The government had promised to replace a highway that was flooded to build a dam, but environmental concerns and high costs halted construction decades ago.
Posted on 02/04/2010 6:37:45 AM PST by Freedom'sWorthIt
RALEIGH, N.C. — The federal government has agreed to pay a $52 million settlement so it will not have to complete the so-called "road-to-nowhere" through North Carolina's mountain wilderness, officials said Tuesday, ending a dispute that began during World War II.
The payments destined for Swain County will be a boon for the area: The full settlement is four times the county's annual budget, and officials plan to only draw from the annual interest payments, with the remainder staying in a state account that can be used only if the voters agree to access it.
North Carolina Rep. Heath Shuler said the agreement will nullify a 1943 pact that required the federal government to build the 30-mile roadway into an undeveloped area in Great Smoky Mountains National Park along the Tennessee line. The government had promised to replace a highway that was flooded to build a dam, but environmental concerns and high costs halted construction decades ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at wral.com ...
Someone needs to research the Congressman mentioned in the article...have no idea how he has voted on assorted issues but would make a guess.
We so borrow $52 million from China and pay interest on it so NC can use it as a slush fund?
Well, we taxpayers pay for the $52 Million for the “road to nowhere” so it can’t be built....
(yes, using borrowed money from the Chicoms or the Saudi’s plus interest - which is going to go up now that Zero and commie buddies are costing the US our Triple A credit rating...)
Someone suggested this was a payoff for the pro-Obama votes by Cong. Schuler who (of course) was not identified as a Democrat in this article....and, yes, it apparently will be a slush fund for the Dems in that county or the state. Who will ever know?
“The payments destined for Swain County will be a boon for the area: The full settlement is four times the county’s annual budget, and officials plan to only draw from the annual interest payments, with the remainder staying in a state account that can be used only if the voters agree to access it.
North Carolina Rep. Heath Shuler said the agreement will nullify a 1943 pact that required the federal government to build the 30-mile roadway into an undeveloped area in Great Smoky Mountains National Park along the Tennessee line. The government had promised to replace a highway that was flooded to build a dam, but environmental concerns and high costs halted construction decades ago.”
Pelousi buys Shulers vote.
No doubt.
He should be a prime candidate for dumping this November = but now his fellow county residents will be resistant to dumping someone who brought their county much needed cash.
Of course, that’s how they do things, isn’t it?
Use our own taxpayer paid money to buy off voters.
But this year - we have the over-riding issue of an imploding economy which is going to turn a tonload of Dems OUT into the unemployment lines....even maybe this Shuler.
Heath Shuler is a real estate developer, and former football player.
Wouldn’t surprise me if this road wasn’t connected to some property he’d like to sell.
So the government is now paying off on broken pormises. With Obama in charge the country is sure to go broke soon.
So the government is now paying off on broken pormises. With Obama in charge the country is sure to go broke soon.
Is it possible ANY adult could be so naive as to suppose that this 52 million dollar fund is just gonna SIT there, unmolested by the local politicos?....LOL
And the MSM continues to ponder its increasing irrelevancy in the national dialogue.
Thanks for the added information.
However, it is a payoff - whatever the justification for it, don’t you think?
Is he a huge lib? I don’t follow Western NC politics so don’t know.
but I believe the US govenment should keep its promise”
LOL
“He said 6,000 people left their homes and land after officials argued that a dam would help produce electricity that could increase production of aluminum for World War II planes and bombs.”
That’s what people were told, but it was the Oak Ridge, TN atomic project that sparked the Fontana Dam construction.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Swain County gave up the majority of its private land to the Federal Government for the creation of Fontana Lake and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Hundreds of people were forced to leave the small Smoky Mountain communities that had been their homes for generations. With the creation of the Park, their homes were gone, and so was the road to those communities. Old Highway 288 was buried beneath the deep waters of Fontana Lake.
The Federal government promised to replace Highway 288 with a new road. Lakeview Drive was to have stretched along the north shore of Fontana Lake, from Bryson City to Fontana, 30 miles to the west. And, of special importance to those displaced residents, it was to have provided access to the old family cemeteries where generations of ancestors remained behind.
But Lakeview Drive fell victim to an environmental issue and construction was stopped, with the road ending at a tunnel, about six miles into the park. The environmental issue was eventually resolved, but the roadwork was never resumed. And Swain County's citizens gave the unfinished Lakeview Drive its popular, albeit unofficial name "The Road To Nowhere."
Thanks for that info! Great update.
More interference in the private lives of people by the Federal Government - even way back then.
I love the great Smokies, don’t get me wrong - but booting people from their land of generations and not following through on government promises is just as bad as what we have going on today in so many places.
Still looks like this Rep was paid off for his votes.
The mountain folk were highly suspicious of government before they were screwed out of their home places.
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