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Commissioners ‘blinked and ran’
To the Editor:
Sometimes a shake-up improves government; sometimes the voters just have to throw them all out and start over. Either way, it’s a sad commentary on public service when local government, elected for the precise purpose of safeguarding the common good on the home front, fails the supreme test of leadership.
Monday night the Jackson County Board of Commissioners, with the exception of Joe Cowan, blinked and ran. Despite weeks of heartfelt testimony from citizens who have lived on Tilley Creek Road for seven generations and more, and in the face of expert testimony regarding a host of environmental issues such as lead pollution in one of the pristine headwaters that feeds Cullowhee Creek, the county commissioners failed to take the only responsible route to resolution, which is to adopt a moratorium on permitting shooting ranges pending an ordinance that protects citizens and property rights. The commissioners’ paralysis on this issue is one of the worst cases of failed leadership I’ve ever witnessed.
This gun club is no ordinary group of men just wanting to get together and have a little fun. No, it is an exclusive club of affluent doctors and lawyers from Charlotte, Atlanta and beyond who can pay $1,000 to join and avoid paying income taxes, and want to come in our backyard to fire away, safe from any danger of disrupting their own backyard pool parties. Our county government has turned a deaf ear to the concerns of taxpayers and is willing to auction off our most sacred features to the highest bidder. With the commission chambers packed with concerned citizens from throughout the county opposing a shooting range in a residential area, and the hallways lined four-deep with gun enthusiasts rallied by National Rifle Association phone banks (probably originated from Mexico), the commissioners failed even to offer any discussion of the issue, quickly called for a recess and ran to one of the back rooms for cover. It was an appalling forfeiture of leadership, I tell you.
On the other hand, Sen. John Snow was out on Tilley Creek on Sunday to see the old Pressley Farm, the site of the proposed gun range. He wrote to the commissioners on Monday prior to their meeting, urging them to adopt a moratorium to give time for further study and resolution. Sen. Snow’s letter was not mentioned by the commissioners, though a gun enthusiast with a blacksmith/gunsmith son, who is likely to benefit from a thriving business if the gun club locates in our county, disparaged Senator Snow’s efforts and cast them as “inappropriate.” Since when, I would ask, is it inappropriate for a senator or a commissioner to act on behalf of the people?
When government fails to lead, and powerful special interest groups like this gun club start to harass and threaten people who are just trying to defend themselves from ruin, then the only recourse is for citizens to elect new people with greater courage and more promise to meet head-on the challenging issues of the day. The mid-term election is just around the corner. We need to start now to recruit and arm a new generation of candidates more willing to lead than to tuck tail and run.
Vera Guise
Cullowhee
Why another shooting range?
To the Editor:
Something I don’t understand about the debate over the new Smoke Rise shooting range on Tilley Creek. If you drive on up to the top of the mountain on Tilley Creek, there is already a shooting range and it’s free. Moss Knob Shooting Range is just inches beyond the Jackson/Macon county line – turn left onto Goodenville Road. Why would anybody want to pay to go to a shooting range when there is one just up the road that is free?
Also, the article in The Sylva Herald titled, “County officials table range moratorium,” Mr. Wilkey (hired by Smoke Rise) stated, “lead immediately oxidizes after being fired from a gun,” and so he concluded “I don’t think the lead toxicity is an issue.” “Lead oxidizes” means lead combines with oxygen; if you are around it, you are going to breathe it. Homer Royals was absolutely correct by disagreeing with Wilkey. See www.epa.gov/region02/waste/leadshot/bmp3_8.pdf for more information about lead at outdoor shooting ranges. This manual was written by the Environmental Protection Agency along with the National Rifle Association.
The manual states, “Lead gets into the environment at shooting ranges in one or more of the following ways: 1) Lead oxidizes when exposed to air and dissolves when exposed to acidic water (rain) or soil; 2) lead bullets, bullet particles, or dissolved lead can be moved by stormwater runoff; 3) Dissolved lead can migrate through soils to groundwater.”
Rainwater, creeks and springs transport lead. The Tilley Creek location has a steep topographic slope, it is bordered by a creek, and it does rain on Tilley Creek.
