Soque river water testing!

[Rocketroy]

The Soque River Watershed Assn. will attempt to save a grant, given to Habersham county, by the EPA div. of the Dept. of DNR, @ a hearing Jan. 14, Mon.night ---7:00 p.m..Place : Habersham co.CT.house! Clarkesville, Ga! This grant is for the purpose of gaining a scientific water quality base line for all future water policies in the Soque river watershed, which has its origin on tray Mtn.,and flows into the Hooch.,and is the home of some great trophy trout fishing, that is threatened by human impacts! This $636,000.00 grant, has been grinding thru the procees, since 1999, and is now threatened by local factions, wanting to reject it, on the basis of: "infringement on personal property rights!!"---- of course by the group of "others", from the outside!!! I believe, that this effort, by the scientific community, if allowed to be defeated, will encourage others, that are pushing for the existing lack of standards,will be empowered by this commissions rejection!!! Please make a strong effort to pass the word, and attend: Your presence, in support is what these decision makers understand,and react to.------ Very critical!!, since;Sure to follow,if we can prevail,is additional grant money to be applied to Base-line water conditions, that now are lacking in other drinking source watersheds, in the many threatened water sources in your No. Ga. Mtns.! Can.t come yourself? pass this on, and let,s show the responsible side of N.G.T.O.,& sportsmen out there! Thanks for your ear!----or, is it eyes, in this wired world? Regards, Rocketroy

[The Owl]

Rocketroy,
Can you be more specific as to who the outsiders are - email if you like. I am interested.


Jah - you coming? http://www.georgia-outdoors.com/ubbngto/wink.gif

[Rocketroy]

Owl---- Thanks for the interest! The reference to: "others", and "outsiders" is to any flow of regulation, brought by outsiders, that impacts the way things have always been done in many of these mtn. communities! By public hearing, the fear factor has included: " a U.N. conspiracy"----" invasion, and improper taking",----- and "meddling in home rule", to name a few loudly stated reasons to overpower any person or Org., that proposes or tries to suggest a need for impact regulations on land or water practices! I can,t put my hands on the issue, but 6-8 mo. ago,the Creative Loafing paper covered the embarressing behavior of Habersham officials, and the " anti-conspiracy" crowd very well, and with objectivity! If you know how to, or if it is possible: please post Loafing,s web site link {It does an excellentjob},for others to access. The years of drought, lake lanier,s condition, and the city of Atlantas pollution of the hooch, are a strong message that major changes are needed in how all Georgians treat that resource! These Ga.mtns.are critical, since the water at least for the most part starts out clean----- so far!!! Thanks again, and a strong show of support Mon. night, would be appreciated, by those carrying this battle!!! Regards, Rocketroy, For: Soque River Watershed Assn. {Clarkesville, Ga.}

[FLYSLINGER]

Mr. Roy,
I think I had a beer with you one evening at Smith's. I go to Uga and drive a red chevy 4x4. Does the association still have that job opening you were telling me about?

------------------
Screaming reels,
Jeremy

"Never go camping with a man that drinks whiskey sours."
Lewis Grizzard

[Rocketroy]

Flyslinger, You can be sure, that my creel never holds dead trout, but always a cool one for me, and the friends I meet on these great No. Ga. streams! Thanks for remembering R.R.! To answer your other ? , about the Exec. Director position we just filled, again thanks for the interest, but it has been filled. The Soque River Watershed Assn. has contracted with a highly qualified, and dedicated young man named Justin Ellis, who is in the process of relocating from his Alabama home, to Clarkesville, where he was an important contributor to the growth of Alabama,s growing Rivers alive programs, and watershed development! Please note: Our Watershed, thanks The Turner Foundation, for its grant, that is allowing the funding, of this first for us, staff position! This 3 year old Org. is almost 200 strong, and can be helped in your battle for clean streams, by a modest $10.00 membership contribution! The struggle is for minds, not funds, so your small membership support dollars, will build the numbers needed to be heard! Regards, from Clarkesville---- Rocketroy

[The Owl]

Assuming that was tonight.....how did it go? Well for the watershed I hope! I regret that I could not be there and am a bad, evil, lying person for missing the meeting.( Or so I've been told " in a nutshell")

Owl
droppings are good for you. http://www.georgia-outdoors.com/ubbngto/wink.gif

[Rocketroy]

