Stop I-3 Coalition Newsletter
June, 2007
From the director
We the People
There are but a few days until the special election on Tuesday,
June 19. which will determine the next U.S. Representative
from the 10th District of Georgia -- or at least which of the
10 candidates will be in a probable run-off on July17. With
re-election rates in the House as high as 98 percent, who is
elected this summer could have a lasting impact.
Research the
candidates, vote, and encourage others to do the same.
Please
pass this notice along to anyone you know who lives in the
10th District — family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, business
owners, fishing partners, motorcycle crew, hiking buddies,
and such. See map for included counties since the redistricting.
We want as many people informed and voting as possible. If
you are interested in
staying informed about Interstate 3 developments, please sign
up and we’ll be in touch monthly or so, as there
is important information to share.
As a single-issue organization,
the Stop I-3 Coalition is unable to post the candidates’ views
solely on our issue, as that would imply support for particular
candidates. As a tax-exempt group, we cannot influence the
outcome of an election. Please
keep educating yourself on how the candidates stand on all
the issues that are important to you.
We are keeping a list
of times and places when the candidates are speaking on our
website. Please let us know of these opportunities so we can
ensure the list is as complete as possible. Our email is stopi3@alltel.net.
With our collective eyes, ears,
and dialogue, we the people will soon gain a U.S. Representative
that we can hold accountable to stopping Interstate 3.
— Holly Demuth, Executive Director
Now, get out and vote!
Reminder:
The special election for the 10th District Congressional
seat held by the late Rep. Charlie Norwood will be conducted Tuesday, June 19, 2007. Polls will be open
from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. that day. Early voting has
begun. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote,
a run-off election will be held Tuesday, July 17.
This election will be held in the following counties: Banks,
Clarke, Columbia, Elbert, Franklin, Greene, Habersham, Hart,
Jackson, Lincoln, Madison, McDuffie, Morgan, Oconee, Oglethorpe,
Putnam, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, Wilkes, and part of Richmond.
(See map.)
This is a non-partisan special election with no party primary.
Stop I-3 Coalition does not endorse any candidate.
We do encourage you to be informed and to vote.
Ask candidates what they think about Interstate 3. If they
support it, ask them why. If they oppose it, ask them how
they would stop it. Let them know what you think. You can
click "Comments" on this website to tell us what
they said in answer to your questions. Please include at
what event or place you heard this from them and the date!
We will be able to share candidate comments after a winner
has been declared.
Corridor K update
In our May newsletter, we noted that a consultant (Wilbur
Smith Associates of Tennessee) was holding a series of
public meetings to discuss a “draft economic development
strategy” for the proposed Corridor K highway that would
link Asheville to Chattanooga. The Corridor K route is
basically East-West and Interstate 3 would be North-South
but both highways would cut through the same mountainous
areas of Western North Carolina. Sections of Corridor K, if
it were to be built first, could morph into parts of an interstate
at a later date. These include the remaining unbuilt sections
of Corridor K: the connection from Stecoah to Andrews tunneling
through the Snowbird Mountains, and the section from Murphy
to Cleveland paralleling US 64 along the Ocoee River.
Members
of the Stop I-3 Coalition who attended the meetings found
that they were pre-programmed and focused around economic
and development matters to the near exclusion of the drastic
environmental impacts and the immense cost of the proposed
highway. Participants were basically asked to rubber stamp
a prepared document full of assumptions, notably that this
area is underserved by roads and that more roads will bring
in big industrial employers.
The Stop I-3 Coalition will continue
to monitor any moves to further the building of Corridor
K. The Coalition Board has determined that our mission of "opposing
I-3 or any similar highway" should include scrutinizing
other four lane projects in the region, especially those
which, like Corridor K, threaten to prepare the way for Interstate
3.
Corridor K is a project of the Appalachian Regional Commission
and appears to have some support from elected officials at
various levels of government. Please see http://www.arc.gov/index.do?nodeId=1006 for
more background information.
Burma Shave matters
The Stop I-3 Coalition reminds you that we have some great
Burma Shave Sign sets available for your yard or pasture
fence and yard signs (16" x 24") with our name
and web address to place in your yard to show your support
of stopping I-3. For more information or to order your signs
call Sandy Lyndon at 706.754.0046 or email her at sandy@bbinc.org
One volunteer’s reason for commitment
When asked to write this article, as one of the first Stop
I-3 volunteers, I agreed.
My first recollection of the Stop I-3 initiative
was in the summer of 2005 when, reading the news,
I was amazed
at the mere proposition of an interstate conceivably running
Unicoi Gap and intersecting the numerous designated wilderness
areas. My passion for the Appalachian Mountains dates
to the early 1970's while attending Young Harris College, and
that passion prompted me to action, as "something" had
to be done.
Having attended public meetings all the way from
Dahlonega, Ga. to Franklin, N.C., and everywhere in between
to become informed, and thereafter writing articles and editorials
for various newspapers, I discovered the most tangible thing
for me to do to gain momentum for the effort was to put a "Stop
I-3 sticker prominently on the jeep and start collecting petition
signatures.”
It's not how much you do to support Stop I-3, it's that you
do something. No matter how simple, action matters. By
visiting local businesses personally, many are sympathetic
to the cause and gladly will accept petitions, possibly your
own place of business. Hundreds and hundreds of petition
signatures have been secured at my own place of business. By
putting a stop I-3 sticker on your car or place of business,
it will help keep the issue in the public eye and mind.
These old mountains are a beautiful refuge. Everyone,
whether they live or visit here, translates the beauty into
their own hearts. Please
help preserve what can't be replaced.
— Paula Gaskill
Shooting Creek, North Carolina
Send
the money!
Stop I-3 Coalition is a lean, low-budget enterprise – always
has been -- whose success has largely depended on the hard
work of willing volunteers who pitched in to further the cause.
Meeting
our goals, both short- and long-term, also means that we are
going to have to raise a bit more cold, hard cash. That’s
a fact.
So please dig deep enough to send money, today, right
now.
- On the web, at http://www.stopi-3.org/donate.html
- Or, mail
checks or money orders (made out to SAFC/Stop I-3 Coalition,)
46
Haywood Street, Suite 323, Asheville, North Carolina 28801-2838.
