North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 08/14/1997

It's Thursday August 14th. Tonight is wedding day economic prosperity in North Carolina now. Good evening and welcome to this Thursday edition of North

Carolina now I'm right in the tray. Hope you all managed to avoid the heat this afternoon. If you're looking for a relaxing vacation destination to get away from the blistering heat Well how about the mountains tonight Michel Louis will take us there. Also want to program the debate to improve our state's water quality continues in the general assembly. Tonight we'll speak with the executive director of the League of municipalities to get his views on what the effects of that legislation will have on cities and towns. But up first tonight are growing cities and towns. We continue our series on our state's rapid expansion. But not everyone in the state is benefiting from all the growth that we're experiencing. How do we distribute the opportunities of growth more equitably is the focus of tonight's story produced by Derek along our coast in urban areas continue to grow and prosper. Many people in the mountain northern and eastern counties of rural North Carolina are in danger of being left behind. And as Governor Hunt knows providing opportunities for growth and development to all the citizens of the state is a difficult challenge.

Well this matter of sharing growth in some kind of equitable fair way is really a tough tough thing to do. One way the state is trying to help rural counties attract industry and quality jobs is through tax incentives for new and expanding businesses. If an industry goes into or expands in one of the poorer counties of the state they will get a larger tax credit per job created. But now we're getting these companies to look at those counties in a way they never did before because right up front they can see that they will perhaps be more profitable there. One of the things the industry looks for is infrastructure highways utilities and many rural areas lack some of these fundamentals. We are putting some focus on helping rural areas with structure development. Most of the rule area North Carolina have some difficulty in attracting industry because the infrastructure is not already in place. Things like water and sewer and gas questions.

But according to Donna Chavis a longtime advocate for social change business incentives and infrastructure are only part of the solution to spreading our economic growth more equitably throughout the state. So often in areas locations where you have a lack of physical infrastructure you also have a lack of service and infrastructure. You don't have a lot of it of community based groups organizing in in certain ways so that their voices are heard on a regular basis. In this decision making process. Enter Gary Grant the executive director of the Concerned Citizens of Tillery a community based organization in rural Halifax County. So you see team members take an active voice when it comes to improving the social economic and educational welfare of the citizens of Tillery. On this day they held one of their award winning health clinics. We have now established in conjunction with East Carolina School of Medicine monthly health screening clinic that does also monitor team of the

community residents. In 1903 we won the very first international healthy communities award that was set up by the health care forum of San Francisco and Marion Merrill Dow pharmaceuticals. The edge that we had was the fact that the community said let us do something about our health problems rather than waiting for someone to come and bring a program that in most instances is not what the community needs. Those communities that are in need of development so often have ideas they so often have answers but they're not often listened to or necessary brought into the conversation of what would work for them. And so what you have happening is that when you have poverty at such a level when unemployment is such a high rate that you then you're your problem to be. You can be a victim to situations that are not good for your community.

Cary Grant the Concerned Citizens of jewelry set out to change that rather than become passive victims to growth. The citizens of jewelry are actively engaged in the development of their community. When we discovered that our area had been targeted for major major economic development through corporate hog farms or hog factories coming into the area that would you want to provide us jobs and save us all. We were able to get activists and environmentalists the health department and county commissioners and all to get an intensive livestock award and it's a past that did not tell the industry it couldn't come. It simply said that if you're coming you're going to do it right. And we've been able to we're gone a world recognition on addressing the issues that confront us because people know what kind of community they want. They know what kinds of industry they want coming they know what kinds of jobs they want. And I'm a firm advocate of the concept that if you get interested parties around

development around the table to talk about the issues that you can resolve the differences grant degrees but suggest that planning officials need to do a better job of bringing people to the table. As we talk about development and we talk about equity that there. We must remember that there is an African American population and there is a Native American population and we have a growing Latino population. Those people need to be brought to the table bringing the interest of people business and the state together is an important element in providing communities the opportunities they need to create a promising future. I know there are many people now who don't feel that they have any opportunity where they're at that they have to leave. And it's a sad decision that they have to make. They have to leave their family their extended family and go somewhere else for a job. Young people in Halifax counties as Grant have few options. Bus ticket or train ticket when they walk across the stage at their graduation. That's

