Citizens for the Economic Future of Swain County will join the Greater Smoky Mountains Coalition (GSMC) for a rally to support a cash payment in lieu of construction of a North Shore Road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The rally is scheduled for 10-11:30 a.m. Saturday Oct. 5, on the lawn in front of the GSMNP headquarters adjacent to the Sugarlands Visitor Center.

North Carolina Sierra Club representative Ted Snyder said the rally was a reenactment of a 1966 protest against the “Second Trans-Mountain Road.” The Second Trans-Mountain Road was offered by the National Park Service in the 1960s as an alternative to the road specified in the 1943 agreement between the Tennessee Valley Authority, the state of North Carolina, Swain County and the Department of Interior.

The North Shore Road, which would travel from Bryson City along the north shore of Lake Fontana to Fontana Dam, would provide access to graveyards of families who were forced off their land when it was flooded to create the lake.

The Second Trans-Mountain Road was so-called because it would parallel U.S. 441(Newfound Gap Road). The road was designed to go from Bryson City to Townsend, Tenn. The 1943 agreement called for a road from Bryson City to Fontana Dam.

“It doesn’t matter if it goes from Bryson City to Townsend or from Bryson City to Fontana, it’s the same road,” Snyder said.

Six hundred people showed up at the 1966 rally held at Clingmans Dome. According to Snyder, the strong showing at that rally was important in halting plans for the Second Trans-Mountain Road.

While organizers of this rally clearly oppose the construction of a North Shore Road, there is a positive spin to this event.

“Our position is to support the people of Swain County in seeking a monetary settlement. We think a monetary settlement is the logical way to settle this contractual issue,” Snyder said.

Swain County resident Claude Douthit said Citizens for the Economic Future of Swain County began in his home about one year ago.

“This is the best opportunity we will have to settle an issue that won’t be settled any other way. Face it, the National Park Service doesn’t support a road. They haven’t since the ‘60s and they won’t ever, again. When Charles Taylor comes here and tells people that the National Park Service supports a road, I believe he is misinforming them,” Douthit said.

The citizen’s group boasts 180 dues-paying members now. One hundred and thirty-three are Swain County residents.

“We have people willing to come forward and put their names on the line,” Douthit said.

But Citizens for the Economic Future of Swain County is not the only group in the county with an opinion on the North Shore Road. The North Shore Road Association and the North Shore Cemetery Association, both located in Bryson City, have been long time advocates of the road. In December 2001 they received support from the Swain County Board of Commissioners who adopted a resolution calling for the immediate commencement of construction of the North Shore Road. The resolution passed 3-1 (commissioner Jeff Waldroup was absent.)

Proponents of a cash settlement are also looking for governmental assistance. A group of representatives, including Bob McCollum of North Carolina Parks and Parkways Commission, Luke Hyde of Citizens for the Economic Future of Swain County and Brownie Newman, executive coordinator of the Western North Carolina Alliance, traveled to Washington this week to meet with NPS Director Fran Mainella and Sen. John Edwards (D- N.C.) Bob McCollum said the group had a draft bill supporting a cash settlement which they hoped Sen. Edwards would consider introducing.

Greg Kidd of the National Parks Conser-vation Association called the cash settlement “an elegant and simple solution.” He said NPCA felt strongly that construction of a road would be an economic and environmental mistake. He called road proponents’ claims that a road would dramatically increase tourism revenue for the county a “gamble.”

“But a cash settlement, with built-in safeguards, would allow people to see immediate benefits,” Kidd said.

The Citizens for the Economic Future of Swain County’s plan calls for a $40 million cash settlement. The figure was arrived at by looking at the original indebtedness incurred by the county with the flooding of old N.C. 288 and compounding that over the years with inflation figured in. The group believes setting the $40 million aside in an escrow account for perpetuity would provide Swain County with an annual $2 million dollars in revenue. That’s a sum nearly equal to what the county currently collects in ad valorem taxes each year.