Pinewild annexation opponents have -dismissed all remaining appeals in their long-standing legal battle with the village of Pinehurst.

In documents filed with the courts, two different groups of plaintiffs entered notices of voluntary dismissal through their attorney, Gene Boyce.

One appeal was headed by Doug Aitken, and the other by Lydia and John Boesch, along with groups of other Pinewild property owners who did not want to be part of the village.

After the state Supreme Court turned down a petition for discretionary review earlier this year, the annexation became effective March 31. Pinewild is now part of the village of Pinehurst.

Boyce's dismissal notice was accepted by the clerk for the Court of Appeals, and as a result, the motion to dismiss previously filed by Village Attorney Mike Newman was allowed.

"I think that's just wonderful news, and I think that it allows the healing to take place," Mayor Ginsey Fallon said Friday. "If you keep pulling the scab off, it never seems to get better. So I am just absolutely delighted to hear that."

As to whether there will be any compensation claim filed in federal courts based on the contention that annexation is a "taking" in the same sense as when government condemns property for public use, no action along those lines is currently under way, according to Lydia Boesch, one of the leaders of the anti-annexation movement

"Some people have been thinking about that," Lydia Boesch said Friday morning in a telephone interview. "Nothing like that has been filed or is being done now."

This is the end of the road, as far as John Boesch, her husband, is concerned. He said they are not part of any ongoing controversy with the village.

"Lydia and I are not engaged in any activity against Pinehurst," he said. "We have really been trying to get that wrapped up for months. It just riles people up out here. StTOP is for all intents wrapped up."

StTOP, which stands for Stop the Taking of Pinewild, was the name of the group the Boesches helped organize to fight annexation in the courts. It did not, in the end, prevent annexation.

Now that the village has taken in the gated community, John Boesch said it's time to make peace.

"People out here by and large are happy with the form of the annexation," Boesch said. "The focus now is to support FAC. That is still an issue that concerns people."

FAC, the Fair Annexation Coalition, has some 17 chapters across the state of North Carolina. Aitken and others are pushing the N.C. General Assembly to reform the state's involuntary annexation law.

"There are abuses, and everybody agrees with that," John Boesch said. "Clearly the House does, and a whole lot of senators do. Forced annexation is a minority (of annexations) - only 15 percent, but should be done in a manner sensitive to the rights of individuals."

Boesch, a longtime volunteer with Pinehurst activities such as the Fair Barn, said he is happy to go back to being just another helpful Pinehurst retiree. Most Pinewild residents feel the same way, in his view.

"Everybody here is on board with the notion that they are part of Pinehurst," Boesch said. "They are moving on with their lives - trying to move on, anyway. People keep bringing stuff up, but Lydia and I are not on the forefront of anything like that. People ask us a lot of questions, but we are not organizing for anything other than getting back to being retired."

Contact John Chappell by e-mail at jchappell@thepilot.com.