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Students should be more careful
To the Editor:
Coming out of Ingle’s my mother-in-law and I were talking about the sheer joy on my 18-month-old daughter’s face only minutes earlier at the Sylva Christmas parade. My daughter was buckled safely in the shopping cart as we proceeded to load our groceries into the back of our vehicle. Our joy turned into panic as we turned just in time to see a car speeding backwards towards our vehicle. While my mother-in-law and I both were screaming for the car to stop, I was trying to pull my daughter, cart and all, out of harm’s way. The car stopped only inches away from us; my mother-in-law was able to hit the trunk of their vehicle without reaching out her arm. The two females and one male turned and laughed at us as they sped off. As out hearts raced and we scooped up my daughter, we neglected in our moment of sheer terror to get a license plate number. I do remember that the older-model white car with a black bumper had a Western Carolina University parking sticker and logo on the back glass.
This is not my first bad experience with students who attend the university. In our “little neck of the woods” we have had to contact the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office at all hours of the night over a period of about five weeks. Three times there were university students arrested for the use of drugs and possession of firearms next to our home.
I do realize that there are some students who are actually serious about their education, but the majority of my experiences with the students there have been bad. Most students I come into contact with brag about their drug and alcohol parties, off and on campus. The more the university grows, the worse my hometown becomes, because the majority of students I have had the unfortunate pleasure of coming into contact with are rude, disrespectful, self-absorbed and have a mouth that would make a hardened criminal blush. On our weekend trips to any restaurant in Sylva, we have heard the most vulgar, filthy language spoken very loudly in front of my daughter who learns new words at the drop of a hat – and they’ve all come from college students. The incidents make me worry even more about my daughter growing up here, and I am just plain outraged that this happened to our hometown.
To those of you that the university benefits, I hope the benefits outweigh the problems it has created in our town. In my heart, it’s the other way around. All I can do now is quote the song my daughter has recently learned – “God is so good” because he is with us always.
Heather Queen
Cullowhee
Another year without change
To the Editor:
Last year about this time I wrote two letters to the editor. The first, “Questions for a New Year,” asked folks to think about what Jackson County might look like a year, five years or 10 years hence. Was there a place, I asked, for the memories of Jackson County that many hold so dear or were these memories to be lost, filed away in a museum or a “way we were” piece? Would we retain a place for our children and a means of recognizing ourselves and our generations past or would Jackson County become just another place in a real estate pamphlet defined by the prerogatives of developers?
The second letter asked “who will you blame?” The question was meant to hold up a mirror. Those who are selling Jackson County and its communities for profit without regard to consequence bear responsibility, but so do each and every one of us who sit back and watch our culture and communities disintegrate without comment or action.
A year has passed but, with the exception of an election, little has changed in the direction Jackson County is headed, making the questions just as valid today. Thousands of acres are under development by large corporations that seek to replace our communities and landscapes with exclusive gated developments accessible only to an elite few. These developments, the way they are sited and built and the labor that builds them create a tremendous burden for the rest of the county. Their costs are externalized back to the average resident in several ways both obvious and subtle.
Meanwhile the institutions designed to serve us spin their wheels or act in ways that demonstrate almost total denial of the consequences of our present course. County government has failed to pass even basic measures that would hold developers responsible for the burdens they impose. We continue to dither about a library that should have been built cost-effectively three years ago while we devote energy and discussion to an airport that shouldn’t have been built and will never be more than it is.
Western Carolina University has engaged in some wonderful heritage and arts programs that bring focus to our community, but under Chancellor John Bardo it has primarily pursued a course of growth without conscience or concern for its impact. It has chased pork-barrel spending with no plan other than to supplant existing communities with a regional vision that looks more like corporate takeover than service to its constituency. Some of this can be attributed to the general nature of education as big business in our society but much can be laid at the doorstep of an administration that focuses on marketing over substance.
The Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority was created in the early 1990s to refurbish water and sewer infrastructure and to a large degree it has pursued this mission. However, the stakeholders and overseers of the enterprise deserve considerable criticism. Until recently the annual planning functions of the Water and Sewer Planning Committee have been largely ignored even though they were mandated by TWSA’s charter. The stakeholders have failed to develop a thoughtful and far-reaching capital improvement plan instead allowing our remaining limited capacity to be sold off to the highest bidders. Jackson County will face an expensive infrastructure crisis in the near future. How that crisis is resolved will largely determine whether we retain a connection to our past or are simply sold as a playground.
