http://www.thecherokeescout.com/articles/2009/07/22/news/doc4a6614973d6ae839874297.txt

Candace Wyman, Upper Tellico ORV project coordinator for the Forest Service, said Thursday the Forest Service is wrapping up the environmental assessment. A final decision on what to do probably will be made near the end of August.

So in less than 12 days, there will be a final decision. This should be interesting.

BOHICA

The Cherokee Scout article is from July. New information from the FS points to a September or October release date for their Final Decision. Plenty of time to voice your opposition to the closure.

This past weeks newspaper has an article on the some great idea to get people to spend money in town and how every dollar spent is mutiplied several times over. The grand idea was written by the Chamber of Commerce. Funny how money in the community means something now. 15% unemployment, no real jobs, businesses closing everyday, no big reason for visitors to even stay in Murphy. I have had several meetings with the Chamber in regards to Tellico and they really never put any real effort into fighting for it. I try my best not to spend any money in town or county. Matter of fact, we did all of the kids school shopping while we were in Florida.
:flipoff2:

Every dollar spent will be respent (multiplied) several times over within the community. It is good to spend money within a community - but where the real help/aid comes is when money is spent in Murphy from outside sources (aka: ORV users). I don't seem to see many of those around Murphy lately so the only real tourism money/money from outside sources will be fishermen and some tourists and Murphy isn't a hot and heavy tourism destination like some other western NC towns.

If y'all can recall the Economic Impact study completed by the Univ of Tenn for the FS you might remember that ORV uses spent several times more money than fishermen did, and even at that I think the report used faulty information to estimate the total number of ORV users to the area.

Hmmm - kick out one of the if not the largest contributing user group of tourism dollars to the area and see what will happen... looks like we are seeing it right now.

xj4life, thanks for the info but that's old news bud, scroll down in the forum next time.... http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=806305

i personally believe that ga and nc are aiming to close all orv trails. its bullshit but more and more are being closed by the day. when the forestry service gets involved in an investigation it will take forever and the results will not be good. the fs does not care if the town of murphy is losing money cause of cancelled orv events. there paychecks are coming from the goverment and will continue to come whether they close tellico orv trails or not. i wouldnt look to see tellico orv trails open ever again. i personally hope not but i think the hand writing is on the wall. w/o these big orv events there is really no reason to go to murpy its not exactly a tourist hot spot. i will never spend another dime in the town as far as im concerned.

Here's the article on the shop local deal. http://cherokeescout.com/articles/2009/08/18/opinions/doc4a8afb4c3ea5d519709556.txt It basically outlines what Helen and I had been trying to get the City and County leadership on board with very early in the fight last year. Of course the UT Economic impact study showed us all how much came into the area because of Tellico OHV. We also know that number was inaccurate on the low side as well.

Barret from B&B Offroad sent in a very good response to that article in this weeks rag. THANKS BARRET.