‘Hard times have given counties a chance to get caught up on what we need to do for the environment’
Paris receives Holman Water Quality Award
By Tom Bennett
Special to Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition
Young Harris, Ga., March 13, 2010 – Union County, Georgia is at the top of its state on the map, and in that same position in its river watershed as a model local government.
Lamar Paris, who is the sole commissioner of Union County, received the Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition’s award for environmental protection at a banquet at Brasstown Valley Resort tonight.
It’s the Holman Water Quality Stewardship Award, now in its second year, and Paris succeeded his Union County neighbor Jim Dobson as the honoree. “What makes this such an honor is that Jim Dobson won it before me and we both live on the same hill. Jim is the best friend anyone could ask for.” Paris said.
The Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition helped Paris lead Georgia in 2008 to revise guidelines for buffers along streams that drain to public water supply intakes.
“Not long after I became commissioner, Callie Moore (executive director) walked into my office and introduced herself,” Paris recalled. “The first thing I thought to myself was, ‘I’ve got to get her out of here. The last person I want to see is an environmentalist.’ At that time, I’d been dealing with a lot of the metro area environmental groups and let’s just say that they sometimes use a less than desirable approach for pushing their goals and objectives.”
Instead, Moore has assisted in many ways with what Paris said is his desire for a balance between economic growth and care for water quality and the environment around us. “She understands that we still have to use some property to build and develop, to make a living, but there’s no reason we can’t have good water quality at the same time.”
“Two big building projects going on right now in Young Harris and we’ve got one in Blairsville,” Paris said. “If this had been 10 years ago, mud would be out on the highway. But because of best management practices, proper environmental design, contractors who want to do it right, and enforcement programs (when needed) to make sure they do it right, you didn’t see that when you drove here tonight.”
Paris is the first vice president of the influential Georgia group, Association County Commissioners of Georgia. It has a lot to say about how counties develop land and meet environmental standards. Next year, Paris will be president of ACCG in the same year as a new governor takes office.
“We’re in some hard times right now,” Paris said in closing. Possibly one of the few upsides is that “it’s given us a chance to catch our breath and get caught up on what we need to do for the environment.”
The Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition facilitates water quality work in four counties in two states – Union and Towns in Georgia and Cherokee and Clay in North Carolina.
Jim Dobson is retired chief of the University of Georgia agricultural experiment station in Union County and the winner of the inaugural Holman Water Quality Stewardship Award in 2009.
Award namesake, Bill Holman is a former director of North Carolina’s Clean Water Management Trust Fund.
David Goldhagen of Goldhagen Art Glass near Hayesville, N.C., has been commissioned by HRWC to create the Holman Award each year. It is presented annually to the person in the watershed doing the most to ensure good water quality.
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.