Gateway landowners ask TWSA for expansion help

By Rose Hooper

Tom Jordan and Joni Ashton asked the board to provide that infrastructure by installing sewer lines and service to connect with the Eastern Band of Cherokee's existing system.

The two landowners presented board members with a petition containing more than 170 signatures of those requesting service "from the top of the hill at Smokey Mountain Elementary School to where it connects to Cherokee."

Estimating the cost to be about $600,000, Ashton, owner of Flaming Arrow Campground, asked if grant funds were available to help with the cost.

Two years ago the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center provided a $3 million grant for sewer expansion in the Whittier area, TWSA Chairman Mickey Luker said. Those funds are proposed to pay for a new 250,000-gallon-a-day treatment plant to expand the Jackson Industrial Park and provide service to the Whittier Church of God Assembly area, the race track, the tribe's recreation park at Gateway, Smokey Mountain Elementary School and several private homes in the Whittier area.

"Those monies went to the Whittier Sanitary District," Luker said. "We are just one participant in that project; we are not the ones in control."

Other partners in the project are the Jackson County Board of Commissioners, the Economic Development Commission of Jackson County and the Eastern Band.

"Eventually, we expect the plant to be turned over to us, and at that time we can consider your request," Luker said.

TWSA Vice Chairman Chuck Wooten said the board needed to resolve phase one of the Whittier Sanitary District sewer project first.

"We need to confirm a location of the plant and get that off the table," he said. "It will be two years before we will have any kind of building. After that, we can consider your request."

Recent results of an archeological study of the proposed 3-acre site at the industrial park have temporarily stalled the project. Former TWSA Executive Director Jerry King said that while engineers believe the plant can still be built on the remaining quarter acre, he has his doubts.

"Squeezing the project into a quarter acre does not allow room for expansion," King said.

Jordan asked King if TWSA could "float a bond" for an expansion into the Indian Hills area.

"While $600,000 might not seem like much to you, when we figure it in with a $1 million expansion project here and another $10 million project there, that's a lot of debt," said King, explaining how TWSA operates on a 20-year plan. "Our priority list might not match your priority list."

Jordan, owner of Eagle Dancer craft store, said he has been in negotiations with Shoney's Restaurant, but "we can't get them or any other restaurant on 441 until we have the infrastructure. A restaurant can't operate on a septic tank."

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