Stop I-3 Coalition Newsletter
March, 2007
Coalition taps new executive director, approves board
officer transitions
The Stop I-3 Coalition is pleased to announce the hiring
of Holly Demuth as its new executive director, effective
immediately, and the election of Lucy Bartlett of Tiger,
Georgia, as chair of the organization.
— Stop I-3 Board of Directors
Demuth, a graduate of Agnes Scott College, most recently
served as development director of the Carolina Mountain
Land Conservancy in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Before
that, she worked as a development associate for the Community
Foundation of Henderson County, and as a National Park
Service ranger.
Bartlett, previously vice-chair of the coalition,
succeeds Greg Kidd of Asheville, who remains on the board.
Ted Doll of Sautee-Nacoochee, Georgia, takes over from
Bartlett as vice-chairman.
“We are pleased to see
Holly come on board, and look forward to what I am sure
will be excellent and strong performance,” said Bartlett.
Demuth
holds a master’s degree in secondary science
from Georgia State University. She is an avid hiker.
From the director
Why Stop I-3? Looking at what our intricate interstate
system in the United States has enabled over the past 50
years, why not support an addition to this web of progress? Myriad
reasons for not doing so have been articulated on this
website via resolutions signed by county boards of commissioners,
town councils, and a planning and economic development
commission; through research papers, and through news articles
and editorials.
We support progress, acknowledging
that progress looks different in rural areas than it does
in large metro areas. We
claim a sustainable blueprint that is congruent with the
unique cultural and natural aspects of this region, which
inherently nourishes those who dwell here.
This board of
directors perseveres with tenacity, skill, and finesse
in navigating these choppy waters. This
month we welcome our new board chair, Lucy Bartlett. Lucy
has been an integral part of the Stop I-3 movement from
the beginning, initially as Rabun County’s spokeswoman,
and this past year serving as board vice-chair. It
is an honor to serve under and with such able leadership,
both from the new chair and the entire board of directors,
as we foster prosperity.
Will you join me to help Stop I-3? With
the support of all the people, with an understanding of,
and sense of worth, in what is unique to this area, and
with a well-articulated vision of what represents progress
in this mountainous region, we most certainly will. In
doing so, we all come to better understand and integrate
what is essential to the well being of our irreplaceable
treasures.
— Holly Demuth, Stop I-3 Coalition executive
director
Georgia officials eye new highway tax
Georgia highway officials, legislators and the highway
lobby are floating the idea of a $20 billion public transportation
initiative, financed by a one-cent increase in the state
sales tax, for new roads across the state, including a
reconfigured “Northern Arc” that would stretch
for Interstate 85 to Interstate 75.
The plan put forward
early this month would aim to cure some of the many traffic
woes in the Atlanta metropolitan area, while throwing rural
Georgia a bone – in the
form of promises to pave all public dirt roads in the state.
Initial
reaction to the plan has been tempered by political reality – that
is, that rural Georgia voters might not vote for a new
tax that would benefit Atlanta disproportionately.
Metro
Atlanta officials also are floating their own transportation
tax proposal, which would affect metro taxpayers only.
— Joseph Gatins, Stop I-3 Coalition board member
Photo by Larry Winslett
GDOT collateral damage
The Georgia Department of Transportation has paid more
than $50,000 in fines to the Georgia Environmental Protection
Division after highway construction fouled a creek in Rabun
County, according to a report in The Gainesville Times.
The incident took place last August along U.S. 441 between
Clayton and Tallulah Falls, where the highway builders
are converting a six-mile segment of the road to four lanes,
with completion expected in June.
Bert Langley, manager
of the EPD's mountain district in Cartersville, said EPD
inspectors visiting the site in August found "significant
failure of slopes, where a big chunk of the hill had slid
into Tiger Creek."
Langley
said the incident highlights a problem that is common with
GDOT projects, the newspaper reported.
"The DOT is the largest land-disturbing entity in the state," Langley
said. "Georgia's erosion and sedimentation law specifically exempted the
DOT from control by local issuing authorities (for land-disturbance permits),
with the understanding that the DOT's own Environmental Compliance Bureau would
monitor the sites. But the DOT is understaffed."
While procedures are in
place to try to guard against such problems, GDOT spokesman
David Spear suggested erosion control failures are common
on such highway projects. "I
wish (the Rabun incident) were an isolated case, but unfortunately
it's not," Spear told The Times.
— Ted Doll, Stop I-3 Coalition board vice chair
So, what’s happening to the I-3 study?
Currently, the proposed $1.4m each studies of I-3 and
I-14 are awaiting the selection of an outside contractor
who will execute them for the Federal Highway Administration.
The contractor selection process requires the issuance
of a Request for Proposals (RFP) by the FHWA to interested
parties and the subsequent review and selection of winners
from the submitting bidders. To date these RFPs have not
been issued due to competing higher priority projects within
the FHWA Contracting Office and complications caused by
the fact that the past Congress did not complete the FY
2007 Appropriations Bill prior to adjourning. As of this
writing, we have been unable to get a serious estimate
of when the procurement process might get started. When
it does, it could take as many as several months to get
completed, the contracts issued and the studies underway.
