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As Blount County grows, several community organizations have arisen to help protect its rural character.

The Raven Society, a political action committee, is one of these. Its mission: to support candidates and issues that protect the rural, natural, and historic qualities of Blount County and East Tennessee.

The Raven Society will try to work with other community groups to get these principles implemented, Chairman William "Booty" Miller said.

"The point several people (at our annual meeting) made was that all of these groups that are interested (in smart growth) should get together and try to work with our elected officials and try to bring about some of those ideas," he said. "Our goals for 2006 are to inform ourselves and try to inform the electorate and elected officials about smart growth."

The Raven Society, named for Blount County legend Sam Houston, seeks to maintain the quality of life in Blount County in two ways: by researching and informing the public about issues and by working to elect officials who will vote to protect it.

Discussing the Raven Society's accomplishments in 2006, Miller said he was especially proud of the group's rehabilitation of the Black Sulphur Spring near Montvale.

The spring is along the right side of Montvale Road as one approaches Montvale Springs.

The spring, located beneath a wooden gazebo-style spring house, had been flooded out as a result of nearby road improvements.

The Raven Society supports the recommendations found in the 2005 Hunter Interests Growth Strategy study.

·           The rural, small town and natural character of the county should be preserved.

·           Land use and development should be managed and regulated to preserve the quality of the growing county.

·           The guiding policy in any government actions in relation to the use and development of land should be to limit regulations to specific public health, safety and welfare objectives balanced with responsible freedom in the use of the land.

·           County roads should be improved and maintained to serve existing and future development.

·           Growth and development should be matched with the provision of adequate infrastructure such as utilities, roads and schools.

The Raven Society will try to work with other community groups to get these principles implemented, Miller said.

For more information on The Raven Society, please visit www.theravensociety.com.

Anti-Pellissippi group

The Citizens Against the Pellissippi Parkway Extension formed when Blount County residents heard the Tennessee Department of Transportation was proposing a 4.4-mile extension of Interstate 140 between Highway 33 and U.S. 321.

CAPPE filed suit against state and federal highway officials because the EIS hadn't been done, violating the National Environmental Policy Act.

A federal court halted the project in 2002 with an injunction. Two years later the case was remanded to Tennessee state court and the injunction was lifted so officials could begin the EIS process.

A draft of the EIS could be completed by this spring. The final draft is projected for finish one year later.

In the interim, CAPPE continues meeting, said member Susan Keller, whose family farm was in the path of the proposed extension.

"We just continue looking at what we can do to help the environment and help the county," she said.

What happens next depends on the state.

"It will depend on how the study goes and how rapidly," Keller said. "We've been told there's not been a definite time to finish yet. The state supposedly is planning to have some open meetings for citizen input.

"We're going to urge our group, as well as concerned people, to go out  and express their opinions."

The group was founded in 2002. The entirely volunteer organization, including 200-plus people from all over Blount County, not just those whose property would be affected -- was founded in early 2002. By June of that year, the group had filed a lawsuit against the state.

"What keeps us going is we think there are other ways to handle the traffic problems in Blount County, rather than destroying this end of the county with a road that it will open it up to business, to industry and to growth. There is no plan we know of anywhere to address how we are going to handle all this growth that is going to come from it. We can hardly handle the traffic we have now," Keller said.

There are concrete examples of the negative effect that the extension would have on Blount County, Keller said.

"All you have to do to see what is going to happen is drive on the present Pellissippi Parkway, over to Northshore, and you can see what is going to happen here. Roads bring people. That's just the way it is."

CAPPE hopes the state will choose "no build" and instead consider alternatives.

"Things are pretty much on hold right now as far as the road," Keller said. "The state is doing the environmental impact study. We met with the TDOT people. We let them know how we felt that there are other alternatives."

In the meantime, CAPPE continues to hold meetings the second and fourth Monday of each month to educate citizens about the relationships between local, state and federal government in transportation planning. CAPPE also holds two fund-raisers a year to raise money for the group's legal expenses.

For more information on CAPPE, please visit www.korrnet.org/cappe.