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Attack on Moody is ‘unwarranted’
To the Editor:
I resist responding to letters in the newspaper, although many are positive, inspiring and all essential in freedom of expression.
However, I must take strong issue with town board member Danny Allen’s letter in last week’s Sylva Herald. His attack on Mayor Moody is absolutely unwarranted.
I’ve known Maurice Moody for more than 40 years as a fellow employee of BASF Corp., a neighbor, a community servant and friend.
As mayor, his sincere focus is on Sylva and the role he needs to play in seeking solutions and bringing about continuing progress. He is experienced, not inexperienced. He understands budgets, controls, human resources, taking action, and setting realistic and important goals – all essential for any organization.
Is he moving too fast for Allen and some of his partners on the board? Maybe so, if for some reason(s) they fear progress, have their own unclear agendas, or still don’t see the economic benefits of an active, vibrant, attractive downtown Sylva and community.
Do Allen, and others, fear progress so much that they resort to hurling untruths at the mayor, board member (Stacy) Knotts and others who are trying to move the ship forward?
If you observe and follow the actions and comments of some town board members (like Allen), you may arrive at that conclusion. And this of course can be sorted out by the voters come election time.
Downtown Sylva is the heart and soul of this region of Jackson County. How many times does that point have to be made? It’s a beautiful, continuing work in process, and let’s hope that those with flawed visions don’t bring the recent years’ progress to an end.
Max Browning
Sylva
Keep trucks off South River Road
To the Editor:
We, like many, are visitors to your beautiful county. Unlike most, we are here for six weeks and have rented a lovely home on the Tuckaseigee at the end of Dillard Road in Webster community.
As all know who live here, South River Road is immediately across the river. The homes in the community where we are renting are all easily valued at or above $500,000 and surely represent not only an important tax base for the county but house tourists who are spending money in local establishments.
We are ending our third week and are utterly out of sorts. A daily procession of heavy gravel trucks rattles the windows throughout the work day. One literally can’t carry on a conversation on the porch, except between trucks and during the lunch hour, when all is quiet.
We are already looking for another place to rent next summer, only because of this impossible situation. We are, like most who visit here, up from South Florida. We hail from West Tennessee and are country folk at heart. We understand that life and “business” in the local community must go on, regardless of the tourists. But, I do offer you a bit of South Florida guidance, where tourism is the life blood of the economy. Never, and I mean never set up a situation that is not conducive to your tourist dollars returning next season. That is what is happening on South River Road.
This short stretch of residential county road should be closed to all commercial traffic. Support the people who spent millions of dollars building homes and the tax base in your county and who bring tourists through rentals who spend countless dollars in your establishments. Don’t abandon them so gravel trucks will have a little more convenient cutoff to N.C. 107.
Sam Bradley
Fort Myers, Fla.
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