An Auspicious Union The annexation agreement reached Monday between the city of Memphis and the organized residents of Hickory Hill brings to an end a decade of litigation and controversy and may even usher in a new era of cooperation between the city and outer county. Something like that was indicated by the conciliatory nature of statements made by Mayor Willie Herenton and by some of the principals in Hickory Hill’s long struggle for independence. The mayor – who dug in last year and waged a bitter legal war against the Chapter 98 law that would have facilitated the incorporation of communities like Hickory Hill – conspicuously avoided any crowing on Monday. And such spokespersons for Hickory Hill as Tom and Denise Jeanette, lead petitioners in the 1997 effort to incorporate as “Nonconnah,” were in their turn upbeat about the outcome. Denise Jeanette, indeed, agreed to head a transition team prior to the community’s official incorporation into Memphis on January 1, 1999. And, so far from exuding a sense of resignation about the course of events, the Jeanettes seemed eager, even impatient, to have things happen. As they pointed out, the plan of services promised by Mayor Herenton’s administration – including more than $150 million in new municipal improvements over the next five years – is both generous and specific and is, moreover, enforceable by court order. Much of the credit for this week’s accord is owed to the 1998 General Assembly which labored openly and in good faith to produce a compromise measure. The legislators ended up with something that clearly was fairer to all sides than was Chapter 98, which favored suburban areas one-sidedly and, as the state Supreme Court ruled in striking it down, was passed in stealth. The new law divided the burden of civic responsibility equally between major cities, which are mandated to provide clear, enforceable guarantees of city services, and adjacent unincorporated areas, which must henceforth prove in court the inequitability of planned annexations. The evenhandedness of the measure made possible what Hickory Hills lawyer Dan Norwood called “a prenuptial agreement.” May it be a precursor of several happy unions yet to come in Shelby County. An Endangered Tradition The tragic death this week of Eddie Rice, owner of a traffic escort business, should serve as a catalyst for state and local legislators to reconsider laws governing funeral processions. Rice was killed Tuesday while directing traffic at the intersection of Mallory and Third. He was escorting a funeral procession from a church in South Memphis to a cemetery across town. The Tennessee Funeral Directors Association estimates that 90 percent of the cities and counties in Tennessee provide police escorts for funeral processions. But all that could change now that a court has held the city of Chattanooga partially liable for an accident involving a funeral procession escorted by a single police car. Such legal liability coupled with the exponential traffic growth on many urban streets and highways may bring an end to the traditional funeral procession. Following the death of Rice, perhaps Memphis funeral directors should encourage families to travel separately to the burial sites where they will lay their loved ones to rest.