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Cooper was right to apologize
To the Editor:
It is appropriate that the attorney general has apologized for the tone of the comments his office made on the “Preferred Settlement Agreement” that Jackson County and others offered in the Duke Power relicensing process. It is, however, too late.
The embarrassment brought on his office and our state by the flamboyant, bombastic and abusive language will be remembered long after this process is over and unfortunately will likely cause our state’s Department of Justice to be remembered as a sideshow.
The greater tragedy is that some of the agencies the Attorney General’s Office represents not only failed in their responsibility to perform on behalf of the people of this state, but also failed to enforce the laws that they are responsible for enforcing. For whatever reasons they may have had, the various agencies under the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources that participated in the Tuckeseigee Cooperative Stakeholder Team, in my opinion, failed to come close to fulfilling their obligations toward the resource (the river and its watershed), the environment or the public.
In an area where the value of fish passage is questionable, these agencies traded the Dillsboro Dam, as a fish passage issue, for virtually every other environmental issue within their purview. They traded general public access and recreation for commercially- operated recreation primarily for tourists, and gave no consideration to flood control or the agribusinesses and homes downstream of the projects.
Worst of all is that these public/state agencies behaved as though the process was only an exercise carried out to fulfill a prescription; that the conclusion was foregone.
Bill Lyons
Cullowhee
Citizens have right to speak their minds about library
To the Editor:
Does Jason Kimenker have a problem with a citizen’s effort to do research, use the Freedom of Information Act, read newspapers and, by providing information that could be obscure, contribute to the democratic process?
Or does he think it is better to know so little about “the big money library project,” that the site has been purchased for $210,000 in a run-down old plaza (and don’t forget the added attraction of a bar). And people don’t even know it. This purchase was in 2004.
Would it interest him to know that a former task force for the library voted to hire a firm for $50,000 to do a feasibility study. This was strange since there was a firm that would do it for $15,000 to $20,000. Of course it was only taxpayers’ money, but the decision caused the resignation of two very conscientious board members. Are we so naive as to believe that every volunteer spells volunteerism “altruism?” We certainly know that all volunteers are not paragons of virtue, but some of them have private agendas. Having given hundreds of hours to the old Sylva Elementary School is proof that I and other locals have volunteered in many ways to build the county a lot of you have come to.
Kimenker seems to have gotten the Thompson fee somewhere ($3,445). And I certainly made a mistake by not researching how the $50,000 was divided out and assuming it was the same as a former task force was going to spend. After researching The Sylva Herald (February 2005), (Jackson County Manager) Ken Westmoreland was quoted as saying, “The approved library planning of $50,000 has been spent, in part used to pay Sylva architect Odell Thompson for a study of six potential library sites and the rest going to a library assessment, boundary survey and other necessary preparations.”
Let me quote from The Sylva Herald (Feb. 24): “Thompson has assisted in library planning before as he initially recommended the ‘Jackson Plaza site’ to county commissioners last July after a joint county and town of Sylva task force hired him to evaluate six potential library sites.” Another quote from The Sylva Herald (Feb 24): “At the time, Thompson told task-force members that Jackson Plaza was his top choice.” If Mr. Thompson didn’t pick the Jackson Plaza site, then what was he paid for? I am sure The Sylva Herald published what he said and did in an accurate manner. These article quotes in no way denigrate Mr. Thompson’s public service, but are only part of the record of the library project. For Kimenker to infer that I meant to be slanderous is ludicrous. He didn’t bother to mention that I named he county and town officials that voted to buy the site. Is that slanderous and unfairly targeting these officials, or is it just telling the truth? As a taxpayer, I have every right to express an opinion and an equal right to say that I inadvertently quoted what I thought was an accurate figure based on an old task force offer to a company for a feasibility study.
How often through the news media the local, generational citizens are told of our good fortune to have such clever, multi-talented, exceptional leaders – altruistic people working on our behalf to provide the library we should have, which is not a relaxed, recreational community library that we are accustomed to and have enjoyed.
Since we have wonderful, institutional libraries located at Western Carolina University and Southwestern Community College, many of us are inclined to balance needs against wants and the economic impact on the taxpayer.
