Representatives of the four parties involved in the original North Shore Road 1943 Agreement convened for the first time March 10 to begin negotiating a new contract calling for a monetary settlement for Swain County.

The cash settlement is an alternative to construction of a 30-mile road through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park that would replace a road flooded in 1943 by the U.S. Government during WWII to create Fontana Lake.

The meeting between Tennessee Valley Authority, the National Park Service, Swain County, and the state of North Carolina could only take place after all parties came to one consensus — build the road, or compensate the people of Swain County with a cash settlement. This became possible last April when the National Park Service became the last party to weigh in favoring a cash settlement.

Swain County last month selected county attorney Kim Lay and county manager Kevin King to represent the county in the renegotiations.

Part of the negotiations involve determining how much money will make up the settlement. Swain County asked the Department of the Interior for $52 million, but that amount was never approved by the National Park Service, according to park spokesman Bob Miller.

The $52 million was an amount recommended by a study and agreed upon by the previous Swain County board of commissioners, said King.

A final amount will be hammered out by attorneys from the four parties. It’s unclear how long this could take. Though Miller says the NPS wants “to get his done as soon as we can to put this behind us and move on,” negotiating a settlement like this is new territory, so no deadline has been set.

King said the county will walk away from any deal that is less than $52 million.

The park service is currently holding onto $6 million, which was secured from the federal government by Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC) and Rep. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) as a down payment for the settlement. The money can’t go to Swain County until a final agreement on the settlement is reached.

The main goal of the March 10 meeting was to make sure all parties were on the same page, said Miller.

“I think that while the NPS and folks in Swain County understand the chapters and birth of this issue, we couldn’t go in there and expect TVA and the state to be in the same place with the same understanding. This was intended to make sure everybody got on the same sheet of music,” he said.

The next meeting is scheduled for April 1, 2008.

Representatives for renegotiation of the North Shore Road contract

North Carolina: Franklin Freeman (senior assistant to Gov. Easley); Grayson Kelley (chief deputy attorney general); Andy Vanore (legal counsel to Gov. Easley)

TVA: Rebecca Tolene (attorney, office of general counsel)

Department of the Interior: Lars Hanslin (consultant to NPS director); Dale Ditmanson (GSMNP superintendent)

Swain County: Kim Lay (county attorney); Kevin King (county manager)