A wonderful point from Monica Shepard --- All our elected servants have to do to leave this legacy to our kids is DON'T SELL IT. That's all. This eighty acre gem is ours at NO cost. Forever.
From Monica Sheppard:
In 1973, then-Governor Jimmy Carter had the foresight to sign into place the Metropolitan River Protection Act, recognizing the impact pollution and development would have on the city of Atlanta's only water source. As President, in 1978, he signed legislation to purchase 6,800 acres along the river, permanently protecting the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area as one of the first urban park lands in the country. That area has now grown to 10,000 acres because many in the area have willing sold their land to the cause, recognizing the benefit of this true gem in the heart of Atlanta.
Our little Burwell Creek and wetlands here in Rome is nowhere near that scale, but it is a one of only a few natural areas within the city. Interestingly, Rome already owns this beautiful tract of land and ALL the city leaders need to do to protect it is to refuse to sell it to developers at a loss to the taxpayers. Please contact our city commissioners and ask them to vote NO on selling this beautiful piece of property on Monday, and show that they have some of the foresight of other great Georgia leaders!
This, Ladies and Gentlemen is the land that Wright Ledbetter, speaking on behalf of the developers, described as just the sort of "blighted" property that Tax Allocation Districts were designed for. His strange opinion of this beauty is, I am sure, unaffected by the millions he hopes to make off of our park land.
Our gorgeous wetland, mature forest, and public park is the "liability" that Buzz Wachsteter, Evie McNeice, Bill Collins, Bill Irmscher, and Milton Slack are prepared to transfer from the legacy we should be leaving our children and grandchildren and present for a bargain price to some of the wealthiest developers around. And what will they replace our public greenspace with? A private, gated, upscale apartment complex where the residents, according to Mr. Charles Williams, another spokeman for the developers, would not likely think of sending their children to school on a bus.
I love this land. I dream of it being the center section of our Central Park. The very connective tissue that joins our riverside Ridge Ferry Park with our beautifull forested Jackson Hill.
In the much larger Rome of fifty years or a hundred years from now, which would you prefer to stand as our generation's gift to those children and grandchildren? Another gated in town apartment complex and strip mall, or a gorgeous park with forested trails on Jackson Hill connected to Riverside trails, picnic areas, and playgrounds of Ridge Ferry Park by a landscaped Duck Pond, a mature flood plain forest, and a gorgeous wetland all traversed by meandering trails and boardwalks punctuated with wildlife observation platforms.
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