Williamston ribbon annexation tabled

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The entire Pelzer voting precinct will be included in the Pelzer Annexation Referendum vote on Tuesday.

That detail was finalized Monday night after Williamston Town Council tabled second reading on a ribbon annexation on 13 properties that would have cut the Pelzer voting precinct almost in half and blocked Pelzer’s annexation of a shopping center and other businesses along Hwy. 20.

According to one of the property owners, almost every one of the 13 property owners who had originally signed on, decided they did not want to be a part of the Williamston strip or ribbon annexation stating that “it went too far” into the Pelzer area.

The Williamston annexation has been on the fast track by Williamston Mayor Mack Durham who secured the needed signatures over a two week period in an effort to help out the Depot Road residents, and others, who did not want to be included in Pelzer. The annexation of a 10 foot strip across each of the 13 properties, was unanimously approved by Williamston Town Council when they voted on it following during Williamston’s Town Council meeting last Monday.

The strip annexation would also have excluded Depot Road residents from the Pelzer annexation if it passes tomorrow. Most of those residents do not want to be a part of Pelzer because they would gain nothing by being a part of Pelzer and their annexation was an oversight by Pelzer town officials who had intended the annexation to include the mill village. Many of the Depot Road residents have water service provided by the Town of Williamston.

If Williamston’s ribbon annexation had passed on second reading, it would have taken the 13 properties out of the Pelzer annexation and blocked the adjacent properties, including those on Depot Road, by making them non-contiguous to Pelzer.