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Dobson to
receive inaugural Holman Water Quality Stewardship Award at
Jan. 17, 2009 banquet to be held at Brasstown Valley
The Hiwassee
River Watershed Coalition’s annual honor will recognize
outstanding contributions to water-quality protection
The Hiwassee
River flows through parts of three states.
By Tom Bennett
Murphy, N.C., Oct. 15, 2008 -- Jim Dobson,
retired superintendent of the Georgia Mountain Research and
Education Center and Union County, Ga. resident, has been
named the recipient of the first annual Holman Water Quality
Stewardship Award of the Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition.
“Jim Dobson has dedicated his career and significant
time in retirement to educating people about soil and
water,” said Callie Moore, executive director of the
Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition. “He is a founding
member of HRWC who, 13 years later, continues to set the
standard for our board of directors for spirited
participation.”
The banquet is set for Saturday night, Jan. 17, 2009 at
Brasstown Valley resort in Young Harris, Ga. The 6:30 p.m.
dinner will be preceded by a silent auction.
Bill Holman is a visiting scholar at the Nicholas
Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke
University. He is former executive director of the Clean
Water Management Trust Fund and also former secretary of the
N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. He is
a renowned leader on water quality issues and has been
invited to attend and address this first banquet, presenting
the award named for him.
What is the need here that income from a banquet can
address? The Hiwassee River, tributaries and reservoirs in
North Carolina and Georgia are in relatively good health
when compared with other southern Appalachian waters.
However, there is pollution from construction, livestock,
and landfills, septic tanks in the country and sewers in the
towns, just to name a few.
Epic building of mountain roads, bridges and tunnels is
contemplated to make a grid across this watershed.
Tennessee DOT is writing an environmental impact study for
an east-west four-lane highway to the Atlantic Ocean.
Meanwhile, the 2005 federal transportation bill includes
funding for a study of the feasibility of a north-south
freeway from Savannah, Ga., to Knoxville, Tenn. The
Hiwassee watershed is in the bulls-eye.
The sponsorship levels for the Holman banquet are
Platinum, $5,000; Gold, $3,000; Silver, $2000; and Blue,
$250. It costs only $25 to attend the banquet as a “Friend
of the Hiwassee.”
The Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition is a 501(c)(3)
conservation nonprofit organization whose mission is to
facilitate water quality improvements in the upper Hiwassee
River basin. It has one part-time and three full-time
employees and rents office space from a feed store along a
country road near Murphy, NC. A few feet from the front
door are inter-modal freight containers in which farming
goods have been delivered. The organization is 13 years
old. Summaries of its board meetings are online at http://www.hrwc.net/hrwcboardmeetings.htm
The goals for the Holman banquet in this first year are
one Platinum; two Gold; two Silver; 10 Blue and 50 Friend of
the Hiwassee sponsorships. With that and silent-auction
income, it can defray costs and clear $14,500 in the
inaugural. Its annual budget is $142,000.
The officers of HRWC are Gil Nicolson of Clay County,
N.C, chairperson; Anne Mitchell of Towns County, Ga.,
vice-chairperson; and Brenda Hull of Clay County, treasurer.
The other board members are Silas Allen of Cherokee Co.;
Andy Blankenship of Clay Co.; John Bowen, Eddie Bradley and
Ben Kennedy of Towns Co; honoree Jim Dobson and Robert Head
Jr. of Union County, Ga.; and this writer. None receive any
monetary compensation.
The runners-up for the inaugural award, in the
balloting by a board of directors committee, were: Silas
Allen; Joan Crothers of Hiawassee, Ga.; John Kay of Young
Harris, Ga.; John Kelley of Young Harris; Bill Kendall of
Hiawassee; Lamar Paris of Blairsville, Ga.; Elaine Russell
of Murphy, N.C.; and Tom Stark of Durham, N.C.
Inaugural honoree Jim Dobson had a distinguished career
as superintendent of the University of Georgia College of
Agriculture and Environmental Sciences’ Agricultural
Experiment Station, which was recently renamed the Georgia
Mountain Research and Education Center. It is located near
Blairsville, Ga.
* * *
Tom Bennett of the Martins Creek
community near Murphy, N.C., is a retired newsman and
Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition member/volunteer.
E-mail him at
farblumtn@gmail.com
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