Do you want to assure that you, your children and grandchildren and others in Wake County have safe, affordable and adequate drinking water?
Or are you concerned that the plans for the new high-speed rail through Wake Forest, Youngsville and Franklinton will sever important road and street links that hold your communities together?
If you say yes to either or both, you might want to take pen in hand – does anyone do that anymore? – haul out the trusty old typewriter or just go to your computer to tell officials about your concerns and ideas.
This is the last week to voice your concerns about Falls Lake before the Environmental Management Commission begins making its final decision. The N.C. Conservation Network is asking people to tell the EMC to clean up the entire lake, including the very polluted upper (western) end near Durham, to resist weakening the proposed rules which are the bare minimum and to move more quickly.
The easiest way to send a message is through the network’s website, and you can add comments at http://action.nc.conservationnetwork.org/cleanfallslake.
If you want to read the draft proposal for Falls Lake, send a request to cwpelosi@aol.com and the editor will send it as an attachment.
Local people also have until Aug. 30 to send their comments about the proposed Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor and all its implications.
Remember that the idea of a totally sealed rail corridor is being applied only in North Carolina; at the federal level some guarded at-grade crossings are allowed. If the federal standard is followed, the endangered crossings in Wake Forest, Youngsville and Franklinton could be preserved for traffic.
To make comments, you may write a letter and mail it to: SEHSR Comments, NCDOT Rail Division, 1553 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1553. You can also go to http://www.sehsr.org and submit a comment there.
Finally, there is another set of public meetings underway this week for input about the possible-probable four-laning of N.C. 50 between Raleigh and Creedmoor. A part of the road is in the Falls Lake watershed.
The meetings began Tuesday at the Amran Shriners Temple at 11101 Creedmoor Road. Wednesday, Aug. 11, the session runs from 5 to 6 p.m., and Thursday, Aug. 12, there will be a corridor study open house from 5:30 to 7 p.m.