During the May Forum on Interstate 3 sponsored by the Towns County Homeowners Association, I spent some time standing in the back talking with some of the employees of the Georgia Mountain Fair. They complained that holding the forum during the day made it impossible for many citizens who worked to attend. I told them that we would take notice of this and that we were planning another forum in July which we would plan to hold in the evening. This second form has not happened and we need to explain why.

Our first thought was to get a representative from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) office in Atlanta to come up to talk to us about the process for the study. Not the merits! They were willing but they were called off by their superiors in Washington because, as of then, the legislation had not been signed and they were unwilling to talk about the issue until they had seen the final bill. That took care of July.

Next we thought we would do something is August so we invited Congressman Norwood to come to Hiawassee to discuss his proposal with us. As most of you know, Norwood did come to meet with the Rabun County Commissioners and then with the Board of the Homeowners Association. But he refused to take part in a public discussion of his proposal and he told the TCHA Board that he would take part in no public activities on the matter until after the study is completed. This from the prime sponsor of the proposal! In his defense, Mr. Norwood does attempt to respond more or less individually to letters and emails unlike Saxby Chambliss who has been sending out the same canned response for 6 months. It seems Senator Chambliss has forgotten who sent him to Washington. All this aside, that took care of our plan for August.

We next contacted the Georgia DOT since it had been suggested that they would be the study managers. The idea this time was again for a meeting on the study process in mid to late September. It took a week or so and their reply came that they were not going to be the study managers, that the FHWA would retain the management responsibility and they provided us with the name of a different individual in the Atlanta office for us to talk to. This gentleman was very informative about the status but unwilling to talk publicly because of the uncertainty of their plan of action. He did tell us that the Georgia DOT had declined to be the study lead and that there is planned for this week a meeting in Washington where a plan of action and list of proposed governmental participants will be drawn up. He suggested that the probable direction they would take would be to request proposals from outside consulting firms and select one to execute the study. In the government world, this takes time. Once they get their plan in place, we have been told that the FHWA will come up and discuss their planned process with us. The time frame is projected to be anywhere from late October to the end of the year.

As soon as they are ready, the TCHA will arrange an evening session in a suitable venue where all who are interested can attend. Until then, we can encourage this process by writing (by fax) the FHWA Administrator in Washington to that effect. The address is:

Mr. J. Richard Capka
Acting Administrator
Federal Highway Administration
400 7th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20590
Fax: 202 366 3244

Charley Kraus

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Citizens Speak Letters-to-the-Editor and Editorial Opinions from the Regional and National Press and individuals' letters to the Stop I-3 Coalition

Letter to the Editor

Citizens Speak
Letters-to-the-Editor and Editorial Opinions from the Regional and National Press
and individuals' letters to the Stop I-3 Coalition