CRANDALL, GA. — State officials want to turn a 42-acre cow pasture into a train-and-truck depot along a lovely stretch of U.S. 411 line that abuts the Cohutta Wilderness Area near the Tennessee state line.
Hundreds of locals oppose the Appalachian Regional Port, one of a half-dozen depots planned around Georgia's periphery. They want the jobs it may bring, but prefer the inland port be built in nearby Chatsworth or Dalton.
Supporters say the inland port will bring jobs, economic activity, speed shipments to and from the port of Savannah and reduce truck traffic, albeit mostly in metro Atlanta.
Opponents, though, are fighting mad. They’ve established a nonprofit to fight the project, hired an Atlanta attorney, enlisted environmental groups, created a Facebook page with 320 friends, convened town hall meetings and filed open records requests seeking evidence of official shenanigans in the site’s selection.
"The only places I get to are church and that porch," said Wilma Tankersley, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and lives smack dab across from the proposed depot. "I'll just look at those mountains. It's one of the most peaceful, peaceful things you've ever seen. God has given me something nobody else can."
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