A little praise for the generational locals, who through hard work, volunteerism and community spirit, created a great university, a vibrant community college and a good place to live in, would not be remiss.
Marie Leatherwood
Sylva
Importance of keeping the Jackson County Airport
To the Editor:
I have been a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary for six years. Like other volunteer pilots, I have flown in support of search and rescue, safety patrols, drug and migrant interdiction operations, homeland security and fisheries patrols. The CGA also has a memorandum of understanding to assist the Civil Air Patrol. Local members of CAP want to re-establish a CAP Squadron at the Jackson County Airport.
I received the following information concerning a request made by Angel Flight Southeast that is part of the Angel Flight America organization.
Angel Flights normally fly patients for free to specialized treatment locations that the patient can’t receive locally.
Here is the information/request forwarded to me via the CGA:
To: All USCG Auxiliary D7 aircraft owners and pilots,
I would like all of you to consider joining Angel Flight Southeast. I am on their board of directors, and have flown many missions for them, especially in the last month. Their story can best be told by going to www.angelflightse.org
One area that is overlapping is Homeland Security Emergency Transportation System.
Angel Flight America has a special agreement with the federal government to transport small priority cargo or key personnel in response to local, regional or national disaster, public safety, public health or terrorism incidents or crisis. We, along with the military, were the only aircraft flying after Sept. 11, 2001. Since Hurricane Katrina, Angel Flight SE has coordinated more than 1,000 missions of personnel, supplies and evacuees.
There continue to be more missions than we have planes for and need your help.
Please look at the Web page, go to the pilot section and fill out the pilot application, send it in and we will have you flying on a rewarding mission in no time.
Sincerely, Albert M. Nixon
I am sharing this with the citizens of Jackson County as these missions are perfectly suited for the type of single-engine, light twin-engine, and new class of VLJ business jet aircraft now in development that can fly in and out of the Jackson County Airport should the needs cited above ever arise. I have forwarded the request to many Jackson County Airport pilots. This year we already had Hurricane Ophelia that caused destruction to North Carolina’s Outer Banks. What if this meandering Hurricane had come farther inland?
These HSEATS flights are especially important to the citizens of Jackson County since the Jackson County airport is one of only three public-use airports for a 100-mile stretch between the Western North Carolina border and the Asheville Regional Airport.
Another already existing use of the local airport is by the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. They fly several flights in support of the Area Health Education Centers program into the Jackson County Airport annually. This national flagship program of UNC provides doctors, nurses, dentists, and others with current leading-edge training in their specialty and provides clinical care throughout the state to many who wouldn’t otherwise receive specialized medical care.
On Sept. 24, 75 adults and 25 youth attended the Experimental Aircraft Association and Young Eagle Day Fly-in at the Jackson County Airport. Some 20 aircraft came in and many of the children and teenagers were educated about careers in aviation and were taken aloft, all for free.
I want to keep the citizens informed about the direct and potential benefits that the Jackson County Airport can provide for them.
William Austin
Sylva
Resource agencies failed environment during relicensing
To the Editor:
While Attorney General Roy Cooper is in Western North Carolina, I hope he will look out over our beautiful mountain community and our county’s massive public water resource known as the Tuckaseigee watershed? I’d like to ask for some observation, perspective and possibly some independent investigation into the genesis and history of Duke Energy’s public relations campaign known as the Tuckaseigee/Nantahala Settlement Agreement.
It’s a shame to have to revisit these accusations, events and numbers again, but Duke Energy, the resource agencies involved and the people who do their bidding, continue to ride this dead horse; that is, they continue to rely on and boast about this ill-begotten settlement agreement as if it was some kind of Magna Carta. In reality, based on local knowledge and experience, the Tuckaseigee stakeholder process and resulting “non-agreement” amounted to a calculated series of maneuvers that violated the rights, ethics and boundaries of this community. With a little investigation, Cooper will find how this unfortunate public relations campaign continues to cause damage to our rights and property some two years after it was signed.