their opportunity which is very much the same thing as it was for me back in the 1950s. So that's my vision and my dream and my hope is that my children and grandchildren can feel just as I did that they have the choice to stay or go wherever they want in the state of North Carolina and have as good quality of life as they would any other place. Tomorrow night we conclude our series as we look at the concept of sustainable development as the framework for managing our growth. Still ahead cities and towns and their role in cleaning up our water. But first let's check in with Michel Louis for summary of today's statewide news match. Thanks Marina. Good evening everyone. Efforts to unionize workers tops our news tonight. Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson spoke at a rally today sponsored by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Employees of Carolina food processors Hawk slaughtering plan and Bladen County will be voting next week on whether to join the union. Jackson told the crowd of about 200 union supporters that America's business success has

been built on the backs of workers. But so the success of our struggle has made America better and that America gets better and more prosperous. Workers want to stand the prosperity as America grows. Let the workers grow. That's something that we've got. There's that talk. Well I mean there's a bit of that kind of work because my share of America's wealth and other union used textile workers at six fill Chris Cannon plants voted against joining the union of needle trades industrial and textile employees. After two days of voting union supporters lost by three hundred sixty nine votes. Union officials are challenging the results and have not conceded the election. Governor Jim Hunt has had a full week of signing new legislation. Today the governor signed a fisheries reform bill into law. The measure imposes stricter enforcement of current fisheries laws including increased penalties for illegal fishing. It also imposes higher fees for commercial licenses and caps the

number of licenses issued. Negotiators for the state Senate have prepared a compromise offer on key environmental lancers legislation. They have agreed to a two year moratorium on new or expanded hog farms and to a special moratorium on construction or expansion of hog farms in Moore County. In addition to go she has agreed to a house provision to prevent farmers from locating less than 500 feet from a public water supply. In a related action a House committee approved part of the Senate's environmental package a proposed 1 billion dollar clean water bond referendum. While environmental legislation is inching forward the welfare reform impasse continues. The House proposal would allow a third of the state's counties to take over the state's role in deciding welfare eligibility and benefits under the plan welfare recipients would still receive benefits through the state but the counties could set the amount of monthly cash assistance. The Senate has proposed a three county pilot program welfare reform is one of the major issues stalling agreement on the state budget.

According to Money magazine the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the best buy in the country among public institutions. The magazine's annual survey ranks you in see Chapel Hill third nationally among public and private universities. The school rank behind only California Institute of Technology and Rice University. It was human see Chapel Hill's highest overall ranking in the annual survey of the top 150 schools. And now for a look at tomorrow's weather highs will be in the 80s and 90s across the state for Friday. Fayetteville and Greenville should be the warmest with highs around 95 partly sunny to partly cloudy skies are in the forecast. There's a 20 to 30 percent chance of afternoon showers statewide. And in business news Alamance County may soon become the new home for Audi. Word that the German automobile manufacturer is looking at sites in the United States and recent real estate activity in the county is fueling the speculation. A spokesman for the company says Audi has no specific plans for a new company. But Bob Goforth a former head of North Carolina's industrial recruiting is

reported as saying he has been told that he has been scouting the area now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today. The General Assembly is still haggling over the final details of the sweeping

environmental legislation the Clean Water Responsibility Act is the first comprehensive approach to cleaning up our state's water ever attempted by lawmakers. While much of the press regarding this proposed legislation deals with the hawg industry there are other vital elements to the bill. One such element is the tightening of the amount of nitrogen discharge from municipal waste water treatment plant is going to give us his views on what this legislation will mean for cities and towns in our state. Is Ellis hankerings the executive director of the North Carolina League of municipalities Mr. Hankins Welcome to the program. Thank you very. We should preface this conversation by saying the General Assembly has not come up with its final version yet. But having said that from what you've seen of the bill how do you feel as though it will impact our cities. Well there's a lot of discussion about this bill around the General Assembly. The conference committee is about to start meeting the Senate conferees started their meetings yesterday. This bill is going to affect our municipalities in a significant way. We want to over to the General Assembly earlier in the session on the House side. When this bill was there

