Deep South Regional Partnership E-news

First Issue 08/17/05

_____________________________________________________________________________

STOP I-3 REGIONAL COALITION MEETINGS

AUGUST 18, 7-9 PM, Public information meeting Tri-County Community College, Enloe Building. (On US Hwy 64 between Murphy and Hayesville, NC). Sponsored by Western Carolina Pacesetters. Speakers from NC Dept. of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, and elected officials, as well as experts on watersheds, nuclear transport, and highway feasibility studies. The second half of the meeting will consist of a public forum for questions and comments. Coalition members and other groups may have a place to set up for literature, etc. A big turnout is crucial to demonstrate that WNC is paying attention and that I-3 proponents will not be allowed to force this unwanted and unnecessary project on our mountains. For more info email John at jkqualla@verizon.net .

AUGUST 23, 6:00PM, STOP I-3 REGIONAL COALITION MEETING WHERE: White County High School Gym, Cleveland, GA Public Information Meeting Public and Officials invited Hear reasons for and against the interstate proposed for our area. Speakers will include U.S., State & local officials as well as experts on areas impacted by this project. Join your friends and neighbors from GA, NC, SC and TN for this important meeting. visit the Stop I-3 Coalition website at: http://www.stopi3.org
 

Asheville Citizen Times----Not so fast on this whole I-3 thing!

We here in the mountains squabble, it seems sometimes endlessly, over all manner of issues great and small.

What we need sometimes to bring us together — conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, Baptists and Unitarians, newcomers and natives, you name it — is a common enemy. Something to galvanize and unify us. Interstate 3 looks like such a common enemy.

The proposed superhighway would link Knoxville and Savannah. Its proponents say it would help ease traffic congestion around Atlanta and provide a more direct corridor for nuclear shipments between the Savannah River site near Barnwell, S.C., and Oak Ridge, Tenn. Estimates of its cost range to $50 billion.

If there is any compelling argument about how WNC would benefit, we need to hear it right away.

Georgia Rep. Charlie Norwood, who is pushing the bill in Congress, says the highway has an “overall aim of opening up the entire Savannah River Valley, Western North Carolina and east Tennessee to through traffic from the Midwest and Port of Savannah.”

While the route for the superhighway has not been officially settled, WNC had better get involved, as we have a huge stake in this.

Interstate highways distinctly and forever change the complexion of the communities they run through. Once that road is built, there is no going back. Interstates bring some economic benefits, but consider the cost. They also bring increased air pollution, litter, noise and a hodgepodge of fast-food eateries, gas stations, warehouses and strip shopping areas.

Norwood’s Web site shows the proposed route as entering North Carolina somewhere around Hayesville, and connecting to Maryville, Tenn. Norwood’s routing guidelines for the road have it running along mountainous, serpentine U.S. 129 in the Murphy, Andrews, Robbinsville area — on the western edge of the Smoky Mountains, and just east of the pristine Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest — on its way to Tennessee.

It would be premature to accept that route as final. A coalition of opponents in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee called Stop I-3 are busy battling the plan, and the route could shift considerably. Some opponents believe the proposed route is a decoy, and that it will be shifted to U.S. 441, which would bring it through Clayton, Ga., and either on to Franklin or west to Hiawassee, Ga.

There are too many important long-term consequences for the entire Southern Appalachian region for us not to have a fully involved public debate over this superhighway.

Rep. Charles Taylor expressed reservations about the project Monday, saying he will work to secure funding for multiple other WNC transportation projects before considering the merits of an I-3.

The I-3 plan appears to be a power play, pure and simple, of big-money interests elsewhere who are indifferent to what’s best for the mountains.

Former Georgia Congressman Max Burns, who was defeated for re-election last year, originally sponsored this legislation at the behest of business interests in the Savannah area. He has since joined a prestigious Washington law firm to “bolster the firm’s lobbying capabilities in the area of transportation, agriculture, infrastructure and construction,” according to a news release from the firm earlier this year.

Yes, Atlanta surely has a traffic problem, which it brought upon itself by poor infrastructure planning by city officials for years. But outsourcing that traffic problem our way is the wrong solution.

