<< Back

12/31/03

Resolutions we would like to see

By Scott McLeod
As the New Year comes in, it’s as good a time to look ahead as it is to look back. By the time most are reading this paper, we will be into 2004. With that in mind, here are a few issues we hope to see resolved in the coming year:



The Road to Nowhere

Residents of Swain County have been battling this issue for way to long. And though feelings are strong both ways and neighbors divided, the best and most realistic solution to the impasse is for a cash settlement.

In 1943, Swain County, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Interior Department agreed to build a road on the northern edge of Fontana Lake to replace a road that was being flooded by the construction of the Fontana Dam. Construction within Great Smoky Mountains National Park began in 1963, but was halted in 1971 when the National Park Service determined that the area’s topography and the instability of the rock made it impossible to justify the environmental and economic cost of building the road. Officials said the road would cut through Anakeesta rock, releasing acids and heavy metals into lakes and streams. A 1,200-foot tunnel is the only vestige of the halted road project.

For decades, Congress refused to fund the road, last estimated to cost at least $150 million. Then Rep. Charles Taylor pushed through a $16 million appropriation in 2000. This year, Swain County commissioners voted 4-1 (with David Monteith dissenting) for a cash settlement, and U.S. Sen. John Edwards also asked for a settlement.

In truth, we can have it both ways with this issue. A small, unpaved road into the old gravesites would provide access for relatives. A cash settlement to Swain County would make up for the loss of whatever economic benefit was supposed to have come from having a major road into the park.

There will never be agreement on this issue, but there can be finality. It’s time for the federal government to right the wrong and make good on their promise to help the people of Swain County. At this point in time, the best solution would be cash.


Keep the library downtown

There is a lot of debate in Sylva and Jackson County about the merits of a joint library project between the county government and Southwestern Community College. While the prospect of a huge, technologically superior library on the Webster campus is appealing, it comes in a distant second to the prospect of a similar library somewhere in downtown Sylva.

There are many reasons why a downtown library would be better for the county and the town. Urban planners universally view the creation of town centers as the key to a healthy, vibrant community. Sylva has worked diligently to create just such a pedestrian-friendly downtown, and the addition of a library would be the crowning jewel of those efforts. Not only would it put people downtown and help local businesses, it would also entice those who work downtown to become regular library users.

As always, this plan is as much about money as anything else. Pooling their resources, the county and SCC could build a much larger facility. But SCC President Cecil Groves has said the college will build a new media center regardless of what the county does. That facility, like the library at WCU, would be open and available for use by those county residents who so chose.

The county should step back, re-assess this situation and better gauge what its citizens want. We think a clear majority wants a downtown library, and if that’s the case then that’s what should happen.


Keep MMS in justice center

A volunteer mediator grabbed a writer for this newspaper last week and wanted to talk about how appalled he was that the commissioners had decided to boot Mountain Mediation Services out of the new justice center. Many share that feeling, and we hope the Haywood County commissioners re-assess this decision before going any further.

This is as much about poor planning as anything else. The commissioners did not seek space in the new center when it was being designed. Now they want in, so to make room they decided to boot out an agency that works closely with the court system.

We’re sorry, but the reasoning provided by commissioners just doesn’t hold much water. If it’s an adequate meeting room they want, then take the old Superior Court room in the historic courthouse. That is as fine a meeting room as there is in this part of the state. It is the people’s courtroom, and we think having meetings there might attract more of the public than having meetings in a new justice center.

Look, our taxes pay for jails, landfills, fire trucks and all sorts of other items that most of us never see or use. Booting MMS out of the new justice center just so the public can get a chance to see it really makes little sense. Commissioners could save face by backtracking on this one.