Senator Ed Jones said state legislators will tackle reversing the annexation of the Brandy Creek community from Roanoke Rapids during its January session.

Jones attended a legislative delegation session hosted by Roanoke Rapids City Council this morning.

In his opening remarks to council, Jones said, “Something we did was not right. We did something to hurt and injure someone. We need to make it right.”

Jones was referring to the 2005 annexation of the community into the Carolina Crossroads Music and Entertainment District.

The city has pledged to help the community break from the district and Mayor Emery Doughtie has said it was brought into the city limits involuntarily but has not received the same benefits other city residents have.

The mayor has said the people who still live there are taxed higher than they normally would be if they were living in the city limits and not the entertainment district. One person who lives in a doublewide is paying $3,000 in taxes, Doughtie said. 

Mark Dorosin, an attorney with the University of North Carolina Center for Civil Rights, told rrspin.com in May, “The residents always felt like they were unfairly annexed and caught up in the city’s economic development plan without proper notice.”