About time

Clay-Trussville dispute over; Clay to alter signs

ANITA DEBRO
News staff writer

A contentious 3-year-old land dispute between Trussville and Clay has cooled as Clay agrees to cut its losses and move on.

Clay Mayor Charles Hart said last week that the city had done all it could to protest neighboring Trussville's annexation of a 17-acre tract of land on Deerfoot Parkway that now houses a Winn-Dixie Marketplace.

City officials decided during last week's City Council meeting to put the fight behind them by altering a set of signs at the entrance of the grocery store that added fuel to the dispute when Clay erected them back in March.

The signs read "Leaving Clay 5 percent sales tax. Entering Trussville 8 percent sales tax" Officials agreed that the sales tax information should be removed from the signs. [...]

And what signs they are. The store sits up a small hill, accessed from the main drag by a long driveway. The boundary between the two towns is about midway up the drive, and the signs are BIG green utilitarian roadway signs with white letters.

The article details a bit about the battle that prompted the City of Clay to put up the sign. Agree or disagree with the way the land annexation was done, the sign installation by Clay was childish and petulant, as were calls from elected officials to boycott the store. Such actions were unfair to Winn Dixie, did nothing to alter the course of litigation, and only wound up making Clay look small.

Taking off the sales tax message might be a good will gesture, but it's one that shouldn't have to have been made in the first place.
posted by Terry at 9:39:00 AM