Under Lithonia’s current Mayor, annexation has become a hot topic, with towns like South Fulton and Stonecrest becoming new cities in 2016. The new city of Stonecrest was once unincorporated Lithonia that borders the city of Lithonia to its south and east. Prior to Stonecrest’s annexation, unincorporated Lithonia and the city of Lithonia made up of two zip codes, 30038 and 30058. 2010 Census Bureau shows that these two zip codes are ranked 2nd and 3rd in Black medium-income nationwide behind Prince Georges County in Maryland. Stonecrest now takes up all of zip code 30038 and a small portion of 30058. Under Georgia’s tax structure the county in which the unincorporated areas are responsible for collecting taxes among other revenue streams and providing services such as police departments, public works, and the governing body. Another area north and west of the city of Lithonia is planning to annex the remaking area surrounding the city into the City of Green Haven.  This move would leave the city of Lithonia landlocked with no room for growth. That potential growth would have added a significant revenue stream to the city. Lithonia has been a non-player in the arena of annexation until now.

 Councilwoman Shameka Reynolds grew up in Lithonia and has had enough of seeing her city standing on the outside of growth. She understands the power of annexation and how it can benefit her fellow Lithonia residents. Unlike Stonecrest and the proposed Green Haven, Lithonia wouldn’t have to spend valuable tax dollars building a City Hall, police department, and public works since we already have these services. Lithonia would only have to expand its city services to cover the annexed areas. Its expansion would make most of the new revenue available to create a better standard of living for all its residents. We don’t need to gentrify as Shameka Reynolds’ opponent intends to, we need to follow Shameka’s lead in creating other avenues of revenue for the city. Annexation will be the beginning. Last night at Lithonia’s City Council meeting, mayoral candidate Shameka Reynolds took the first step in the annexation process. The first step in annexation is to hire a company to complete a feasibility study to see if annexation would make financial sense for the city. Councilwoman Shameka Reynolds proposed the first step towards Lithonia annexation to initiate the search for the right company. The city council approved this Request for Proposal (RFP) with a unanimous 4-0 vote.

This is what homegrown leadership is all about. Moving the city forward while protecting its citizens.

Kazemde Ajamu

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