The air may be turning cool, but the thought of annexing Grenada Boulevard into the city of Greenwood has some business owners in that area sweating.
“All it’s going to do is run people around here out of town,” Nelson Wong, who owns a convenience store on Grenada Boulevard, said Friday. “If taxes go up, everybody’s going to leave, right? How is that a good thing for anybody?”
After grappling with a $1.2 million budget shortfall in September, some city leaders have recently spoken up about the possibility of annexing some residential areas just outside Greenwood’s city limits. Grenada Boulevard has long been considered a prime target. When combined with the Chapman subdivision, the area could generate roughly $100,000 in property taxes for the city, according to Leflore County Tax Assessor Leroy Ware.
But Wong, who has operated his convenience store for more than 30 years, said the city would be doing the area an injustice by taking it in.
“Business is going down as it is,” he said. “The economy is bad, everything is so bad. If taxes go up, we’ll have to close the doors.”
The owner of Brewer Screen Printing on Grenada Boulevard agrees. Barry Brewer thinks taxes are high enough and said freedoms, like being able to smoke, shoot fireworks and have yard sales without permits, are worth more to him than anything the city can offer.
“They’re going to charge you all that money, then tell you what you can and can’t do,” Brewer said of the city’s property taxes. “I can’t see one positive it would bring to the area.”
About 10 years ago, the city spent $150,000 to study the costs and benefits of annexation. Ultimately, the city decided not to tack on any residential areas due to concerns about diluting the minority vote and the cost of providing services.
However, Grenada Boulevard residents already pay separate city school taxes and receive city water.
“Why would we want to pay city taxes when we already receive most city services?” Brewer said. “The people in the city, they’ve got a legitimate complaint, but I can’t imagine anyone in this area agreeing on this.”
Brewer, who lives in the Chapman subdivision, added that the Leflore County Sheriff’s Department provides excellent law enforcement in the area.
Travis Skelton, who has operated a U-haul business on Grenada Boulevard for almost five years, agrees with Wong and Brewer on the topic of annexation. Skelton said his chief concern is people on fixed incomes, like his elderly mother and step-father, who will pay more in property taxes, garbage rates and other costs of living if brought into the city.