and we agreed to a version of it having to do with nitrogen limits and wastewater treatment plants and we agreed to six milligrams per liter as a standard. The Senate chose to go a little farther. And we're we're working with members of the House and Senate the Senate chose to go a little bit further as far as tightening that nitrogen discharge. And you don't approve of the Senate actually went a good bit further I should say. And then the house we agreed to something that we thought was fair reasonable and achievable for our municipalities without exorbitant water and sewer right increases. People who are customers those city systems will pay for whatever the cost are. And we're just going to engage in the discussions and try to end up with something reasonable. So what do you feel would be the reasonable course of action for cities and towns to take because everybody has to do their part.

You know there are several pieces to this nitrogen limits is the subject of the bill. What you've seen on TV lately in the news with some of the ads by the hog industry have highlighted some problems that some cities have had with their waste water systems. Another part of it is just what do the permits require municipalities to take out of the waste water. It's all expensive. On the subject of the releases that have been in the news lately there's been too many of those. They've happened for different reasons and cities need to have a renewed focus on more consistent compliance. But you know it's not always avoidable. I'm not sure that the release that happened in Garner yesterday or the day before was avoidable. It doesn't point out a need that those facilities need to be upgraded in some cases it does in some cases the people who live in those cities and towns who have already made significant investments in those systems

need to invest some more and some upgrades need to be made. In some cases some changes improvements need to be made. In operation and maintenance sometimes the things that a car are not avoidable. And in that case the city just needs to respond as quickly as possible. Town of Garner employees responded very well to the release that happened there this week. Now I could see a member of the hog industry sitting here and saying some of those spills of the hog lagoons are not avoidable. Everybody's pointing fingers at everybody and that's that's regrettable. We wish that had never started. You know the pork industry the hog industry is important to the economy of our state. It's particularly important to some of the small towns in the eastern part of the state. That ad campaign has not helped this problem 30 second negative TV ads do not clean up the water they pollute the airwaves but they don't clean up the water. We approached this issue differently. We went to the legislature which is I just said and

reached an agreement on a piece of legislation. The hog folks have chosen to say that they've been singled out. They haven't they're not the first group that didn't like a bill in the legislature. None of these bills that are pending require them to treat the waste from the animal operations in any way different from their doing it. Why they're doing it now. They have some siting requirements and there's a proposed moratorium but they're not required under these bills to treat the waste. So when it's all said and done what would you like to see this final version of this legislation coming to be. It ought to address all sources of pollution and nutrition nitrogen loading other nutrients that includes municipal waste water treatment plants and there will be provisions in this bill about wastewater treatment plants just depends on the final result. Hogs large hog production facilities we're not talking about family farms. They need to be in this bill. The piece that's

not in it one piece is not it is quite the agriculture. There needs to be more attention to that because that is a significant source of nutrient loading. Everybody is in favor of cleaning up the water but if they look at it what does this mean to me. According to your calculations and and we've said that this bill has not been finalized yet but according to your calculations the House bill versus the Senate bill how much of an increase in sewer and water bills would people be having to pay. It depends on the local situation. In the city of Raleigh there's an 8 million dollar project underway now just for nitrogen removal. And if you spread that over all the customers in the city of Raleigh it's going to be an increase but not a huge one. If you look at a small town with a smaller treatment plant there's a higher per customer cost for making those improvements. We have just we've urged that there be a rule of reason here. We all need to do better. More money needs to be spent and it's not going to be easy or inexpensive but let's just

be careful about how far how fast we move. All right Mr. Hankins I want to thank you for your time I'm sure we'll be hearing from the hog farmers but they're welcome to bring their point of view as well. Appreciate your time tonight. Thank you. Western North Carolina is known for its mountainous terrain courtesy of the Appalachian Blue Ridge and Black Mountains. All this summer I think of the mountains as treacherous many of the massive rock mounds in the Tarheel State are recognized as travel havens.

