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December 21, 2005
Stop I-3 partners with SAFC
December 14, 2005
Stop I-3 Petition Drive Underway
September 7, 2005
Stop I-3 Coalition calls on Congress to redirect
highway money to Gulf reconstruction
August 24, 2005
Mountain residents raise common-sense questions
and concerns about Interstate
August 8, 2005
Norwood goes into "neutral" on I-3 for
constituents in Georgia mountains
August 4, 2005
White County Commissioners Take Strong Stand, Oppose
Interstate 3
July 27, 2005
Federal studies cast doubt on economic benefit of
Interstates
July 26, 2005
Mountain communities organize to fight new interstate
highway
July 9, 2005
Rabun commissioners declare unanimous opposition
to Interstate
July 4, 2005
Rabun residents form Stop I-3 chapter,
Urge large turn-out at board meet Thursday
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For immediate release, September 7, 2005
Stop I-3 Coalition calls on Congress to redirect
highway money to Gulf reconstruction
The Stop I-3 Coalition today called on Rep.
Charlie Norwood and the rest of the Georgia delegation in
Congress to redirect federal highway money where it is truly
needed – to rebuilding the Gulf Coast.
The coalition is dedicated to protecting the
scenic, economic and ecological integrity of the Southern
Appalachian mountains and stopping construction of a new proposed
Interstate, dubbed I-3 by proponents, that would connect Savannah
to Knoxville.
The coalition specifically called on Congress,
President Bush and the administration to work together to
redirect dollars from the recently enacted highway spending
bill ($286.4 billion) to the massive infrastructure repairs
needed in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi in the wake of
Hurricane Katrina. Norwood is the chief proponent in Georgia.
“There’s so much ‘pork’
in that bill that they could easily put some of the taxpayer
dollars to better use in the Gulf,” said Lucy Ezzard
Bartlett, a spokeswoman for the Rabun Chapter Stop I-3.
Bartlett specifically requested that the $1.32 million earmarked
in the massive spending bill for a study of the proposed Interstate
3 be redirected as the first down payment to rebuilding the
infrastructure of the Gulf states.
“We are pleased to see that America is waking up to
the huge humanitarian crisis caused by Katrina,” Bartlett
said. “We also want our government to do what is right
by its vital economic infrastructure. Take the I-3 money and
put it towards fixing I-10.”
John Clarke, chair of the Clay/Cherokee Chapter of the Stop
I-3 Coalition, said much the same:
"The damage from Hurricane Katrina has made more people
aware of the fragility of our fuel supplies. Congress should
take another look at the assumptions it used it planning for
new highways in the highway bill in light of the fact that
dwindling oil supplies and rising prices in the next few decades
will make it unnecessary to build many of the new road projects
funded in the bill, including Interstate 3,” he said.
“America should look to improve its existing infrastructure
and spend the money to make our roads, bridges, water systems,
and pipelines safer, and to develop alternative fuels and
public transportation for our future needs,” Clarke said.“Spending
the money where it is most needed is just plain common sense
in this case, and Americans will support that stand,”
Bartlett added. “It simply makes more sense to properly
maintain and rebuild what we already have, than to continually
add more – especially when the very expensive new highways
are not wanted by the communities they would cut apart.”
The Stop I-3 Coalition represents a growing confederation
of community organizations and conservation groups located
in the four-state Appalachian region (see www.StopI-3.org
for details.) It is dedicated to stopping an unneeded highway
that it believes would do irreparable harm to mountain economies,
forests, farms, and streams, and to rural qualities of life
rooted in a strong sense of place.
Contacts:
Lucy Ezzard Bartlett, (706) 782-7262, hlbartlett@alltel.net
John Clarke, (828) 389-6022, jqualla@verizon.net
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