Senator Lamar Alexander Says: Stopping The Road To Nowhere 'A Good Christmas Present For Tennessee'

From the desk of Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander about a North Carolina problem:

December 21, 2006


The Honorable Mary A. Bomar
Director
National Park Service
1849 C Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20240

Dear Director Bomar,

I am writing to suggest that a good Christmas present for the people of Tennessee and North Carolina would be a National Park Service decision to abandon the proposed $600 million "Road to Nowhere" through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The Environmental Impact Statement review for this proposed road is near a conclusion. Now is the time to bring this dispute – which has lasted since World War II – to an end. There is surely a federal obligation to the people of Swain County, North Carolina, but the U.S. Supreme Court has said there is no legal requirement to satisfy it by building this road. Common sense, as the elected Swain County Commissioners and the governors of Tennessee and North Carolina have said, suggests a cash settlement instead.

Source: The Rest of The Story, who has been on the forefront on the issue of forcing the Federal Government to live up to their promise to the people of Swain County made during World War II.