aikens with our concerns about the annexation. No one has yet responded to Mayor Bradshaw's letter. 

On December 12, the Lenoir City council met in regular session. There was no mention of Bradshaw's letter or anything pertaining to the annexation. Subsequently, county attorney Bob Bowman had a conversation with the Lenoir City attorney, Walter Johnson. Bowman's take on that conversation was that Lenoir City is well aware of the problems with the annexation but likely, would not be taking any actions to correct it.

With the city's unwillingness to even respond, and based on our previous vote and with Bowman's recommendation, the county has retained Kyle Baisley to represent us in the matter. Mr. Baisley has already sent the city a notice on the annexation. See letter below.

In the course of research on the current illegal annexation, it was discovered that, not only is the current Dan Smith/WNW annexation illegal, the adjoining property, Belle West Pointe, was also annexed illegally in 2020. Both parcels, according to the state and local Urban Growth Boundary, UGB maps, are and were outside the Lenoir City UGB preventing annexation without going through the proper procedures.
 

Thursday, the City attorney responded to our attorney to work on sitting a date for them to get together to discuss. They plan to meet the first week in January. At least there's that much progress.
 

It's absurd that the county has to hire legal council to protect itself and county residents from Lenoir City's illegal actions but the county didn't ask for this. Lenoir City has forced it on us, again, just like in 2003. If we just turn our heads to it, they will never stop annexing county land and bringing more mass development into the rural areas of the county, not to mention infringing on the property rights of county residents. Our hope is that the city will come to it's senses and correct their mistakes but I think we all know that's not likely to happen under mayor Aikens' leadership.