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He draws the line at Cary's acquisitive
ways
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Ron Thoreson has declared war on Cary over its appetite for expansion by annexation. His weapon of choice is e-mail.
Thoreson, 47, knows the power of e-mail and the Internet. After all, that's how he met his wife. But instead of finding love, Thoreson now is using e-mail as a tool in his efforts to thwart forced annexation by the town of Cary. Thoreson and others also hope the e-mail messages and anti-annexation campaign will help change the state's involuntary annexation laws.
Cary officials have complained, saying that Thoreson is spreading misinformation about annexation and the town's intentions.
"E-mail is a wonderful weapon for citizens to fight back any government aggression that citizens don't think is right," Thoreson says, sitting at his computer in his home office. "It's like a chain letter, the e-mails get passed on and on. I've been amazed at how much this has grown."
Last October, Thoreson and other residents in the Dutchman Downs subdivision south of Cary got wind that the ever-growing town was planning to bring their 244-home development into its borders. Appalled that they didn't have a say in the process, the neighbors began to meet and form a strategy. They dressed in red and attended Cary meetings. They contacted local officials. They staged rallies and formed the Internet-based organization StopCary.com.
And every time there was despair that their efforts were in vain, Thoreson energized the insurgents.
"[Ron] has put hundreds, if not thousands, of hours in this fight to stop annexation," says Jad Packer, the former president of the Dutchman Downs Homeowners Association. "At some point, we get burnt out. [Ron's] always there and will keep you enthused."
Thoreson's beef with Cary -- and the state for that matter -- is simple: He believes that forced annexation with no input from the people affected is un-American. Since 1959, the General Assembly has given municipalities the authority to annex territory without the consent of the people who own the property targeted.
Local officials say the law has helped keep municipalities strong because it gives cities and towns the ability to plan growth around their borders and to expand their tax base.
Thoreson sees the opposite.
"Forced annexation is against the will of the people," he says.
After meeting his wife, Lori Thoreson Postal, in an Internet lounge chat room and "falling in love at first byte," Thoreson, an electrical contractor, moved to North Carolina in 1995 from Superior, Wis. to start his electrical business. The couple moved to Dutchman Downs in 1997 and were married in 1998.
Last year, Thoreson decided to change his life. He stopped smoking, cut out the caffeine and stopped eating sugar. He undertook the Atkins diet and lost 45 pounds. But his new healthy lifestyle has not consumed his thoughts as intensely as have North Carolina's annexation laws.
"I don't want people to think that I'm a northerner trying to bring northern ideas to this situation," Thoreson says, looking toward a picture on his wall of former Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi. "I bring democratic ideas that are uniform across this country."
StopCary.com, the group that has jelled to try to force local and state leaders to revisit the state's annexation laws, consists of about 800 e-mail recipients locally. But Thoreson said the group's e-mail messages are distributed to about 4,000 folks statewide. In addition, a new Web site, stopncannexation.com, was launched last week.
Thoreson isn't a man who's going to stand and yell his convictions. But his voice is being heard.
On March 24, Thoreson sent an e-mail message describing a recommendation by Cary's staff that the town's voluntary annexation process be reduced from a three-step process to two steps. After explaining that the change could reduce the level of public input, Thoreson wrote: "Shame once again on you, Town of Cary!! It just goes to show that there is no openness in Cary's government to listen to the people affected by its heavy-handed decisions!!"
Marla Dorrel, a Cary Town Council member, couldn't restrain herself.
"I have tried to resist responding to Mr. Thoreson's efforts to prey on people's emotions by portraying the Town of Cary, the council and, especially, our staff, as some sort of monster," Dorrel wrote in an e-mail message. "But with this most recent message, I will resist no more."
Cary Town Manger Bill Coleman asked to be removed from Thoreson's e-mail list. Coleman later sent an e-mail message saying: "All I have seen from Mr. Thoreson and the rest of the e-mail traffic on this subject is vitriolic attacks on the Town, personal attacks on staff, name calling, attempts at intimidation and falsely imputed motives of anyone who may hold a different opinion or has information contrary to that opinion.
"There does not seem to be any interest on his part in productive dialogue.
Dorrel declined to be interviewed for this article, and Coleman did not respond to an interview request.
But members of the e-mail list say Thoreson speaks for them, and that Cary will listen to no other approach.
"Ron, I think you are doing a great job and am really grateful that we have such a strong and wise leader," wrote Penny Lebenson.
Thoreson, who was a three-term councilman in Superior and an unsuccessful candidate for the Wisconsin legislature in 1994, is a diligent researcher. He reads everything about the issues he gets involved in. He seems to have read anything he can get his hands on about the state's annexation policy. He's at the Cary town hall asking for documents. He records council meetings to make sure he doesn't miss anything. He scours Cary's Web site to see if anything new pops up about annexation.
"He's the type, when he sees a cause, he works very hard to research it," says Margaret Ciccone, the former mayor of Superior and the current city clerk. "He looks at all angles so he understands the topic and usually pursues it quite heavily until there's a resolution."
The resolution for Thoreson is an adjustment in the state annexation law, but until that can happen, he and others in Dutchman Downs want Cary officials to have a conversation with them about being annexed.
"I am not intimidated by the publicness of government officials,"
Thoreson says. "They have the same difficulties in life as you and I.
Annexation is a complex issue, but people have simple questions. I'm
just learning the procedures so that I can explain it to the folks in
Dutchman Downs in laymen's terms."
Staff writer Demorris Lee can be reached
at 829-8937 or
demlee@newsobserver.com.
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