North Shore settlement down payment approved

« Maryville, TN Hiker Survives Close Call on CDT | Main | Identify That Raptor - And the Answer! »

December 22, 2007

North Shore settlement down payment approved

Editors Note: This is excellent news for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and just in time for the holidays! Special thanks are in order for Tennessee's Senator Lamar Alexander and North Carolina's Congressman Heath Shuler for championing this settlement!

Here's the story from the Asheville Citizen-Times. The Citizen-Times is my favorite daily newspaper in the southeast. Great reporting, and always on top of issues like this!

North Shore settlement down payment approved

By Mark Barrett
STAFF WRITER
December 20, 2007 11:52 am

WASHINGTON – The $555 billion budget bill approved by Congress Wednesday night includes a $6 million down payment on a cash settlement of the long-standing controversy over former plans to build a road through a remote section of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The bill, which President Bush is expected to sign in the next few days, is a key step toward compensating Swain County for a road along the north shore of Fontana Lake that has never been completed.

A park spokesman said the Department of the Interior will hold negotiations with other signatories to a 1943 agreement that called for the road to settle the issue. Swain leaders in recent years have endorsed a cash settlement of at least $52 million in lieu of the road.

The federal government agreed to build the road after World War II as part of a deal with Swain that added property along the north shore, isolated by the rising waters of Fontana Lake, to the park.

But the agreement was contingent on congressional approval of funds for the road and, as environmental problems and opposition mounted, Congress stopped funding the project and only a small portion of the road was ever built.

The $6 million is roughly the amount left over from an appropriation for an extensive Park Service study of the issue that recommends a cash settlement. People involved say it may take several years for Congress to appropriate the full amount of a settlement.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.