A new Board of Commissioners has now taken office. There are issues that the commissioners can and must address directly such as holding developers accountable for the costs they impose on the community. There are issues they can influence indirectly and through consultation like the direction of TWSA. Finally, there are issues like the growth and direction of WCU or the potential problems and inequities caused by the current revaluation and property tax methods that they have no direct control over. This board will have to work hard in the areas it can control, but it must also act as an advocate for the citizens of Jackson County on issues that need to be addressed at other levels.
Ultimately it is the citizens of the county, the folks who have done the living and dying and building who must take responsibility for the direction, effectiveness and accountability of their local government and institutions. Will Jackson County retain its sense of place and community or allow itself to be defined by someone else?
Mark Jamison
Cullowhee
Wake up, Jackson County
To the Editor:
Jackson County is wide open. There are no ridge protection laws, no steep-slope ordinances or conservation easements that preserve undeveloped ridge tops for all and provide tax breaks for the owners.
If you care about preserving the stunning beauty of some of the most beautiful mountain ranges in WNC – such as the Plott Balsams – you must act now. Today.
If you don’t, you will rapidly see the immediate surroundings of Sylva and Cullowhee turn into another Waynesville. We will all be looking at villa-subdivisioned mountainsides and bare ridge tops lined with huge white elephants of mansions, some of them 9,000 square feet in size.
Think about this ... the last lots below Blackrock, one of the crown jewels of the Plott Balsams out by Addie, have been sold and roads are being put in. These roads go pretty much to the ridge top. As a high mountain ridge line hiker myself, I can see them well. Soon all of you will see these ridge-top homes.
Large numbers of new people are moving into our area. We can’t change this fact. We can make room for them, but can’t there be compromise so that all of us can continue to enjoy the unique beauty of this area?
If we don’t act right now, all of us – newcomers and long-term inhabitants – will be living in one sprawling subdivision. Contact your local lawmakers today if you care about preserving the beauty of Jackson County.
Georgia Newsome
Sylva
EDC’s past is worth a closer look
To the Editor:
A November Economic Development Task Force meeting elicited this statement from County Commission Chairman Brian McMahan – “I’m not concerned with the past.” This is a rather cavalier attitude considering it’s the same people along with the Jackson Development Corp. that almost put the county in the position of bidding in around $565,000 worth of property on the Courthouse steps; if the county was able to do so. The JDC and EDC, using our tax money on a 2002 purchase of the Tuckaseigee Mills property ($800,000), could not pay a note due to the Sossamons of Bryson City, so they started foreclosure proceedings, as any business would. EDC gave JDC $568,000 on the purchase of this property. To make a sticky situation worse, the JDC and EDC boards gave the Sossamons the first mortgage and left the EDC, and our $568,000 in tax money, as the second mortgage holder. Then EDC Chairman Tom McClure agreed to take these terms. In early 2007, JDC and EDC will again be facing foreclosure. Perhaps by then, Chairman McMahan will be able to start funneling county tax money to them. As for me, I question why these organizations have pursued a course of deliberate action to put county funds in a dangerous position, which is a position they still hold with the current note holder.
These organizations’ past, as indicated by a paper trail through the Justice Center, is full of land purchases, mortgages, loans, etc. Combined with the early 2005 probe of the EDC by the auditor for Jackson County, it reads like a trip through la la land. Thanks to the news media probe of the very secret JDC, we have valid records of the of their dealings to assess. Unfortunately, the county auditor could not examine the JDC records to asses how much of more than $1.3 million in tax money was transferred to them from the EDC, since they have no accountability to either the taxpayers or the commissioners. The commissioners turned over this money and never looked back. No member of either organization ever reported to the commissioners a string of bad loans and payments that were ongoing; the incredible amount of property purchases without money to back them; and turning around and securing mortgages on unpaid property. And the commissioners never checked their activities.