Michel Louis gives us a tour are some of the oldest in the world for many reasons. The Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains our favorite travel spots in the Tar Heel State. If hiking is your game you can track a portion of the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina. If you're really daring you can go to Georgia where the trail starts and walk to the end of the trail in Maine. A whopping two thousand one hundred fifty miles. So those who have completed this journey say the area between Georgia and North Carolina is very challenging. They also suggest hikers need to start the trip in March or April and bundle up against the elements. You get wet and this wind like we feel right now in this type of weather. You get wet and cold. You can go down real real quick. The variations in weather can be rather extreme specially for the people that start early in the year. And that adds an extra element of hardship to the trip. But after you've been out in the woods for a few

weeks you get acclimated to it. The Appalachian Trail isn't limited to just rocks and dirt. There is also plenty of nature's beauty to behold. If you don't care to hike North Carolina's mountains why not take a drive near the Blue Ridge Parkway there is U.S. Highway 221. Also known as the little Parkway. It's a 17 mile stretch from Blowing Rock to Lendell. That gives you breathtaking views of the fall foliage along the parkway. You can also see the Lego viaduct which blends in well with the natural surroundings on Grandfather Mountain. If you decide to take the Blue Ridge Parkway you'll find that mile post 232 a distinct gray rock that stands out against the green foliage. This is Stone Mountain a 300 million year old structure formed remote and lava

stone mountain is part of North Carolina's state park system. Stone Mountain is actually intrusive igneous rock this rock was formed basically they put a New York crest but through millions of years of erosion the Rock Block now is X-Trace of which means it's exposed. Stone Mountain Park itself is the largest land based State Park in North Carolina. We have almost 14000 acres and development just one stone mountain offers plenty of hiking trails which lead to the top and the base of the mountain interlaced with trout streams and waterfalls along the way. Speaking of waterfalls Transylvania County is known as the land of waterfalls. The county has close to 200 waterfalls thanks to the French Broad and Davidson rivers flowing 5000 feet down were falling over cliffs creating waterfalls along the way. In the past been national forest you can take a 150 foot slide down sliding

rock. The ride comes to a chilly completion in 40 degree water. If you consider yourself a professional rock slider there's driftwood balls or as the locals call it bust your butt ballers. Now from sliding to ski North Carolina's mountains are a sanctuary for skiers. There are eight major ski resorts in the Tar Heel State. One of the most popular is Sugar Mountain Ski Resort located east of banner. Another lodge that is known for its challenging and unpredictable slopes is Wolf Laurel ski resort which is north of Mars Hill. If the idea of high slopes excites you check out of Mount Mitchell located northeast of Asheville in the Black Mountain County. It's not designed for skiing because it stands at six thousand six hundred eighty four feet above sea level making it the highest point east of the Black Hills of South Dakota. Mitchell became the first North Carolina in 1950.

The mountain is estimated to be 250 million years old at one time we think the mountains may have been taller than Mt. Everest. They could have been as high as 18 to 20000 feet above sea level but the Mountain high that we have today is a result of erosion. Wind and rain freezing temperatures breaking apart a rock in the sun and has gradually washed our mountains of washed into the ocean over millions of years. If you would like to experience rushing water and mountains in a more tame setting there's the neta Hill Outdoor Center located 13 miles southwest of Bryson City in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains. The center is recognized as a national leader in white water instruction another growing activity at the Nat'l outdoor center is mountain biking. Now that you know what you can do on and around North Carolina's mountains how about inside little caverns located in the Blue Ridge Mountains are

North Carolina's only commercial caverns the limestone caves were open to the public in 1940. The discovery of the caves actually involves a fish tale. Cameron was a standard that women are on the side of the mountain. I can only give themselves a right. Some fishermen found more mystery in the cavern whether it's hiking biking boating driving sliding ski or just taking it all in. North Carolina's mountains home been a meal that is raw. If you'd like additional information about the many travel destinations in our mountains or anywhere in the state you can contact the North Carolina Division of travel and tourism at 1 800. Visit and see. That's all we have time for tonight. We'll see you back here again tomorrow. Goodnight everyone.