Letters to the editor: 07/24/03

Bypass is 'conspicuous waste of public money'

To the Editor:

Open heart surgery to cure a stomach ache is roughly what the N.C. Department of Transportation is proposing to do by building a $200 million four-lane highway as a bypass to cure a traffic congestion problem in Sylva.

The taking of more than 100 homes and businesses would be required, as well as the destruction of valuable natural resources and mountain scenery.

We attended a meeting in Sylva July 15 where some 300 opponents made clear their reasons for being against the bypass. A tremendous response!

The proposed conspicuous waste of public money could become dead as a smelt if this area's state legislators in Raleigh were to tell the DOT they oppose the costly Sylva bypass and ask the DOT follow the unanimous recommendations of the Sylva and Webster town commissioners and the Jackson County Commission. In essence they asked that traffic patterns be studied further and that a creative solution be found that would utilize existing roads. The DOT's feasibility study made no reference to these intelligent and official requests.

This issue is of importance to all of Jackson County and even beyond. Please grab your phone or get your pen and go to work!
Your library can give you the names and phone numbers or addresses of your state legislators. Even our national congressmen could help because certainly there would be federal money in the bypass project.

Ken and Helen Morrison
Balsam

Obvious disadvantages associated with bypass

To the Editor:

There are obvious advantages to the proposed loop bypass, north or south. It reroutes Western Carolina University traffic around town. At $20 million a mile, it should put some money into the local economy. Some folks will even see their property values go up.
There are disadvantages, too. Unfortunately, they are not so obvious as the advantages. Here are a few examples:

- A lazy day's fishing for my kids in the Tuck. If the loop goes through, that river will be flanked by a roaring, four-lane instead of a country road.

- A downtown I can walk or bike to and through. The loop doesn't provide for walkers and bikers, just cars and trucks.

- A quiet afternoon in Webster enjoying a concert or a picnic and the view down the valley. A four-lane through Webster is the end of that little town as anything but a strip of "Kwik Stops."

A native North Carolinian, I moved to Jackson County because it is God's country. Either version of the loop does not provide enough peace for his creation.

The Jackson County Smart Roads group has proposed to the county that it ask the Department of Transportation to improve existing roads instead of building big, new ones. Providing access roads behind the businesses along the current N.C. 107 corridor is not a typical solution to traffic problems, but it's been tried elsewhere and it works. It supports local businesses, allows for freer and safer traffic flow along the existing roadways and makes roads much friendlier to walkers and bikers.

Solving our traffic problems without sacrificing our rural beauty is the wisest kind of growth.

Sincerely,
Catherine Pierce Sennyey
Sylva

Who will benefit from bypass?

To the Editor:

In your lead story July 17 ("Crowd gathers to voice opposition to proposed highway"), someone asserted that the Southern Loop bypass plans were made for political paybacks.

I do not know, nor do I need to know, who made this statement. If this is a possibility, it cannot go undetected. This issue is most important for our wonderful, rural county.

During public Smart Growth meetings throughout the county, each and every group voiced a desire to keep the county rural in nature. The bypass would move us away from a rural atmosphere.

I request this newspaper investigate this issue, and if anyone is doing this for political gain or particularly for political payback, they need to be exposed.

Sincerely,
Hugh Moon
Sylva

Back to Archive: 07/24/03.