In Western North Carolina, consider what adding four-lane highways has meant to other small towns. Is that what Robbinsville really wants?

Much of Western North Carolina and Southern Appalachia’s economy spins around its wonderful natural appeal to tourists, second-home buyers and retirees. That is completely at odds with the environmental degradation brought by a superhighway.

Especially a superhighway that could be routed in flat country and built at a much-cheaper cost to taxpayers. Interstates typically cost $25 million per mile to build, and that cost goes up swiftly when mountain terrain is involved. And the wisdom of nuclear shipments through such terrain is an issue we can’t do justice to in this space.

Keep in mind that we still have an ongoing serious air pollution problem here, especially in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. More big truck traffic would just dig that knife in deeper.

Many question if the road should be built at all. Given the relentless march upward of oil prices and ever-dwindling supplies, debate about the road ought to zero in on the whole wisdom of subsidizing new superhighway construction. Maybe that $50 billion would be better spent on developing a mass transit system for Atlanta.

It will be unfortunate if the debate over Interstate 3 turns into a splintered “not-in-my-back-yard” political football, where it might go the path of least resistance. The real debate is whether it should be in anyone’s back yard.

ON THE WEB: Text of Rep. Taylor’s response to the AC-T regarding I-3 is at www.CITIZEN-TIMES.com 

ATC favors "Monetary Settlement" on North Shore Issue

Great Smoky Mountains National Park North Shore Road EIS. Several years ago, U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor (R-N.C.), chair of the Natural Resources Committee, arranged for funding that directs the staff of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM) to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) concerning the "North Shore Road" (NSREIS). The NSREIS evaluates alternatives to satisfy obligations on the part of the United States stemming from a 1943 agreement between Swain County, N.C., the Tennessee Valley Authority, the state of North Carolina, and the U.S. Department of the Interior (for the NPS). Background information on this issue and process is available at <http://www.northshoreroad.info/>, the park’s Web site for the NSREIS process.

One NSREIS alternative proposes construction of a road along the north shore of Fontana Lake between Bryson City, N.C., and Fontana Dam. That alternative, if built, will have significant negative impacts on the A.T., including a significant increase in noise in an otherwise quiet environment; significant visual impacts to the viewshed of the A.T. as seen from along approximately ten miles of the Trail, including large and numerous road cuts and lengthy bridges; a significant decrease in the wilderness experience provided by the A.T. through diminishment of the largest area managed as Wilderness that the A.T. passes through from Georgia to Maine; an increase in use of the A.T. associated with improved access to trails on the north shore of Fontana Lake; and significant safety issues as a result of co-alignment of the A.T. with the new road for up to 1.5 miles. Construction of this road is estimated by the NSREIS to take up to 15 years and cost $299 million to $374 million (depending upon surfacing).

Instead, ATC has been on record from the beginning of the process as favoring the “monetary settlement” alternative. That alternative satisfies the purpose of the project because it will satisfy all obligations on the part of the United States that presently exist as a result of the Memorandum of Agreement of July 30, 1943, among DOI, TVA, Swain County, and the state. That alternative satisfies the need of the project by resulting in a determination that it is not environmentally, scenically, recreationally, culturally, or financially feasible to complete the road. The monetary settlement provides for a payment to Swain County, currently projected at $52 million ($1.3 million owed by the United States in 1943, in 2005 dollars.). Those funds would be placed in trust with the interest available to Swain County.

Of the five alternatives under consideration in the NSREIS, only the two described above satisfy the U.S. obligation to Swain County. The Swain County Commission has voted in favor of the monetary settlement, which also is favored by Governor Easley and state agencies.

