Stop I-3 Coalition Newsletter
May, 2007
From the director
The Stop I-3 Coalition is
hopping with activity.
Investigations have been conducted into
inappropriate relations between transportation lobbyists and
public officials (click here for full story from the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution). With chronic transportation budget shortfalls,
federal highway funds are being rescinded. June elections are
approaching to replace the late Charlie Norwood, the Congressman
from Georgia’s
10th District, who introduced the Interstate 3 legislation.
These are among the factors that add to the Coalition’s
leverage in stopping this inane proposal.
One of our most critical
points of focus is the upcoming special election. Ten candidates
to date have qualified to run for the Norwood seat. A list
of candidates and their positions on Interstate 3 will be listed
on the Stop I-3 website. The election is June 19, with a run-off
probable July 17. While the coalition does not endorse politicians
running for office, Stop I-3 Chair Lucy Bartlett urges coalition
members to take every opportunity to talk with these candidates,
ask their position on I-3 and to share one’s personal
knowledge and opinion of I-3.
You are Stop I-3’s eyes,
ears, legs, and voice in the community. I continue to be amazed
by the commitment, number, and quality of Stop I-3 supporters
and supporting organizations. You have your own personal reasons
for not wanting Interstate 3. Let them be known!
As a person
who values the unique integrity of the region that Interstate
3 is slated to cut through—pristine headwaters,
mountainous forests, and small towns oozing with character—I
am appalled that my tax dollars would be directed toward a
(very expensive) project that would destroy these irreplaceable
treasures. I want to continue to hear the symphony of the cicadas
at night while sitting on my porch and the chirping of the
birds as I breathe in the crisp morning air, without the constant
background hum of trucks barreling down an interstate. That’s
why people choose to continue to live here, move here, and
visit here.
Thank you for what you do to help make this place
special and keep it that way.
— Holly Demuth, Executive Director
Highway funding rescission update
A huge thank you to all who
responded to coalition Action Alerts of April 10 and April
11, and the companion alert from our supporting organization,
the Natural Resources Defense Council.
These were aimed at giving
Georgia Transportation Commissioner Harold Linnenkohl and Gov.
Sonny Perdue a notion of how best to meet a federal request
to reduce transportation funding. And, boy, do they know who
we are!
More than 200 e-mails (and countless faxes) got through
to the officials before their system blocked this torrent of
messages.
“We are not against roads and progress. We want to protect
the environment and our way of life,” said Lucy Bartlett,
Chair of the Stop I-3 Coalition. “Our members are the
greatest, and together we can stop this Interstate and any
similar highway through the southern Appalachian mountains
and Piedmont.”
By way of background, the federal government
asked the state of Georgia to determine which part of Georgia’s
share of federal highway funding to return to the U.S. Treasury. This
rescission of transportation funding, which was required by
Congress in a recent appropriations bill, underscores the absurdity
of wasting limited transportation dollars on a study of the
unneeded and unwanted Interstate 3 proposal.
The coalition will
continue to press this issue in the coming months with decision
makers and politicians. The federal
government should not need a $1.3 million study to tell them
what the public already knows: Interstate 3 is a disastrous
and wasteful proposal that should be stopped before it starts.
— Lucy Bartlett and D.J. Gerken, Stop
I-3 Coalition Board members
Time, Talent, Treasure
How can you help stop Interstate 3?
By donating your time: Help
out at local festivals—passing out brochures, selling bumper
stickers, collect signatures on petitions, tell the story!
By donating your talent: Write a letter to the editor
expressing your opposition
By donating your treasure: Give!
We need funds to help us continue this fight.
In coming weeks,
our website will give you the opportunity to select ways you
can help us stop Interstate 3. We’ll
let you know when this feature is up and running on the website.
Thanks
for all you do -- and WILL do!
