news-record.com

GREENSBORO — If northwest Guilford County and other neighborhoods are annexed come June, the city will have to provide its 10,000 newly annexed residents with police and fire protection.

And scrape snow-covered roads in the winter. And collect leaves in the fall. And mow right of ways in the summer.

On Tuesday, the City Council adopted an outline to provide those services: It unanimously approved service plans for the areas, which include the effect those services might have on the city's budget.

Assistant City Manager Bob Morgan read the seven-page report — that's seven pages single-spaced — into the record, as is required by state law. The service reports, which will be available on the city's Web site today, also provide potential residents with jargon-laden statements of what services they can expect to receive — again, something required by law.

Councilman Mike Barber joked: "Bob, for clarification, could you go over the last five pages again?"

Few, if any, residents from the Cardinal and other neighborhoods showed up to protest the procedure.

The next step: Property owners in the areas under discussion should receive information in the mail by Sept. 25. A public meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Oct. 25 at Grimsley High School.

The council could adopt the plan in November.

Annexing the areas would require the city to:

* Add 25 new patrol officers and four nonpatrol positions to the Greensboro Police Department.

* Buy 12 new pieces of equipment and hire 16 new workers to collect garbage in the Cardinal and other northwest Guilford County neighborhoods.

* Spend an estimated $1.5 million to bring public streets in that area up to "good maintenance condition."

The bottom line: All new residents must be given access to the same city services that longtime Greensboro residents receive. The time frame in which those services must be added varies by service.

One thing that's not included in the service plans: access to Greensboro Transit Authority bus service.

Councilwoman Yvonne Johnson said the city needs to look at how feasible it would be to extend bus routes in some of the annexed areas.

"I think we should factor in the cost of bus service to see how we fare," she said.

But Councilman Tom Phillips said providing bus service to annexed areas isn't something the city has to provide. People who chose to live in outlying areas should realize before they move there that public transportation isn't guaranteed.

"If they don't have their own transportation, that should factor into their decision," he said.

Contact Margaret Moffett Banks at 373-7031 or mbanks@news-record.com