The groups planning strategy for opposition to the North Shore Road (including ATC) determined it would be useful to get a large turn-out of monetary-settlement advocates at a final public meeting, to counter the pro-road group. ATC consented to explore the idea. After discussions between the regional office and headquarters, it was decided ATC would work with NPCA, the Sierra Club, SELC, WNCA, Swain County, and others to promote a “show-me” hike and encourage attendance at the February 22 final NPS public meeting concerning the NSREIS in Bryson City. ATC mailed background information to 600 western North Carolina members and e-mailed all five southern A.T. clubs, inviting participation in the hike (from the end of the “Road To Nowhere” into the undisturbed GRSM backcountry) and public meeting. About 18 of the 80 or so participants who attended the meeting came in response to the ATC appeal—a very good three-percent response! The chair of the Swain County Commission addressed the group, the group attracted some television air-time (no mention of ATC), and a good time was had by all. Though this partnership effort was successful, this type effort would have a better cost-benefit ratio if ATC were able to reach its members via e-mail.

Staff members from the southern regional office will remain engaged with the issue. They have provided formal comments for the latest round of input, having shared drafts with Deep South A.T. clubs. ATC is working with other national groups and Swain County to plan strategically for the very important response to the draft EIS, which will be released for public comment in the fall. ATC will also play a much more active role by engaging more people from the A.T. community and elsewhere in the issue through coverage in the ATN, on ATC’s Web site, perhaps with a “press blitz,” and through information displays, such as at the joint display under planning with other conservation groups for ATC’s upcoming biennial membership conference. ATC Comments on North Shore EIS

2005 Multi Club Event Canceled!

The Multi-Club Event for 2005 has been cancelled due to extremely low turnout. All registrants have already been notified of the cancellation and their checks have been returned. The purpose of this email is to inform other interested parties of the cancellation and ask them to spread the word to club members who may have been considering attending the event without registering in advance.

The decision to cancel was a difficult one considering the history of the event and the amount of effort that had been expended in the planning of the event by both NBATC and many other parties, but also a very easy and quite obvious one considering the low turnout. The expectation of people to come to the event and meet, hike, camp and socialize with people from the other clubs could just not have been met due the low turnout.

The general feedback that we have received from several clubs is that with the Regional Partnership Meetings and The Biennial Meeting in the same year there was just too little need and time for yet another meeting. David A. Helms

North Shore Strategy Meeting

What: North Shore Road Strategy Meeting

When: Friday, August 26, 2005 from 10:00 am - 3:00 pm

Where: Calhoun Country Inn, 135 Everett Street, Bryson City, NC.

Lunch will be provided. Charge for lunch will be $12.00. AS ALSWAYS WE NEED A HEAD COUNT FOR LUNCH. PLEASE RSVP GREG KIDD. The following people have responded and plan to attend the meeting: · Greg Kidd · Don Barger · Ted Snyder · Rachel Doughty · Jackie Dobrinska · Natalie Foster · DJ Gerken

AGENDA · Media Strategy · Lunch · Update from Citizens for the Economic Future of Swain County · Draft EIS Comment Strategy

You will receive one last reminder of this meeting as well as a more complete agenda next week. Feel free to send in agenda suggestions about subtopics under media strategy and DEIS comments.

Deep South ATC Conference Committee receives commendation!!

Doris, Now that the conference is over and before too much time passes, I want to commend you, the members of the steering committee and all of the volunteers who worked so hard to make the event such a success. Very, very well done, indeed. I thought the entire event went very smoothly, and I didn’t hear any of the complaining that has occurred at times in the past. In addition, you picked a great site. The ETSU campus was very nice (I roamed about on early-morning walks), the lodging was fine, and having most of the events right in the campus center was a real plus. I’m convinced that the setting and absence of problems put people in a good mood, contributing to the good feelings they seemed to have toward our new name and direction. Please pass my thanks along to the steering committee members. Regards, Brian T. Fitzgerald, Chairman Board of Directors, ATC.  

Other Miscellaneous Information

NC AT License Tag Committee Meeting Minutes

April RPC Committee Meeting Minutes

SORO ATC Ten Year Goals

RPC Spring Summary

2005 Spring RPC Mtg Attendees

RPC Member Information

ATC Comments on North Shore EIS

SMHC-ATC-ATPO 07/02/05 Meeting

ATC Position Statement on Interstate 3

GATC Position Statement on Interstate 3