Please report your responses to stopi3@alltel.net and put candidate poll in the subject line. Also, please include documentation of candidate’s position statement: date as well as location (at a particular event, rally, newspaper article, telephone conversation, email, etc.) We will also need state and county of candidate as well as position they are seeking. We will be posting results now through November 7th Election Day. Thanks for helping out with this. It is totally dependent on your involvement in asking the questions of folks in your hometown running for office.

Please note that the Stop I-3 Coalition does not endorse candidates for elected office. We will not post party affiliation in this poll. We will not list undecided candidates – only those who have a position for or against I-3. This poll is one of the activities to fulfill our mandate of providing educational information to the public about the Interstate 3 issue.

Also, be sure to check out a new item under "Special Features". The ninth grade niece of one of our board members was given an assignment of writing a paper on a controversial subject. Having well established roots in these mountains, she chose to write about I-3, entitled TOXIC WASTE HIGHWAYS; NATURE’S WORST NIGHTMARE. Be sure to check out Hanna Ryberg’s article under "Special Features". We surely invite other submissions from any old enough to write through high school age.

WELCOME
to our Newest Supporting Organization
Cookeville High Chapter of SPEAK

Founded in 2004, the Cookeville High School Chapter of SPEAK (Students Promoting Environmental Action and Knowledge) is currently 45 members strong. The CHS chapter of SPEAK engages in many volunteer activities in support of America's public lands. Proposed projects for the 2006-2007 school year include trail maintenance in Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, River/Lakeshore Clean-Up, and participation in National Public Lands Day, Winter Trails Day, National Parks Week, Earth Day, National River Clean-Up Day, and National Trails Day. The Wilderness Advocacy Team (WAT), a division of the CHS chapter of SPEAK, is greatly involved in land management issues and proposals by the National Park Service and United States Forest Service. The WAT comments on as many of these proposals as necessary. The CHS chapter of SPEAK's meeting schedule for 2006-2007 is TBA, pending CHS Administrative approval. Cookeville is 100 miles east of Nashville, 100 miles north of Chattanooga, and 100 miles west of Knoxville, along I-4 o. The contact person is Chance Finegan, 1710 Zeb Warren Road, Cooksville, TN 38506, email: north.cascades@gmail.com

We are delighted to have this group of young folks join our forces. Our welcome was especially meaningful as they had been discounted by legislators since they were “under age”. They are already involved in sighting sign sites for our Burma Shave Bliltz!

Stop I-3 Summer Activities

Burma Shave Blitz

Thanks to all of you who have requested sign sets to be placed in your county. Thanks also to those of you who have offered to cover the $35.00 cost. If you are reading this newsletter for the first time, this is a project in which we had a contest to select 10 slogans from the many submitted (like the old Burma Shave signs, but with rhymes about Stop I-3). What we want to do is to place 10 signs in all 34 counties in the I-3 corridor. We realize this is an ambitious project as we do not yet have networks in all 34 counties so we are placing as many as possible. Your willingness to participate will help not only expand our grassroots network but to influence the many passers-by who will read the sign and perhaps hear about I-3 for the first time. Once we learn to read, we cannot help but read what is in front of us, so we really have a captive audience!

It is not necessary to sponsor the funding of a sign set in order to place one. All you have to do is contact Sandy Lyndon at bandit@bbinc.org and she will send you the set of 5 signs which should be placed 100 feet apart. Of course it is helpful to have them in as high a traffic area as possible. The signs are light weight with metal stakes and posts and can be easily set up by anyone with a hammer, screwdriver and motivation. This is what grassroots organizing is about and how it works, so please pitch in as this is a very concrete action you can take to Stop I-3!

Motorcycle Rally

We now have a date set for our Motorcycle Rally from Atlanta to the Tail of the Dragon in Tennessee! It is Saturday, October 14, 2006. We will gather in Piedmont Park, have a brief yet hardy send off for 1000 motorcyclists and end at the 11 mile, 381 curves Tail of the Dragon with a Celebration Bar-b-Que. Put this date on your calendar now. If you don’t ride a motorcycle, you can still participate at the send off in Atlanta or the finish line in Tennessee or both. The purpose here is to increase Stop I-3 awareness and the reason for starting in Atlanta is to have a big press event. We are planning to give each biker a bright vest that says Stop I-3 on front and back. For everyone who can come, we want to send the bikers off with a wave of folks in Stop I-3 tee shirts and caps. That picture will surely tell the story!

