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	Name:	Martins Cove -
	Subject:	New Bridge
	Date:	10/12/2005 12:39:52 AM

Contender,
Your response, for the most part, is not valid. I will categorically respond to each of your points. Also, for the record, I do not run a shop. I run a rental lake house geared toward fishers and golfers in Coosa County. I'm one of the few actually bringing out of state and in-state tourists to the area.
1. Caverns. The majority of Shelby County is one big cavern formed by the underground water dripping through the predominant rock, limestone. You say that Desoto would be affected and that bothLAY and Logan Martin dams are built on top of caverns. Why does Lay dam not have any problems? Logan Martin's problems are mainly due to the fact that Alabama Power chose to ignore the Corps of Engineers and build Logan Martin Dam where they wanted to, not where the bedrock was solid like the corps recommended. I would like to know what engineering study of the area you are basing your assertions on. As I understand it, there hasn't been one conducted as of yet but will have to be before building could begin.
2. You have a valid point about disturbing the sediment and stirring up latent PCBs. However, fish don't usually die from PCBs, especially in massive kills like you seem to be alluding to. The EPA, through previous superfund projects, has become quite adept at removing the contaminated sediment with no adverse effects. This could also be done at this site before pilings are built, thus eliminating any argument about PCB levels. As to the tourists stopping, they already have because the fish aren't safe to eat as it is right now (Al Dept. of Health consumption advisories www.state.al.us) This lake is already widely known to be contaminated and those who are going to avoid it already are. PCBs are a human carcinogin that we acquire from eating the fatty parts of fish where the fish tend to store the PCBs they consume. The fish are currently not safe to eat but they're not dead, are they? I find the majority of this argument to be bunk. Also, increased trash should be less of a concern to you than the multitudes of illegal dumps all along the lake that are daily polluters of the lake. I can't see that much more trash than the tournament fishers already lose on any given day when 200 boats are on the water.
3. Peace and serinity/ Disturbing eagles.
What peace and serenity? And how is a bridge, 20 miles from the next nearest bridge, going to eliminate any habitat except for the square footage of the pilings? Noise? Have you not heard the throngs of bass boats with 225's on the back screaming up and down the river all hours of the day? I'm assuming, because of your handle, that you are one of these boaters. No, the noise from this bridge couldn't possibly compare to what already exists when 500 boats are turned out of one marina.
Eagles, which are predatory birds, usually are not thwarted by noise but rather loss of habitat. I lived in Central Florida where a mating pair of bald eagles had their nest less that 100 ft from the 520 (beeline), a major highway between Cape Canaveral and Orlando. They returned each year to mate with trucks going by at 70 mph. This is a pretty common scenario. Predatory animals tend to be much more adaptive to conditions as long as they have enough sustainable habitat.
4. Obstacles
If they can dodge the millions of stick ups, a bridge piling with lights on it shouldn't be too difficult to navigate around. If they can't, they probably don't need to be driving a boat in the first place. Millions of boats do the same thing every single day all across the world, including on the ONLY bridges that cross the main channel of Lay Lake, US 280 and the paralell train bridge. Lets see, 50 mile long lake, 1 bridge. Hmmm, yeah, that sounds like plenty of bridges. PLEASE. And no, the southern end of lay doesn't have a bridge, it's over Mitchell below the dam.
5. businesses losing
I don't forsee Wal-Mart coming to Fayetteville, AL, where the bridge would connect to, any time in the near future. I think the population is 500, maybe 1000. No, businesses would mainly be helped and maybe the bar would be raised in the quality of businesses. It's a simple fact of life, compete in business, or perish. Darwinism applied to business isn't such a bad thing. You should embrace it, not fear it. See also #4 about distances between bridges. About 20 miles in case you forgot.
6.Property taxes/property values/ services.
I don't know any one in the world, save you, that doesn't want to see the value of their typically single largest lifetime investment grow through market values rising. Yes, property values will be reassessed and taxes will increase. However, for a solid dollar figure, with a homestead exemption in Coosa County where my business is located, I would pay $300 per year. I don't have the homestead exemption, because I reside in Shelby County, and my taxes are $520 per year. That's $500 per year on an acre of lakefront property with a 3 bedroom house and a 2 slip enclosed boat house. Two trips to wally-world for groceries and I've spent more than my annual taxes which, by the way, are the lowest in the country. If we doubled, yes doubled, our property taxes we still wouldn't catch up to the next cheapest state, Mississippi. Whether you want to realize it or not, thanks to ALFA we get pitiful schools and incredibly cheap property taxes! I have friends who wanted to know if that's what we paid PER MONTH!
As for services, No, I don't have a paved road, my nearest volunteer fire department is 12 volunteer fire department miles away (along the dirt and semi-paved but heavy logging use roads) , and I don't think you'll be seeing a Rhoades scholar coming from this side of the river in the near future. Coosa County is one of the poorest counties in the state and in the nation. Looking for opportunity? Yep, these people are every single day.
As for police protection. Let's just say I needed them one night, called 911, and 2.5 hours later they still hadn't showed up. I slept with the shotgun next to me that night. Don't know if they ever showed up because the person I got at the sheriff's dept. was one of three on duty that Friday night FOR THE ENTIRE COUNTY!
Fire hydrants? Yep, the pump I have sunk in the lake will work as one in a pinch. However, see above about fire protection.
7. I think you are horribly misinformed about the bridge funding. No taxes have been collected. The group funding the bridge is private and the funding is all private. Yes, that means it will be a private bridge, or a toll bridge, to pay for the construction and maintenanace. So yes, this group does want to improve the Shelby side as well. So, let's see, no cost to you, improved access for me, increased property values for both of us with a minimal environmental impact. Sounds like a no-brainer to me.
8. The rich keep getting richer and the poor poorer?
Please. I tend to agree with Neal Boortz's observations on that subject. Being poor is, for the most part, a self-inflicted mental disease characterized by a tendency to blame every one else for your problems instead of being self-reliant and self-motivated. I refer you to your fear of paying for taxes on your property as the value of your investment increases due, in no part, to your efforts to make the value rise. It's a fear of wealth that's bothering you, not some bridge that I see as an economic opportunity, not an economic depleater. That argument is really grasping at straws.

Whether you want it to or not, development is coming this direction. It has, in the past, simply bypassed those with their collective heads in the sand, and left them wondering where their share of the economic pie was. They didn't want it and quite frankly, don't deserve it if they shun the opportunities it brings.
I think, instead of being a reactive protester, the more prudent course would be to be proactive by embracing development and guiding it with controls, usually refer

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