Environmentalists: Basnight delayed bridge

Responding to complaints from state Sen. Marc Basnight about bureaucratic obstacles to a replacement for the deteriorating N.C. 12 bridge over Oregon Inlet in Dare County, an environmental group says Basnight himself is to blame for delaying the project.

In a letter Feb. 24, Basnight urged President Barack Obama to overrule federal officials that he said were stalling a bridge replacement because they feared lawsuits from "out-of-state environmental groups."

Basnight, the state Senate leader, represents Dare County.

The Virginia-based Southern Environmental Law Center responded with a letter March 1 to Obama, advocating a bridge alternative that Basnight opposes.

"It was Senator Basnight's intervention in 2003 that halted the process and prevented the construction of the Pamlico Sound alternative," wrote Derb S. Carter Jr. and Julia F. Youngman of the center's Chapel Hill office.

The center favors a 17-mile option that would be routed across Pamlico Sound to bypass a wildlife refuge and a section of N.C. 12 that is often washed out by storms. It says the Pamlico Sound option would be safer and would cause less environmental damage.

Basnight and the state Department of Transportation prefer to build a new bridge parallel to the old one, with further road and bridge improvements postponed.

Carter and Youngman said recent DOT cost estimates for the two plans are similar: $943 million to $1.4 billion for the Pamlico Sound route, and $602 million to $1.5 billion for the parallel bridge alternative.

When state officials granted Basnight's request for a delay in 2003, they said, the Pamlico Sound bridge was estimated to cost only $260 million. It could have been finished by now if Basnight had not intervened, the environmental center said.

Perdue opposes gassing

Gov. Bev Perdue's Facebook fan page is being bombarded by animal rights activists who are urging her to investigate claims of abuse at a Robeson County animal shelter.

The posts, many by people with profile pictures that feature dogs or cats, began Tuesday and have continued an unrelenting assault.

The comments ask Perdue, a Democrat, such things as "Have you ever heard the scream of terror from a dog being gassed to death?"

Perdue, a dog owner, posted a comment on her Facebook page, saying she opposes the use of gas chambers to euthanize animals.

"Animal rights advocates have admirably campaigned hard for this cause and they should continue to press the General Assembly to come to a resolution that will treat animals humanely," Perdue wrote.

In a statement posted Wednesday afternoon on her Facebook page, Perdue said her office had contacted the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the Robeson County Sheriff'sOffice, notifying them of the complaints.

Chanting students evicted

College students were kicked out of a legislative committee meeting Tuesday after they chanted their opposition to raising tuition and fees.

Rakhee Devasthali, a senior at UNC-Chapel Hill, told Dome that the students -- about 15 of them representing four universities -- tried and failed to get on the committee's agenda. When told by the committee chairman that they would not be allowed to talk, the group began chanting, "No cuts, no fees. Education must be free."

"I firmly believe in free speech," said state Rep. Doug Yongue, a Scotland County Democrat who co-chaired the meeting. "But in running a legislature, you have to have an organization, a process and protocol."

Sergeants-at-arms asked the students to leave and the chanting continued in the hallway, said General Assembly Police Chief Jeff Weaver.

"That's just not the proper way to conduct business," Weaver said.

An officer told the students that if they continued the disturbance they could be subject to arrest.

"These are supposed to be representatives of the people," Devasthali said. "The people of North Carolina came to the meeting today. We were forcibly pushed out."

Students, in a news release, first claimed they were assaulted and forcibly ejected by police. Later, they issued a release that had deleted the word "assaulted."

By staff writers Bruce Siceloff and Benjamin Niolet

Latest Comment View all comments