Highland Springs is caught in the middle of the revenue and PR war between Henrico County and the city of Richmond.

Saturday is the deadline to mail in your vote on a county initiative that could result in about 84,000 homes and businesses changing their mailing address from "Richmond, VA" to "Henrico, VA" to recoup $5 million in annual tax revenue the county says is mistakenly routed to Richmond.

If residents vote "yes," the result could be an identity crisis for Highland Springs, whose "high ground and well watered springs" led New Englander Edmund Sewell Read to develop the site in the 1890s, according to The Springer Connection Web site.

Its residents -- unlike those in nearby Sandston or in Glen Allen -- have also been asked to accept "Henrico, VA" as their mailing address.

That idea did not sit well with Wayne Bordonie, an employee at Highland Springs Transmission.

"I grew up around here. It's always been Highland Springs. That would be like changing Richmond," he said.

"It's all political to me. Just a bunch of politics in it. I think one hand's trying to get richer than the other hand."

Owner Jimmy Tennette handed out a business card with his shop's address. "You know where Highland Springs is," he said. "You put my address as Henrico, and I'm in the West End? Northside? Varina?"

Allie Page, a manager with the Richmond District of the Postal Service, said Highland Springs was included in the proposed change because, unlike Sandston and Glen Allen, it does not have its own postmaster and its post office is a branch of the Richmond Post Office.

Opinion is divided in this East End Henrico community, where the cross streets go by names like "Elm," "Oak," and "Holly."

From its Depression-era art deco Henrico Theater to its working-class ambience to the fervor surrounding the powerhouse high school football team, Highland Springs seems more like a small town in western Pennsylvania than a suburb several miles outside of Richmond.

"I want it to stay Highland Springs," said Kathy Mason, who says her family has lived there since the 1800s. "I mean, it's been Highland Springs all my life, and I'm 55 years old."

Paul Moore, a resident of Highland Springs for 59 of his 87 years, voted for the change.

"I don't see where it makes any difference at all," he said.

Page said Highland Springs residents, like Henrico residents who currently have a "Richmond VA" address, would have the option of retaining their current address. But the "preferred" addresses would be "Henrico, VA."

Bordonie says the county may as well change Glen Allen, Sandston and every other community within its boundaries to "Henrico, VA" if it's going to mess around with Highland Springs. And he has a point.

Big-box store homogeneity has encroached upon historic Glen Allen. They're talking about rerouting trains away from Ashland, a genuine railroad town. Distinction is being purged in favor of the generic.

Ashland is the only incorporated town in the metro area. Places such as Highland Springs are more of a notion bound by history, memory and community than a town in any official sense. What happens when you mess around with that?

Or as Tennette says, "Couple of years later, somebody looks in the phone book and says, 'Highland Springs? Where the hell is that?"
Contact Michael Paul Williams at (804) 649-6815 or mwilliams@timesdispatch.com.