The Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition’s annual honor will recognize outstanding contributions to water-quality protection
The Hiwassee River flows through parts of three states
By Tom Bennett
Murphy, N.C., Oct. 15, 2008 – Jim Dobson, retired superintendent of the Georgia Mountain Research and Education Center and Union County, Ga. resident, has been named the recipient of the first annual Holman Water Quality Stewardship Award of the Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition.
“Jim Dobson has dedicated his career and significant time in retirement to educating people about soil and water,” said Callie Moore, executive director of the Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition. “He is a founding member of HRWC who, 13 years later, continues to set the standard for our board of directors for spirited participation.”
The banquet is set for Saturday night, Jan. 17, 2009 at Brasstown Valley resort in Young Harris, Ga. The 6:30 p.m. dinner will be preceded by a silent auction.
Bill Holman is a visiting scholar at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University. He is former executive director of the Clean Water Management Trust Fund and also former secretary of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. He is a renowned leader on water quality issues and has been invited to attend and address this first banquet, presenting the award named for him.
What is the need here that income from a banquet can address? The Hiwassee River, tributaries and reservoirs in North Carolina and Georgia are in relatively good health when compared with other southern Appalachian waters. However, there is pollution from construction, livestock, and landfills, septic tanks in the country and sewers in the towns, just to name a few.
Epic building of mountain roads, bridges and tunnels is contemplated to make a grid across this watershed. Tennessee DOT is writing an environmental impact study for an east-west four-lane highway to the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, the 2005 federal transportation bill includes funding for a study of the feasibility of a north-south freeway from Savannah, Ga., to Knoxville, Tenn. The Hiwassee watershed is in the bulls-eye.
The sponsorship levels for the Holman banquet are Platinum, $5,000; Gold, $3,000; Silver, $2000; and Blue, $250. It costs only $25 to attend the banquet as a “Friend of the Hiwassee.”
The Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition is a 501(c)(3) conservation nonprofit organization whose mission is to facilitate water quality improvements in the upper Hiwassee River basin. It has one part-time and three full-time employees and rents office space from a feed store along a country road near Murphy, NC. A few feet from the front door are inter-modal freight containers in which farming goods have been delivered. The organization is 13 years old.
The goals for the Holman banquet in this first year are one Platinum; two Gold; two Silver; 10 Blue and 50 Friend of the Hiwassee sponsorships. With that and silent-auction income, it can defray costs and clear $14,500 in the inaugural. Its annual budget is $142,000.
The officers of HRWC are Gil Nicolson of Clay County, N.C, chairperson; Anne Mitchell of Towns County, Ga., vice-chairperson; and Brenda Hull of Clay County, treasurer. The other board members are Silas Allen of Cherokee Co.; Andy Blankenship of Clay Co.; John Bowen, Eddie Bradley and Ben Kennedy of Towns Co; honoree Jim Dobson and Robert Head Jr. of Union County, Ga.; and this writer. None receive any monetary compensation.
The runners-up for the inaugural award, in the balloting by a board of directors committee, were: Silas Allen; Joan Crothers of Hiawassee, Ga.; John Kay of Young Harris, Ga.; John Kelley of Young Harris; Bill Kendall of Hiawassee; Lamar Paris of Blairsville, Ga.; Elaine Russell of Murphy, N.C.; and Tom Stark of Durham, N.C.
Inaugural honoree Jim Dobson had a distinguished career as superintendent of the University of Georgia College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences’ Agricultural Experiment Station, which was recently renamed the Georgia Mountain Research and Education Center. It is located near Blairsville, Ga.
Tom Bennett of the Martins Creek community near Murphy, N.C., was a retired newsman, Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition member/volunteer/donor and recipient of the 2015 Holman Water Quality Stewardship Award. Tom died on December 28, 2020.