If you are interested in participating in (there will be a small registration fee) or helping with this event, please contact Sandy Lyndon at bandit@bbinc.org Many of the details are still being worked out like a 26 page permit application for the Atlanta mayor’s office, but we have plenty of time to complete such requirements. More details will be provided in the August Newsletter.

Hot Off the Press

“Proposed Interstate Would Ravage Southern Appalachians”

Be sure to read Larry and Julie Winslett’s excellent article in the July-August PLANET NEWSLETTER, published by the Sierra Club. This article will indeed help broaden the Stop I-3 horizons to the national level. The link to this article is: http://sierraclub.org/planet/200604/i3.asp

“Asheville at the Nuclear Crossroads”

The Stop I-3 Coalition has been monitoring for some time the possible connection between the I-3 and I-14 proposals and the impending increases in nuclear transport being slated for the Southeast, including activity at both the Savannah River Site, SC and Oak Ridge, TN, both of which are on the "3rd Infantry Division Highway Corridor". (see http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/sec1927maps.htm )

A new report by COMMON SENSE AT THE NUCLEAR CROSSROADS details a number of specific reasons for concern. For more information, the report may be downloaded at: http://www.nirs.org/radwaste/hlwtransport/ashevillenuclearcrossroads280606.pdf

FHWA/DOT UPDATE

Things here are pretty much the same. Here is an exact copy of the information in the June Newsletter: I am enclosing it for those new readers who would like this summary information…The latest report is that the 20% funds for the local share of the $1.3 million study, of which Georgia is paying 100%, have not been transferred to FHWA in Washington. Until this is done and the MOA (Memorandum of Agreement) is signed, the RFPs (Request for Proposals) cannot be issued for the consultants to make bids on the I-3 study project. Once the bids are submitted from the consultants to FHWA, then the consulting firm has to be selected, so it looks like we are still quite far away from the study getting underway. Absolutely nothing can happen until the funds are transferred from Georgia DOT, so for now all is on hold.

There are two other items of note. There has been a very interesting section added on the FHWA website on Costs of Construction. You may find it at:

http://www.FHWA.DOT.gov/planning/sec1927corridors.htm

North Carolina and Pennsylvania have shared examples of amounts of actual road construction. As with everything else, there is much to learn and understand in this process.

Is Stop I-3 Influence Moving South?

We were alerted to an article in the Statesboro Herald in which County Commissioners in Bulloch County, in South Georgia, voted not to accept an invitation which was issued by a gentleman who has access to the $100,000. delivered to the GA DOT budget from the GA Legislature. Curiously, the invitation was to participate in the I-3 study, which is not even through the procurement stages. The reason given by the Commissioners for not participating was that they knew the good folks in North Georgia were opposed to this road. We understand that Chatham County in Savannah has also refused a similar invitation. Support for the work of the Stop I-3 Coalition seems to continue its growth in some interesting ways.

Stop I-3 Coalition Staff Changes

Last month announcement was made of Sandy Lyndon joining the Stop I-3 Staff as Operations Manager. This month Elizabeth Wells will be resigning as Executive Director. Sandy will continue on her part time basis with the planning for the Burma Shave Blitz Campaign and the Motorcycle Rally. For any information on these events, contact Sandy at bandit@bbinc.net.

Elizabeth will be working with her own non-profit corporation, Georgia Research and Management Institute, on the historic preservation aspect of stopping Interstate 3. This will involve identifying all properties listed or eligible for listing with the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the 34 counties in the I-3 corridor. For such properties a rigorous review process is required in order for any federal funds to be spent…which would certainly include an interstate. If your property, special buildings, sacred spaces or rural areas in your county are listed or you are interested in seeing if such is eligible, contact Elizabeth at ewells@georgia-research.com This is certainly a very concrete way to stop I-3!

A search committee of the Stop I-3 Coalition Board is underway. A job description is posted on the website home page.

On a personal note, I would like to thank each and every one of you in the Stop I-3 Coalition for the critical part you have played in our establishing such an outstanding grassroots organization. Letters have been written, meetings attended, contributions made and many, many other small and large things have been done to spread the word. Our freedom to assemble, make our wishes known and actively participate in our government is a blessing many in our world do not have the privilege to know. That is one of the reasons why we must band together when we see an atrocity like Interstate 3. It is only when we honor this process of democracy that we have any semblance of long range success in preserving and protecting for the generations of children to come what is near and dear to our hearts.

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