Spread the word about stopping I-3
Specific ways you can spread the word now:
• Yard art. Put a sign in your yard! This is a great
way to speak out and inform friends, neighbors and passersby
who also love our little slice of heaven about Interstate 3. The
coalition has recently purchased yard signs, 16" X 24," simply
stating "Stop I-3" with our web address underneath, www.stopi-3.org. These red-on-white beauties will really grab
attention and are simple to assemble. Send your
request for yard signs to Sandy Lyndon by email at sandy@bbinc.org . We
are asking a small donation of $5 to cover the cost of
the signs.
• Petitions. We invite everyone to go to our
website, www.stopi-3.org, and download petitions to gather
signatures in your area. If you are attending gatherings
or just among your friends and family let your voice be heard
through the petition process. Ask to place petitions in area
businesses. It's a great way to help stop the Interstate
and to be a part of something worthwhile. Petition signatures
are proof for those making decisions that their constituents
do not want this road. Thanks for your help! Send completed
petitions to: Ms. Ginny Heckel, 1074 Arbor Drive, Lakemont,
Georgia 30552.
• New brochures. The new brochures, handsome and informative,
provide the public with basic information about the coalition
and its aims. Contact Kathy Williams, sauteewill@alltel.net,
to secure enough copies for your next community event.
• “Burma Shave” campaign. Each set of these “Burma
Shave”-style signs includes a catchy ditty to alert passing
motorists to the woes of a new interstate in one’s backyard.
Contact Sandy Lyndon at bandit@bbinc.org. The slogans can be
found at www.stopI-3.org.
• Bumper stickers. Available from Kathy
Williams, $1.00 per sticker. Contact sauteewill@alltel.net.
• Attend area festivals. Stop I-3 Coalition will be
manning (and woman-ing) information tables at a variety of
festivals in coming weeks. We need help to make this effort
a success. Please contact Sandy Lyndon at sandy@bbinc.org to
volunteer, if you have any questions, or know of other advantageous
events. Festivals we wish to attend:
• Mountain Laurel Festival-Clarkesville, GA; May 18
and 19.
• Spring Festival-Lavonia, GA; May 5.
• NC State Bluegrass Festival-Cherokee, NC; June 14.
• Arts in the Park-Blue Ridge, GA; May 26 and 27.
• The Great Atlanta Music Fest-Atlanta, GA; July 21.
• Sautee-Nacoochee Summer Fest-Sautee, GA; June 15-28.
• Balsam Mountain Bluegrass Jamboree-Sylva, NC; July 8.
Corridor K public hearings
An engineering consultant is holding
a second series of public meetings to discuss a “draft
economic development strategy” for
the proposed Corridor K highway that would link Asheville
to Chattanooga. As this proposal could have major implications
for sensitive areas of Southern Appalachia – including
any number of possible Interstate 3 corridors – the
coalition urges all possible stakeholders to attend these
hearings.
• 11 a.m., Tuesday May 15, Ocoee Whitewater Center, 4466 U.S. 64, Copperhill,
Tennessee.
• 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 15, Southwestern Community College, 447 College
Drive, Sylva, North Carolina.
• 5:30 p.m., Thursday, May 17, Cleveland Bradley County Chamber of
Commerce, Cleveland, Tennessee.
The meetings are being facilitated by Wilbur Smith Associates,
which asks that participants signal their intention to attend
with an RSVP to Frances Hall, (865) 803-8994 or by contacting mziegler@wilbursmith.com.
Doings down in the Georgia legislature
The Georgia General
Assembly has adjourned, at least for now, with mixed results:
• “Private cities.” The senators and delegates
passed the “private cities” legislation 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. Gov. Sonny Perdue
must sign the measure, and Georgia voters must approve a related
constitutional amendment, before it could take effect. If approved,
the coalition fears such “cities” would spur rampant
road development to rural areas of Georgia.
• Transportation taxes. The General Assembly deferred
action on trying to enact new taxes for construction of new
roads and highways in Georgia. This undoubtedly will come back
up in 2008.
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.