The Jackson County-based Tuckasegee Stakeholder team members signed onto its own agreement at about a 50 percent ratio. More precisely we are talking about 16 stakeholders signing on to the Tuckaseigee agreement out of 31 nearly active stakeholders in all. Of course being against the settlement meant not signing it, and that meant being removed from the process and not being a stakeholder after two years of meetings. Again, that is 14 out of the 31 member local Tuckaseigee stakeholders group who chose not to sign the agreement. These numbers within our Tuckaseigee stakeholder group, hardly reflect the greater ratio and majority endorsing the (combined) Tuckaseigee/Nantahala Stakeholder Agreement.
Many who did sign this calculated “non-consensus/consensus agreement,” signed with a score in an infamous grading system, grading it a “four,” which means they signed “with major reservations,” although Duke energy is concealing that information as the bylaws of the Stakeholder Agreement allows.
Excuse me for being repetitious, but “Orwellian double-speak” is a good description for what has gone on here with this corporation-controlled campaign.
There were two resignations, not reflected in these numbers. One of those resignations was my own, “in protest,” for intimidation and threats of expulsion from said Tuckaseigee stakeholder group moderator for being critical of another member (Duke energy). This threat of expulsion occurred the day after I attempted to correct misinformation and threats to the town of Dillsboro made by Duke Energy representatives at a fall 2002 town of Dillsboro monthly board meeting about rate increases if the dam was not removed. I had violated the Stakeholder Agreement bylaws for speaking negatively about the Duke position at my own town’s board meeting. After this first-hand experience with double standards, false information on Duke’s part and restrictive bylaws limiting public education and information, I immediately resigned from the Tuckaseigee Stakeholder team, feeling its integrity compromised.
The attorney general would do the citizens of Jackson County a great favor by looking into many improprieties that created and continue to plague the Tuckaseigee/Nantahala stakeholder group process and agreement such as the inappropriate alliances between industry, resource agencies, stakeholders, its executive committee, its bylaws and the deal-brokering that occurred in this series of agreements.
In the overall picture, Jackson County has more important issues in the areas of flood control, sediment and erosion control and life cycle management for these hydro plants. Instead, we have been misdirected to this relatively insignificant issue of dam removal for “species migration” at a location where there is no species migration.
As Cooper visits our area this weekend, he will find eight dams, large and small, involved in this relicensing. We hope he and his staff will gain some local knowledge about these matters. We were not fairly represented in this Tuckaseigee and Nantahala stakeholder process and agreement. And it is our right, within the context and format of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission relicensing guidelines, to question this process and the ownership, performance and obligations of this system and use of a public resource. We have not received adequate representation by our federal and state resource agencies. Nor have we received accurate economic and environmental impact studies that should have resulted from the stakeholder process, but instead was substituted by this flawed agreement. Jackson County has shown great restraint and flexibility in coming up with a compromise and alternative with their Preferred Settlement Agreement.
TJ Walker
Dillsboro
Writer seeks help with school bus concerns
To the Editor:
Does your child have permission to ride the school bus? Only students, who are approved after writing a letter, requesting permission, may ride a public bus from Cullowhee to Smoky Mountain High School. Why do our children need permission from school officials to ride buses? I received a letter from the school that students are lingering in the hallways and on school grounds, and that this is a safety issue. I think it would have been easier to give warnings to those students who were causing problems and not allow those problem students on school grounds.
Our county can raise taxes, yet our children cannot receive proper bus service to and from school. After hurricane Ivan, Luker Branch road was devastated, and the road collapsed. However the state workers repaired the road damage and improved the road. Shortly after this we were told school bus services would not resume because the roads were considered unsafe. Our children are expected to walk more than a mile to receive bus service. Would you send your child down a dark road to the highway hoping that they catch the bus? What if you work and can’t pick them up in the afternoon? Our children’s safety is being jeopardized so the county can save what? A few dollars and a 2-mile drive.
I would also like to mention that one family has two handicapped children who had their bus service of many years discontinued. Their mother must drive them to the post office in the morning to put them on a bus, and pick them up at the trash recycling area in the afternoon because the post office parking lot is to busy in the afternoon. Many of the parents in my community have been trying to resolve this problem and have contacted numerous officials, but so far we have received no help.
Connie Franks
Tuckasegee
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