This is a printer friendly version of an article from
www.goupstate.com
To print this article open the file menu and choose
Print.
Back
Article published Oct 21, 2004
State high court nixes town of James Island
Associated Press
CHARLESTON -- The state Supreme Court has
refused to reconsider its opinion that the incorporation of the town of James
Island was unconstitutional.That means that, for the second time in a decade,
the town ceases to exist.Local governments in the county will now ask a judge to
appoint Charleston County financial officer Harold Bisbee to seize and
distribute the town's assets.Earlier this year, the justices upheld a lower
court ruling that a 2000 law used to incorporate the island amounted to
unconstitutional special legislation.The nearby city of Charleston had sued
challenging the incorporation, just as it did when James Island first tried to
incorporate in 1992.In the first case, the city argued the town was illegally
cobbled together by land connected by marshes and waterways owned by the city.In
2000, state lawmakers passed a law allowing waterways to be shared by
municipalities for the purposes of incorporation, and two years ago residents
voted 2-1 to incorporate the town. Charleston again challenged the result.The
mayor of the dissolved town, Mary Clark, 72, says she will continue the fight
for self-government."We don't want to be a colony of the city of Charleston,
pure and simple," she said.Bisbee was appointed to the same role eight years ago
and padlocked the town's offices."We'll take all their records, which probably
include the records I took last time and then gave back to them when they
re-formed," he said. "It will be a lot easier this time, because they don't own
any land and they don't own any personal property."The first time, the town
owned land, vehicles and other property. Now it is renting office space and owns
little more than two computers.