Owl,there was a 30 + turnout from Soque Watershed, and others last night,resulting in much discussion,and a continuace, due to time constraints. Good-ole Jimmy Harris came and rounded up several of his guides, bringing helpful support! Several members of the granting agency, out of Atl. were there ,and fielded questions from the podium, as well as the handful of citizens always at these meetings, and always spreading their fear of " outsider" take over of citizen,s rights! There is a bias in these deliberations, to deny accepting $ from any source, that requires conformancy---- especially involving EPD-EPA-STATE,OR FED. PROGRAMS! { THE COUNTY COMM. EVEN REJECTED GRANT $ TO THE LOCAL SOUP KITCHEN, ON THE GROUNDS OF POTENTIAL LIABILITY--- GO FIGURE!} There again,the U.N.conspiracy,and local control-at-any cost preachers become vocal! The most positive development last night was the impact of having several officials from Gainesville, Ga., share their experience,on another controversial agenda item, in a favorable manner! The commission members commented on how helpful it was to hear of real municipalities experiences, based on a real world history! Somthing our argument lacks at this moment! To all out there: The next meeting of this group, will see the continued discussion, and probably a vote on this Grant! My appeal is to "ALL": to send me an e-mail, if anyone knows of a similar water testing grant, to a county, anywhere, that has been completed, and someone we could enlist to share their communities history of the impact! The Soque River Watershed Assn.has one more round to go in overcoming this type of resistance to change, that is so easy to identify, and so difficult to bring about! Thanks again,for following the story----- and understand you may have your on community issue, in the Law & order dept.!{ something about a fired police chief?} Good luck! Rocketroy

[The Owl]

RocketRoy,
I believe you are right.....but I have to risk this and ask you - Could there be some grain of truth to the fears these people have? Not the UN stuff( did someone really say that? The UN stuff is so much bigger than that! http://www.georgia-outdoors.com/ubbngto/wink.gif ), but the fear of losing the right to manage their own land to a government agency(or whatever)? As good intentions go, I have no doubt that you all have the best....but there's usually two sides to every story, and we have to admit that the Gov. doesn't always do the best job at things like this....

Looking at the origianl post though....accepting a grant hardly seems cause to , what was it someone once said here....." round up the villagers.....there's a dragon at the gate!" http://www.georgia-outdoors.com/ubbngto/smile.gif

Just trying to get a balanced perspective on this.....but if Jimmy's for it, then I am probably for it too.

Owl

[Rocketroy]

The owl is one wise creature! The grain- of- truth analogy is a good one----- but; considering the repeated application of the wide spreading of ea. grain of truth,opposing all regulation: each argument becomes a:{"one- size- fits- all"} echo , repeated, until it takes on the weight of fact!!!! Good instinctual tactics, but **** poor science! The real tragedy is the grant does not depend on Habersham county staying in as one of 8 other signees----- since the grant rules allow another eligible public entity to step in! The granting authority, has assured us that IT WILL BE DONE!----- and to boot: future water permitting depends on this county having base-line date to show, upon application for expanded water withdrawals------on the taxpayers nickel! SOME FUN,HUH? To close, consider that the Habersham water authority is broke, has no borrowing ability, and has no prospect, at this time of meeting a growing counties expanding- drought-impacted needs, and has threatened to hand the whole mess back to tha county management!!! Makes one sleep well!!!! Regards to you, Rocketroy

[The Owl]

Hey Rocketroy, I'm with you.
I wasn't necess. talking about science vs. intuition, and I see you're point crystal clear.

It's an old habit that has served me well......I always try to put myself into the other side of the story - well, if I think of it http://www.georgia-outdoors.com/ubbngto/wink.gif, and ask how I would feel......a good example is folks that claim that big stores like Lowe's(for one) or Walmart, are running out the little people and the mom-n-pops. Yes they are and on one side of it, it's a really sad thing. I remember buying a RC and a moon pie and a box of little gum cigs, and thinking that the old dusty "Quickie" was candy heaven! I guess now kids think that about the first isle at Wallie world...so I hear people complain about how greedy the big box's are and how bad they are - but it is my opinion that most people, if it was they're "big box" they'd think alot differently.


Thanks for the info.

Owl

[Jimmy Harris]

The really sad thing about all this posturing by Habersham County is that it's designed to mislead the citizens and delay responding long enough to lose the grant. Then, two or three years down the road, a higher governmental authority will require the study to be done and the good citizens of Habersham will foot the entire bill on their own; probably at a much inflated cost. The city of Gainesville just completed a watershed assessment study, at a cost of $500,000, and were unable to get any grant money to help. All we're talking about here is a study to provide baseline data that can be used in the future to determine if water quality is being maintained or if it's degrading. I'm having a really difficult time understanding the paranoia surrounding acceptance of the grant. I wonder if those opposed have checked lately on just how much grant money the county receives already; schools, roads, water systems, sewer systems, hospitals, airports, law enforcement. I'm really puzzled. And, believe it or not, the county really did turn down a grant for the local soup kitchen that would have required nothing more than for them to oversee administration of the grant moneys. I feel like I've been beamed to northern Idaho. In Habersham County, ignorance is, indeed, bliss.

[fishnpreacher]

But if ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?? http://www.georgia-outdoors.com/ubbngto/smile.gif
I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself http://www.georgia-outdoors.com/ubbngto/wink.gif

------------------
I can do all things through Christ <bill><