HB925 is a bill that has been submitted by Polk County State Representative Jake Johnson requesting State appropriations to fully fund repairs to the Turner Shoals Dam on Lake Adger in Polk County. Representative Johnson was a former Polk County Commissioner.
Your support for this bill is needed to:
1) Get this bill included in the 2021-2022 NC State Budget expected to be sent to the Govenor sometime in August 2021. Currently NC is operating without an approved budget.
2) Address the immediate need for repairs of this structure. Several independent engineering firms and the NC State Environment and Natural Resources Department have completed in-depth analysis studies and found the Dam to contain holes, seepage, and other weaknesses that must be repaired now to prevent failure of the structure.
3) Guard against loss of life and property should the dam fail. Turner Shoals Dam has been identified by the State as a High-hazard dam. This means that if it were to fail, there would be loss of life and property because of its location.
4) Alleviate the overwhelming burden on the economically challenged citizens of Polk County to fund these repairs by receiving State appropriations. As the owner of this dam and the dam operating plant Polk County is responsible by law to fund the repairs. They have over many years been able to allocate $1.5M dollars toward this endeavor, but the dam repair costs have increased exponentially from $1M to $6M dollars between 2014 and 2021. The dam is necessary to produce Hydro-electric power.
We are preparing a letter to Representative Johnson to give our support to bill HB925 so that he may use your signatures as evidence that this is an important issue and needs to receive the attention of the entire Legislature as well as the Govenor.
Once you provide your signature to this petition, the letter will be sent to Representative Johnson containing all your signatures. The letter will read:
Dear Representative Johnson,
blah blah blah