Just a few more facts. Lead causes damage to the brain and the nervous system, behavior and learning problems, impaired vision, difficulties during pregnancy, reproductive problems in both men and women (such as low birth weight and birth defects), high blood pressure, kidney dysfunction, memory and concentration problems and more. Based on all that, I have to support Mr. Royals.
Two of the EPA’s most comprehensive environmental laws, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Clean Water Act, give citizens the right to sue in cases in which the environment and human health are threatened. Let’s bring our county attorney, Paul Holt, in on these discussions. He is probably most familiar with these laws and can help the county avoid another lawsuit.
Those who would like to discuss this matter further are welcome to contact me at cbaker4197@aol.com.
Catherine Baker
Cullowhee
County leaders’ silence is frustrating
To the Editor:
Outrage. A word Webster’s Dictionary defines as: insult; the anger and resentment aroused by injury or insult. That word would describe the feelings of many in an overflow audience at the April 4 county commission meeting. After ignoring the issue of a skeet and trap shooting range on Tilley Creek proposed by the Smoke Rise Field Club for the last six weeks, the commissioners, with the exception of Commissioner Joe Cowan, chose not to discuss this issue on their agenda. After hearing from many Tilley Creek residents as well as other concerned Jackson County citizens, the commission would not even second a motion by Cowan to discuss the issue.
An elected official of this or any other county is expected to represent the constituents of that county fairly and with good judgement on all matters before that commission. In this case the commissioners chose to not even discuss the issue before them. It is one thing to discuss an issue and then, with all the information needed to make an informed decision, vote your conviction. This commission, by its action, or inaction, told over 400 signers of petitions asking for some regulations on shooting ranges, all the residents of Tilley Creek and to a greater degree all the citizens of Jackson County: If we choose, we will ignore and refuse to allow the electorate to understand the reasons, rationale or any justification for the lack of discussion.
I was insulted and angered by the commission’s lack of comment on this issue.
There is an old expression: No answer is also an answer. The answer from the Jackson County Commission is: If we don’t like an issue, we just will not discuss it, and don’t any of you 400 citizens try to make us!
Homer Royals
Cullowhee
McMahan fails to live up to his ideals
To the Editor:
Monday night, April 4, the Jackson County Commissioners denied Brian McMahan his first opportunity as chairman to live up to his ideals. In the March 24 Sylva Herald, McMahan is quoted as saying that he chose his party affiliation because they “reached out a hand to the helpless, who reached out to the working man and stood up for minorities. As chairman I will fight for those causes.” It looks like McMahan will have to fight the other commissioners to be true to this ideal.
As McMahan registered some shock and disbelief in his facial expressions, the commissioners failed to second a motion to consider a moratorium on shooting ranges in Jackson County.
Cries went up from some in the audience of “Cowards!” This, I feel, is misdirected. Cowardice implies emotion. With stoically expressionless faces worthy of the Terminator, the commissioners sat there as if lobotomized.
The Jackson County commissioners reached out to the Tilley Creek residents – to a helpless young child victimized by a condition that makes him hyper-sensitive to sensations like noise. The commissioners reached out to senior citizens who, as one resident said, are “too old to move and start their lives again.” The commissioners reached out to the working people of Tilley Creek whose small but respectable houses without acreage are “all they have.” The commissioners reached out to these good people – and stuck a finger in their eye.
At the same time, the commissioners stepped back and as much as said to the wealthy doctors and real estate brokers of Smoke Rise, “Come on in and wipe your feet on these people; we don’t care either!”
The optimist in me says, “The commissioners probably have another way to resolve this that they are going to announce.” The realist in me says, “Don’t hold your breath.”
If there is no alternative plan, then McMahan should resign in protest or explain publicly and without the political rhetoric how he is living up to his own words. As a matter of fact, if there is no alternative plan to save the Tilley Creek community from the impending disaster of a shooting range, then the entire board of Jackson County commissioners should resign. They should look into their souls and decide what master they really serve.
Louis Spagna
Cullowhee
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