One
of the earlier causes for delay of the studies involved
the questions of who should lead and manage them and how
to come up with the required 20% state funding. Responsibility
was initially delegated by the FHWA to the state of Georgia
Department of Transportation (GDOT). GDOT, however, declined
the lead and sent the project back to the FHWA.
Then there
was the problem of coming up with each involved state’s
share of the required 20%. For the I-14 study, both Alabama
and Mississippi agreed to participate. In the case of I-3,
however, neither North Carolina nor Tennessee agreed to
participate, even though the proposed road will pass through
their states and impact their established transportation
plans. GDOT then agreed to foot the whole bill for all
three states using $330,000 of Georgian provided gas tax
funding to do so. This was apparently done without any
senior state executive or legislative review.
For those
interested, the FHWA has a website for these studies at www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/sec1927corridors.htm.
— Charley Kraus, Stop I-3 Coalition board member
“Burma Shave’ campaign update
We are still in the process of getting out our Burma Shave
signs through out the area. If you are interested in a
set of signs please contact Sandy Lyndon by calling 706.754.0046
or by email at bandit@bbinc.org Help us to educate the
public about Interstate 3 by placing a set of signs on
your pasture fencing or in your yard near highways that
have good traffic flow. It’s best to have 200 feet
or more for spacing unless you are in an area where the
traffic is 45 MPH or slower. Here are the slogans to choose
from:
The wildlife calls
Out to the brave
This is my home
You must save
STOP I-3
Roll the dice
Wait and see
Will they take
My home from me?
STOP I-3
From the Mountains
To the Sea
Protect the beauty
That we see
STOP I-3 |
That little store
Where I bought gas
Is now a concrete
Overpass.
STOP I-3
They took my house
They took my bed
They took the
Whole darn watershed!
STOP I-3
The wildlife needs
The water clean
Fields and meadows
And trees of green
STOP I-3
This freeway is
A thing to stop
Proclaim it from
The mountaintop!
STOP I-3 |
I used to gaze
At pretty stars.
But now the lights
Are trucks and cars!
STOP I-3
Smoky Mountains
Will be lost.
The smoke will soon
Be truck exhaust!
STOP I-3
So we get there
A little late
We do not need
An interstate
STOP I-3 |
— Sandy Lyndon, Stop I-3 Coalition board member
More on nuclear transport policies and I-3
In previous newsletters we mentioned the
opportunity for public comment on an Environmental Impact
Statement scoping process on Complex 2030, the Department
of Energy's plan to revamp the nuclear weapons complex,
partially located at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the Savannah
River Site in South Carolina, both of which are located
on all proposed I-3 corridors. The Stop I-3 Coalition submitted
a comment requesting that nuclear transport between facilities
be considered in assessing the potential impact of these
plans.
The Department of Energy now reports that
it heard about 350
comments at hearings and received over 32,000 e-mails commenting
on Complex 2030. The DOE reports that, "the majority
of comments asked DOE to add an alternative that assumes
continued reduction in the size of the U.S. nuclear stockpile." Please
see http://www.eh.doe.gov/nepa/process/ll/March2007llqr.pdf ,
page 3.
Also in the same DOE newsletter, at (http://www.eh.doe.gov/nepa/process/ll/March2007llqr.pdf page1) is an update on the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership
(GNEP) which is also going through an EIS process with
an opportunity for public comment. The GNEP would potentially
greatly increase nuclear transport in our region including
shipments of high-level radioactive waste from all over
the country to the Savannah River Site and Barnwell, S.C.,
facilities. This could involve both the I-3 and I-14 routes,
as well as international transport through the Port of
Savannah. For more information on the GNEP, please see www.gnep.gov. The deadline for public comment on GNEP is
April 4, 2007. Please see http://www.gnep.gov/pdfs/gnepNOI010407.pdf
The
Stop I-3 Coalition will continue to monitor nuclear activities
in the region, which may increase the pressure to build
I-3.
— John Clarke, Stop I-3 Coalition Board
Member
“Private Cities” bill promotes road-building
The
Georgia state senate is considering a bill that would allow
developers and owners of large tracts of land to issue
bonds and levy taxes on residents of those developments,
powers that only cities and counties now enjoy. Senate
Bill 200 and a related constitutional amendment, SR 309,
would encourage development in rural areas by providing
money to build infrastructure, like water and sewage
disposal systems. These “special districts” or
private cities, would have their own elected boards and
the power to assess residents with fees and property
taxes above and beyond those imposed by local government.
Advocates of the bill say it is needed to help finance
new developments in rural areas. But opponents say the
bill is not needed, and would encourage urban sprawl and “leapfrog” development,
in which new developments gobble up pristine forest and
agricultural land.
One of the most troubling aspects of
the bill is that it would encourage development of additional
highways to reach new developments in the hinterlands.
This would destroy valuable farms and forestlands, and
the cost of such highways would have to be paid by county
and state taxpayers.
— Ted Doll, Stop I-3 Coalition board vice chair
STOP I-3 brochures available!
The Coalition has developed a new, handsome and informative
brochure to provide the public with basic information
about the coalition and its aims. Contact Ginny Heckel,
at gheckel@wt.net to secure enough copies for your next
community event.