The past needs to be examined to clarify some of their unexplainable financial shenanigans. The records show three property purchases of $2 million, outstanding loans and unpaid taxes of $9,920.69, but little income to service these large expenditures and acquisitions. These are incomes the records show: property sales (1999) $250,000. Long-term EDC member (and Sylva Mayor) Brenda Oliver managed to procure from the financially ailing town of Sylva $225,000 from 1998 through 2004. Contributions from Webster, Dillsboro and Forest Hills amount to a few hundred dollars annually. Who is going to wind up holding the bag for these deals? The county commissioners are now holding one of the EDC’s loan deals for over $300,000 and can’t collect from the bankrupt company. The county wrote off another one of their grant loans for $15,000. The end is not in sight because another large loan is in financial difficulty.
If you are looking for a handout from an Economic Development Commission to line your pockets with, Jackson County is the place. In 1998 a company called Orkand contacted EDC, gave them a song and dance about 200 people eventually being hired (the highest number of locals hired were five people) if they would help Orkand financially. With EDC’s usual financial acumen, the Buster Brown plant was provided rent-free to Orkand for two years. Very obviously Orkand had only a small, two government contract that they maximized very profitably with free rent from EDC. Do we have a Bear Lake resident standing in the wings (as we hear through the grapevine) wanting a little help to feather his nest? Time will tell.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, I find EDC has never reported or obeyed any regulations of the state and local government finance division. The EDC members, in many years of handling taxpayers’ money, have never had a budget officer, a bonded treasurer, a valid budget or even a yearly audit as required for those handling public funds by statute. Their pathetic attempt to reinvent themselves publicly and hide their irresponsible behavior of many years is a public record. Compliance doesn’t now wipe out public records.
Marie Leatherwood
Sylva
Library chairman offers clarification
To the Editor:
As the chairman of the Jackson County Library Board, I am writing in response to the article and editorial appearing in The Herald a few weeks ago regarding the last library board meeting. I would like to clarify a few things mentioned in the article and editorial.
First, no motions were made, seconded, voted on or approved in regard to the library board endorsing a joint SCC-Jackson County library. In the free-flow of discussion at the meeting, board members are allowed to express their opinions, and each member is entitled to his or her own opinions and encouraged to express them. A motion was made, seconded, voted upon and approved to instruct the Fontana Regional Library Director to submit an application for a $15,000 grant to he used in the planning stages of the library. This grant, if received, would not require any matching funds.
Secondly, the board did discuss the fact that we now have three new commissioners, and we need to meet with these new commissioners to update them on the status of the proposed library and to find out how they felt about the planning, fund-raising, financing and construction of our new library. It was noted during the board meeting that such a meeting would “lay the ground work” with the incoming commissioners to ensure that we have them fully integrated into the new library project. I was instructed by the board to contact (county Manager Ken) Westmoreland’s office and schedule a time and date when this could be arranged.
The comment I made about “the cart before the horse” refers to the need for community involvement and input in determining what the people of Jackson County want from their library. While the location and size of the proposed new library has been the source of much debate, nothing has been done to find out what the citizens of this county want. Do we want a warehouse for stacks of books and magazines? Do we want a place where people can gather with meeting rooms and performance spaces? Do we want a library that caters to senior citizens or children or working parents? Or do we want a library that caters to everyone? This is the planning and the fact-finding that has yet to be done. This is the most vital step in the entire process. We need to find out what our community wants. All other things – location, size, money needed, will fall into place when we can answer these crucial questions. For that matter, do the people of this county even want a new library? I certainly hope the answer is “yes.”
We could and should have something so much better than what we have now. One needs only look at the new addition to the Albert Carlton Library in Cashiers or the new Transylvania Library in Brevard to know what a library is capable of being to the community. A library can be a place where each member of the community can better themselves. Libraries are the most fundamental institution a society can have that enables all people, regardless of age, economic condition or social status to learn more about anything they desire. A library provides a source of free information, be it in the form of a book, a magazine, the Internet or some other form of communication yet to be discovered to anyone with a library card. Whatever is important to an individual can be found in the library. This dream, however, cannot happen if we don’t all come together and “pull the cart in the same direction.” Let’s find out what direction we want to go then pull together.
Howard Allman
Webster
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