Semmes Residents Debated Incorporation in 2008
In 2008, Semmes residents debated whether forming a municipality could improve local services and keep tax revenue in the growing community.
Historical report preserved from an archived 2008 local news story.
SEMMES, Ala. — In 2008, residents of the Semmes community west of Mobile were debating whether the fast-growing community should incorporate as its own city, with its own government, its own services and its own control over the tax dollars its residents paid.
The discussion, recorded in archived local news reports from the time, weighed whether a new municipality could improve local services and give residents more say over how revenue raised in Semmes was spent.
Supporters of incorporation pointed to emergency services, noting that Mobile Fire Department units could be dispatched past the Semmes Volunteer Fire Department to calls inside the community. Fire Chief Mickey Dearmon said the situation troubled local residents, according to the archived report.
Supporters argued that growth and locally controlled tax revenue could make a difference for the community. Some residents were skeptical, questioning whether the community could financially support a city government.
Semmes becomes a city
The question was eventually settled at the ballot box. In an incorporation election on Aug. 17, 2010, Semmes voters approved becoming a city by nearly a 3-to-1 margin, and Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis declared the City of Semmes incorporated on May 2, 2011.
